AlcoaTrenches64

ohhhhhhhhhh ok now i get you. and i'm glad apparently everyone knows who i am, i'd hate to imagine i was hiding behind anonymity lol.

He spent a year at UT before he was eligible athletically, which should have cost him his sophomore year of eligibility. Last year was his junior year athletically, making this next year his senior year. You forgot the year he had to sit out under NCAA regulations.

Just Sykes at UT actually, B Dub will be graduated by the time T Rob gets there.

Hey now, you can't forget that class of '08, we were small but we put them '10 youngsters in their place haha.

Yes, and he probably will be back for the forseeable future. His family likes Alcoa, and he seems to fit well with the program. I can't see him going anywhere anytime soon.

Ah good catch on the Evans thing, I always get his first name screwed up since i call him by his last haha. But yeah the kid's definitely got the physique to be a dominant player, and he's got a good head on his shoulders too, never hurts. And yeah Big Cellie's another guy who should be able to step up big time this year. I was a little concerned with the O-Line play at times last year, they didn't seem to be as consistently dominant as we have been the past few years, but if all goes well come next fall we should be lookin at a solid front 5 which always bodes well for any team. Games are won and lost in the trenches boys. /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

I'm shocked no one mentioned Adrian Womac as a pair of shoes that need filling. He may not have gotten the attention T-Rob did but he was as consistent a D-End as I've seen. His side didn't get run on and he was a heck of a football player. Daniel Cline's another guy I thought was underappreciated last year, made plays consistently and had a couple of games there where he looked spectacular. Look out for Josh Evans this year on the O-Line, he's a heck of a kid and football player, got the potential to play on saturdays if he steps up the next couple of years.

the Fulton game is one of the games im looking forward to most this season. should be an awesome matchup and hey, you can never have too much maroon on the field haha.

First of all Spring Hill has never by any means been the toughest team on our schedule including the playoffs, I can tell you from firsthand experience the first year we played them they were one of the easiest. Since you decided to bring the schedule into the discussion I'll tell you that the toughest teams by far besides Maryville the past few years have been Goodpasture, Milan, McCallie, Fulton, and Huntingdon, 3 of whom have won state championships within the past 5 years or so and 2 more who could have easily taken state if they had played any other 2A school in the state IMO. Next, I wouldn't call a single digit loss to the eventual state runner-up in 4A (side note: that 4A state game last year was insane) getting "the business", I'd call it a hotly contested game with 2 high caliber programs duking it out down to the wire. Much closer than AE's 45-0 drilling in the quarterfinals last year by Catholic /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" /> . Also, from firsthand experience again, coaching was a big reason behind Alcoa's success the past few years, contrary to your opinion. Let's not forget that before the arrival of Coach Reid we didn't even make the playoffs with players like Dustin Lindsey and Brandon Warren, and the weight room looked like a tornado had come through it (the bad kind). And with Rankin's arrival the whole program hit a new high, the results may have been similar but believe me when I say Gary Rankin runs the tightest ship I've ever seen, and I'll ask you kindly not to imply that his coaching isnt a part of our success because he's a guy I respect and admire deeply. That said, I'll again say that I hope AE suprises me this year because although I'm an Alcoa fan first, I'm a plain ol football fan at heart and it's always fun to see 2 top tier programs trade blows.

"lame" Alcoa will wipe the floor with AE if they end up playing, no matter how you slice it. The bottom line with AE has always been discipline. Great athletes, very little discipline. I see their players on highlight reels with jerseys untucked, call me old fashioned but thats a sign of an undisciplined player and it wouldn't fly at any top program in the state. It's the little things like that that pile up and turn you from a great athlete to just a kid with some wasted talent. And I don't care if you field 11 All-Americans on both sides of the ball, if they aint disciplined, Alcoa WILL beat em. AE could suprise me and pull a 180 from years past, but I wouldn't put money on this "reloading" turning them from a program with a lot of wasted talent to a state power overnight. That kind of transformation takes at least a few years, don't get too big for your britches just yet Turtle. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" /> If they can get it together you can count me among the pleasantly suprised, I'd like to see this program put their athletes to good use and become yet another east Tennessee juggernaut, just as long as they lose to Alcoa when they play haha.

Too bad Willy B or Heritage won't step up and get whooped, but I guess there's no upside to gettin an annual beat-down from a school less than half their size. It's a shame they ruined the whole Blount County rivalry though, only upside is we get to see opponents of a higher caliber. Fulton, Bell, etc. Hopefully some other schools will step up to the plate, I hate seein us get cheated out of an extra game because no one wants to play the best. I think we got em scared...

Dead period applies to coaches having contact with the players doing training outside of say, a weight training class. We always lifted right after the season in class because well, it was a class. And we still worked out during dead periods in the summer but we did it on our own, no mandatory sessions, no coaches, and outside school property, which is within TSSAA rules.

In my opinion Adrian is probably the most underrated player on Alcoa's team. You don't see him out of position much and he locks down his side of the line. I also think he's a little more consistent than T-Rob is. I could see him playing at the next level.

Absolutely correct. It's been the same throughout the good years and the bad years. I myself was a tuition student who was zoned for Heritage and I can tell you this is the current policy and always has been. That being said not all the tuition students are "recruits" as some would like to believe. I was never recruited at all and I don't think I know anyone who was. I transferred in in 8th grade because my dad and his two brothers all played at Alcoa and I didn't want to go to a school with a large population, not because someone came to my house and asked me to. That being said I'd like to once again congratulate them Tornadoes, keep it goin Class of 2010.

I gotta say the most impressive part of Milan was Avery Williamson. Me and a couple other friends who graduated last year were really impressed with his play. He sure does know how to lay a lick. That being said way to go Alcoa, bringin it back to the A once again.