tnaquarius

s. pitt. travels to coalmont to face one of the top two teams teams the pirates will face this season(the other is boyd). s.pitt. will rely heavily on the legs of jones, with ridley providing a supplement, and an aggressive defense. grundy will display a veer attack that utilizes a number of solid, blue-collar players. the jackets will be up for the pirates and their first home game of the year. s.pitt. is confident after their first two games and will be looking to atone for the severe spanking they received at home by grundy last year. confidence, however, won't be enough to overcome the jackets and colquette's mastery of the pirates(@15-3 not counting his record against s.pitt. while at bridgeport) as grundy will claim the victory.

boyd has a very good football team, arguably their best(other team to consider would be the 99 team). boyd is definitely good enough to win all of their games, but the biggest obstacle is their schedule and the fact that a team has to win several games to go undefeated in the regular season. Boyd will be a better team than everyone they play, with maybe the exception of lipscomb and ezell(i haven't seen those teams play this year). that does not, however, mean that they will win all of their remaining games. the odds of a team getting beat at least one time over the course of a season are very high, even if the team is better than everyone they play(team having a bad night, upsets, etc.) Boyd is presented with this 'statistical' problem in addition to the fact that they play a number of good teams. for these reasons i would say that boyd will probably lose at least one game, but not many, if any, more.

this game probably won't be as close as many people think. grundy is superior to the two teams s. pitt. has played so far. s. pitt.'s defense is aggressive but has trouble against an option team that forces the pirates to play assignments(as was the case when marion ran through the pirates in the first half of that game). the veer option that marion ran will look like child's play compared the one colquette will have waiting. also, i recall from having watched the game between these two last year, it wasn't even close, and this year grundy is a much better team and the venue won't be in the friendly confines of beene stadium, it will be on the mountain. unless grundy has one of those bad nights(that i think they will have from time to time) this game will will resemble last year's meeting or worse.

boyd-buchanan is a very good football team. they are very balanced and have greatly improved their biggest weakness from a year ago, their offensive and defensive lines. too much has not been made of the victories over rhea and e. ridge. i saw the rhea game and boyd completely outplayed them, even though i think rhea was a little disappointing. i am not sure about e. ridge, but i saw them last year and even if they are not as good as last year's team, they would still have no problem destroying whitwell. also, i was at the whitwell-hixson game(it was 1993) and that hixson squad was pathetic(i think they had only won a handful of games in several years), so don't make the mistake of thinking that whitwell's having beat hixson nine years ago compares to boyd's wins. picking the winner of this game is easy.....boyd-buchan. as to the dump of a field comment, i would respond that whitwell has one of the better single A stadiums in the entire state(as do most of the valley schools in their respective classes) and boyd should be ashamed to play games at home(grossly inadequate seating). as to the hick comment, i saw matt hale, boyd's outstanding receiver from a year ago, in an interview on television the other day and from the sound of his accent, i would have sworn he was from powells-crossroads(a small community outside of whitwell for those of you unfamilar).........i know one of your(boyd's) starting lineman is. [Edited by tnaquarius on 9-4-02 7:27P]

Saying that Grundy is the best in the Sequatchie Valley is an unbelieveably BOLD statement that Ken won't make nor will anybody else with sense. That's a tiny limb to be on this early in the season. Saying Grundy will have little trouble winning the region is also more than the coaching staff is willing to say. I've already heard major concerns about a Howard team that we beat 7-6 last year and that killed Brainerd last week. Ken has also commented several times that all the region teams were young last year and bringing lots of folks back. Saying Grundy doesn't have the raw talent is off the mark in the fact that I'd stack our starters up against anybody in the state and feel we can be competitive. K.T. Mainord, Kyle Brewer, Justin Bryant, Derek Byers, Joey Cook and Dustin Fults are Deadly! B.B. Layne is kicking very well. We have several players who could easily be first team all state. Our biggest trouble is depth. if one of those key guys gets hurt we could be in big trouble. Grundy has a very talented class of juniors right now. But in the overall program we may have trouble improving faster than everybody else. Our feeder program leaves much to be desired. And while Ken is a very talented coach it's hard to make chicken salad out of chicken litter. Until the program is fully in place down to the 11-12 year old level and the pee wee teams have a reduced focus or are done away with it will be hard to build a Jasper type dynasty. So basically tnaquarius, I disagree with almost everything you've said. Where are you from and how do you know so much about the Grundy program? Del (who believes that Grundy's best chances are this year and next because of the talent that is on the field right now.) saying that grundy is the best team in the sequatchie valley is not a very bold statement considering that there are only a small number of schools in the valley, of which only a few have a decent team. a bold statement is to say that grundy has a starting cast that could be competitive with anyone in the state. in one game alone, i witnessed two teams that are far superior to grundy(tyner-mccallie game). grundy might have three or four players that could start for those teams. as far as what colquette will or won't say, that doesn't factor into my opinion of grundy's team at all. in fact, historically, there has been an inverse relationship between the comments colquette makes about his teams and how good the teams actually have been. colquette is a coach with an agenda that involves preparing his team to win, and his approach has never involved excessively bragging about his teams. i, on the other hand, am not a coach but a fan, and my agenda is to openly post my opinion about football. as to the jasper dynasty, i do not believe that grundy will be able to reproduce a run like marion had from 90-95, but i think they will be in a similar position that the warriors were in during colquette's tenure there in that grundy will be the best team in the sequatchie valley most of the time and will consistently post winning records as long as he is the coach. my last thought for now is this: how could someone who thinks grundy has a starting lineup that contains players that could easily be all-state and could compete with anyone in the state, think that sequatchie was going to win that ballgame last thursday? anybody with any 'sense' could see who was going to win that one....even this early in the season. [Edited by tnaquarius on 9-4-02 7:02P]

