gbo

I've seen photos of D-B's stadium (and it is a good looking venue). I've been to Tennessee High...yes, it's rundown, but it is unique; however, I will have to vote for MUS. It's not just concrete and aluminum bleachers. It was designed by an architect and its architecture is consistent with the rest of the structures on MUS's campus. It has a great lighting system. It's very impressive and their Polyturf field is icing on the cake. But, Louisville Trinity's new stadium trumps MUS's (I know it's Kentucky, but I couldn't resist.) I've heard from a Nashville architect that MBA is planning a new stadium and if I were at MBA (with its money) I would commission an architect to design something like Trinity's (bricked stadium, brick fence all the way around, skyboxes for the MBA alumni who are members of the Forbes 400, and Jumbotron).

Ahhh...well...51-7...at least it was close in the 1st quarter.

Great post mrob! We know what a cover 2 is, but what is a "Miami style" cover 2?

With regard to the officiating, I can hear the late Mr. Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood saying, "Can you say INCOMPETENT?"

Since TV stations are businesses that sell air time to advertisers I suspect that the reason they don't televise games of schools from the rural counties is that there are not enough businesses who want to advertise to those people who would watch two teams from a rural county with a small population play. It appears to me to be just a business decision. Businesses will reach more potential customers by sponsoring games between teams that are located in the Nashville Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) than by sponsoring games between schools outside the SMSA (can you say population density?). It's not unlike why the SEC got 15-year television contracts from CBS and ESPN and the Sun Belt Conference didn't. Both networks knew that they could make billions selling ad time to businesses who want to reach the SEC fan with their messages. You may want to organize a group of businesses in your area to buy air time on a television station to televise your biggest game in your county.

Congrats to MBA...I saw the replay in a sports bar last night. The team marching onto the field before kickoff holding the Tennessee state flag as a banner was a nice touch. This win shows that our best can compete on the national stage.

Sorry that I slapped you in the side of your head with what you perceived as "tawdry disparagement"! It's not TD, it's just reality; it's just the truth. Re-read my post and then read Redtwin's and Omahavol's posts. They are just describing the reality of the situation. I understand if you are hurt by the truth. But let's not let the facts get in the way of your fantasy. /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" />

I mostly shoot first and ask questions later! /popcorneater.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":popcorneater:" border="0" alt="popcorneater.gif" /> I fully realize the situation MHS is in...furthermore, you are putting words in my mouth when you write that I wrote that Maryville plays nobody. And no, your piety fails to gain you any points in this debate! /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> Furthermore, just because most of Maryville's opponent's have been unable to field strong teams most of their seasons is not being disrespectful. It's just reality; just calling spade a spade. Sorry you have trouble dealing with it. /blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blush:" border="0" alt="blush.gif" />

And fortunately,my opinion counts just as much as yours. Your post shows your lack of knowledge of how D-II schools function. Furthermore, I have watched Maryville play several times and, yes, they execute their game plan extremely well against who they have and choose to play. If I lived in Maryville I would want my sons to play for George Quarrels as I think he is an excellent coach with an excellent program, but it still does not change the fact that Maryville is a big fish in a small pond. Until it ventures beyond its relatively small neighborhood and plays top programs from large population centers where there are very large pools of football players which helps to create stronger and stronger competition (remember the Proverb, "iron sharpens iron") Murvul High will always be viewed as the best house in a small town! Have you ever seen the best houses in large population centers like those cities that have an NFL franchise? Same principal.

