Spartansfan

I'm not going to mention any names....But I do know of one private school in the Memphis area that does no recruiting. I know the head coach, and most of his staff, and they simply don't do it. Yet there are at least a couple of players I know of that were at public schools, left them, sat out this year so they could play for this coach next year. My point is that many people see that kind of move by local atheletes and assume they were recruited. They don't understand why players would move to a private school to play for a particular coach, in a particular system. Most of the public schools lack the better coaching, facilities, etc....and that is without mentioning the typically superior academics the private schools offer.

well, I hope Millington does use this game to get better. I think you have one of the good coaches in our area, and the better the area teams are, the better the competition becomes. We all benefit from having quality play out of the public school football teams. And come playoff time, I'd like to see the best team representing West TN actually win something when they head east to play the team representing the Nashville area.

I think WH matches up better with CBHS than WS does because of size. If WH's coaches will use their size to go at CBHS instead of trying to go around them, I think they stand a better chance. Since I'm skeptical that that will happen..... CBHS 20 - WH 7 Here's the roller coaster ride....WS vs East. WS seems to play well, then relax, then get serious again. I'm hoping for a serious effort this Friday. It will be needed for the Spartans to prevail. (and I'm a homie on this pick) WS 27 - East 10 Houston vs G'town could go either way. I don't see any real powerhouse ability from either team. I do see them as better defensive teams and not very good on offense. Watch one surprise me by scoring 50...... Houston 14 - G'town 10 I'd go watch this one between OB and MUS if WS wasn't playing. I think OB might have more to prove here, but I'm doubtful they can actually get it done. While MUS isn't perfect, no one has been able to exploit their weaknesses well enough to win. OB can't seem to get past teams like South Panola when it matters. So I question their ability to make the big play in the big game. MUS 27 - OB 20 I'd love to jump on that Mitchell bandwagon. I think they are quite the team. But Melrose has this thing about holding their own regardless of how flashy the opponent looks in other games. It seems Melrose always lacks a kicking game, discipline, or some other part of the game, yet they seem to keep on winning. Go figure..... Melrose 32 - Mitchell 21 ECS can rack up the points. Not a defensive powerhouse from what I've seen/heard. Bolton seems to be decent, but I don't think they can keep up with the points. ECS 30 - Bolton 17

What's right...? I think the right thing to do is whatever is in the best interest of the player. As long as the issue is being done by the rules, why not. Everyone, in every walk of life tries to do what is in their best interest.

I also see alot of similarity between our Memphis area private schools and the Nashville public schools we see in the playoffs. The past 3 years, watching Ravenwood, Independance, and Franklin play....they seemed to play at a level that's a bit above our public schools, and more like what we see from a good MUS, CBHS, etc.

I can't speak for all cases, but private schools have the ability to hire who they want as a coach. They aren't limited (or at least as limited) in what they offer for pay and compensation packages. A public school head coach has to have a teaching degree, and has to actually teach some classes. In many cases it may simply be P.E., but it still occupies their time and reduces time they could be spending on the football program. They also have a better financial base with which to build better facilities, from weight rooms to fields, to facilities for treating those sore muscles and such. This all aids in their ability to draw overall better talent. Most have some kind of financial aid they offer for those that are wanting to attend the school. Keep in mind, the financial aid isn't just for atheletes. So if you have a kid that can play ball, and you show him fantastic facilities, a strong fan base, wining tradition, along with a big name school....I mean would you (as a player) rather be recruited by USC, Florida, etc...or by S.E. Missouri State for example..... I don't think private vs public always means a "W" for the private school....but the opportunities for a private school to create a winning program are generally more available than for a public school.

TraderB, the defense does have to go back to the drawing board. But our offense has to revisit their drawing board as well. This team is built with the offense as the strong point. We are the ones that are supposed to control time of possession so our defense isn't out there too long. CBHS totally flipped that around on us. This is one game where the score doesn't reflect how outplayed we were. I do think we will regroup.....but if we look good one week, and bad the next, we have a looong season in store. And just to be very clear....this game wasn't just that we didn't look good. CBHS deserves all the credit in the world for showing up, playing hard and executing their game plan. Sometimes when people say one team didn't show up and play well, it looks like they are taking credit away from the winning team. That isn't the case here. If we did show up, it would have been a better game to watch. I can't say we would have won though. I did find myself admiring how well CBHS was playing, in spite of it being at the cost of the Spartans.

CBHS won every facet of this game. Their special teams kept the kick off returns under control due in large part to getting the ball into the endzone for touchbacks. Their offense moved the ball at will. They only punted twice, and that was late in the 4th quarter when they were running the ball only, and to kill clock. Their defense shut us down completely. We had one drive, the rest were 3 and out, or maybe one or two 1st downs, then nothing. They had a great game plan, and great execution. As fourthree mentioned, this game was won by the play in the trenches. I would like to say WS had something positive to take from this experience, but I honestly can't think of one thing....unless you consider some hmble pie as a positive......

