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Tennessee is more of a hotbed for basketball talent (and to a lesser extent, baseball) than football. I really don't have an explanation for this. When Tennessee DOES produce a highly touted prospect, they generally disappoint. Someone from a small school in West Tennessee who was ridiculously over-ranked by the services and is currently on the 4th string at UT at his position comes immediately to mind.

The reason I said that is because I witnessed many Perry County games during the Haston era when Slatten was the coach and lack of discipline on defense was their weakest trait. I remember Summertown passing the ball around the horn and watching the over-pursuing defense of Perry County shift with the ball in a tight 2-3, just like they were being held together by some unseen magnetic force, leaving Summertown's exceptional perimeter shooters wide open. Summertown was a good team, but Slatten's defense kept them in the game more than they should have been. Also, most teams that are good at executing the full court press have quite a bit of difficulty breaking the press, themselves. Usually making the mistake of thinking they can dribble through it. Basic fundamentals that should be covered in October.

I wasn't anywhere near this game (Culleoka vs Summertown) and I haven't been to a high school basketball game since Kirk Haston laced 'em up for Perry County, but I think it's a pretty safe bet that Summertown won the game by making swing-passes around the perimeter, along with an inside-out game that kept Culleoka chasing the ball instead of guarding the players. Somebody let me know if i am right or wrong.

Now, now Stovepipe... You misinterpreted what I was saying. I was just poking fun at coach Sharp. It was intended to be an inoffensive joke. Apparently, not everyone got it. I'm pretty sure he didn't lose any sleep over it, and in the unlikely event that he actually trolls these boards, probably found it humorous (as it was intended). I agree when you say that you don't have to throw to win. If you have the players who fit that game plan. What I was implying was that coach Sharp would still run 99.9% of the time even if he had a freak at QB and a good receiver. LC has been blessed with very talented QBs in the past, but has been left wanting in the receiver department for the most part. Go back and read my post and tell me where I was saying that coach Sharp should throw the ball. And I wholeheartely agree that it's players who win ballgames. Coaches get too much blame for losses and too much credit for wins. Some areas of the state are just blessed with more talent from top to bottom...year in and year out...open zones and private schools, not withstanding. I hope the new district setup will help LC in the playoffs next year. You get better by playing against better competition. Heck, even the worst teams are undefeated in practice. I know that LC has had a lot of difficulty getting non-region games in the past. Oddly enough, the 1A non-region competition has been as good or better than most of the regional opponents over the last few years. Good luck in that East - West game, Stovepipe. Any schools talking to you yet?

Funny... He could be 6'8", have a Favre-esque arm, have a line that is completely unstoppable in pass protection, but completely lost in run schemes, have three 6'10" receivers who run a 4.3 40 BACKWARDS to throw it to and it still wouldn't make Coach Sharp alter his game plan.

Well, I hope LC can pull this one out. They went up to the pasture a couple of years ago with statistically the best defense in school history, only to get lit up by the balanced attack of what amounted to be the equivalent of a junior college in Mississippi. Don't be fooled by Goodpasture's record. Just because they aren't 11-0 or 10-1 and seem to be a little off their normal game, doesn't mean this is going to be easy for LC. I might actually come to this game. I hope LC can match the speed of Goodpasture this time. The last time, Goodpasture had at least a half dozen players and 2 cheerleaders that were faster than our fastest man. Congratulations to Stovepipe and Kane.

It was bound to happen some time or another. Heck, Vandy is #1 in the SEC East almost halfway through the season. It could be a weird year.

Hilarious! PT has got to be the biggest homer on this board. Always funny to read his game analysis. "Sure, the scoreboard says that we got blistered, but due to some missed calls...a stomach virus by one of the waterboys...and the Autumn Equinox (which has been scientifically proven to negatively impact teams from towns that start with a "W") the score was actually much, much closer."

