On Friday nights in the fall in Texas, there's only one thing to do.

It doesn't matter where you are. Whether it's a small town in west Texas of about 500 or a booming metropolis with 4.5 million people, high school football is on the mind of many Texans on Friday nights.

According to TexasHSFootball.com, as many as one in 15 Texas residents are attending, playing, coaching or taking part in activities at a high school football game. In rural areas, this number is much greater.

Every year the University of Texas recruits almost all of its players from within the state - a statement that the quality of football there is top-notch. In fact, 107 of the 118 players on the Longhorns' roster are from Texas, leading some to believe Texas coach Mack Brown has somewhat of an advantage.

Remember former Longhorn quarterback/current NFL quarterback Vince Young? He was a Houston, Texas, native. Once he was gone, Brown replaced him with another Texas high school stud - Colt McCoy from tiny Tuscola, Texas.

"Mack Brown was called 'Coach February' before the Longhorns won the national championship (last season)," said John McClain, a sports columnist for the Houston Chronicle. "In other words, he was an outstanding recruiter who couldn't win the big game. Then he did. We've said for years that if players from Texas stayed in Texas, our top college programs would all be ranked in the top 10. One reason Bill Snyder was able to turn around the K-State program was his ability to recruit in Texas."

Just how crazy is high school football in Texas? Consider this: at Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas, tickets are sold out for the next 20 years. Part of that is probably because Carroll has won three of the last four Class 5A State Championships.

Mary Conley, owner and operator of "The Barber Shop" in Odessa, Texas, has a different perspective on football in her town.

Conley's kids played football in Odessa almost 30 years ago, but she still follows the local teams.

"It really is pretty intense," Conley said. "This last Friday, Odessa High played Permian, so pretty much everybody was going. Everybody in town was there. The whole town pretty much shuts down."

Odessa is where the 2004 movie "Friday Night Lights" took place. The movie focused on Odessa-Permian High School, and Conley said the movie was quite accurate, except for a few things.

"When they took that boy to the hospital in Midland, they said it was the best hospital around," she said. "Everybody here laughed about that, but that's just little stuff."

"Friday Night Lights" was just one of the many movies and television shows that have been produced about Texas high school football, and most of them are pretty inaccurate, McClain said.

"'Varsity Blues' was so stereotypical it was laughable," he said. "A fat Billy Bob type, women with overblown accents. Usually, movies about football in Texas are made by Hollywood people who aren't from Texas and haven't been to a football game in this state."

At "The Barber Shop," high school football is usually the topic of discussion, especially on Fridays. After the games, the players typically come in every Saturday to get a haircut.

"They're usually still really pumped up," Conley said.

K-State defensive tackle Quintin Echols is one of many players on the Wildcats' roster who is familiar with Texas high school football. A few years ago, Echols played at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth, Texas.

"It's crazy," Echols said. "It could compete with some college conferences. I still remember getting beat by one point by a team my freshman year. It's just one of those things where you don't forget anything."

Browse through the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame inductee list and you'll see legends like Earl Campbell and Doak Walker.

Although Texas produces a huge amount of Division-IA prospects, it is arguable whether it is the best high school football in the nation, McClain said.

"It depends on what you base it on," he said. "Texas has been terrible at producing NFL quarterbacks through the decades. When it comes to consistently producing big-time NFL players, I imagine Florida and California have been better."

Texas might not have the best NFL prospects, but there's no doubt among Texas natives that the football is king in the state.

"Friday night football is a way of life in Texas," McClain said. "Friday night heroes are such a big part of our culture because we're a football-mad state. We're not necessarily the best in the country at playing high school football, but we know there's no state more passionate about it."

Echols knows Saturday's game against Texas will be a special one for him. As a senior, it will be his last home game as a Wildcat. Add to it that he's playing against some old high school enemies, and Echols said he'll be more than fired up in time for kickoff.

"It's bragging rights," he said. "Being from Texas and them being the national champions, it just psyches me up a lot. I have friends that play at Texas, and winning this game could mean, 'Hey, you beat us in high school but we're bragging now.'"