biglon68

BOOLA BOOLA! ROLL TRIBE!

I've seen the last couple Dobyns-Bennett vs South-Doyle games and physically they always have a dozen players who look athletically imposing. I think they definately have a good talent pool but no cohesion. It may be a case of trying to fit the players into set offense and defense schemes instead of changing the offense or defense year to year to utilize talant to its potential. I think several local teams are great at this. Oak Ridge, Dobyns-Bennett, Sevier County, Alcoa, Knox Central do a great job at this.

Chris Shiverdecker at Jefferson County! If he grows a little more he will be the best running back in East Tennessee since James "Littleman" Stewart.

Thought this is supposed to be the Top Ten In East Tennessee? Catholic? Coalfield? West? What's your definition of East Tennessee? Where's Dobyns-Bennett, Jefferson County, Tennessee High? Soddy-Daisy? Ooltewah? All five of these teams could easily wipe the field with your 3 thru 10 picks? Also I liked to see Maryville play the big boys in 5A. Dobyns-Bennett and Oak Ridge would bring all these Maryville fans back to reality fast! I respected the feats of Maryville when Ted Wilson was head coach and Tennessee Prep Football was only separated into three divisions instead of this stupid 8 division farce where we have all these state champions who would have been hard pressed to win the conference or even get a playoff birth under the old system!

Unless someone sneeks up on one of them, Dobyns-Bennett and Oak Ridge should meet in the third round of the playoffs. The winner of this game is the only seriously challenging game Riverdale will have. I predict the passing game of Dobyns-Bennett vs the Riverdale Defense will be the best matchup of the season in 5A. Roll Tribe Roll!

I not a Volunteer fan but hoped they would fair well this year. they have an excellent running back and fullback. The transfer of Lindholm dealt a blow it seems they can't recover from. Good luck Falcons, hope you win one!

Check out this article from Sports Illustrated regarding football recruiting in Tennessee in 2004: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/foot...atch/index.html

Riverdale - they just seem to get better, I thought the opening of Blackman and siegel and the startup of football at Eagleville would hurt them, not the case!

If Duran Ferguson can work on his speed he could be a solid D-1 prospect! He has the arm, a great field presence and is tough (not afraid to take a shot). His forty time at the Nike camp was a dismal 5.01. It doesn't matter if your as big as a D-1 defensive lineman if you can't outrun them! He is quicker than he was last year! Murphy Fair's Preseason All State QB's: 5A - Duran Ferguson, Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett 4A - Cade Thompson, Maryville 3A - Ty Evans, Lexington 2A - not listed 1A - Joseph Ruddle, Wayne County DII - Drew Hanks, Tipton Rosemark

I think this "out of state players don't bleed orange" theme in several posts on this site is crap. If you recruit quality kids who can take coaching and be molded into men who are loyal to the university and coaches, they will give just as much as a local kid to see Tennessee or any other top notched program succeed. Someone go tell Kevin Simon he's not an orange blooded UT Vol and see if you don't get his good leg where the sun don't shine! Most of the players mentioned in prior posts were in situations where it was better for them to go elsewere. Why would Chad Pennington want to sit on the bench and watch Peyton Manning play or Cooper Wallace sit on the bench and watch Jason Witten play. Alot of the Middle Tennessee kids, especially at the private schools are wealthy kids who moved here from somewhere else and don't "bleed orange" and secondly several of the big programs in the state have produced can't miss prospects who signed with UT and never panned out. I can think of several, but I don't like to bad mouth individuals. So when the UT Staff is trying to allocate the few scholarships available each year to meet personnel needs it's difficult to justify signing a local kid just because he is local and other SEC schools are recruiting him. I am a true Tennessee fan, yet I love to see local kids be successful even if the best place for them to play may be out of state. Johnny Majors never made an in home visit to Leroy Thompson (he did live almost 3 miles from campus!) where as Paterno came down and was not afraid to walk thru the projects to his front door! Can you blame him for signing with Penn State! Brent Collins, Todd Collins and Antonio London signed with other schools because of the pressure UT fans put on them and they were more comfortable going to Georgia and Alabama were they could just be a student athlete without everybody comparing them to Jack Reynolds, Steve Kiner and Jackie Walker! For the record Gerald Sensabaugh was offered by both Tennessee and Michigan to leave ETSU after his sophomore year but he is a solid kid who wanted to honor his commitment to his coach and university. An earlier post indicated Gerald was not recruited out of high school by UT, actually he did not qualify academically but worked hard at ETSU to put himself in a position where he could transfer to North Carolina.

