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Hey Turtle. Better bring your own wings:) Gonna sit home tonight and watch both Fulton/AC on CSS, and the AE game on the knoxcatholicfootball.com at the same time. Good luck to all four 2-3A teams. Could be a preview of the 2nd/3rd round playoff games. Big night in 2-3A. ruse?

Go to www.knoxcatholicfootball.com. They have the AE/Catholic game on. Don't know how to link here.

Turtle. Turtle, you there? You can come out of your shell now. Promise bud. This won't be like the OR/Fulton scuffle you were in. What say you Turtle? Can Littlejohn, and Roberts take a bite out the 3 sophomores starting on the Catholic OL? Can the twins eat up the 4 or 5 sophomores on the Catholic defense? What's up with Dean? ruse?

Biggun. I don't know about "No way." The "No Way" is Fulton over AC by 2-3 TDs'. AC has a SR. QB by the name of Paul Longmire. Kid can play. Very composed. Nice RB/FB tandem. FB is one of the better LBs in the region. Not so sure about skill guys yet. They can run, and play action pretty well though (tough on young teams). I saw Clinton earlier, and AC struggled a bit with them, and that surprised me. So who knows, but it won't be a blow-out. ruse?

Pretty cool. Like your blog. ruse?

Guys. Turtle is ok. I didn't read what was written. If it was a threat, I absolutely agree that Turtle needs to go back into his shell for a bit. I know he's a big Stevens, and Graham fan, and obviously a big AE supporter. Turtle knows I'm not a fan of Graham.... at all, and we agree to disagree. Guess what I'm saying is for whatever reason that was way out of character for him. FWIW. Let's move on to Week 2. ruse?

Fsutandems. Private schools are not in there own classifications. A private school can essentially choose to play in Division II or play in Division I. If Division I is the choice, there is a "multiplier." This means that a multiplier of 1.9 is applied to the student population for the purposes of calculating the student population. So if a private school with 500 students has an enrollment of 1000 students for the TSSAA calculation, and classification placement. Privates don't get kids from all over the state. They generally get them from within their own communities. Occasionally kids will come from outside the county to go to a particular school, but that is no different than some publics. See Lanxter, and Sommer @ Alcoa from Bearden and Karns respectively or Douglas and Burnette @ Mville from Farragut, and Anderson County respectively. I have long said Buck Coatney is the best recruiter in Knoxville, and he proved it again this year with Courtland Styles who went over from Central. ruse?

fsutandem. See if I can help, by removing sarcasm. A scrimmage is important; not because you don't see "the true colors of a team", but rather the true colors of individual players/talent or parts of a team (combinations of OL, LBs, Secondary, etc). You can also, to a certain degree get a sense for how inexperienced players will perform on a bigger stage. Also, you can put your offense, defense, and special teams in situations that are difficult on a repetitive basis (3rd & long, goal line, pooch kick). This tests folks physical and mental toughness, and is termed, a situational scrimmage. You may also wish to challenge programs that are perceived to be "better" in an effort to push your team, and maximize opportunity for improvement. Most good coaches would rather not scrimmage teams that are not competitive. This is why teams like Fulton, AE, Alcoa, Maryville, Catholic all Scrimmage "up." Stevens, Courtney, Monore, and Wilhite all know full well that every one of those teams I just mentioned would and have given them everything they wanted. If not, they would not scrimmage them. Period. Now, Carter is a 3A school that plays in a weaker region. Carter has won that region every year they have been in it. Carter has also lost to the #4 seed out of the opposing region each year. Carter would not make the playoffs in the opposite region IMO. Fulton, Austin East, Anderson County, Catholic, and Kingston would all be ahead. OR should have beat Fulton last year, and did. Fulton gets better as the year goes on....every year. Some teams do, and others don't. Fact. Catholic beat the tar out of Fulton last season. Much worse that what OR did, but Fulton marched on through the playoffs, while Catholic went home. Sort of like OR has done the last few years. Fulton and Anderson County will move up to 4A next year I believe. So OR won't have a shot at them. However, Catholic will go all the way up because of the multiplier, and actually be in the same Region with OR, if I read it right. Been a while. So time will tell, but OR should be able to stomp a hole in a little 600 student school. Sort of like they would Alcoa. OR should beat Fulton right? ruse?

Govolsknox. My bad. I was thinking of Grace wearing out Central. ruse?

Prayers sent. ruse?

fsutandem. How did 5A (OR) do against 2A (Alcoa) this past pre-season? How did 5A (OR) do against 3A (AC) this past pre-season? How did 5A (Bearden) do against 3A (Catholic) this past pre-season? How did 2A (CAK) do against 4A Central this past re-season? Those four are 2 Class jumps each, and as I recall, the only one that was reasonably competitive was Bearden/Catholic. "Practice man, you talkin bout practice. Practice? Man you talkin bout practice!" I don't know, but in IMO, OR would be in about the same place in Region 2-3A as they are in 2-5A. I would venture a guess that Oak Ridge would be pushed pretty hard by Fulton, AE, Catholic, and AC on a regular basis. Last year I felt OR would beat Fulton. OR had more talent and experience. Kirkpatrick, the other good MLB, the RB, that was a good hoopster, and IMO, the most under-rated OL in ET in Alex Stuart. The biggest difference between OR, and Fulton is that Fulton improves over the course of a season as well as anyone. OR should win this year as well, but I don't think they will. You might get your wish. If I recall correctly, Fulton, and Catholic will be playing w/OR as a part of the reclassification for 09. Maybe not Fulton, but Catholic will because of the multiplier. Pretty sure Coatney and Pemberton are shaking in their boots. Pemberton for sure after that season opener @ 4A Morristown West where they sqeaked out a 28-0 win. ruse? wusssup Turtle? Yo bois' ready for Webb? Ole fsutandem thinks the big bad 3A school should stomp the little private.

