powellbubba

Powell had a meeting today and sort of starting getting things lined up for spring. The top two running backs weren't there, their left tackle, backup QB, outside linebacker and a couple of others. Going into Thursday some of the strarters are Matt Meade at safety, DJ Hamilton at corner, Jonathan Staggs at corner, Landon Wright at WR, Austin Schwinge at WR, Tyler Powell in the slot, James Ussery, Ben Smith and Mike Norman on the line and Jeremiah Catlett at TE. Baseball and track are keeping a lot of kids away right now.

Bernard is a good looking athlete that is still trying to find a position. He has the build of a tight end but I think they used him mostly on defense last year. I don't think Coffer is currently on the team. He had some issues and was not on the team at the end of last season. Besides Tony Foster some of the other guys that came over from Central last year and will contribute this year are BJ a Samuel Hamilton, with BJ playing offense and Samuel on defense going into spring practice.

Does anyone know how many baseball players that will miss spring practice figure into the plans for next year. I know that tackle Austin Smith and linebacker Kolby Skeen will miss, but are there others? Also, with Smith playing baseball and Doug Ridge hurt, who will make up the O-line this spring?

Here's how things look going into spring: Quarterback: Hodge, looked good on JV, unproven on V. Running back: Mobley, looked good as a freshman with the varsity. Recievers: Only Powell comes back, the other spots appear to be up in the air. There's supposed to be a baseball player who is expected to be a good wideout. O line: Austin Smith, Usery, and Mike Norman return after starting all or part of the year. D line: Steve Ross, Austin Benson and Tony Foster are two juniors and a sophomore that look like they can play. Steven Slagle and Waters also look good, but only Benson and Foster have much varsity experience. linebackers: Petree, Webb and Cook return as starters. LB/DB: Dalton James started last year and the other kid played a lot. DB: Matt Meade, a junior, will move from corner to safety. The other DB spots are up in the air. What's it mean? What HTV said. Powell has a lot of talented kids who haven't played a lot so the spring will be very important.

I think Powell lost so many players that they had better be watching out for everybody on their schedule. I agree that the defense should get better as the season goes along. One thing I noticed watching some of the JV and freshmen games -- and I know that JV and freshman success doesn't automatically translate to varsity success -- is they have a lot of defensive linemen that can play. I know they played a freshman and a sophomore some last year on the varsity, but they also have some good looking ends. With that much talent on the D-line I wonder if there's any chance they leave the 3-5 and go to a 4-3? Offensively I don't see the big-play potential they had last year with Houston being able to run or throw the length of the field on almost any play. By the way, does anyone know where Houston is going to play in college?

Powell lost an all-state quarterback, two recievers that made various all-star teams, a solid running back, the starting tight end and three of five starting offensive linemen. On defense they lost all three starting defensive linemen and all three starters in the defensive backfield as well as the top backup at DB. Where does this leave them for next season?

Thanks for the clarification. And even if it was a choice I don't think it would be a bad one. Hopefully Powell will be using this to rest up for the playoffs next year.

Devilsden, I'm just curious about what makes this so assinine? Would it really make a difference if the open date was in week eight or nine?

Congratulations Rhea County. I've been to a lot of places to watch high school football games and not only do you have one of the best stadiums and settings for a game, the crowd, the concessions folks and anybody else I talked to were friendly and fun even during the early going when Powell was ahead. Good luck next week and, with the exception of the final score, thanks for making the trip a fun experience for my family and myself.

Powell won 30-22. Powell's first team offense looked really good for the most part, but fumbles hurt them and set up the Fulton offense. Powell's defense looked much improved over the previous scrimmages and the jamboree. When the second team's played it was a tie, with both scoring a touchdown. Fulton is young, but for Powell it has to be a confidence booster.

Undefeated is stretch, but I thought Powell showed a lot more aggression on defense tonight than they had in past scrimmages. Some of the linebackers, #42 and #15, looked pretty good. No. 8 is the biggest hitter on the team and I'm not so sure wouldn't make an outstanding linebacker. The defenive line played much better than what I have seen and I still believe that could be the team's strength on that side of the ball. Fulton isn't what they have been but I would say Coatney will have them playing pretty well come playoff time. A team that young will only get better as the season gets going. The turnovers could be problematic for Powell because you are right Tadvols, they fumbled way too much. I'll take the defensive improvement even against a young team like Fulton. I would still like the offensive line to get a little more aggressive as well. Sometimes the guys were in the right place to make blocks, but seemed like they would get beat...but I'll take a good showing against a program like Fulton any day. Good job Powell.

As far as it goes I haven't seen Drummer shy away from contact as a receiver, so that's what I was basing that on. It's always been my experience that if you don't mind getting hit, you'll probably not mind hitting someone else. As for the others this is my point: New players at most schools don't learn one side of the ball and then the other. If they can play, they are given an opportunity on offense and defense. Again, this is not to say what Powell is doing is wrong, it's just different. #91 and #94 may not be ready to play on the offensive line, or they may not even be good at it, but at most schools you would already have some idea of what they could do. Likewise #22 and #26 look like good athletes on offense and I would think that would translate into someting on defense. I've only seen #10 play quarterback, so I don't know if likes to hit or not. As for #16, he's a cornerback who's out right now with a knee injury but made some nice catches in the passing league as a slot receiver. I don't think it's up to Hanson to get on the field, it's up to the coaches to get him there. Again, he showed really good hands and speed in the spring and in the passing league so I would be playing him both ways. As far as kids being given a choice about where they play, I disagree with that. I think most were assigned to a position, but since the coaches know a lot more about these kids than I do I assume a bunch of them are at positions they would have chosen anyway. As for me, I just want to see Powell win and it doesn't matter if they play 11, 22, 55 or all 100+ to do it. The bottom line is getting everything out of the team you can. How to get there is up to the coaches.