grundy county is the best football team in the sequatchie valley area this year and will be most every year colquette is there. they don't have overwhelming talent, but they will have as much as most teams they play and will win most games. their region is weak, and the jackets will have little trouble winning it on a consistent basis. as far as competing with the best teams in the state, grundy doesn't have the raw talent right now to make a serious run. they will however, improve at a much faster rate than most teams and will occassionally beat a team that has far superior talent. grundy should have no problem assumming the role that marion co. played through the eighties and part of the nineties. i would bet that the jackets will eventually come up with a talented class or two and will make a run at the state championship before colquette retires.

i watched the game friday and would start by answering the subject of this thread, s.pitt. is a better football team. to sum it up, neither team was very impressive, but s.pitt. was able to make the plays in the second half. i also have to say that piratecountry was correct a few days ago when he implied that marion co. has dropped off. what stood out the most, however, what still has me in disbelief, is just how far marion has dropped. generally, marion has a fairly solid starting lineup with a sprinkling of athletes. this year's squad has holes at every position and has no one that i would call an athlete(with a straight face) with possibly the exception of springs. the warrior defense is frighteningly slow and to make matters worse, they were badly out of shape.(players were standing around with their hands on their knees). also, i was astonished when i looked at the marion sidelines and saw almost no players. it looked to me like marion had a total of about 25 players. i don't know what is responsible for this low turnout, but i NEVER thought i would see the day when marion's numbers of players and talent level would get this low.......it was shocking. either marion has lost its tradition and no one wants to play for the warriors any more or something has happened to deter the boys from coming out. either way, marion's program is in shambles and looking ahead to this year's schedule, they may be looking at one of their worst records in decades(5-5 would be optimistic). looking ahead to next year, marion's program is definitely heading due south, and something drastic will have to occur to turn the program around. coach taylor is definitely in a very bad situation. [Edited by tnaquarius on 9-3-02 1:56P]

Marion is about to go through some bad years based on the junior high program? this is the kind of comment that comes from someone who probably thinks you can predict a teams performance based on jamborees and scrimmages. if you had any knowledge of the marion program, you would realize that it IS presently going through the bad times you referred to. or, maybe this is just an optimistic comment from one of the many pirate fans who have been oppressed by the warriors for the last couple of decades. Don't worry, the game is a tremendous rivalry that is usually very competitive......South Pittsburgh will get their share of wins, one every three or four years if the recent trend continues, but it won't be this year. Marion will claim the victory tonight.

wow! how about that game tonight. what has me the most mind boggled is how two teams that are so evenly matched in terms of talent and numbers can produce a game so one sided. it is especially mind boggling in light of the fact that sequatchie was supposedly a much improved team that will "knock your head off", "had the right attitude going in", and "looked so good in scrimmages". what is troubling(for sequatchie and the rest of the valley teams) is that grundy didn't play a particularly good game and looked a little rusty. maybe.....just maybe, that BIG EDGE in coaching isn't such a FARCE after all. the fact of the matter is this, Grundy is not a very talented team, but they have a superior coach and sequatchie got a taste of what a program in it's second year under colquette's guidance can do. mackersie, or whoever sequatchie's coach is, and the rest of the coaches in the valley should accept the fact that colquette is back, and this time, the bullies aren't from the valley, they are from the mountain.

this game has little or no signifigance in relation to the big picture. whitwell might manage a win against sewanee, but i wouldn't be surprised if sewanee keeps it close or even gets the win. the tigers should, however, be concerned about next weeks affair when boyd comes to town. after having seen the bucs last week against rhea, my previous prediction that whitwell has no chance of beating the bucs was reaffirmed. the best scenerio the tigers can hope for against boyd is to avoid getting humiliated.......and that would be wishful thinking.