Watched the replay. Farragut is a bit better than Catholic at this stage in the season IMO. Catholic is just so young. If I have it right, they had 3 sophomore OL starters, and four or five sophomore starters on defense. They are pretty good though. That Morristown West team had good size up front, active linebackers, and some fast skill guys. On the other hand, Cozart did not play, I don't think the Shirley kid did either, and they still won 28-0. Who knows. I do know they have a good defense. The box score in the SpewsSentinel had Morristown West with only one first down, and 40 or so yards of total offense. 1. Farragut. 2. Catholic. 3. Halls. 4. AE. 5. Fulton. 6. Bearden. 7. Webb. 8. Powell. 9. CAK. 10.Central.

Tadvols. I've seen all the 2-3A floks except LA & Stone. Hear by the way that Stone is doing some hard thinking about fielding a team due to $s. Only heresay, but a pretty trust-worthy source. AE has the most talent, but are young at some key spots (ie. QB). Fulton is obviously young. Was it the Vincent Johnson who is sick? Catholic is very young too. 3 Sophs on the OL, and 4 or 5 Sophs on D. I like AC if Kerr feeds Rogers, and the Fullback the ball. I really like the QB, Longmire. Kingston is going to surprise people. One of the Big 3 could be on the outside looking in come playoffs.

Yeah Tad, I thought about the same. Hickory will be good. Pisgua or whatever from last year was supposed to give Fulton a thumping, and that didn't happen, so maybe last night was just a warm up. Styles should make a dufference, and not allow teams to focus so much on Antwan on the other side. I think he can help on offense as well, but as usual the Falcons have plenty of playmakers. Halls should be ok against Mville. I saw Mville scrimmage Farragut, and they should match up pretty well. I don't think Halls will win though. Fulton should be fine against Catholic this year. I haven't seen them yet; but they are supposed to be very young. Apparantly, they start 3 sophs on the OL, and 4 on Defense, with the upperclass guys being 1st yr. starters. We'll see tonight. Personally, AE or AC should be the team to beat. IMO, AE has the most talent, and AC returns all but a few. Also, Kingston will sneak up on folks. They almost beat Catholic at the end of the year, and had AE beat in the playoffs. Coach King has just about everybody back including Sams at RB, who was the hardest running RB in the region last yr. Thats five teams in one region that can play with anybody in 3A. Have a safe trip upinem heels. ruse?

Now that was funny. Headed out for some Jamboreyala in a bit, Tad. Tomorrow night as well. Look forward to comapring notes. ruse?

Hey Antwan. Heard about the young QB. Sounds like a good one. Too far for me yesterady. Sounds like the Owls did well. FWIW, I can usually find out some stuff by going to team's websites. knoxcatholicfootball.com. Sorry, have no idea how to link. ruse?

FWIW, there ia a update of the Halls/Catholic scrimmage on their website. I'd link it, but I am old and slow. www.knoxcatholicfootball.com ruse?

Wanted to see more of this one. Started later than I thought. Only caught first hour. Typical Julian team. Physical. They will be fine this year. I would agree after having seen the Mville/OR scrimmage that Halls will give them a good game. West lost a lot, but Cummings will have a better than average running game. Mistakes cost Halls, but they did seem to be in good shape, so they were not physical errors, but more mental. Still thought Halls would have put more on Catholic. Read in Murphy Fair that they only have five starters returning, and from the posts above sounds like two of those in Vann, and Coulter were out. Still, it was progress. ruse?

PowerSweep FWIW. It was apparently 6 or 7 to 1 with the 1st teams, and 2-1 with the seconds. I thought Powell would have done better with Catholic being so young this year. ruse?

Hey Biggun. Birdies tell me it's a done deal. ruse?

LSMFT. On the money as usual. In addition to those, Burnette @ Mville was a Halls youth ball player that was zoned for AC I believe. Aaron Douglas was a Farragut kid who went to Webb, then to Mville. Brian Sommer was a Karns kid that went to Alcoa, as did Lanxter. Shiverdecker was a Jeff Co. as a Soph before going to Alcoa. Then you have the Catholic kids that were zoned for Bearden H. Smith, the Tait brothers, etc. Troutman at AE was at Fulton to start with, and so on and so on. I had not thought about the Jody Wright point. That is a good one and, makes sense. ruse?

Antawn Hammilton on one side, and Styles on the other make a nice set of "bookend" DEs. Styles reminds me of Orlando Blair a few years back. WR/DE type. Don't know why it's not being talked about. Maybe it's not true? Maybe it is? A lot of "movement" rumors this year. Some OR kids to AE & Clinton? Stinson to Alcoa? The Styles one? Out of state kids coming in as well? Stanton better step up his recruiting. Graham coming on strong, Rankin doing his thing, but Coatney is still the best recruiter in the area.

Tadvols. Thanks. ruse?

Hey splains. Heard some of the same. Probably need TadVols, or one of the Fulton faithful to try and confirm. Jamie Wilson too? ruse?