I would also be surprised to see WS held to 1 TD. But even more unusual would be getting a field goal. We have a kicker that can do the job, but if we are in his range, and get to 4th down, Coach Rutherford believes we are close enough to go for it on 4th, and if we don't make it, then the feild position we give them keeps our defense in good shape. So if you think WS gets 2 scores, 14 points would have more chances than 10. I think we'll get 27, and CBHS would be in the 10-17 point range. I'll go with WS 27 - CBHS 17

SpartansFan, I sho ain't gonna pick your team to lose this time! Man, I had to eat some serious crow last Friday-- when I picked WH to beat ya'll by 10 points. Boy, was I ever wrong! That worse-than-poor prediction made me feel that I need to hurry up and get back to the drawing board!! In a nutshell, I view this game very similarily to Fourthree. I would like to add...I think that WS is gonna have a field-day passing the ball vs CBHS! Burton will not be given many opportunities (if any, at all) to pop huge returns. As a result, W.S will have to earn its points exclusively via its offense.... CBHS will get its share of rushing yards....It just won't be enough to overcome WS' superior offense (I expect a very proficient outing). Prediction: White Station 20 -- CBHS 17 ---------------------------------- I hate that I'm gonna miss this game.... My wife and I are very likely to wind up at the OB - BA game.... I think that this will be the 1st time in the history of the Universe that I've ever cheered for Brentwood Academy!!!! Well, your WS vs WH pick was the result of what WH had done through games 1 and 2, and of course WS's game vs Ridgeway was a huge factor in your pick. Logical stuff.... The only reason I felt we could do better is because I had witnessed better play from these guys in the Briarcrest game and in practices, etc. The OB-BA should be a great game! I look forward to hearing your re-cap of it.

Mark has it right....it's at CBHS. I think there's a couple of factors at play in this game. The biggest will be turnovers. I think the game could be close, and if WS takes care of the ball, I think they'll win. One note....we do have too many penalties, an ill-timed penalty could become huge in closely contested games. The other concern is does WS show up as in week 1 and 3, or do they not show up as in week 2? In the event CBHS wins, I won't automatically assume we pulled a week 2 no-show. CBHS could win just because they're better. But if we make so many mental errors and no-hustle plays as in the Ridgeway game, we'll make it easy for the Bro's. I do believe we'll show up and be fine.....IF we win the turnover battle. I'm not overlooking CBHS ability to run the ball. I just think the 325 yds a game was a one time problem.

Congratulations to White Station on its CONVINCING, blow-out win over Whitehaven!! They made a believer out of me! White Station's offense was definitely proficient last night. The defense was awesome. The kicking game was solid......They looked like a top-3 Mphs team last night, a night-and-day improvement over a horrible overall effort last week. Whitehaven's stunning, swiss-cheese-defensive-performance was SHOCKING and excruciatingly difficult to watch. White Station's offense did whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted....penalties were about the only thing that stopped them from scoring more than 33 points. Whitehaven's extremely poor, non-competitive loss to White Station is an eye-opener of major-league proportions, as does not bode well for any realistic hopes of a deep playoff run. ------------------------ I was also completely shocked to see that Whitehaven NEVER once utilized its massize offensive line, put the QB under center and run a bunch of traps and counters.....the 2 plays that Ridgeway used with outrageous success vs White Station, the ENTIRE game! Whitehaven ran a spread offense the entire game. White Station had absolutely NO TROUBLE what-so-ever shutting down Whitehaven's finesse, ineffective offensive scheme. While I was happy with the outcome of the game, I was (like you) wondering why Whitehaven wasn't running straight at us more often. Typically, a big O line vs small D line means go right at them. And WH's 1st TD was pretty much a result of that. I figured we were in for a long night after that drive. On the other hand, I have seen size of a player cause him to be too slow to use his size to proper advantage. Usually, that's a result of needing more conditioning. Anyway, I'm not a coach, and I don't have any insider info, so I can't get into second guessing Saulsberry (sp). Who knows, maybe this serves as WH's wake up call.....we got ours last week vs Ridgeway. And now we get ready for CBHS, and we'll see if the WH game was a start towards working hard and staying focused, or if we're going to be hot one week, cold the next. Good luck the rest of the way for WH. And a speedy recovery to the D-line guy that hurt his knee(?)

I agree with your post kwc. Anytime a team can become a consistant force in the playoffs, you have to enjoy that ride. One day it could be over with. It's easy to take 10-2 seasons for granted when you get into playoffs and can't "win it all". But there's sooo mnay others that would love to switch places with you!

Yep--you know how it is, kwc--I wanted to see once and for all just what everybody REALLY thought about the ability of these 2 teams, and this matchup. There no better way of illustrating that, than by predicting a score. It appears that the majority of respondents think that this is going to be a high-scoring affair. BlackhavenSenator is the only one predicting a blowout! While I'm expecting a relatively close game, I absolutely would not be surprised to see a Whitehaven blow-out--similar to BlackhavenSenator's prediction. About the only thing that would SHOCK me is....is for White Station to actually defeat Whitehaven! I'm sorry Jody Joe, SpartanFan and all you White Station faithful. No disrespect...I'm just calling them like I see them. TraderB, I've read your posts for the past 3 years here, and a couple on the CA website. While you have a colorful way to voice your opinion, I've never seen you do so in a disrespectful manner, and without some pretty good logic helping you form your opinion. You and kwc do a great job evaluating local games, and I really enjoy sharing a forum with you. That being said...my son plays for WS. So while I can certainly see some things that need improvement, I have a 'tainted' perspective.

