McNine4MVP

You gotta love Shad turning into Larry Brown. There are just so many oddities about the moves he has made in the last year or so. If his daughters follow him to Blackman, that kind of paints his move in a "slightly" better light. Otherwise, he looks like a diva doing what he's done. To be honest, I feel bad for Bud Raikes and Smyrna in this deal. 1. He hired the guy at an extremely young age 2. Was more than patient with that man when they fell hard in the playoffs year after year (a couple of those playoff losses were bad, bad, bad) 3. Relented to give Shad an all star staff with Robbins and those guys 4. Catches lighting in a bottle (more like Sonny and Rod) and wins two state titles 5. Bailes when the cupboard would have had to be redeveloped to go spend time with his "family" 6. Then walks out after about 8 months to go coach against his alma mater After thinking about it, Shad should split whatever raise he got at Blackman between Sonny and Rod, if that isn't an NCAA violation. They got these perks for him, that's real talk.

Absolutely, Prayers for Bobby and his family.

For the first time EVER, this Region is an absolute toss up. I could see every team in the region, except for LaVergne, making a run at this thing. I just don't like what Smyrna did this offseason. Losing Shad was not a shock, but the replacement was. This guy might be a great coach, but it sure hasn't resulted in much on the field recently. They still have a lot of talent, but when you combine losing Robbins, Rod, Sonny, and Shad.........could be a 5-5 or 6-4 season on Almaville Road, unless their O-Line dominates people. Riverdale has become the enigma. Regular season producer, playoff disaster. Lots of O-Line losses and their backfield personnel has gotten progressively worse. I hear their young QB could be a star, but they look very green. They look 6-4 ish to me as well. Wilson Central seems to be the team that makes the most sense to finish first, but they lost some very good players. The McChurch kid was just a heck of a football player and did so many things for them. If they can get some decent QB play, they will win the Region, but that not so small fact has a huge question mark. Blackman probably has the best skill players in the Region, but they just haven't done it yet. They could finish first or last and I would not be surprised. Patton and some of the other older guys' leadership will determine how far this team goes. Michael Crocker is the HUGE X-factor here. If he gets his head right and focuses on what really matters, this team could go DEEP. Good gamble here on Wells part. Really like Jerry Jones picking up Pacman for 15 cents on the dollar (not in any way comparing Mike to Pac....but you see the point). Minimal risk (one year), potential high rewards (region championship). I have no confidence in Siegel, simply because they have had some talent recently, but their staff can't seem to put it all together. I think this is a put-up or shut-up year for that staff. This Region is wide open, and they have the talent level to finish third or so. Lebanon is another team that I just can't figure out. They could finish first or last too. One thing I noticed is the Maynard kid was severly underutilized last year. That kid reminds me of McChurch in that he can do everything really well. Oakland is intriguing too. I look for them to make a bounce back in the next two years, but I kind of think that this will not be the year. But they will ruin somebody's season. LaVergne is young, young, young. I really think Hester will be a great coach. I like his style of play and he knows how to utilize his athletes in space. But, I hope he learned his lesson last year in that you never leave your fate up to the leg of a 17 year old if you don't have to. He got conservative in the red zone twice last year (Lebanon and Smyrna) and it cost them dearly. That is a team that could have done serious playoff damage if they would have gotten in.

Look, I'm as hard on Metro coaching as anyone for on-field decisions.....i.e. playcalling (please throw away the Wing-T, LOL)! But I don't think any of you guys, outside of a few like WIP, RTB, WIP's dad, Moonwink, and a few others have any concept for the challenges that occur daily at any Metro schools. At some Metro schools, you're just happy to see a kid show up five straight days, due to a variety of issues. Some the student can control, some the student cannot. Schools like H'Ville and Gallatin have some inate advantages over many Metro schools in support levels, income, and "buy in" from the athletes. Its hard to tell a 15 year old who is the "man" of a single parent household whose mom works two jobs what to do, they can drown you out sometimes.

Let me add a second "Yes He Does" vote to Elrod's impact on Wilson Central's success. Trust me, that old man has forgotten more football than most people know! His absence contributed to their 2006 demise and equally to their 2007 success. Wilson Central had a better D in 2006 than they did in 2007, but only had 2 Dub's to show for it.

Hmmmmmm.....this is an interesting hire. I've always heard good things about Williams, but this seems to be a MAJOR step up for him. Raikes may have staked a small part of his legacy on this pick. There isn't far to climb, but you could fall off a cliff easy with this one.