MUS Football Field and Stadium

I've grown weary over the past 15 years of certain schools in the smaller classifications beating up on inferior competition and crowing about how they are the best in the state. If you are 5A champ that is all you are is 5A champ. If you are 4A champ, that is all you are, the 4A champ. I don't care how many consecutive games you have won. But it is not all your fault for the predicament in which you find yourselves. The TSSAA (a state actor as we now know) bears much accountability here. Consider that actions speak louder than words. It appears to me that the actions of the TSSAA (which is controlled by the public schools) favor the public schools as it has voted the desires of majority of its constituents and under the banner of, "If you can't beat'em don't play them!" created a watered-down high school football classification system. They can deny that this is the reason for the public/private split. (...actions speak louder than words) and say it's because certain privates give financial aid (while the publics don't charge anything...what an advantage they have) but it was really because certain publics were tired of losing to certain privates. I heard former MBA head coach and now Phoenix Cardinals' QB coach Jeff Rutledge say that in 2005 he called 75 Tennessee public school football coaches to schedule a 10th game for Week Zero of the 2006 football season and couldn't get one because no one wanted to play MBA. So he went out of state and scheduled a team, Lexington Dunbar, in Lexington, KY. (...actions speak louder than words.) I.E. if you want to be the best you have to play the best...and he beat them on their field. I'm not a BA fan, but I will give them credit for this: Back in the seventies BA began whipping butt at the lowest level of TSSAA competition, and as the seasons progressed they upgraded (regardless of their enrollment) all the way to 5A winning state championships at every level. Public school coaches and adminstrators (former Riverdale principal, Hulon Watson, and former Riverdale head coach, Gary Rankin, were chief among them) could be heard crying all the way to Nashville. Then the split occured! (If you can't beat'em, legislate them out of the way!) Maryville High supporters, players and coaches can make all the excuses they want as to why they don't, won't, can't play top competition, but the fact remains they are 4A and they play a 4A schedule. (Then Gary Rankin had the gaul and nerve apply for the MBA head coaching position! I wonder how long the MBA board of trust considerd that piece of paper before sticking it in the round file?) Nashville David Lipscomb has kicked 2A and 3A butt for years in the public school division, yet they don't claim to be anything other than 3A champs! They know they don't play the big boys; just go to their games and watch their opponents and you can tell for yourselves. And they are a 2A school based on enrollment but the public school-controlled TSSAA Board of Control forces them to play up with a 1.8 multiplier, the highest multiplier in the country! This year, when they win their umpteenth "state championship" they will tell that it will be the 3A title, nothing more and nothing less. So, Maryville High, take a hint from Lipscomb. If you are the best in 4A, don't claim you're the best in the state until you start beating top competition from outside your geographical comfort zone. (You are just a big fish in a small pond!) You can criticize the MBAs and BAs all you want, but they have a history of playing and for the most part defeating top competition from not only the state of Tennessee but from the Southeast. Until you have done the same be careful how loud you and to whom you crow lest they think you are a fool. Now don't get RollRedRoll started on this because he will hit you square between the eyes with his records. He'll post something like this: Since the public/private split, the original Super 7 Conference teams (MUS, Christian Brothers, Father Ryan, MBA, Brentwood Academy, Baylor and McCallie) have a winning percentage against TSSAA 4A and 5A competition that is somewhere north of 80% (RRR has the exact percentage). Furthermore, he will post that, since the split, the D-II champion has never lost to a 4A or 5A opponent or eventual 4A or 5A champion in their D-II championship season. The conclusion many draw from this is that, in general, the D-II champion is the odds-on favorite to be able to honestly claim to to be the top team in the state. But, we don't really know that because the public school controlled TSSAA will not allow the 5A champ to play the D-II champ. I wonder why? Is it because they are afraid that the D-II champ will win most of the games over a 10-year period? And if they were to do so, so what? At least Tennessee will have a legitimate state champion. Right now, all we have is division champions who are labeled by the TSSAA as state champions. How lame is that? Again, actions speak louder than words. The TSSAA (public school principals, coaches and supporters) can talk all they want about fairness and crow about their umpteen dozen division er ah state championships, but until they structure it so that the 5A champ plays the D-II champ at the end of the season, and beats them, the claim of a 5A (much less a 4A) team of being the best in the state is mythical, at best. Meanwhile, to be the best, one still has to play the best (even the high school kids will tell you that) and those who have been doing so will continue to do so.

And neither of you have been to Memphis University School's new stadium. It's nicer than both of yours. It probably cost three to fives times as much, too! (Like I was told, "Few schools can raise the money that MUS can as long as Fred Smith's alive.")

Over the past five years I've come to the conclusion that the high school football writers at the Tennessean aren't the most energetic dudes around. If I were the sports editor of the Tennessean I would get those two knuckleheads out of the Tennessean break room and into the field. During two-a-days in August I would assign them to attend a different football practice each day. With two reporters each attending two practices a day for 10 days they could get a first hand look at 40 different teams in Middle Tennessee. Then they could attend scrimmages. I was at the Smyrna / MBA scrimmage as were a reporter and cameraman from the Nashville Fox Sports television affiliate. Why were we there? Because MBA won the the DII state championship last year going undefeated and Smyrna was the 5A champion. We could get a look at the 2008 versions of two of the top programs in the state going head to head. The Tennessean didn't publish anything. They do the bare minimum, just to get by each and every season on high school football while devoting entire pages each day to the Titans. I'd like to see just one article each day with some opinion as to how different high school teams are coming along and what the challenges are that their coaches are facing in building their teams.

