B-Ball Fan

Why do you assume I'm a guy? Since I was in the stands at Burley Stadium, I think I was watchiing Greeneville vs. Elizabethton. Seems like you know quite bit, so maybe you can elighten me on the game that I watched. Were you there? If you don't think this was a close game up until the overthrown tocuhdown, you are clearly watching with orange colored blinders. From your comments, I can clearly ascertain that reading comprehension is not your strongest attribute(at least I hope it isn't). If you read my previous 2 posts, I CLEARLY stated that I thought Ballard was wrong in doing it as well. Is that what you mean when you say "if the roles were reversed". Please tell me when I can leave my room. You're a real keyboard tough-guy aren't you. I'll bet you are a terror playing video fotball games.

My take-aways from seeing this game: 1-Greeneville is mediocre. We thought that after the first 2 losses, but a 4-game win streak against covid and bad teams built too much hope. The defense is porous, and the offense is non-existent. The quarterbacks are young, but if there is no passing threat, it's not going to be pretty against any good team. 2-Elizabethton is a good team, but not great. This game was closer than the score indicated. The play that turned the game was the overthrown/lucky touchdown pass in the 3rd quarter. Greeneville had finally made a stop, and you felt like the game would be tight to the end. After this touchdown, it was over. 3-For years, I've watched Witten's theatrics on the sideline and thought he was somewhat petulant. Seems like he cancelled the GHS-EHS series several years ago, but I may be wrong. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I always felt that Ballard kept his starters in the games too long, but he never acted like a fool on the sidelines. Witten doesn't seem to get any more mature as he ages.

I'm a Greene Devil fan, and I've never understood having starters in the game when it's that far out of hand. The point that BVDevil was making is one that I've questioned for years. If you lose a starter in the 4th quarter of a game that you're winning by 35 or 40 points, you blow your chance at a championship. I thought Ballard was terrible about playing starters too long in blow-out games, and Witten would look foolish if Hughes or Rollins goes down when they're up late in a 30-pt game. I don't get it. In high school, polls don't mean anything when it comes to making a march toward a gold ball, so why try to win by 50? For teams like Elizabethton and Greeneville, you've had the rankings, so it's no big deal.

Where can you see how many tickets are remaining? I was wondering how it looks now.

I just heard the announcers acknowledge that Greeneville is in Noertheast Tennessee. It's too bad that Doug Fritz and the Johnson City Press don't realize as well. It's laughable when you see the Northeast Tennessee Top 10 in the JC Press, and they don't recognize Greeneville, which is in the same conference as 'Betsy, and is 30 minutes down the road.

I'm not John Madden, but I'd say they are tired because almost every Springfield possession in the first half was 3 and out. Combine that statistic with the fact that your defensive line is outweighed by an average of 70lbs per man, you'll get tired.

Thanks so much. I tried to listen to the radio stream, but they have a limit that can log on. According to their website, they reached the limit last week, and likely would this week. I haven't been able to get the stream, so I guess that's why. Since it's halftime, I'll anxiously await the second half to see if the video works for me. Thanks again.

The JC Press is a sad excuse for a newspaper. How can you rate NET teams but Greeneville isn't considered in that group? Greeneville is much closer than Cherokee or Volunteer, so this makes no sense. I've called them before regarding this issue, and they have no good explanation for it. It's no wonder newspapers are failing, and the ones remaining are a skeleton of what they once were. The Greeneville Sun is laughable. At one time, you could get boxscores of local games, but now you get a sorry excuse for a write-up and no boxscore. Not sure why you can't include a boxscore. Also, weekly stats were posted, but that's long gone.

Money issue for WCYB or TSSAA? I was led to believe that the TSSAA wouldn't allow the coverage. That's obviously not the issue if WVLT can broadcast the games.

I contacted WCYB after the first GHS-Betsy game and asked if they'd broadcast the playoff game if they met. Here was the response I received on 10/21: No, unfortunately the TSSAA will control that game. Our coverage ends this week with Crockett at Boone. After watching the GHS-Anderson County game on channel 8(WVLT) out of Knoxville(it was also streamed on the internet), I sent this question: I noticed that Channel 8 (WVLT) in Knoxville has continued their weekly high school telecasts into the playoffs. I watched Greeneville and Anderson County on 11/15, and they have another game scheduled for this coming Friday. Is there a reason the TSSAA will allow them to broadcast games, but won't allow WCYB to carry them? If so, I'd like to call them to voice a complaint. I guess my question is clarification as to whether the decision is with the TSSAA or with WCYB. Thanks I'm curious to see what they say.

Are you saying that fans can go into the stadium a day ahead of the game, and put blankets on the bleachers to "save" a seat? Is this a common occurrence? Perhaps the AC fans on here can respond to this.

