BurroBall

Well, what else can you expect? There aren't very many MNPS coaches who can teach or believe in anything else. Ergo, you have to have the absolutely ridiculous talent level and athleticism of Pearl-Cohn in the mid 90's or HHS from 2000-2003 to have any kind of real success on the state playoff level. If this is indeed true, 56dad may be correct in his belief that players will begin quitting the team very soon. Personally, I don't think an offensive philosophy change is what is needed.

The new staff is?

Well put. I know Komisar and Moreno are, but I know that has been a problem ever since Aydelott and his staff all left. When Aydelott was at HHS all 7 football coaches were in the building teaching during the day in some capacity. During Blade's tenure, only Myers, Komisar, and Blade were teaching at HHS during the day. That is a BIG difference.

Sorry, double post

Its true alright and the kids are not buying into the program nor should they. The 4-3 stinks and these kids are used to playing the 4-4. The O-line and D-line are pathetic and its the system and player selection that makes it so. IMHO Coaches Moreno, Clay, and Baskins are running most everything and their combined expertise has resulted in 64 points scored against the defense and only 6 points scored by the offense. Look for players to start walking beginning this week. If players (particularly influential players) start quitting the team this week, the coaching staff probably needs to resign right now. That would cripple the entire program. I'm not sure there won't be a coaching search again after this season regardless, at the rate things are spiraling downward.

If that is true, that needs to change. If Moreno is doing this "I'll run the defense and let ya'll run the offense" thing, he should essentially be the head coach/DC of the defense and Komisar should be associate head coach/OC of the offense. That is just my opinion though. From what I understand, the kids aren't buying in to the coaches and it seems to me it is mostly because the coaches haven't provided the same structured environment of high expectations that they are used to.

I thought Komisar and Fite were running the offense and Komisar was the OC. Did that change?

It could be wrong, but my understanding is that HHS's first few choices were from out of state, but for whatever reason they turned down the offer. Also, my understanding is that Moreno was unable to get his top choices for assistants due to MNPS's hiring freeze and thus had to hire assistants from within MNPS. One last thing, my understanding is that someone referred Lawson to Blade back in 2006. However, Blade was already planning on moving to Nashville before he accepted the HHS job.

I don't think it was the re-zoning that is killing HHS this year in football. HHS still has "open-enrollment" status. Zoning can hardly affect the talent level of their football team. Rather, I think it is the heavy graduation from last year's team combined with the coaching changes, and from what I understand being very limited in their options for replacements. However, I have felt since Blade announced he was leaving and agree with you that the HHS football dynasty is probably gone for the forseeable future and may never return again (I sure hope I am wrong on this). I am just glad I was able to witness a decade's worth of domination at The Burro. It certainly will be VERY difficult for any other school in MNPS to approach it. That's the kind of the lengthy stretch of success that just doesn't happen very often, particularly in football. On the brighter side of HHS athletics in 2009-2010, the Girl's Basketball team is supposedly appearing in TWO prestigious tournaments during Christmas Break this coming year in the process of trying to defend their title as AAA State Champions! Go Lady Burros!

Is the HHS defense that pathetic for HHS to be able to score 20 points on offense and still lose to Maplewood? I sure hope not...it will be a LONG season if that's the case.

UNLESS the Burros offense has completely lost their way in the wake of Blade's and Myers' departures, HHS should win every game against MNPS opponents in 2009. Maplewood, Whites Creek, and Cane Ridge are all very winnable if the Burros play disciplined. Go Burros!

Anyone know why HHS only has 4 home games in 2009? I thought it was supposed to be 5 home/5 away.

No doubt HHS had tremendous talent/athletes all three of his years there and even before that too. However, Canyon High School in California, where Blade was an assistant and won a state championship in 2005, according to Blade, didn't have a single NCAA Division 1 signee and was straight blue-collar. He knows how to coach up less athletic players. Goodness, despite all the talent HHS had from 2006-2008 they still only managed one gold football; and based solely on that talent should have probably won 3 state championships, but they had to buy into what Blade wanted to do first. Think about what they could have done with all that speed and talent IF they had all bought in right away. It's downright mind boggling to me, based solely on talent, that from 2000-2008 HHS only won 2 state championships. Even if Oak Ridge never has an Eric Gordon, Jacques Seward, Corey Jordan, Alex Crutcher, or Demetrius Garrett level of athlete play football while Blade is there, I guarantee you they can still have plenty of success if he has players who will be students of the game, work hard, and buy into what he is selling. Btw, I don't think Blade would have taken the Oak Ridge position if he thought there wasn't any talent on the team. Give it time. Good luck!