Both teams should be very similar as far as talent goes. Grundy will have an edge in numbers, they are a bigger school. The big difference in this game is the coaching.....big edge to Grundy. Grundy will be improved after having a year under their belts to learn Colquitt's system. Grundy generally outplayed Sequatchie in last year's game but had major breakdowns late in the game. Don't expect that to happen two years in a row. Grundy will claim the victory.

The best rivalry in high school football has arrived. I have had the opportunity to see both teams practice and scrimmage and believe that both teams are fairly close in terms of talent. South Pittsburgh has decent speed and athleticism, but is prone to break down and give up big plays on both sides of the ball. They will rely heavily on running back jones and will go as far as he can carry them. The pirates have problems at quarterback as the play from that position has been erratic. Marion looks similar to the team they had last year. The warriors have decent size but are lacking for speed, especially in the secondary, which is the teams weakest position. Marion doesn't appear to have many standouts and will have to perform collectively. OUTLOOK: Neither team will dominate the other and the game should be a typically competitive affair. As usual, the team who makes the fewest mistakes and is able to capitalize on the opportunities that occur will win. Marion is the deeper team and gets more consistent play from the quarterback position. These two factors will result in the warriors claiming the victory. [Edited by tnaquarius on 8-26-02 11:08A]

does anyone know where and what time the scrimmage is?

Marion County v. Brentwood Ac. in the 1992 AA State Championship. Brentwood entered the game as defending champs and with a 26 game winning streak. Brentwood was picked to win big by every major newspaper in the state. game started with Brentwood scoring touchdowns on their first two possessions. they maintained the lead until Marion was finally able to tie it up in the fourth quarter and eventually take the lead. game ended with Brentwood being stopped on a two point conversion attempt and seconds later, after recovering an onside kick, Brentwood missed a field goal that would have won the game. the governor issued a written declaration to Marion's team proclaiming it the best game he had ever witnessed. NOTE: when presented with the runner-up trophy after the game, Brentwood's coaches and players simply headed for the locker room, declining the trophy. later, one of their equipment managers was finally persuaded to take the trophy. (story was published in the Chattanooga Times Free Press) [Edited by tnaquarius on 7/29/02 8:27P]

has coached at small programs his entire career and always been competitive with everyone he has played. coached at Marion County from about 1980 to 1996. had six state championship appearances, including four championship victories in six years, highlighted by arguably the biggest upset in championship history, a victory over Carlton Flatt's Brentwood Ac. had the best playoff winning percentage of any active coach. also had a prior stint at a very small school in Alabama (Bridgeport)and posted outstanding winning percentage with a program that had been poor to sub-par for years. highlighted by beating the number one ranked school in Alabama's largest classification with a Bridgeport squad that had less than twenty players. [Edited by tnaquarius on 7/24/02 11:28A]

most of the rivalries mentioned on this thread are definitely big. however, i disagree with your reasoning that the maryville/alcoa rivalry is clearly the biggest. in order to make an argument that your rivalry is the biggest, there has to be something about it that distinguishes the game from the many great rivalries that exist in tennessee. i've heard nothing that seperates the maryville/ alcoa rivalry from the others, except for the fact that lots of confederate flags are flown. the other things you mentioned, such as the feelings among the students and large turnout at the game are not unique to the maryville/alcoa rivalry. additionaly, the length of the rivalry is important in making the argument that one rivalry is bigger than another. at the very least, it can serve as a distinguishing factor. for example, the maryville/alcoa rivalry is heated and intense but so is a rivalry like marion/so. pitt. the difference however, is that marion/so. pitt. was a heated and intense rivalry before maryville/alcoa ever played a game, therefore there is more history in the marion/so. pitt. rivalry. finally, there is a critical element missing from maryville/alcoa that prevents it from being the biggest rivalry, and that element is competitiveness. the overall series is lop-sided with the series record for maryville/alcoa indicating that the game is usually no more than a formality for maryville. however, this could change in the future, if alcoa wins the next twenty or thirty games in the series, consecutively.