Sugarcane

I did not think Obama took office until January /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

Canefan.....we have done this ALL season on a consistent basis regardless of the weather or competition level, and for the most part been able to overcome it because of superior talent.....but you see what happens when you play teams with equal or better talent like Fulton and Greeneville you get blown out. Hatchers offense is one that is effective but is a high risk because of all the misdirection and pitches and takes a great deal of dicipline and concentration....something that this team is lacking in despite quite a bit of talent at most positions IMO.

LOL Ain't that the truth /rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" /> Hey it would make John Eiskamp happy /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

I will miss the Devils as a rival....however the way the Hispanic population is multipling in Hamblen County there may be new rivals in the future....Morristown North & Morristown South!!

Should be a good game ....but if East expects to win they better eliminate the turnovers and mistakes it will beat you every time. BTW who is the home team this year?

/roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" /> /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" /> /roflol.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":roflol:" border="0" alt="roflol.gif" />

It was Chavez Francisco, and he is NOT hispanic. Yes they are allowed to play, but very few do. Most are more suited to play soccer than football.

I realize the buck stops with the coaches in particular the head coach, but unless they ate some stupid pills over the summer this is the same group of coaches that you and most parents...fans were prasing one year ago. I have seen the same thing happen far too many times down through the years. Just recently coach Smith comes in inherits a ton of talent goes 8-3 and everybody is singing his praises. Most of that talent graduates they return to a sub .500 team and he has suddenly lost his ability to coach. Kinda like Randy Sanders took the brunt of the blame while at Tennessee, but look what he has done at Kentucky. Having a Woodson at QB with athletes around him can make you look pretty good as a coach. I don't pretend to know what the problem is, but assume it is a combination of things. If you don't support the coaches then you are not supporting the TEAM, which is what they need at this time or you could see things go from bad to worse.

EASTFAN, sometimes the line got too many people to block. When teams put 9-10 in the box it's tough regardless of how much push you get.

Sometimes the more you change personel, the worse it gets, and you have to realize at the high school level at least you got to play who you got. This years defense is probably the best in recent memory, but spend way too much time on the field. In years past the Canes have been blessed with outstanding offenses but struggled defensively. The trick to having that great year is putting both a good offense and defense out there at the same time, and sometimes no matter how many changes you make it simply is not there, whether it be coach Hatcher, or Bear Bryant. They should still have enough to beat the Fighting Cocks.

Injuries have definately hurt East on BOTH sides of the ball. Whether people want to admit it or not losing Dockery hurt, although it was his own doing and you can't blame Hatcher for his stance, but he had a lot of talent. I think on offense most teams would struggle, and tend to have turnovers when you lose both your starting QB, and Center, the only two players that handle the ball every play. I think they have lived up to expectations, considering the injuries. We had two pre-season all-staters, and the Canes have lost both of them. I think they have had a harder time replacing Brad Ramsey (last years starting QB) than they expected as well. Howell may be just as gifted an athlete as Ramsey, but he is not there yet as a QB. You can run 4.5 40's and throw the ball 65 yards in the air, but if you lack touch on your passes, and have not yet had the experience to avoid poor decisions your offense will struggle. Provided the Canes avoid further injuries, they will be good enough to win a game or maybe two come playoff time, but I really think they are one year off from being the team most Cane fans expected this year. Whomever avoids the turnovers, and controls the field position should win. I think it will be a close game, but knowing how these series go it could be a blow-out by either team as well. Canes by 7. /blush.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blush:" border="0" alt="blush.gif" />

Part of the struggle is the fact that when you only pass 5 to 8 times per game and sometimes less than that, it is very hard to get in rhythm, or to develop the timing necessary to be consistent in the pass game, and try as you may you cannot totally reproduce game atmosphere in practice.

Before the injury bug bit the Canes, I would have said East by two Td's. Right now it's a toss up. Coach Hatcher's offense does not rely on a great deal of passing, but if the Canes expect to beat a good team they HAVE to be able to at least pass a little. Right now they would have a hard time completing a pass vs a team of maniquins, and it is hard to run on 9 in the box regardless of how talented you are.

Crow don't taste that bad if it is fixed right Our DB's are young and will only get better!!!

He may not have, but you also got to give coach Seals a little credit as well. He had a pretty good game plan fron the defensive side as well. Some people on this board said South would exploit our pass defense. I guess they were wrong

OK BIGR35, I'll be the first, and you can be the second!! I don't know if transformed is the word, but turned around is. GO CANES!!!

The past two years freshman teams have been two of the best back to back talent wise in recent memory. Freshman teams record does not always = sucess at the varsity level, but you don't have to watch this years freshman team long to see that Hatcher has a ton of young talent coming his way. As you know the East-West rivalry has flip-flopped back and forth in the past. West has had a long run of success, but the worm very well could turn in the next few years. I am not your typical Cane fan in the fact that I wish West well when they are not playing the Canes. I wish they would win em all every year except two close losses to the Canes one regular season, and one in the playoffs. However we all know it is not a perfect world.

