Govolsknox

Late night Friday night! Congratulations to Betsy! They had a legit team and should be proud of a great year, regardless of what happens this week. Congratulations to the Warriors! Great year, and a great job to find a way to be competitive after losing your most important player. Great job against Betsy by the #2 and #3 QB's, you and the rest of the team left it all on the field. I have really enjoyed this group of Seniors; they will be missed! Best of luck to you where ever you head next year. I think you will find that CAK prepared you well for college. I know both my kids were struck by just how prepared they were for the next level than their peers. Football is the greatest game ever invented, but life lasts much longer, and I suspect you will find you are well prepared to enter the next chapter of your life. Thank you for a great season, and some great memories! GVK

They obviously had a lot of talent this year and surprised everyone. It's too bad that they don't have more coming back, but such is HS football.

This one time, at band camp....

Rock on to this sweet thread.

Holy cow can we please just shut this thread down?! Me

El Bump

Yet you continue to respond to it. I just found it odd, and continuing to respond to it if you want it to fade into oblivion, even more odd. But every poster has a right, within the rules, to post as he or she wishes. And of course, of equal importance, is the fact that we all have the ability to choose to skip over threads we find unappealing for whatever reason. I personally have enjoyed the polite discussion between the various posters on this thread including yourself. I don't have to agree with everyone on a thread in order to have a discussion. In fact, if we all agreed on every point, a message board would be pretty boring. Thank you for sharing your point of view with me and I appreciate the opportunity to share my point of view with you, even if we don't agree.

True, this is definitely a bitter pill to swallow. Hopefully the younger players and more importantly the coaching staff can learn and grow from this.

Wow, you really seem to want an argument. I'm sorry if I'm just not giving you one. This is your post that I was referring to. I think it speaks for itself. If I offended you somehow I apologize. I skip over threads that don't interest me all the time, and I just wondered why this thread seemed to cause some to really be bothered when it appeared to be a very polite discussion. Just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

I hate to say it but I'm afraid that you will be correct. I've got a bad feeling about this one.

With all due respect, sir, your post 2 pages ago made it clear it really DOES bother you. I just wondered why? To each his own. Have a good evening.

I saw in person the DCA / CAK game. IMHO, if the game between FACS and DCA was a close game, I believe USJ wpuld have an easy night should they face FACS again. The problem is that they will never get the chance.

Scott gets some players back that weren't around for part of the year, and they are stronger than they normally are this year. I'm truly happy for them! But Alcoa is in another league. No disrespect, I just don't think this one will be even close. As a football fan, I hope I'm wrong and this one is a barn burner....but I don't think so.

I'm just curious.....why does anyone care if people continue to converse in a polite manner on this thread? So someone made a new thread. There is no confrontation or bashing here. The most aggressive thing being said is a few folks that are absolutely taking it on as a mission to lock this thread lol. Life's too short. There are plenty of causes to take up, I just personally can't imagine why someone would be that passionate on shutting down a polite discussion.

Yes, I was at every game in 2005 including the finals. It was sickening to see, with what he inherited, that opportunity squandered to team that was not superior to OR when Ravenwood only ran 2-3 offensive plays and we made no adjustment. We flat got out coached that day. But I agree Sweet, we need some new memories to be created and not just from the glory days. I also agree that the talent was down during the Blade era, and if memory serves, you could see it coming with some questionable middle school talent a few years earlier. There were some very good players, just not enough really good players to be at the level we wanted to be.

New highlights would be great! but let's be honest, a good portion of 2000-2016 have not been all roses. I personally could be very happy just forgetting the SS era. JMO.

Slaughter, somehow years ago I thought you were a Loudon fan. I guess I totally missed it. Can you clarify (just for my curiosity) what team you support?

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Ummm, maybe. Scott is more athletic and better than they've been in past years, but I'm not sure they are better than Betsy or a CAK (if they win this week) that has had 5 weeks to get adjusted to losing their SR college prospect QB. If CAK beats Betsy, they will be the best team Alcoa sees in the east. If Betsy beats CAK, Betsy will be the best team Alcoa will see in the east. Now as far as the middle and the west, I can't speak to that. I know Milan is strong this year, but until someone from the west plays a competitive game with Alcoa, I'm not going to believe it. And I don't see a CPA in the mid state that is likely to challenge Alcoa. Regardless, Alcoa is at a different level than the rest of 3A this year. It will take a special night for someone to challenge or defeat them.

They are not a good program, they are a GREAT program that draws a lot of talent. Having said that, they have a fantastic opportunity because of their unique situation in Blount County to not only draw from talent within Alcoa and talent within the county, but also draw from outside the county, at a tuition rate (used to be $500, I believe it is $1000 / yr now). If you put that all together, along with strong Alcoa zoned talent and good coaching and community support, you have an ideal atmosphere for a dynasty. And that is what they have done with that opportunity.

Alcoa is in a league of their own. I know you directed this question to another, but IMHO, there is no comparison. There is 3A and then there is Alcoa. But let's be fair. 3A is made up of medium size schools, OR smaller private schools that are multiplied up. For instance, CAK will dress a little over 40 players. Alcoa is in an open zone area where they can draw from the "all stars" of Blount County with Maryville at or near capacity, and William Blount and Heritage both very large schools with poor football programs. So when you add together those FACTS and then add in that Alcoa has some great home grown talent, they are not only at a different level than the rest of 3A but also dress 90 - 100 players year in, year out. So you do the math. How does a typical 3A school deal with a program that could compete at the 5A and 6A level competitively? Please understand, they have done this completely legally. No criticism of Alcoa. This is a TSSAA issue. And when the privates are gone next year, such as CAK and CPA, this will be painfully apparent. There will be NO ONE who can compete with a 6A size program in the 3A ranks. Mark my words. To lose in their environment would be a travesty. To win it all should be expected every year. They have every (legal) advantage and it will take an anomaly to jump up and beat them one year, OR it will take a coaching change to a very poor coach who can't walk and chew gum at the same time, which I do not see happening. OR it will take a move by the TSSAA, which I also don't see happening because of the complexity of the open zone issue. JMO. YMMV

This is interesting.

+1 I will add my opinion that #9 has done a great job at RB this year. He has gotten his pad level down from last year, has gotten bigger, stronger, and has PLENTY of football speed as was seen as he pulled away from the DB's last week on his long offensive run, and on his pick 6 as he pulled away from everyone. He is quite a player. In addition, #14 is a load and runs well too, and #26 (used to be #32) has had some very nice runs as a freshman and if he continues to grow and stay in the weight room shows great promise. With #9 and #14, it has been a long time since CAK has had 2 guys in the backfield, one at 190, the other at 215 that can really run like a running back. The last time I remember was Keenan Kolinsky when he would line up during 3 wides with Joseph Bennett in the backfield. If CAK can throw the ball enough to keep the defense honest, they can put some pressure on a defense.

Yes, particularly in CAK's base offense where they passed around 80% of the time IF they were not running clock at the end of a game. But with the sudden change of QB's without an offseason to get everything fine tuned, CAK at least last week threw the ball much less, and the QB at roughly 6-0 215 is a tough kid who likes contact. With him also being a starting MLB / ILB, tough decision for a coach unless its a game like this one, where you know you have to pull out all the stops to have a chance to win. I fully expect Betsy to be ready and tough, but it was enlightening to read a few posts back about the teams they had played and beaten. I believe they are very good, but not perhaps as battle tested as they could be. This will be interesting to see how it turns out.

Ha, got it!