It comes with the territory when your program is tasting a little success that it hasn't had, historically (recent history, anyway). Not sure what people are saying. Haven't been on the board in a while. People forget that high school coaches aren't, for the most part, highly compensated professionals. Also, if they were football geniuses, they wouldn't be coaching high school. Not a jab at you, coach. Just trying to give the folks a different perspective. Also, people forget that high school kids change a great deal from one school year to the next. A kid might be ahead of the curve his junior year, but can't even find the chart when he's a senior.

Changing the practice times to anything but pre-dawn will have little effect on heat issues. Week 0 and week 1 games are usually very hot and played under the sun for at least the first half. Personally, I believe that many of the problems associated with the heat are due to kids who live under the AC all summer. The human body can acclimate to all kinds of climates, but it doesn't like sudden changes. Don't believe me? Just wait until the temperatures drop down to the low 90's next week and we will all breathe a sigh of relief due to the "cool" temperatures.

Quadrant or no quadrant, the 400 pound gorillas (privates) are ever-looming in the corner. Two-and-out or three-and-out...pick your poison. The closed zoned small publics have a tough row to hoe. The 2A championship belongs to the Nashville privates and Alcoa for the foreseeable future.

Well, let's all watch the BS start flying! You can pretty much add at least 2 or 3 tenths of a second to ANY posted 40 time reported on this board. There's track speed and there's football speed. I'll take a guy with football speed over a guy with track speed any day of the week. Leonard Scott is a world class sprinter who is still competing at the Olympic level, but when he put the pads on, you'd think they were made out of lead.

Now, let's not let our emotions get in the way of our common sense. The Daly kid is going to be difficult for LC to stop. If MP lines him up at QB, and if they can complete little dump passes over the top of the collapsing defense, I'm afraid it will be tough for LC to contain them. The 3 starters that LC lost on defense were on the line...and they were pretty good. One is going to UNA as an invited walk-on to play MLB. Not to bad for a kid that had only started a couple of games before his senior year (torn ACL 2nd game of junior season), moved from MLB to DE, and had absolutely no hype. I think LC should win this game if they can get the offense clicking. Over the past few years, LC has had a tendency to start the first few games in low gear offensively. Somehow, they need to get out of this habit. I don't foresee them completely shutting down Daly. You don't do what he did as a junior (Mr. Football...anyone?) and get your rump handed to you by a single high school player. Stop Daly and you stop MP. Also, LC's O-line should show some significant improvement over last year's team, with the difference being more experience and (hopefully) crisper guard play.

Depends on who you ask. If papatiger chimes in, I'm sure he'll have them penciled in as the National Champions. They never lost a game last year according to him....they only ran out of time when they were making their comeback.

For some odd reason, the pre-season and post-season All-State teams never seem to match up. Last year, there were several Murphy Fair pre-season All State selections that did well to make All Region by the end of the season. Chris Donald had anything but an All-State caliber season...but because he was so ferociously hyped in his 3 previous seasons, he would have made All-State as the water boy. For some individuals in certain programs, making the Murphy Fair Pre-Season All-State Team is a curse. Some coaches don't like for their players to get recognized, unless it's at their behest. Some coaches have adversely affected the season, and subsequently any chance of going to the next level, for some of their players who had the audacity to make the list. It's very disheartening to watch a talented kid being used as a decoy.

You'll get no arguments from me. Remember how many backs we had touching the ball in the scrimmages? Everybody thought we were going to wear people out by platooning our backs. Well, a funny thing happened on the way to the game plan... By the second game of the season, all positions were pretty much set in stone. Oh, there were the odd substitutions here and there. Some were for injuries, some were for punishment, some were to give the #1 guy a breather, but rarely did you see someone come in to work with the starters at the skill positions. You saw two QBs playing, but that was more about power and mind games than trying to get the younger QB some playing time. With the kid coming up from the junior high being a good athlete, the QB mind games will continue next season. Just wait and see. Substitutions on the O Line and D Line were more common. There was one kid who was a very capable ILB who seldom ever got into the game before it was long over. His only crime was backing up the coaches' favorite player who was always the last to come off the field on defense when the "game-over" substitutions began. And the same kids that were kept on the sidelines as running backs were kept on the sidelines as DBs. I have absolutely nothing against any of these kids. The starters were starters because they were the best players at their positions. They deserved the bulk of the playing time. But, there's nothing wrong with slipping in the odd sub for the sake of experience every now and then when the game is in hand.

