sportshooter

Good points, I am just jealous that he did not choose BGA and now my kid has to play against him.

Great win for BGA last night! Coach Johnson said he had never been more proud of a team as he was last night. I think MBA thought this would be an easy win and was not ready to play. They made a nice run in the second half but the two fumbles killed them. It would be great to see BGA win 2 of next 3 to finish .500. Considering the number of freshmen and sophs playing key roles (5 fresh/sophs started on defense the 2nd half), the future looks bright.

That is the first thing I read this morning because we didn't get the paper for some reason and I just died laughing. What is the excuse for sticking what is essentially the best game in the state of Tennessee every year on a Thursday? I've never heard of the reasoning. It started last season when the Div II games were played midweek due to an MTSU homegame. If it continues through next year, I think you'd have to say that it's simply done to marginalize the Div II schools even further. "Big Red Big Blue" I beleive threw out the idea of doing away with the playoffs, since in a league this size they're all rematches, and it's such a small league to begin with. His idea was to crown a regular season champion and play a big rivalry game on Thanksgiving. I suppose that for the other sports, it makes sense to stay within the TSSAA, but you have to question what exactly Div II is getting from the TSSAA in terms of football. Would Div II schools still be able to schedule regular season games vs. Div I schools if it exits the TSSAA? If so, I am all for leaving.

The DII Championship games are Thursday, Dec 3.

Just for clarification, Prattville beat BA soundly last year. That aside, I agree that the TSSAA bureaucrats are doing their best to diminish Tennessee high school football. First, by splitting the schools into DI and DII. Second, by their watered down playoffs. When every team in DIIAA makes the playoffs, the regular season means very little. Then to have the DIIAA state championship (usually the best two teams in the entire state) on a week night in Cookeville is unfair. I also cannot understand some of the rules we play by in Tennessee. Why can't a player return a ball kicked in the end zone? Why is a penalty flag thrown when a defensive player lines up in the neutral zone before the ball is snapped? Why don't they do anything to protect the quarterbacks i.e. allowing them to throw the ball away outside the tackle box? In the state playoffs a few years ago, Ravenwood won the game because, by rule, they were allowed to re-kick an onside attempt because they were offsides. Franklin recovered the first on-side kick but was not allowed to decline the penalty and keep the ball. Am I the only one who thinks these rules should be changed? Sorry for the rant.

BGA injury report: The two starting safeties are out - a freshman will start in one safety spot, two starting offensive linemen are out - now must start a freshman on the O- line. So four starters are out on a team that had very little depth to start. Starting QB has been moved to linebacker and tight end. It doesn't look good for BGA. I think the line in Vegas is MBA -14.

BGA has 19 Juniors and Seniors on the football team vs. 42 at BA. That is a significant disparity in numbers in the upper classes. BGA's freshman and sophomore numbers are more in line with BA's so this won't be an issue in two years. BGA has two freshmen starters and seven sophomores. How many freshmen and sophomores start at BA? Numbers aside, BGA will show up and compete. Numbers on the football team is not the issue - number of boys in the school is - I would bet the number of boys in the junior and senior class are roughly the same or somewhat close - getting more boys to come out for the team is where these "depth" issues seem to come into play. BA plays 6 sophomores and a handful of others see some spot duty, the youth is a non issue (most of the "playing" team is juniors) - no freshmen play because they aren't needed, they have their own team (again most of the team is sophomores and juniors). I never questioned BGA showing up to play, I know they will, they always do. I always cringe a little bit when someone mentions "youth" or "inexperience" to justify their shortcomings. Both teams have played a number of games and scrimmages (along with 2 months of practice and a long summer and spring of strength and conditioning). Should be a great game. Matt86, to state that BGA has a young team is just a fact. However, I agree with you, with five games under their belt this should not be used as an excuse.

FYI BA's male breakdown: Senior class - 47 boys in the class, of which 16 play football Junior class - 58 boys in the class, of which 26 play football Sophomore class - 59 boys in the class, of which 23 play football Freshman class - 66 boys in the class, of which 34 play football (none on the varsity team however) 230 boys in the high school, 99 on the football team - 65 (not including freshmen) that play "varsity" Not much disparity between BGA and BA numbers wise - BA has guys that go both ways too. BGA has 19 Juniors and Seniors on the football team vs. 42 at BA. That is a significant disparity in numbers in the upper classes. BGA's freshman and sophomore numbers are more in line with BA's so this won't be an issue in two years. BGA has two freshmen starters and seven sophomores. How many freshmen and sophomores start at BA? Numbers aside, BGA will show up and compete.