After watching the BA/Hillsboro scrimmage and the MBA/Indy scrimmage I believe that BA will win this game by at least three TDs. Indy has a ways to go on both sides of the line. BA has several D1 players in the line. Indy does not have that kind of talent. All the BA QBs will need to do is to get 'em out of the huddle and get the play off in under 25 seconds, hand the ball off and be able to throw screen passes to win. BA's defense will, more than likely, take care of the rest. Two things are for sure about Indy, they will give a good effort and they will not quit.

From a graphics and layout standpoint it's first class, but from a substance standpoint, the high school section is chocked full of mistakes and inaccuracies; it's laughable.

How did the scrimmage go with the first teams??? Also which players stood out from both teams???

Excellent post on the Big Red...I'd like to add some observations and pass along some things I've been told on the receiving corps and special teams. From what I've seen and heard from the MBA coaches and railbirds, wide receivers coach Chris Sanders is having a HUGE impact. I'm told that Sanders has them running precise routes and teaching them the nuances of "selling" the defender one thing and doing another. Furthermore, his positive and high energy approach has motivated this unit into giving it 100% each time on field. It apparently paid big dividends in this year's Vandy 7-on-7 tourney as MBA was knocked out early in last year's tourney, but made it to the finals in this season's affair only to fall 20-10 to Lipscomb. Enroute to the finals, MBA posted some big wins against some very athletic defenses, including Memphis White Haven, where MBA receivers were able to get separation and yards after the catch. The receiving unit includes senior Hooper Paty and juniors William Tanner and Holden Mobley, among others. Paty and Mobley are 6'2" and 6'3" respectively with good hands. They are both strong and deceptively fast. Several in the MBA camp are very impressed with what Sanders has been able to do with junior William Tanner who in addition to having a knack for getting open can get yards after the catch. Add to this group 6'4" 240 lb. senior tight end Joseph Sloan, who is the leading returning receiver with a 20.9 yards per catch average and who is arguably the most productive tight end in DII (highly recruited Brentwood Academy tight end Thad McHaney posted 50 yards receiving on 5 catches for 1 TD vs. Sloan who had 9 receptions for 188 yards and 2 TDs). Both Sloan and Mobley are starters on the basketball team. In addition, senior runningback Patrick Crum (who was the starting tailback last season, until he suffered a season ending knee injury in the 2nd quarter of the first game and who frequently lines up in the slot) is who is a threat to take it to the house every time he has the ball. It remains to be seen though how strong Crum's surgically repaired knee will be. Add to these players returning senior QB Spencer Wise and MBA will present oppposing defensive coordinators with a number of threats this season. Last season, in spite of the fact that Hillsboro, Father Ryan (twice), Knox Webb and Brentwood Academy (twice) loaded up the box to stop MBA's rushing attack, MBA was still able pound its way to at 13-0 season. This season, defenses will have to play MBA honest, which should take some of the burden off of the MBA runningbacks, who will be smaller this year. Speaking of QB Spencer Wise, he is underrated in my opinion. He can run and pass as well as manage a game. According to statistics on www.hsfdatabase.com, last year's MBA squad rushed 554 times for 3,504 yards (3,377 net) and only attempted 158 passes. Wise attempted 142 of those and completed 77 for a completion percentage of 54% and an efficiency rating of 123.50 (Third best in DII last season). He threw only TWO interceptions in 13 games. Such a low turnover to completion ratio will keep you from losing a lot of football games. His best game, from a completion standpoint, was against Ravenwood where he went 9 for 9 including an 88-yard TD to Sloan in a 31-28 victory over the Raptors. His ability to evade the rush saw him sacked only 3 times during the 13 game season. Additionally, MBA's 4th down conversion ratio was 17 of 20, for an incredible 85%! Compare this to MBA's opponents who tallied a 24% 4th down conversion ratio. The 5'10" 180 lb Wise, who can get you a first down with his arm and his legs, is cool cat under pressure. MBA special teams are expected to be strong again this season led by state championship MVP kicker Andrew Fletcher. Over 90% of Fletcher's kickoffs were in the end zone last year forcing opponents to scrimmage from their own 20. This type of hidden yardage does not show on the stat sheets, but is integral to a team's success. Fletcher, a rising junior, was 4 for 4 in field goals in the state championship game. He was 12 of 17 on the season and was 100% inside the 40 yard line and 4 of 8 between the 40 and 50 yard lines. His long was 49 yards. He was MBA's second leading scorer with 77 points and was 44 of 45 in points after touchdowns. Many college teams don't have a kicker this good. In the kickoff return game, senior CB Reggie Ford returns. He had a 23.2 yard average last season with a long of 38 yards. It will be a different MBA team this season. I expect to see MBA and BA in the finals again this season and Fletcher's leg may again be the difference.