Whatever talent Oak Ridge has, Blade will get things done eventually. Shoot, it took him 3 years to get HHS's players to completely buy into his way of doing things and trust each other and the coaching staff. However, when they finally did..... It will all depend on how quickly the Oak Ridge players buy into what Blade wants them to do.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090 ... for+opener Linked note says LB Aaron Bryant began practicing again this week after missing all summer workouts with an injury unrelated to football. That is definitely good news for the Burros defense! Hopefully he can get back up to full speed by the time the season rolls around.

Give Myers some time and the Springfield community will be pleased with the results. He can flat out coach!

Lane Watson will lead them to the STATE! That might be hard for him to do, seeing as how the last time I spoke to Lane, he said he was strongly considering not playing football in 2009.

I don't think Blade, Myers, Komisar, Fite, etc. tried to play people both ways. On the contrary, I think they made every effort to not play people both ways. However, at some point they had to go with what they had within reason in order to give the team the best possible chance to win. Ergo, they had Marvin Hughes, Christian Heyne, Corey Jordan, Eric Gordon, Alex Crutcher, and Jarrett Bilhovde playing both ways a good deal of the time. Additionally, when injuries occurred at various points in the season, Deandre Davis, and Keith Perry were forced to play both ways. However, I too hope HHS can afford to play less players both ways in 2009. I am just disappointed to hear the news about Aaron Bryant not being available indefinitely due to injury that has apparently kept him from attending any and all summer workouts thus far. That is a BIG blow to the Burros defense. Hope the younger guys are ready and able to step up to fill the void.

No shot intended at Alcoa with that statement. They are also a tremendous program with rich tradition, but it was just a HUGE DEAL for HHS to finally beat Maryville in the State Championship as much as it was for Maryville to lose in general, from my perspective. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Maryville, but the 3 gold footballs in the Maryville trophy case at the expense of HHS are reason for relishing in the glory of that 2008 HHS team's accomplishments a bit longer...at least until the 2009 season begins.

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If Cane Ridge were to beat HHS, that would be a major upset in MNPS. Also, if HHS were to beat Franklin or Brentwood in 2009 it would likely be considered an upset by many, particularly in Williamson County.

I'm curious why a Knoxville West person (zero state championships in their history, and has won just 45% of their football games since 1997. ) is belittling Middle TN high school football to a Gallatin person (3 state championships in their history and has won 63% of their football games since 1993.) High school football in Middle TN is very solid.

I don't know either, but with all due respect to teams from East TN, I think a team from West or Middle TN will win the state championship in 5A this coming year.

You are entitled to your opinion. However, I would like to note that HHS has over 1200 students in their student body. The very largest discrepancy with any Williamson County high school enrollment is with Franklin, who has roughly 600 more students. Interestingly enough, Franklin is the team from Williamson County that HHS familiarized themselves with quite well on the gridiron over the last two seasons. Also, why is that a major ordeal when many of the schools in TN with the largest enrollments have a history of being pathetic in football? I realize that is not true of all, but many of them are in this situation. Ergo, with those facts, it stands to reason that it is an overrated advantage for the Williamson County schools to have a few hundred more kids or so to choose from. I think the biggest question mark for HHS this season will be how well the players adjust to the changing of head coaches and defensive strategies (as well as the lettermen lost from 2008)....the typical obstacles and growing pains that come with a drastic change like that. Unlike you however, I don't think they'll be overwhelmed, but I also hope they exceed my expectations and really strive to continue the HHS football tradition that has been built over the last decade.

I will take this time to acknowledge my lack of knowledge on the majority of the teams' returning talent. That being said: 1. Franklin 2. Brentwood 3. Hillsboro 4. Independence 5. Centennial 6. Ravenwood I hope I'm wrong about HHS though.