Class 5A Top Ten for 2014 Season

[FridayMainEvent]

Started working on my Spring Poll and hoped you guys could give me some input.  Unfortunately I don't mail out to Coaches to get input on returning players so  I get the bulk of my information from you guys.  Do you think West and Henry County will repeat in Cookeville?  I know district five, as always will be tough.  How about Beech?  What about Coach Pemberton's bunch at Rhea County?  Will Shelbyville finally get to quarterfinals behind a solid returner at QB in Mason Cunningham?  Will Tullahoma make any noise or does Columbia rise back to the top of district 8?  Melrose, Millington, Ridgeway??  Anybody gonna compete with Henry County from the West?

 

Give me some feedback, guys.  I'd like to know the top contenders in each district and who you expect to make a deep playoff run.   We hope to try and have a Spring Practice wrap up show on the Friday Night Main Event sometime in Mid-May and I'd like to here from the CoachT regulars.   Thanks in advance!

[HTV]

In the East, I expect Knoxville West and South-Doyle to have the best chance of getting to Cookeville.  Both return a ton of starters, and both have legit D1A level running back - West in Nathan Cottrell, and South-Doyle with Joc Bruce.  When you have that kind of home run hitter in high school football it really sets a team apart from the rest.

 

On the next tier I put Campbell County - had a great year last year, returns a very talented and experienced quarterback, along with some solid starters elsewhere.  They are another year deep in the Price Brothers system, which has proved very effective.  If Matt Price's defense can come up with some depth and gets some breaks by staying relatively injury free Campbell County can be a player.

 

Anderson County has that home run hiiting back returning in Matthew Fox.  He gives them the same dimension that Cottrell and Bruce do West and South-Doyle, but AC lost a ton around Fox from a year ago - guys who were multi year starters, and especially up front to block for Fox.  If some young guys can grow up fairly quickly on the offensive line AC can be very good again this year.  If not, Fox is going to have to be even better than he was a year ago for AC to duplicate 2013's numbers and success.  

 

In the Chattanooga area, I understand that Cleveland, Ooltewah, and East Hamilton look to return a good nucleus of players, but I don't know those teams well enough to say who of that group would be legit picks to go deep.

 

Hearing Rhea County is much improved and I look foward to seeing Powell scrimmage there on May 9.  Mark Pemberton is an outstanding football coach. 

 

Don't really see anybody else in Upper East Tennessee in 5A making that list. 

[HighLife]

Hillsboro out of a Middle Tn will be loaded this year. 17 starters return lead by top 3 player in the state Kyle Phillips who has 25 plus offers and Vincent Perry who holds an SEC offer from KY.. Should be a great year for them..

 

Beech will be solid as usually, but 5A in Middle TN is down a little compared to past few years.

[bluedevilpride2012]

Henry County

Knoxville West

Cleveland

Ridgeway

Melrose

Beech

Hillsboro

Memphis East

Hardin County

Shelbyville

[SweetScience]

Kinda surprised (and yes I am biased) that nobody has even remotely mentioned Oak Ridge as a top ten team in 5A so far in this thread after what we have returning from last year. While I don't think we will make a state run (albeit it wouldn't shock me) I think we are a year or so off for that, but not to be mentioned as a top 10 team is kinda surprising to me. Maybe flying under the radar will be of benefit to us this year. Have a very large portion of our team that went 7-3 in the regular season returning in 2014.

Edited April 21, 2014 by SweetScience

[MSURacer]

I'm just too unfamiliar with 5A in East TN to say anything about those teams, although I do expect Knox West to be really good again.

 

As far as West and Middle go, in no particular order, I would predict Henry County, Memphis East, Ridgeway, Hillsboro, Gallatin, Beech, Shelbyville, and maybe Columbia will all be pretty good. 

 

Assuming we go Quad 4 again this year, I would say the biggest threat(s) to Henry Co. returning to the semis are Memphis East and Ridgeway. East is loaded, and they have a lot returning from last year's 9-3 squad that took us down to the wire in the 2nd round (17-14). Best defense we faced last season bar none, and they appeared to be really well coached too. Ridgeway returns their rocket-armed QB, but I'm not sure what else they bring back. Nonetheless, they are always good and athletic, and their passing attack will create problems for defenses.

