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.

I'm totally shocked Oak Ridge made it to the 6A semifinals. Got to give them credit but Maryville will be a big favorite at home. If they play their normal game, the Rebels should win easily.

I pretty much agree with your assessment. Bearden, West, and Catholic on paper based on past results are clearly the top 3 teams. I think 4 thru 7 could end up in any order with Heritage being the clear # 8. It will be interesting to watch Farragut and Maryville this year. Last year both teams were mediocre by their standards. I suspect both teams will be back in contention soon but I don't know about this coming year.

Regarding the TV announcers last night, I have the following opinions: Packer-very annoying, anti-Maryville bias very obvious,could be a decent announcer if he didn't try to be a comedian all the time, Price brings out the worst in him. Price- the worst of the bunch in my opinion..... his calling out of the Bearden receiver for failing to make the leaping grab on the ball Romberg intercepted was despicable because the kid gave a great effort on that play.... at least Packer put Price in his place when he said that Harold Carmichael might have made the grab ( for the younger crowd, Carmichael was a great NFL receiver who was 6-8). Some criticism of mental errors is ok but I think Price is WAY too critical of physical mistakes and shortcomings of high school players. He needs to back off and remember very few of the players will ever play college ball. Fair- I like Terry as an announcer... he is well spoken and very objective and fair in his analysis. I think he would be much better if he were working with guys who didn't want to clown around all the time. Harrington- She does a pretty good job with the sideline stuff.... don't hold her blondness against her because she actually does a good job, imo.

My thoughts on the game: 1. Super high school game..... actually one of the few times the Alcoa/Maryville game actually lived up to the hype. Several times in the recent past, there was enormous hype coming into the game and then the game wasn't very competitive. 2. Complaints about officiating are way off the mark. I thought it was very well officiated. The only truly obvious missed call was the fumble in the first quarter and I've seen NFL officals miss that kind of call at game speed only to be proven wrong by slow motion replay. 3. I would like to see what kind of numbers Isom of Alcoa would put up if he played in a throwing system like Maryville's. That kid is an amazing looking high school athlete. GQ would get that kid 8 to 10 touches a game if he played for Maryville. I know they won't, but if they wanted to, Alcoa could go the rest of the year without throwing a pass and still wipe out every team they played. Isom will prove this year that stats don't always tell the tale about how good of a player you are.

Admittedly early, but my fearless preseason forecast for D4AAA hoops this coming year is as follows: 1. Bearden 2. Catholic 3. West 4. Farragut 5. Maryville 6. William Blount 7. Lenoir City 8. Heritage

Luckily, the TSSAA enforces age rules. If they didn't, Chris Jones would probably be back at Melrose next year playing as a 20 year old senior, if reports of his age are indeed correct. Jones is certainly a fine talent but it sure helps also to be older than the players you are playing against.

I agree with you about West being inconsistent but I think they made some noise last year in the playoffs.... after all, they did make it to the substate which is pretty darn good, imo. I think West will be even better this year. I think Bearden, West, and Catholic will be the clear top tier of the district, Maryville & Farragut will be the middle tier and LC, WB, and Heritage the bottom tier. As for Maryville... they were 14-13 last year, which was their worst record in a while and the first time they didn't make the regional tourney in many years, probably since sometime back in the 1990's. I would think they would be better but it is going to be very tough for them to crack the top three of the district.

You are in the minority if you don't think Bearden will be a legitimate contender next year. They may not be the #1 favorite but they definitely should be on a very, very short list of contenders. It's not like Melrose beat them by 40.... Bearden played them on pretty even terms for most of the game. Memphis teams are good, but not invincible.

As usual, Bearden will likely be the top dog again in AAA in the Knoxville area. Catholic and West should be pretty good AAA teams as well in Knoxville. In upper ET, Science Hill has the potential to be very good. They have one of the best prospects from that area in a while in 6-7 Shannon Hale, who will be a sophomore next year. Hale has the potential to be a bigtime player if he continues to develop. Science Hill also has a very good group of young guards. I don't know if they can hang with the Memphis juggernauts, but Bearden and Science Hill will probably match up with them better than anyone else can in ET.

Kinda funny watching Melrose and White Station whining about the officiating. While I am not there, I for one am glad to hear the refs are calling it tight. Memphis teams, or anyone else for that matter, should not be allowed to hand check and body opponents all over the floor. Fouls are fouls. Basketball should be a game of finesse, not bully ball. Good, intelligent well coached teams adjust to the officiating and don't question the officials' integrity and competency. Go back and watch some highlights of the NBA Finals games between the Lakers and Celtics in the 1980's...... those games were very tightly called compared to today's game, yet that was basketball at its very best. Kudos to the refs for calling fouls..... if the stars foul out, so be it.