Caleb Simpson. A solid player and very good basketball player. I'm not a private hater in fact I always root for Lipscomb in their sports and division for football, basketball, and baseball. I am a realist. This class at Lipscomb is one of the most athletic classes DL has had not even counting Zach Rogers who did not play offense hardly at all in the last 7 on 7 game.

Let's face it--7on7 is not real football, so I would not go around and necessarily say that DL can play with the big boys like BA,MBA, and Hillsboro. The lines are just better and all these teams are bigger than DL. Also the head coach at DL doesn't like competition so he never will schedule a game vs these three teams.

Well the Pearl Cohn starters did beat the MBA 2nd team

It was not a tournament but really like a round robin. but I know MBA went 6-1 i am sure Maplewood was 7-0 or 6-1 but not really sure. These by far were the top two teams there.

As a former Riverdale football player (when I played MBA and Maryville weren't even on the high school football radar screen) I don't really care who would win between Maryville and MBA, because they are not going to play each other. But, with all humble prudence, I would caution the Maryville Nation not crow too loudly when one is top dog in a small geographical region (i.e. the Knoxville SMSA where the total population is less than 500,000 when the Nashville SMSA and the Memphis SMSA have populations somewhere north of 1.1 million each, not to mention the Atlanta SMSA) which generally provides for more and stronger competition. Furthermore, experiences have taught me that when one steps outside their own relatively small backyard to play they find that there are several other teams out there that have big boys who can run just as fast, hit just as hard and are very well coached, too. With all due respect to a very fine Maryville coach and football program, if Maryville wants to go to the "next level" it should play what will be in 2010 a 6A schedule and add to that schedule a game with a top program from another state each year and a game with a top D-II program each year and do this for the next five years. Play a Prattville, a Byrnes, a Trinity, a St. X, a Hoover, a Bolles, a Southhaven, or a Moeller each year for the next five years, then let's see if you can run the table. Add a Christian Brothers, an MUS, an MBA or a Brentwood Academy. Don't do this just one season, but every season. Otherwise, as it stands now, Maryville is just doing what Nashville David Lipscomb does in 3A, compiling a great record every year against mediocre competition. It makes for great Quarterback Club meetings and year-end highlight DVDs and year-end banquets, though. But at least Lipscomb fans have no delusions about being the best team in the state, just 3A. (It's not all Maryville's fault though; I think the TSSAA should shoulder part of the blame for the way is has sub-divided football in Tennessee. It's so watered down now that the next thing they'll probably do is give participation trophys like in T-ball and youth baseball and soccer. I wish we'd go back to 3A, 2A and 1A! Aah, but I digress...that's for another thread.) I challenge you, Maryville to rise above the TSSAA structure, to step up to 6A in 2010 and upgrade your "non-conference schedule" so that you can test yourself against the best the region has to offer and not just Knoxville area schools. Schedule a good team each year from the following: Louisville, Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis, Jacksonville, Charlotte and Birmingham over the next decade. Then play a top DII program every season. Win most of those games and a 6A crown, then come on here and crow! Then you would have really done something!

According to this morning's Tennessean: Montgomery Bell Academy is hosting 36 7-on-7 football games involving 10 area high schools on Friday. Games begin at 2:00 p.m. Participating teams are Centennial, Dickson County, Hillwood, Independence, Maplewood, MBA, McGavock, Pearl-Cohn, Smyrna and Stratford. I would love to be able to attend!