Up until the mid 1990's, High School Football in Texas was dominated by teams that could control the line of scrimmage and run the football. That slowly and subtly began to change in the mid 1990's as Marcus High School started implementing the spread up tempo offense - a sophisticated passing attack that created confusion and mismatches that teams were not used to seeing and more often than not, totally unprepared for. Cody Vanderford was the offensive coordinator during that time and the trigger man in his science experiment was Chris Sanders. The two teamed up to help the Marauders advance to the state championship game in 1995 before losing to San Antonio Roosevelt. They were the first to prove that an offense that was once considered a gimmick could excel at the highest level.