I'm an LC guy and anytime you're talking about LC, you're talking about the wingT....selectedgrain pretty much sums it up. How many athletes have squanderd their talent by playing in this system? It's an offense based on trickery and deception, designed for smaller offensive linemen. Big linemen have no place in this offense. Small offensive linemen have no place in college. The quarterback's ability to throw the ball is unimportant. The quarterback in the wingT is basically an extra running back. Every team that has beaten LC has done exactly what I said. Goodpasture doesn't have anything to worry about. They aren't afraid of passing. We found that out the hard way. If Lewis County passes, it's only going to be to one of three people...the receiver (of course), who is covered by the DB...the TE, who the defense will know within 1 second whether or not he's going out for the pass and the OLB can committ to him...and the running back in motion, who will be covered by the safety and the linbackers. Stovepipe and Willie are not what anybody's worried about. I'll leave you with this question...How is it that Lewis County can have good teams year after year, and never put anybody in college? It's not the kids' fault. Another question...How can Perry County, who won all of 2 games last year, put 3 kids in college?

The wing-T is boring...even when it's working right. You really limit your offensive potential in my opinion. Goodpasture runs the wing-T, but they also run different stuff. I guess their coaches have more confidence in their players' ability to absorb those exotic passing schemes. Usually, the better teams figure out that the way you stop Lewis County is to put 9 men in the box, put a man on the receiver, and play your safety shallow. Odds are, if the back is in motion, the ball is going to that back or to the fullback. It's a shame that so many athletes at Lewis County have been restricted from realizing their potential by the wing-T. I'm concerned that a team like Mt. Pleasant, with a good coach and an athletic QB, will run a 4 or 5 wide set and thin out the defensive. Unless they change something, Lewis County isn't going to have near the D-line they had this past season. Stovepipe and Willie can only do so much.

Sounds like my gripes about the TFCA "All-State" selections.

Makes much more sense than the TFCA "All-State" teams.

I suspect that a good part of Hillsboro's success comes from a favorable zoning situation. How is it that a school that is located dead smack in the middle of the whitest part of Nashville (Green Hills) have a 75% black football team? Things that make you go hmmmm.

Are they transplants?

Well, i suspect it's going to be a tough year for anyone west of the river, other than the Donalds, to get much of a shot at the TSWA All-State in 2A. Middle and East were the cream of the crop this year. Lewis and Camden were very good 2A teams, and both got vaporized by a couple of Nashville privates. Do you realize how good Alcoa had to be to score 31 on Goodpasture and hold them to 3 points? Lewis County and Camden could have combined and still wouldn't have had enough to beat CPA or Goodpasture. As far as the "East Tennessee Bias", you might want to check your facts. The 2004 version of the TSWA All-State (the only one they had on their website) for 2A had 19 players from West TN out of the 37 players awarded. Three were from Camden. Kind of hard to argue with that. But I'm sure you'll give it your best shot. Maybe they're not as biased as you think. Maybe, they try to pick the best players at their position from across the state, without an agenda...be it noble or otherwise. What a concept.

I was thinking about this on the way in to the office. If this were called the All Tennessee Football Coaches Association Team, then I know I, for one, would have no problem with it at all. That's what it really is, right? This title doesn't pretend to be all-inclusive...but the title, "All-State" does. I just can't get over the philosophical hurdle of believing that the All State team should be compiled of arguably the best players. Do you think Horton will make the TSWA All-State? I do.

Maybe they'll turn the corner. I hope so. I'll always have a place in my heart for PC. It's a little optimistic to mention them in the same breath as Trousdale and South Pitt just yet. And I think you guys mean peavahouse. It's not spelled they way everybody pronounces it. Also, Jr. Pro success doesn't necessarily correlate into high school success. Houston County had on of the best Jr. Pro teams I had ever seen a few years back, but the high school team compiled of the same players was pitiful.