How's the seating at Anderson County? From photos, it appears that all the seating is on one side of the field. Does it often fill up? Gates open at 5:30?

I have no idea if or why there was a charter bus from Greeneville, but I would think that's a good thing for all involved(Greeneville and Elizabethton). The Elizabethton officials were making plans for shuttle buses and telling people where to park. Seems like having a charter bus would alleviate 30-40 extra cars fighting for parking? Seems as if you're trying to be a jerk, so I'll go play along and reword your question. Question for Orange team. Why do you all run shuttle buses to the stadium, it's not like a 5-10 minute walk is a long hike.

My observation is, this is a troubling loss if you're a Greeneville fan. They've really only played 2 "good" teams this year, and struggled in both. The defensive backfield is porous at times. Much of their success is due to the superior conditioning, but in both losses, they didn't seem to have a significant edge, and this played a factor. One glaring problem is the lack of a consistent passing game. There were some bad throws last night, but it's not fair to compare Drew Gregg's offense to Cade Ballard's. How many times did we see Ballard toss the ball behind the line of scrimmage to one of either Cameron Hite, or Dorien Goddard, and watch the other help clear a path to the endzone. Hite and Goddard were big targets that could run over people either with the ball or while blocking for others. If we are honest, Gregg/Blayne Ferguson and Ballard aren't having to make the same throws under the same conditions, and they don't have the same personnel. Watching the Greeneville program for the past few years has been special, particularly the previous two seasons. We became accustomed to seeing them get the ball, and you knew that the first team offense would score in a few plays, and there was little question about it. Today, they are still a good football team, but they are grouped in with a lot of other good teams. The margin for error is much smaller than in previous years. Unfortunately for GHS, the schedule for the next 2 weeks and opening the playoffs probably won't offer a challenge, so they won't know if they have fixed any issues. It's likely that none of us will know until they play at Elizabethton in a few weeks. A couple last comments: 1) We are fortunate to have local tv coverage for high school football. That crowd was unbelievable, and it was on tv. I can only imagine how much more crowded it would have been if there was no tv coverage. 2)I try to never complain about announcers regardless of the level. I think fans are too sensitive, and think announcers are always for the other team. However, as the game wore on, it seemed that Paul Johnson was overly excited as Elizabethton picked up steam. I didn't say anything, but my wife came into the room as I was watching, and voiced the same thought without my having said a word. I think PJ is one of the best local sports guys that we have, but I wonder if many in the area are tired of the dominance of GHS for the past few years, and are ready for someone to knock them down a few notches. If so, I fully understand it, as it happens in all sports.

Is there a danger of the game selling out? Not sure if I should drive to the game if there's a chance I can't get in. I'd guess that it being on TV will help alleviate some of the crowd.

Where was Gregg? Injury this week?

I just googled pictures of the AC football stadium. How does the capacity compare to Burley Stadium at GHS? I know GHS has stands on both sides, but the home stands don't have very many rows. Also GHS goes from 100 yards on the home side, and 60 yards on the visitor side. Hope it's televised on WVLT like last night, but may plan to go if it's not.

I don't disagree with anything that you've said. However, Cookeville is pretty close to the geographical center of the state. It's around 290 miles from Memphis, and a little over 250 from Johnson County in the eastern tip of the state.

Just came from game. Great game, but GHS couldn't overcome the loss of Barner on the 2nd or 3rd possession of game. GHS looked good throwing 10-15 yards, and looked like they could have done it much more frequently.

Saw the game Friday night and Thomas was tough. Having said that, I don't know that he is D1 material because of a lack of speed. On the 50 yarder that he ran, he was caught from behind, and the kid didn't have the angle on him. He basically just ran him down from behind. Weren't his stats something like 187 yards on 33 carries? That's about 5 per carry, He could probably be a fullback in the right offense. By comparison, in 1993 Dustin Moore averaged over 11 yards per carry for the entire season. I hope the Thomas kid does well next year, and plays D1 ball. I love to see East Tennessee kids do well after high school.

I wondered what you were talking about, and I think I might understand. This picture is at least 4 years old, and I wonder about the 2 trees(1 on each side, closest to bleachers). If these have grown very much since the photo was taken, I can imagine that anyone sitting high on the ends of the visitors section could have a hard time seeing the last 10 yards through the back of the end zone.

Are you sure of this? I know that they sell the rights for the championship games, but that may be all. The reason I say this is because when I came home from the GHS-Elizabethton game Friday night, I turned on WVLT, and there was a game being broadcast, I'm pretty sure it was Anderson County. DIdn't watch enough to see if it was live, but no reason so show a regular season game.

Go POLK HIGH!

What was your exception with Coach Ballard?

Grammatical excellence on display. I'm embarrassed for you.