I do agree that too many people come on here and start ripping high school football player and it does no good at all. I think most of the time it is from people that have a personal grudge against a player or a coach because their kid isn't playing. I also think that people post things here they would never say to the person's face, because they can hide behind their scree name. I see no problem with fans getting on here and trash talking back and forth before a game. But to come on here and call out players by name and trash them is being a jerk. I personally am an Indy fan. My son graduated 2 years ago so I have no player on the team. But I won't come on here and say derogatory things about another teams players by name. It is just not the right thing to do in my opinion. Guys this Wilco character is just a punk kid who is trying to get a rise out of you...just ignore him and perhaps he will go away. Only a coward would come on a message board and call out kids who are out their busting their butts week in and week out. Please stop responding to his nonsense.

Other than last week when they missed a chip shot field goal, BGA has led at the end of the first half in all their games. They wear down in the second half and give up big plays. I think BGA changes that pattern Friday night and wins a close one at home. Prediction: 24-21 BGA.

Sportshooter....for the most part...Coach Massey did the appropriate thing....he put the younger kids in and kept it on the ground....but that one play of throwing the ball long struck me as odd as well ....whatever the reason....it did not come across as very gracious... I appreciate the classiness of the BGA posters and fans....good luck to you guys the rest of the season... Thanks for the reply. There are many good pictures of Baylor players on http://www.bgapix.com. Please pass along to parents and players (these are free to download). Some Baylor girls soccer on there as well.

Based on what we have seen thus far and not reputation, I would have to put EHS no. 1, Baylor no. 2, and Ryan no. 3 in the East followed by MBA, BA. I was at Baylor Friday night and loved their campus and football stadium. Their kids play hard and the QB is really good. However, can the Baylor fans explain why the coach throws long with a three TD lead and two minutes left in the game? Classy school but not much class from the head ball coach.

My estimate is Baylor has about 350 male students in grades 9-12. BGA has only about half that number and is the smallest of the DII AA schools. With that said, they still only allow 11 on the field at the same time so you just hope for three things when playing the big enrollment schools like McCallie and MBA: 1) the freshmen and sophomores on the field step up 2) key players don't get hurt 3) you have great conditioning. I think it will be a low scoring game with the final being 14-7. I am coming down early for the game and have never been to Baylor. Any suggestions on the best place to tailgate on Baylor's campus?

Oh lordy that was cute. The only time I've ever been down on any aspect of BGA was when they fired Coach Moore and when they made it to where you could only wear white undershirts. In terms of this edition of FHS not being a "classic" Rebel team, I was not reffering to their scheme. I was talking about them not being as good as they have been. I'm not the only person who thinks that so before you go off and say "oh you never played against them and yall would've gotten killed blah blah you're short, etc etc" just know every recent FHS and BGA grad at the game thought the same thing. It was a good game against two very young teams with massive potential, but neither was as good as they had been recently. And seeing as you think Jamal "choked" in every big game, I guess I can make some assumptions here about where you are coming from. You probably play this year for the team. You are now starting and think you are big and bad (though after losing 7 starters on offense and 5 on defense, young guys will obviously start the next year so don't get so high on yourself). But not including the Tyner start in 07, Jamal went 15-4 as a starter in two years. Now in those four loses, the defense lost the Ryan and MUS games. And for as off as Jamal was against BA and EHS, that was as much his fault as it was the rest of the team's fault. Also, I think it would be fair to counter that he came up big in the second half against Webb and played great two years in a row against Baylor and Briarcrest. Lets also throw out that he was probably the only starting QB to have to go both ways in our region. So seeing as NO ONE has ever mentioned the previous two QBs (2-13 and 0-15) prior to Jamal, and I can assume you either 1)Listen to Josh Copeland too much 2)Are not very smart. I mean he is playing DI football 3)Are kind of a racist prick. I'm still very good friends with a few guys on the team and I will always love every coach I was blessed enough to play for (and in debt to, seeing as as small, slow, weak, and injury prone as I was, I would have never gotten to start had they not believed in me and given me a chance to), and no matter where I move to or how old I get, I will always cheer for BGA like I have my whole life. But it is a shame that a few players on the team now feel the need to rip the classes above them to make themselves feel good. I do not think that BGA will be dominant until this freshman class is in their Senior year, at which point, no one will remember last years team or the 01-03 teams, because this class will be phenomenal, will win State that year, and will usher in a realllllly excellent era of BGA football. And duuuuude, don't try to cover up a flame post by mentioning that it will be a good game. Man up if you are gonna talk trash. And don't bother reproducing if you are ignorant enough to try and rip on the player most responsible for turning the program around. Ugh...I think Baylor wins based on size and experience, but BGA can beat this team 49 out of 100 times...so it definitely would not surprise me if they win. (kind of a long, prolly over the top, post but i actually learned alot from playing at bga, and the most important thing was loyalty. hopefully you dont graduate without growing up a little and learning that as well) good luck guys xoxo AP, I don't think last year's team would have been able to play with Franklin. I base that on BGA's performance vs. BA, Ensworth, and MUS which, IMO, were in the same league with Franklin. The 08 wildcats got the most from their talent and put BGA football back on track so accomplished a lot. As for Ramsey, he was a great talent but did not have the leadership ability you would want in your QB.

