JDHoss

Probably not, but they might provide the strongest test of the season before Greeneville. The atmosphere should be electric. That's the biggest thing I miss about football down here. Aside from 1 or 2 places, the "crowds" are mostly parents and some students who are way more interested in socializing than football.

Powell 49 Toppers 33

IMG is playing Miami Northwestern. Heritage is playing St Thomas Aquinas. Scheduling is tougher than you think these days. This Beacon Hill outfit sounds a bit like Bishop Sycamore. They've played at Choctaw, OK and Cincinnati Elder, being outscored 113-0. It's bizarre that you can't find any info at all about them, and you wonder how the heck they are paying for travel.

Well...IMO, those three teams aren't what I would call good. THS hasn't played but once due to Covid, so it's a little harder to gauge them. I think Crockett will be the best team D-B has played to this point, but I think the Tribe will still handle them fairly handily. I think next week's game against West Ridge will present a much bigger challenge before heading down to Greeneville, where....well...I don't even want to think about it right now.

I'm sure it is. Still don't think D-B has any trouble with them.

Yes, I said I understand why the rule is in place. I just hate that it takes snaps away from kids who don't get much playing time.

While I understand the intent, I don't like the mercy rule because it takes away playing time from the kids who don't get to play much.

Letcher Central got smoked 48-7 last night by Pikeville. Granted, Pikeville is a really good Class A team, but still, I don't see D-B getting much of a challenge in this one. Tribe 38 Crockett 10

They're doing it here in South Florida too. I love it. No more standing in line behind people at the ticket window who want to chat with Mr. or Ms. Whoever. Just get your phone scanned and continue walking in with barely breaking stride.

Motown East might be a little better than Volunteer, but.... Tribe 35 Motown East 14

I saw West Ridge in the Greeneville scrimmage and they were overwhelmed by Greeneville's speed and passing game as Greeneville ripped off 6 TD in what was probably only around 20 plays. Science Hill isn't Greeneville, but they do have some speed and a passing game. SHHS 35 West Ridge 21

Tribe 49 VHS 13

Heading back home to Florida on Wednesday. I'll have to keep up with SWVA and East TN online with NFHS while going to games down there. Hope to see Cocoa at Vero Beach this Friday night and Treasure Coast at American Heritage in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday night. Heritage was ranked #8 in the nation in one preseason poll I saw.

I have a ton of respect for SP and love reading their threads on the 1A-2A board, but this game will have a running clock in the 2nd quarter.

Overrated - Science Hill...of course, it could still be their best team in many years, but that wouldn't really be saying much. Real Deal: * Alcoa - No surprise they won, but they brutalized a good Rhea Co program. * Anderson Co. - Really good team who just ran out of gas. * Elizabethton - I watched their junior and senior class when they were at TA Dugger and they crushed Robinson's teams. These guys are really good. * Greeneville - Saw them against West Ridge and Central. They have a ridiculous amount of speed and a really good passing game. They may throw for 600 yards against Dobyns-Bennett. * Murville - Same as ever. * Powell - Very talented team who gets the ultimate test in East TN this week. Better than expected? * West Ridge - Yeah, it was hapless Volunteer, but still...

D-B will name the score on Volunteer. Last night went about the way I thought it would. As Batman said, the kicking game was huge as DB gave THS a long field for most of the night, and got 7 points off the botched punt snap in the end zone that resulted in the THS punter kicking a really low, short line drive that was returned for a TD. They were able to get good pressure on the QB, which was a good thing because THS had guys running open much of the evening.

Week 1 isn't in the books yet. Greeneville v Central is tomorrow.

I looked it up on Google Earth, and I was afraid of that. Thanks for confirming.

Yeah, we've never been to Litton's when it wasn't packed.

We'd like to come down to the game on Saturday, but have never been to Central. We're primarily end zone fence dwellers. Is that viable at Central? Hope to eat supper at Litton's too. It's been a while.

Absolutely. When I was a kid, we learned how to line up correctly, how to block, tackle and take care of the football. In general, we learned how to play solid fundamental football. Also, there wasn't a single coach on our team that had a son playing on it. I'd guess that's a rarity today.

The only thing I've heard about THS is that they struggled somewhat against a Gate City team that is shockingly low (27-30) on numbers this year. Could be that GC is better than anticipated or that you simply can't take always take away a lot from scrimmages. I'll go with D-B 31-14, but yeah, the defense is a big concern from what I saw in 2 scrimmages. The offense has potential, but they also threw 4 picks in those 2 outings. A shaky defense and turnovers is a really bad combination.

I've never seen a truly great high school program yet that didn't have a great youth league.

Coaching? Yes, coaching is an obvious yes. Administration? Yes. Administration hires the coaches and oversees the facilities. Players? Yes. We can point to Greeneville and Betsy, and that's true, but in order to win, you have to have talented players. Their state titles have come when they have talented players. As you climb further up the food chain in classification, the harder it gets. The Nashville metro and Knoxville metro area schools with good football programs always have students from other schools interested in participating in their programs, and they can draw from a far bigger pool of talent than the upper ET schools can. One other thing I'd add, and it ties into coaching and (IMO) is as important as anything is having a well organized, well coached, highly monitored youth league and middle school programs. If you don't have this, whoever is coaching the high school team is going to be limited in what they can do.

My best guess is that they would fair about as well as most class 5/6 A teams fair after they leave this region. It rarely ends well.