Flash Gordon

Incredible game, congratulations to Maryville and Ravenwood for a championship game for the ages. First of all: what a devastating loss for Ravenwood. I don't know if I have ever seen a team deserve a state title win more and not get the victory. I can't help but feel empathy for their fans, players, and coaches and I know none of them.. I feel especially badly for their linemen and kicker for allowing the blocked field goal. The sting of that loss will never go away for Ravenwood. On the flip side, what a euphoric win for Maryville. Even for a program that has "been there, done that", the 2014 title will be special for them. They literally pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.

My predictions: 1. Maryville 2. Bearden 3. Heritage 4. Farragut 5. Hardin Valley 6. West 7. Lenoir City 8. William Blount

I saw Maryville play a few times last year and they were pretty much carried by Garrett and Edmiston, who both graduated. They may well be loaded as some have suggested but I wonder who will be their "go to" guy(s) this year? From what I saw last year, they will have a good core of solid players but I don't know if they have the standout type player(s) that are needed to be a highly ranked AAA team. I'm probably just not familiar enough with their roster.......Blackmon did look like he had great potential last year, but he is just a sophomore.

CAK may have something to say about that. The safer bet is that Maryville won't lose another game this year.

Great effort by both teams. Congrats to Maryville for the win. Alcoa has nothing to hang their heads about. I watched on tv and thought it was a very clean, well played game until Alcoa fell apart late. I am sure Greyrider will correct me if there was dirty playing by Alcoa, lol, but I didn't see any on tv.

I have never seen Lewis play but I would say that if Shaka Smart at VCU thinks he can play, then he must be a player. VCU has a tremendous program and Shaka Smart is one of the best young coaches in America.

Great comeback by East yesterday. Nick King is the real deal and his supporting cast made some big plays around him down the stretch. I don't think Science Hill could have possibly played any better than they did yesterday and it still wasn't enough, although the 10 point final differential does not reflect at all how well Science Hill played. I like East to win it tonight...... they could have easily been eliminated in each of the first two rounds, yet won. They are beginning to look like that proverbial team of destiny. Southwind and Ridgeway obviously had great seasons. However, while having great talent is necessary, it is not sufficiently enough to win the AAA state title in Tennessee. In addition to talent it takes great team chemistry, team play, breaks (lucky bounces, good draws, etc.), and heroics often coming from unsung players, to walk away with the gold ball. If you just looked at who had the better prospects for recruiting, there would be no reason to play the game.

Doesn't matter what you think, Fulton has the two AA gold balls in their trophy case.... that is all that matters. If West Tennessee basketball is as good as you say it is, certainly someone else should have stepped up and beat Fulton those two years, correct? I guess West Tennessee just decided to take those two years off from basketball, lol. Just swallow your West Tennessee pride and give Fulton credit for their accomplishments.

If High gets a scholarship offer from UT, good for him..... that doesn't take anything away from Robinette because he didn't get offered by UT. He is getting his chance to play college football so no need to feel sorry for him..... after all, he is getting a free education at Vanderbilt, I would echo what other folks have said..... IMO, High is the better pure passer, Robinette is the better runner. Totally different style of players, but you can't argue with their success. Robinette reminds me of Phillips that played a few years back at Sullivan South and signed with Wisconsin whereas High is more like a Brent Burnette style pocket passer style qb. If it were me, I would choose High if I were running a pro style offense and Robinette if I were running the spread option style offense.

Yeah Pepvol, those are disrespectful posts which fall in the coacht loudmouth category I mentioned earlier. My point was that the vast majority of football fans have tremendous respect for the Maryville HS program, more so than any other program in the state in my opinion. I definitely think that while there are some Maryville haters out there who are jealous of all the success, if you took a survey of knowledgeable fans all through the state, Maryville would be the program picked as the best..... at least that is what I hear when I talk high school football with others who aren't Maryville fans.

Good question..... I don't know of any program in TN that gets the respect that Maryville does. It is pretty much universal. I think it goes back to their days in 5A when a few loudmouths on Coacht claimed that they couldn't be successful in 6A. I guess some Maryville fans took offense and thought that these few loudmouths represented the prevailing attitude about Maryville football. I would say that Maryville is the most respected program in the state and rightfully so.

My predicted order of finish: 1) West 2) Bearden 3) Farragut 4) Lenoir City 5) Maryville 6) Catholic 7) Heritage 8) William Blount Just my opinion.....West should be good but outside shooting is a question mark, Bearden is a solid # 2, 3 thru 6 could go any number of ways, Heritage and WB will battle it out for 7 and 8. I think the district will be down overall. I don't see any powerhouse teams like there have been the last 5 or 6 years that have been capable of playing with anybody in the state.

There is no question that this is not the same ole Lenoir City that Maryville has routinely destroyed over the years. The guys you mentioned are all great athletes and Lenoir City is indeed much improved. With that said, with or without Robinette, I think Maryville will win by at least 3-4 touchdowns. This is a tremendous Maryville team, even by their high standards. They are way more than a one man team.

Obviously, a dual threat qb like Robinette will be missed but Maryville has won with both D1 and lesser physically talented starting quarterbacks over the years. I would say that whoever wins the qb job next year will do fine. Remember, with explosive running backs like Prevo and Shinsky coming back, Maryville's qb will not need to put up the kind of stats that Patton Robinette has.

I think the SH fans are entitled to talk a little after beating a traditionally strong program like Austin East by 34 points. Also, scrimmage vs. Carter doesn't count on record, victory vs. AE does.