Well to answer your question I was born in the 40's which puts me somewhat older than you. I have been a Cane fan since they became the Canes. This means I was in the stands and supporting the Canes from the time of the 69 state champs with Walt Bragg, Marshall Mills, Ken Rucker, and Benny Denton, till the present. I was in the stands when you played as well 72, so I hope that answers your question. As for your other statement about transforming a team it all depends on your definition of transformed. Before I jump on the bandwagon I would like to see how he handles adversity. As the old saying goes don't count your chickens before they hatch. Just my 2 cents worth.

Canefan72, I have been a Cane fan long before you were a Cane player, and I am not anti-Hatcher, but we will see how well they do next year. I hope the Canes are transformed and are consistently at the top, but to say he has done it in one year, and by himself is a stretch. His offense is also a team thing. The QB is the trigger man and will be the hardest to replace, because everything starts with him, but to say only three starters are a true factor in the production of points is a slap in the face of the other 8. It takes all 11 working together. Turner may very well be an outstanding QB, but if he is an immediate success it would be an exception. Palazzola struggled his first year, then broke most single season school records that had stood since the years of Sanders, and the Cole brothers in his second. Ramsey struggled his first year as well, then blossomed into the best QB in the IMAC in his second year. Both were very gifted physically but QB is a position that takes some time, and experience to be sucessful at regardless of how good an athlete you are. Go Canes!!!

Lets see what he does the next two years, before we say he has transformed the program quickly. He has done a good job, however expectations were high because most people who are close to the program thought we had a lot of talent and would have been very competitive regardless of who the coach was. Coach Seals told me long before anyone had been hired that they would be very good in his opinion and could challenge West this year for the IMAC championship. Remember as well in 2003 when coach Smith was hired that he also inherited a very talented team that finished 7-3 and people were saying the same things about him. He lost several key players to graduation especially on the offensive side and the record slipped to the point that he was not rehired. At this point while he has done a commendable job I would not say he has transformed the team until he has done as well or better a couple more years.

Barb, I'm not canefan72 but ya got to admit that the pizza distracting the linemen thing was pretty funny. I've know a few that would have happend to. Speaking of war stories and basketball I can go way back to the time of the famous, or should I say the infamous Tank Black. Do you remember when the Green Devils had five colors playing for their boys basketball team? In addition to Black I think they were a White, Gray, Brown and Green, but there might have been a Blue as well. It drove the radio announcers crazy. Black to Brown over to White to Gray who fires to Green for the lay up. I can only remember three Cane QB's that have gone on to play college football, but I am suffering from old timers disease. Of course Randy Sanders ( Tennessee), and Charles Cole ( Furman ), both from the 80's. The only other one that comes to mind is Jared Palazolla (Concord University ) but that was more recently. Steve Ailey was good as well, but that was the late 60's when East won the state championship.

This game reminded me alot of a game about three years back, except with a different outcome. Greenville looses their starting Qb the week of the game and some kid named Lollar starts. He set back in the shotgun and ran draw play after draw play and did just enough passing to keep the Cane defense honest. The Cane defense looked much like it did last night and seemed unprepared for the change which is understandable. It is sometimes hard to prepare when you have change and don't know what is coming at you. The Devils on the other hand did much like they did last night. Other players picked up their game and the rest rallied around the new QB. The Devils shot themselves in the foot on the opening drive when the had a 1st and goal at the 2 and had to settle for a 30 yard FG. Tough loss for the Devils I guess that puts them out of the playoff picture, but a good win for the Canes on the road against a fired up Devil team on a night when they did not play as well as they have in the past few weeks.

Good points. Rines is a good coach, but so was coach Tom Griffin, now at Carson Newman. Hope Rines stays around to continue building the program. Football has to do the same. Problem is their revolving door policy of coaches. No coach has been at the school recently long enough to turn the program around. You do not do it overnight in most cases unless you are blessed with an enormous amount of good athletes at the same time. It is also not just the head man, but the assistants are also important. When you change head coaches the assistants are also often replaced. You can't build with constant change. BTW I am a Cane fan but also realistic. I'll say 28-21 West, but hope I'm wrong. Hopefully no more injuries. Those last week were scary.

You guys got to overlook WaCoJaCo, he ain't been right in the head since his singing mule died.

The Canes are indeed fortunate to have kept coach Seals. He has a good mind for the game is enthusiastic and is a no nonsense coach with some dicipline. The key to the Karns victory was Seals defense completly shutting down the Beavers in the second half, giving the offense the opportunity to get it done, and of course the big plays from Dockery. Coach Hatcher has also instilled more dicipline in the program which it sorely needed, but time will tell if he is the man to get the program back to competing against West year in and year out. In Brad's defense of completing zero passes against Karns when you only throw the ball 5 times it is hard to get into sync, not only as a QB but as a receiver as well. Brad is as dangerous with his feet as he is with his arm as he is faster than most give him credit for, but they have to be able to pass as well as throw against the best teams.