boyfromsi

Dave,

Lack of respect? From what I have read in the posts all of this year, at this end of the state, Oak Ridge is seen as one of the top programs that all of the others measure themselves by. (Basically agreeing with Govman, but also seeing the reaction of the DB fans in their win over us.) It is a special thing to beat Oak Ridge at football. However, for any East Tennessee 5-A team to get any respect, they are going to have to win decisively over a Nashville area team in the playoffs. That hasn't happened in a while. Someone has to raise their level of play.

As for this year's team, this is a special bunch of young men. I like the improvements we are making through the season. If they continue on this track, they can make a good run at state. That said, a solid victory over a very good McMinn County team would certainly help in the respect department.

Thanks for your great work as the voice of the Wildcats and looking forward to listening to you Friday. GO CATS!!

Here are some links for the last games played by both teams:

McMinn County

Daily Post - Athenian

Oak Ridge

Oak Ridger

Clemson,

Wow!! 2nd Worst??? When have you seen us play? The Maryville scrimmage? If that is the case, then you have missed a lot. This is a much better Oak Ridge team than last year, both on offense and defense. Not to say that we are where we want to be, there is still much room for improvement, especially on pass defense, but that is getting better as well. We are looking forward to our region schedule and expecting tough games from all. But... it's nice to dominate every now and then.

Wow! Chattanooga fans a little "touchy" today. Anyways, I didn't mean for this thread to be a discussion for the outcome of 2-5A, but a discussion of 'our' next game, McMinn Co. The only reason I think that McMinn is one of the top teams is the quality of their wins over pretty good competition. No way do I mean any disrepect to other teams in the region, it's just that they are not next on the schedule. However, at this point in the season, McMinn Co. seems to be the team that has run "under the radar." Certainly not Soddy Daisy.

We bring a great running game and stifling defense to this contest against a pretty balanced McMinn Co team. I have not heard much discussion on McMinn so far this season and am anxious to hear more from others who have seen them play.

Yes, there are 2 posts, let's make this one the active one. Go Oak Ridge!!

Time to open up the discussion of next week's game which I think is between the top 2 teams in Region 2. Not much noise from McMinn fans, but the Cherokees are having a very solid season so far. However, if we keep "taking care of business" we will prevail. Roll Wildcats Roll!!

Time to open up the discussion of next week's game which I think is between the top 2 teams in Region 2. Not much noise from McMinn fans, but the Cherokees are having a very solid season so far. However, if we keep "taking care of business" we will prevail. Roll Wildcats Roll!!

Art,

It wasn't even that close. SC scored with 8 seconds left in the game against our 3rd stringers, the other on a busted coverage (again). Otherwise, both sides of the ball were very strong. I hope we do stomp everybody. McMinn is playing good right now which makes next week's game critical. Yes, looking forward to another classic for sure.

Hey ORC! The new pics look great, see ya at Sevier Co. Go Cats!!

Yes, and without him we still had about 325 yards rushing for the game. 10 different runners got a touch in that game. However, we are glad to have him back this week.

Art,

While I generally respect your very informed football knowlege, my point is that from what I saw of the game is that DB was not successful at all running from their opening offensive set. Yes, they were very successful against us spreading the field and opening up the running game. Ferguson IS the real deal, probably will go down as the best in DBs history. However, I don't think you can ride that horse deep into the playoffs. Same for us with the running game. My point, now that you will start playing the bottom of region 1, you can work on other aspects of your offensive set and probably do it very well. Looking forward to the rematch in the Quarterfinals.

Very good chance for DB to work on their running game. SD is not a good team at all.

How good is Sevier County? I find it hard to believe that they are as bad as their record would indicate. They had a bad game last week at Science Hill, but I remember how well they played us in game 1 of the playoffs. Perhaps some Smokey Bear fans could shed more light on the upcoming game.

So....that confident in Sevier abilities?

Here are a couple of article links for both teams from last week's games:

Sevier County:

Mountain Press

Oak Ridge:

Oak Ridger

Oh, and my score prediction 45-0 Oak Ridge. Too much offensive and an improving defense will dominate.

Just opening a thread about this week's contest. We came out strong against Heritage, no post DB hangover. Good to see the coachs work the depth, we were substitutiing freely early in the 2nd quarter. I have not heard much about Sevier, would like to read some informed comments.

That would be a good game, if we didn't already have DB and Sevier County from Region 1. As far as history, I know OR has played Jeff Co. several times in the playoffs over the years. Alas, you can't play all of the good teams over the regular season!

That is still the question. We still have a lot to work on in those areas, even though as far as pass defensive goes, we didn't let DB go over the top on us like they did against Jeff County. However, as you said, the running game was doing just fine.

BTW, this score was without Booker.

Wildcats recover and roll 52-0. 31-0 at halftime. Good solid game Cats!!

Now that I have made it home...

First, congratulations to DB for a game well played. Many good plays that made the difference down the stretch, however, the game ball should go to the O line for DB. They provided excellent protection for the QB and that enabled him to play pitch and catch. I thought DBs defense played very well in the 2nd half especially in shutting down the run in critical situations. I also thought Duran came into his own tonight. He was very poised down the stretch and made big plays when they had 3 and long.

The atmosphere was great with an awesome crowd.

Second, I was glad we were able to come off the long bus ride and execute well. Booker had a fantastic game with some gutsy runs. Spencer ran well from the full-back position. However, we did not play well enough to win. Too many penalties and too many missed tackles. Easily the worst tackling since last year's Clinton game. As for getting away from the run, I thought in the 2nd half we were too one dimensional and ran too much. We did not mix the plays well like we did in the 1st half when we did mix the pass and run. I was proud of our guys for fighting down the stretch, but you got to make the plays. DB did when it counted, we didn't.

Overall, we have some things to fix, especially the pass rush, if we are going to make a run down the stretch. DB should be very very good by the end of the season. However, so will we. Should be another fight down at our place.

Cory Booker from Oak Ridge. Soon to be all-time leading rusher for us.

Sounds like they are good enough to beat some tough competition. Pretty good to me.

No Dandy, it's sad because coaches in this state has a massive inferiority complex when it comes to competing against private schools. They don't win because they think they can't. Abolish this silly DIV II business, grant privates full membership in the TSSAA and let's raise the level of competition in this state.