Edited April 22, 2014 by MSURacer

[HTV]

Kinda surprised (and yes I am biased) that nobody has even remotely mentioned Oak Ridge as a top ten team in 5A so far in this thread after what we have returning from last year. While I don't think we will make a state run (albeit it wouldn't shock me) I think we are a year or so off for that, but not to be mentioned as a top 10 team is kinda surprising to me. Maybe flying under the radar will be of benefit to us this year. Have a very large portion of our team that went 7-3 in the regular season returning in 2014.

 

Oak Ridge is always a good to outstanding team, but I didn't mention them because of the skill players you lost.  Looking forward to seeing you guys in the spring.  It's not that I don't think you are going to be a good team, but I feel like going in the others that I mentioned are a little ahead of you on paper right now. 

 

But as they say, the games aren't played on paper.  Got to produce on the field.

 

All the respect in the world for you guys.

[SweetScience]

Oak Ridge is always a good to outstanding team, but I didn't mention them because of the skill players you lost.  Looking forward to seeing you guys in the spring.  It's not that I don't think you are going to be a good team, but I feel like going in the others that I mentioned are a little ahead of you on paper right now. 

 

But as they say, the games aren't played on paper.  Got to produce on the field.

 

All the respect in the world for you guys.

Thanks HTV. Didn't mean for that to sound like i singled you out or anything. To be honest really the only skill player we lost that produced a lot last year is Henderson @ the QB position. While Henderson was good he wasn't what i would call a game changer by any means, but he was our starting QB so i know where you're coming from. Other then him we didn't really lose much from the offense, except for a few who can be replaced on the OL.  Don't think we lost as many skill players as you think. Top RB Jones returning, Top WR yardage getter Mitchell returning as well. Most of our guys last year were underclassmen. Thanks for the props to our program.

Edited April 22, 2014 by SweetScience

[HighLife]

Henry County

Knoxville West

Cleveland

Ridgeway

Melrose

Beech

Hillsboro

Memphis East

Hardin County

Shelbyville

Hopefully this isn't in order, no way Beech is ranked that high. They lost a ton off last years squad

[FridayMainEvent]

 Great stuff, guys.  That's exactly what I wanted to hear.  Would like to get more info on the West.  MSU, I'd agree with you about Memphis East is going to be solid this year.  HTV, excellent rundown of the East.  It's hard to follow the whole State if you do this as a part time gig, so this is my MAIN source for info.  So glad CoachT offers us such an excellent way to communicate.  Good luck to all the teams this coming season.  Nothing like High School Football.

[FridayMainEvent]

I'm just too unfamiliar with 5A in East TN to say anything about those teams, although I do expect Knox West to be really good again.

 

As far as West and Middle go, in no particular order, I would predict Henry County, Memphis East, Ridgeway, Hillsboro, Gallatin, Beech, Shelbyville, and maybe Columbia will all be pretty good. 

 

Assuming we go Quad 4 again this year, I would say the biggest threat(s) to Henry Co. returning to the semis are Memphis East and Ridgeway. East is loaded, and they have a lot returning from last year's 9-3 squad that took us down to the wire in the 2nd round (17-14). Best defense we faced last season bar none, and they appeared to be really well coached too. Ridgeway returns their rocket-armed QB, but I'm not sure what else they bring back. Nonetheless, they are always good and athletic, and their passing attack will create problems for defenses.

Columbia may be the dark horse this year.  Coach Stone will have a lot of pressure on him to get the Lions back in the playoffs.  Coach Hoath returns from his stint at Mt. Pleasant's head coach to take the defense back over.  They'll contend for District 8 I believe.

[FridayMainEvent]

Since the 6A classification, I think this class has been the most competitive.  You have South Pitt as the usual favorite in 1A, Trousdale County in 2A, Alcoa in 3A, Fulton in 4A, and Maryville in 6A.  I'm not sure there's any one team you can point at in 5A and say year in and year out, they'll be the favorite.  Henry County and Columbia have probably been the most successful since the split into 6 classes.

Edited April 22, 2014 by FreeAgent11