TankTalk

If I was from Anderson County (yes I live here now, but I mean REALLY from Anderson County), now that Oak Ridge has won the game, I would look around in the closet for something called class. When a county is strong in football, all of their teams, it just makes the entire presentation better. Coach Shattuck, his staff and the players fought hard tonight. They deserve a pat on the back -- wait, what they deserve is even you diehard Oak Ridge fans to support them in turning the program around. It's easy to kick something when it's laying there in front of you, injured and bleeding. How much easier would it be to pick it up, wish it well and hope that it can find a little success down the road?

E-mail me your mailing address. My work addy is tank.johnson@oakridger.com

Yeah, so don't tell anyone! Newspaper people are the masters of thievery, seriously! Actually, this "theme" has been used MANY times across the nation. If they want to come after me, bah ... let em. I can play stupid with the best of them.

Nah I got canned from the show. I was too goofy and spoke my mind too much. They, being station management, didn't like my style so they booted me. I am just doing the Saturday show due to contracts with advertisers that wanted me to do it. After that my mighty local TV career is over.

Little sneak preview of my football special that is coming out Thursday. I worked hard on the cover, so no mean comments! Prep Cover

Looking forward to seeing MBA play Friday. Four-way scrimmages get confusing for a country sports writer like myself, but I hope to devote some time watching them. Cookeville, Oak Ridge, MBA and Blackman ... at least that's the last lineup I received.

Alcoa looked very impressive -- Shivy scored four touchdowns by himself and the Tornados pretty much had their way. Hard to even try and make excuses about this one, Oak Ridge was flat and as the coaching staff predicted on Monday, they were in for a rough outing. Congratulations to Alcoa, they looked sharp, aggresive, explosive and 2A teams are in for quite a battle ... for second place. Don't see anyone standing in the Tornados' way. As for Oak Ridge, we all know this was a scrimmage and there are two directions the players can take. They can use it as proof that hard work overcomes ... or they can go the other direction. This makes it interesting and should provide the proof as to what type team this year's edition will be. As for varisty action, Alcoa scored five touchdowns as opposed to two by Oak Ridge.

I don't know much about this situation, but not knowing when you can or can not go out in pads? My four-year old son Noah told me a couple of weeks ago, "Daddy, bet you are happy they get to go out in pads on the 31st of July!"

Don't know what the previous start time for this scrimmage was, but I just received an e-mail from coach Stevens that it has been moved UP to 4 p.m. Just thought I would pass that along, and here's for an injury-free affair that makes both teams better in the long run.

I hate even try to evaluate a scrimmage because I know what coach Quarles and Stevens are really trying to accomplish. I will say this, if either team gets a case of the injury bug ... I think they may be in trouble. I know working on depth is a key for Oak Ridge and they appear to be moving closer to that. The Wildcats need another wide receiver to step up. They have a good tightend that will see some passes this season, which will be a big help I think. The running game needs a healthy Kevin Helton, who was not suited today and the offensive line was short handed as well. I liked seeing the sophomore monsters playing well and moving their feet. I thought Oak Ridge and Maryville was a push, if I was handicapping it. I remember last season watching these two scrimmage. After that affair, SOME Oak Ridge fans were really hitting the panic button because Maryville looked so much better. That wasn't the case this season and I believe both will have solid years. I didn't see AE vs. Seymour, but Oak Ridge had too much when they were playing Seymour. I liked the effort, and was impressed by a big running back they had, however.

Yeah, coach Stevens didn't think his team would come out of the dressing room to play Maryville, so he had some teams join the fray. Actually, I think it's a great idea for multiple-team scrimmages. Different styles, talent levels, offenses, defenses, I could go on ... it all helps your team in the long run.

Way down deep in my heart, I wish I could say I was shocked and surprised by all that has happened ... but I can't lie to myself.

Cookeville it is ... and Blackman will be part of that scrimmage.

Things going to be a bit differet ... add Austin-East and Seymour to the scrimmage festivities. All teams will get work in against one another.

The annual Oak Ridge/Maryville scrimmage will now be a four-team affair. Austin-East and Seymour will be attending, with all four teams getting work in against each other. The scrimmage will be Friday, Aug. 4 at 5:30 p.m. The games will take place at Ben Martin practice facility, next to Oak Ridge High School. For those attending, please remember the Oak Ridge football boosters take full advantage of the football fever. There is a small admission price and full concession stand running. It's not much to ask for all of us football addicts.

Alcoa looks to be the fourth team, but officials with the event say the Alcoa coach has changed his mind about ten dozen times. Guess we will see.

It's about that time.

Once central office is notified, the new coach should be named later this afternoon. He then plans on meeting with the team this evening.

Region 2-AAA will be at Sevier County.

I have Jill Prudden at 779-136 while at Oak Ridge.

Sad to say, but the news is not good for Revel Coffey. Appears he will be down three to four months after having surgery on his ankle Friday morning. Oak Ridge is still a solid and dangerous team, but his play on defense especially will be missed.

There are many factors, including I am sure, the lack of participation even during football season, which is widely regarded as the most popular prep sport. I am guessing some of the voters involved got tired of hearing the fact that their time and efforts were useless, beats me. I was upset that players of the week were cut out and I am very upset that they decided to cut out the basketball polls totally. Perhaps, the powers that be will re-vamp things for next year and do something to get voters more involved.

That photo looks familiar.

Heck, I don't really know ... perhaps the percentages of 5A teams is so much greater outside of the East. What I can report, is after MANY attempts to call, e-mail or just send smoke signals to, officials with the TSSAA, I got pretty much squat. I was told, that they can't give me the names of the nine people that make up the final selection committee. They also guaranteed me that there were three from each region. I would like to know what their regional boundries are. Anyway, I have whined about this for 12 years and nothing will ever change. I just love high school sports and a bunch of out-of-touch, greedy people will never put an end to that.

I just got to work with Coach Puryear one year, but what a heck of a nice guy. I really hope he lands on his feet, in a good situation.