I didn't even think about Crawford until now. He's a great choice, if they can get the compensation right. Brentwood is becoming a tough job again. Ravenwood's rise and BA's resurgence, along with the oncoming train that Centennial could be makes the Bruins a less than desirable job in some areas. I think the plum job is really going to be the Stewarts Creek job, whenever they break ground on it. I just love the location of that school. That might kill Smyrna and Blackman.

Butch, Luke, and Larry were three of the best players I ever played against.

I don't have any inside information on the job at SHS, but if I'm Raikes, I make one phone call over to Wilson Pike and ask Brian Rector if he's interested......nobody has done more with limited talent than Rector has.

Yep, You can't exactly call it the Good Ole Boy Network anymore, but the same basic principles still apply. There is a lot of dead weight coaching in Metro today due to that fact. All the while, a lot of the coaching talent runs off to the Private Schools and the outlying counties. And we wonder why Metro hasn't won a state hoops title in 28 years!! Nununu, Is Nollner still running that zone down 15 points with the superior athletic talent??

Is Reverend Jim gonna get his job back at Jonny O?

This Shad rumor has been out there for a while H'Ville. Everyone in Rutherford County has heard the MTCS rumor since the close of last season. Whether it happens or not, I don't know, but it sure is fishy that they have not filled that slot on Memorial Blvd yet. If I'm Smyrna, I put an all-out press on Rankin. There are some things I don't like about the guy, but he's a winner and runs a similar scheme. However, word on the street is that Ole Gary has his eyes on either the Siegel or Blackman job...........whichever one comes open first. Both of those jobs have a load of potential, but they can't get right. How many D-I players does Siegel need to be competitive??

I'm not a huge Wing-T fan, but it can be effective. To me, though, its the ultimate "mascara" offense. It covers up for weaknesses up front or a size differential. Wes Elrod at Wilson Central has always been masterful at this, but they run so many sets out of a Wing-T concept, that its more of a hybrid spread offense that made teams defend horizontally. And with personnel lacking in size, it makes perfect sense for him. This is where my rub with Riverdale comes in. The personnel Ron has had the past two years was perfectly suited to be a downhill I-formation run team. With those beasts he had up front, they could have coasted until the semifinals using that set. Iso left, Iso right, lead left, lead right, a little speed option, bootleg with a flat/go/backside drag concept, stretch......and that's all you needed. My high school coach would have been in heaven with that personnel. Instead, they decided to run trickeration with no stretch the field component and little dynamic edge speed, and it killed them in the end. Aydelott is a very good high school coach that I respect greatly, but I think he was in error when he changed what Rankin had done with success for ages. Now, without Spurlock, Lillenthal, and those other big boys, the Wing-T may make more sense, but he needs to retool that thing and go to more of what Wilson Central has done. Football is still about who blocks, tackles, and takes care of the football, but even down to the high school level, you are seeing that the best teams are able to run it and throw it. Like Ron Jaworski always says "Points come from the passing game". You control the game by running it, but as Sonny Gray, Rod Wilks, Brett Burnette, Zack Rogers, etc have proven.......it all goes better if you can throw it.

Good post, and you're exactly right on the ever-dangerous first time look at teams. But, on first glance, you would think Siegel was a slow walking team, but when you look at the stats, they average scoring more than anybody in the field. They did what they had to do last night to frustrate Antioch and pin them in. And to be honest, they won without an explosive game from anyone. This wasn't a Tyler Cutter 26-30 point night, a Kerry Hammonds 20+, or a Montori Hughes 17 & 24 board night (which I was on board saying had to happen...win some....lose some). The thing I see is that Ridgeway is so similar to Antioch, its scary. They don't shoot the ball well at all and if the points aren't coming in waves from transition, they aren't scoring. And I don't see Cutter throwing the ball all over the court against the press. Siegel understands spacing, and that could serve them well tonight. The thing that concerns me for Ridgeway in this game is how anemic their post players were against some not-so-good post players from Clarksville. They play like that against those bangers Siegel has and they could be in trouble. Hughes and Mitchell throw that 600lbs around down there and could push those leaner Ridgeway guys. Siegel, athletically, is probably the most underrated team in the field. Hammonds, Hughes, Gooch, Cutter, and those guys can get after it. I really think, if they can shoot 45% from the floor and stay around 12-13 turnovers, that they can win this game.

Crowder family or not, I tend to agree with that assessment. In Nollner's defense though, if that was a Crowder team, they would have gotten beat by a team like Brentwood in the regionals on that roller coaster ride that was his tenure at Antioch. Just goes to show that all coaches have their strengths and weaknesses.