I find 30-6 to be absurd as well....bottom line, your score could happen, my score could happen. And truth be told, I hope the both teams perform well. This should be competitive and fun for the players, entertaining for the fans. These are 'our' kids out here playing ball. I just love the feeling of anxiety building as the week goes by! These are the games that make us love this game!

Ok, folks-- it's time to put up or shut up! Let's lay it all on the line. Please post your predicted SCORE, on this game? ----------------------------------------------- JodyJoe says: WS 34 --- WH 27 I'm sticking with: WH 30 --- WS 20 21-10 Spartans

Here's some info in the CA included with the Offensive Player of the Week. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/20 ... etes-week/ I did hear he wasn't listed on their roster...only thing I can think of is he might be new to the school....? If this is typical of his abilities, I imagine we'll all know hi pretty well in short order.

The simple answer is C & D Film study happened, and gut check is in progress! As you know, Traderb, you can't have one or two players hustling, then they take a play off every now and then, expecting someone else to step up. It takes 11 players hustling on every play. If someone is taking it easy, or having mental lapses, that's all it takes for a speedster to break the long run. If a DE breaks contain, it's now up to a linebacker...if he took the play off, now it's up to the secondary....if they're busy covering recievers...well, you get the picture. The true answer to these questions lie in the desire of 11 young men to decide how good they want to be. Perhaps we will get an indication of that desire this Friday.

Against Briacrest, we were 6 for 6 on extra points. Against Ridgeway, post game film review showed Ridgeway coming offsides and not being called for it. After two consecutive blocks, and the subsequent "no calls", it was decided to go for the 2's instead. Now, I'm not certain about the offsides business, if it was noticed during the game, or only after watching film. Either way, the kicking game wasn't working. I'll add that I'm not trying to accuse officiating here, even though it may seem so. I'm going by what I was told from a reliable source. I'm not sure how we go from 6 for 6 one week, to getting 2 in a row blocked the next...and this particular group of players are mostly carried over from last years squad. I guess we can see Friday of our kicking game is working or not....assuming we score some TD's to try out the kicking game.

Howdy kwc! Yes, this game promises to be significant towards playoff time. I'm as lost as the next guy about the playoff format. But I do know you always want to win your way in, instead of relying on another team to beat so-n-so for you to squeeze in. My observations are biased towards WS of course. I've only read about what WH has done, and they look to be cruising along at a great pace for this time of the year. WS is doing ok, but has plenty of room to improve. Getting consistent play seems to be one area we need to improve upon. Cutting down on penalties is another. I know the team was pumped up for the Briarcrest game, dues to game 1 of the season, plus the relationship with Major Wright, being ex-coach provided some extra motivation. You always want to do well in those games... Ridgeway came in for their 1st game, and I don't think our players took them as seriously as they should have. The success Ridgeway saw was due more to our mental errors, then any specific high level of play from Ridgeway. Their RB (#3) was very fast...so once he got past someone, he was gone. I have a feeling the focus of the team will be much better this week, and we should be able to give WH a game worthy of this rivalry. And being a homie....I'll go ahead and pick the Spartans.

White Station has a tough one as well, with only 2 teams being non-playoff caliber teams. Briarcrest Ridgeway Whitehaven Christian Bro's East MUS Melrose Central---no playoffs last year Hamilton--no playoffs last year Mitchell It's tough to say who could lay claim to the toughest schedule since the ranking would be based on opponents past performance, and we won't know who the best teams are this year until this season is done. I do expect all of the listed teams to make it back into the playoffs, with the exception of Central and Hamilton.

42-21 was the final.

We play MUS later in the season...but no scrimmage with them.

You didn't ask me, but I'll offer my opinion to ya anyway! Millington's D actually looked ok. There were good plays, and some that weren't so good. There were some reckless penalties that hurt your team too...such as an uneeded push after the play is dead kinda thing. It really looked like your team simply needs some game time action to develop the consistency you're accustomed to seeing from them. We scrimmaged ECS and Jackson Central Merry a week ago. Our offense was up and down the field pretty easily against ECS, and after a slow start against JCM, same deal. So the Trojans actually did a decent job based on the early history of things. I should point out, Fred Harvey (defense) and Julian Burton (offense) weren't playing...along with one of our young receivers (Ben Gholson) that has shown the ability to make tough catches. Otherwise, we were pretty much all there, doing what we do.... It's showtime!

Well, I can think of easier paths through the playoffs than meeting Millington again....but for the time being, I haven't heard any significant buzz going on about any other local team being a serious contender. That's not to overlook anyone, but I just haven't heard anything other than Spartans/Trojans.... And which ever team represents west Tn, will have my support as we head east.