Baylor rolled over FRA and Tyner (I would expect any of the DIIAA teams to have an easy time with FRA but how good is Tyner?). BGA opened with the team that was the state runner up in 6-A. BGA led 10-0 at half and really should have won the game. Marshall County is a 4A team and made the playoffs last year going 8-3. BGA could have won by more than 29-3 but only passed one time in the second half. I guess my point is both teams have looked good in their first two games. Is the QB at Baylor the UTC coach's son? How has he looked? The sophomore QB who started for Baylor last year was at BGA for the Football University camp. The report was he has strong fundamentals and just lacks size. I guess he was beaten out for the starting job by the new kid. BGA starts a sophomore at QB and he has shown a lot of poise. He is 6'3" and 190 lbs so has good size and runs with power. BGA is young at other positions as well and starts 5 freshmen and sophs on defense and 4 on offense including the QB. The team fields only 10 seniors and 10 juniors. BGA is smaller than the other schools in DIIAA and elects to play up so does not have the depth of the larger schools like Baylor. BGA will be very good in two years but I just don't know if they have the stamina to play with Baylor for four quarters. Looking forward to seeing the Baylor campus...I hear it is beautiful.

BGA has beaten Baylor the last two years pulling out victories in the last seconds. Baylor seems to be improved and will be playing at home. BGA lost a heartbreaker to Franklin and soundly defeated Marshall County. Star running back/linebacker Michael Moore is back contributing after missing the Franklin game. Predictions?

BGA controlled this game from the kickoff. Nice having Michael Moore back in the lineup. Defense was good and O line controlled the line of scrimmage. Thomson was 6-8 passing in the first half with two TD's but more importantly had no turnovers. Three freshmen had a lot of minutes on the D line. KJ is going to be special. Michael Smith made some nice catches including TD. Baylor is going to be a challenge as they seem much improved.

Coaches will have a hard time getting the boys up for this game after the Franklin game. BGA will have the home field advantage and will not be playing their first game like Marshall County. Usually there is a lot of improvement between the first and second games. Hope BGA will have a good crowd for this one.

Your an idiot and must not have been at the game in person I second that..Wilco wrote "BGA has never been known for their football prowess". Someone dumb enough to write that about a team that won six state championships the last two decades has no credibility.

As a parent of a BGA player, I could not be prouder of our kids and coaches. Congratulations to the Franklin High School football team on a hard fought victory. We should all be proud of our players, coaches, and fans for the way they conducted themselves last night. In this day and age where you see so many stories about sports fans, players, and parents acting poorly, our community sets an example for sportsmanship and integrity. GOOD LUCK FRANKLIN, I will be cheering for you to win state this year. Can't wait to get you at our house next year (don't know where we will put everyone).

Coach Clayton spoke at a Rotary meeting today. He was instrumental in this game finally being played. He thinks the FHS defense will be bigger and better this year. His offense will improve as the season goes on due to the new linemen and qb. They have a tremendous kicking game with the Gentry kid. Expect FHS to run 90% of the time even though Clayton loves the passing game. On another note, Coach Clayton and other coaches hate the new playoff system. The TSSAA needs to listen to the coaches before making these kinds of decisions..the new system is bad for the Williamson County programs and it makes no sense what they are doing.

There is an excellent article in the Williamson Am about this game. There is a picture of Franklin's 1925 team and quotes from coach Ralph Brown who played for BGA in the 40's. Good stuff.

BGA won 3 state championships in the 90's and three this decade with the last coming in 2003. They won eight games last season and lost to the state champions in the playoffs. However, they are certainly a big underdog in the game Friday night.

Based on the last two posts, I think Coach Johnson should reconsider playing this game. I am surprised Franklin is not rated as the top team in the country with backs that can't be tackled by 11 defenders and such a smart QB.

I would not have a problem with his prediction if he actually put some thought behind it. The only rational he used for predicting a Franklin blow out was that the middle school lost a scrimmage to a Rutherford County team. I have seen both teams scrimmage and am familiar with personnel for both teams. BGA will start a freshman lineman, sophomore left tackle, sophomore QB and soph. wide receiver on offense. On defense, BGA will start a freshman lineman, sophomore linebacker, two sophomore safeties, and a sophomore corner. Back ups are primarily freshmen so not much depth. I believe Franklin has only two sophomore starters and plenty of depth. On paper, this is a "no-brainer" as Franklin should win easily. But my guess is BGA will show up, play hard, and be well coached. If BGA doesn't turn the ball over and Franklin does, this could be close like the Franklin/ McCallie game last season.