The quality on the field is the million-dollar question. It's hard to say if two-platooning is having a negative impact because players who are reserves at one position -- say defensive line -- don't get a look at the other side of the ball. You don't know if kids like #91, #94, #90 or #96 (now a starter because of injury) could improve the offensive line. Could #16 be a good slot receiver? Could #10 or #22 help on defense? Currently Powell has two sophomores and three seniors starting on the offensive line. Their backup quarterback is a sophomore and their backup running back is a freshman. The only receiver that returns is #6, a junior. On defense the entire line are seniors, two of the five linebackers are seniors and all the defensive backs are seniors. Most of the backups are sophomores and some are freshmen. All that you can say for sure is they are going to be young.

I guess the bottom line is it really doesn't matter what a coach does: Playing 11 or playing 22, when he wins everybody loves him and when he doesn't there's a stadium-full of critics ready to tell him how to do it better. To bring this thing full circle I just hope Powell shows dramatic improvement on defense between now and the meat portion of the schedule when you have Maryville, Anderson County, Halls, West and Central, not to mention an improved Karns team game three and an improved Clinton team to finish the year. Powell's starting defense gave up six scores to Catholic, six to Alcoa and two to CAK, stopping Catholic once and Alcoa once. That's not going to get it done against the likes of Maryville, Anderson County, Halls, etc.

That's not a bad point and you have to give Matt Lowe credit for being creative. But there are kids at Powell that can play on both sides of the ball and having them go two ways would help the team. I believe Hanson is the most obvious example, but there are others. My counterpoint is what I wrote earlier: Why not let each player get a shot on both sides of the ball before putting him down as offense or defense only? Look around the region and Powell is the only team with this philosophy. That's not to say its the wrong philosophy, just different. Hopefully it proves to be the right one in the long run.

I think it could cut both ways. Collins and Drummer would probably be pretty good free safeties because neither one seems to shy away from contact. Likewise #22, #26, #10 and #6 look like good enough athletes to help out on defense. Vise-versa Hanson has good hands and good speed and could help the offense and a couple of the linebackers look big and athletic enough to help on the offensive line. The free safety, #8, looks like a big hitter with good speed that could play a variety of places on both sides of the ball. I also think some of the reserve defensive lineman, #91 and #94, look like they could help the offensive line because they appear to be good athletes playing behind seniors. The cornerback, #16, is also a good athlete that could play on both sides of the ball. Why not teach every player a position on offense and defense then let the best man (boy) win. If one wins two positions, more power to him.

In no way was I saying anything negative about Watts and his athletic ability. He was/is a tremendous athlete and I agree that his outside receivers weren't as good as what Houston has. As far as two platooning goes I think the average high school team is lucky to have 20 really good football players at any one time. There may be 100 kids on the team, but most teams rely on juniors and seniors and kids that are going to be good next year may not be ready this year. And you usually aren't stocked with kids at every position (the 20 don't break down as two tackles, two guards, a center, etc.). Unfortunately out of the 20 you have it's likely some of them play the same position, so it makes it hard to get them all on the field. My example of why I wouldn't two platoon is this: If players only play defensive line and never learn to play offense, your fifth-best offensive lineman may really be your eighth, ninth or 10th best, but you'll never know. The further you go down on the depth chart in a two platoon system in high school the more likely it is you're playing someone who's not ready to compete on Friday night. I honestly think Powell has the talent of an 8-2, 7-3 football team, but I also think some of that talent is watered down a bit.

Cody Watts may have been a better overall athlete than Houston, but Kier throws the ball better and seems to be good at spreading it around. He also doesn't run as much as Watts and when he starts scrambling he's still looking downfield to make throws. But you're right footballdad, the proof will be in what he does this season. I think Houston will have to put up some huge numbers for Powell to make the playoffs because their defense struggles with containment and tackling. That said, I think the D's problems can be corrected with some tweaking.

I hope Houston is able to stay healthy because Powell doesn't get very far without him. Good receivers, decent offensive line and no defense. Houston looks to be a dynamic player with a strong arm and really good speed. Drummer and Collins are above average high school receivers and Nickens is solid at tight end. Their running game could be OK, but I think everything depends on Houston, who looks like he could be the best Powell quarterback since Matt Lowe. Powell proably doesn't beat Maryville, Halls and Central -- their defense just isn't up to the task -- so they have to run the table against everyone else.

If Halls is looking for a mean streak get the girls that played Powell in the powder puff football game Thursday night. It was called with about 30 seconds to play because of a fight that cleared both benches. Powell knocked a couple of Halls girls down, then a Halls gal threw a Powell player down and started punching her. The were billing it as the first annual, I'm guessing it was the last annual.

I've seen both teams play and I think Red Bank will win, but I like Halls' chances. I think the Wing-T can give Red Bank some problems because their defense is fast and agressive and Halls will use the misdirection to their advantage. Unlike some people I don't think Halls is slow. They don't have the athletes Red Bank does, but I believe their discipline will keep it close. If Powell could have gotten the ball back at the end of last week's game I think they would have won, but give Red Bank credit for getting a first down after a penalty made it first and 25 with about 2 minutes left. I think both teams have good coaches and the athletes on offense give the Lions an advantage. Red Bank 24, Halls 17.