I was a big Bill Bates fan, he was not an All-American in college. He was second-team All-Southeastern Conference his junior and senior seasons. In high school he was Class AAA All State his junior and senior seasons. He may have been honorable mention high school All-American in Street & Smith. 15 NFL seasons and 3 Super Bowl Rings "ain't" bad for an undrafted free agent who everyone said was too small and slow to play in the NFL!

Witten has potential to be great if he stays healthy. One of my favorite current NFL players! Al wilson is a tough dude! Love the intensity and leadership he brings to the game! Andy Kelly was great in high school and college, nice guy too(went to college with him). Some better quarterbacks from Tennessee are Bobby Dodd(Kingsport), Steve Spurrier(Johnson City), Steve Sloan(Cleveland), Stan Fritts(Oak Ridge), Kenton Evans(Memphis),Joey Clinkscales(Knoxville),Bill Wade(Nashville),Darrell Crawford(Kingsport) and Eric Locke(Murfreesboro). Who the heck is Andrew Beck? I'm from Kingsport and never heard of him! Sam Haynie(ETSU), Ralph Nelson (Tennessee) and Anthony Nelson (Virginia Tech) are the best lineman Sullivan South have produced. Old Sullivan High( consolidated into Sullivan South) produced two great lineman who went to ETSU: All-American End Hal Morrison(best non D-B player from Kingsport area) and Guard Wayne Peters.

Suffridge was a stud! I did not include him in my top 10 due to a short pro career, now I think he deserves to be there. Other great Tennesseans on that team were Ed Cifers an NFL All Pro from Kingsport and Bowden Wyatt HOF player and coach from Kingston.

Shelton Quarles is from Whites Creek H.S. I was not aware that John Hannah went to Baylor. Being a Cowboys fan as a kid two of my favorite players were D.D. Lewis (Knox Fulton, Miss St) and Bill Bates (Farragut, Tennessee). Does anyone remember Robert Shaw who played center for the Cowboys? Is he from Maryville?

Who's the greatest all-time football player to play his prep ball in Tennessee? Includes college and pro accomplishments. My top ten: 1. Doug Atkins - Humboldt (Tennessee) - Pro Football and College Hall of Fame 2. Reggie White - Chattanooga (Tennessee) - College HOF, Soon NFL HOF 3. Steve Spurrier - Johnson City (Florida) - '66 Heisman, College HOF 4. Bill Wade - Nashville (Vanderbilt) - #1 Draft Pick, 13 years NFL Star. 5. Ed Jones - Jackson (TN State) - #1 Draft Pick, All Pro 6. Leroy Thompson - Knoxville (Penn State) - #1 RB in nation SR YR, solid pro 7. Bob Cifers - Kingsport (Tennessee) - still holds NFL record 8. Todd Collins - Jefferson City (Carson Newman) -HS,College,Super Bowl Champ 9. Bob Johnson - Sparta (Tennessee) - All Pro, College HOF 10.Bobby Dodd - Kingsport (Tennessee) - 1st All Amer at TN, HOF player & coach I know I've overlooked alot of hometown heros. I think the top 5 are solid, the next five could be endless debate, so let's hear from you!

Let's set some parameters: The player must at least have been an All American in high school or college,or in the TSSAA or NCAA Hall of Fame or at least a solid NFL player. Who do you think was the best team ever in East Tennessee? My four nominations( no particular order): 1948 Dobyns-Bennett - Southern Champions - undeafeated, unscored on in regular season, Atlanta Marist scored 6 points on them in a bowl game on a busted play. 1958 Oak Ridge - National Champions 1972 Tennessee High - National Champions 1986 Austin East - Class AA State Champs, Leroy Thompson, Joe Fishback, Joey Smith all played in NFL, Von Reeves NFL free agent

I notice most of the posts are about guys who played the the last 20 years, don't forget the old timers: Bobby Cifers - Dobyns-Bennett - led the nation in scoring in both 1938 and 1939 (set national record in '39) Johnny Butler - Knox High or Knox Central Johnny Majors - Huntland Hal Littleford - Tennessee High Dixie Roberts - McMinnville Albert Davis, SR - Alcoa The best I ever played against was Leroy thompson at Austin-East and Todd Daggs at Tennessee High The best backfield I ever saw was Tullahoma in 1986 Maurice Shaw(RB,Ole Miss),Antonio London(FB,BAMA,NFL),Steve Mathews(QB-UT/Memphis State, NFL, Arena,XFL)

Albert Sr or Jr?

Did any of the idiots on here ever actually play football? I saw this game, it was a hard fought game between two class programs. D-B, Jeff Co and Oak Ridge are consistently the best 5A programs in East Tennessee. I'm proud of the how these programs represent their schools and hometowns. I'm glad my Indians won but Jeff County has a good team(better than the 2-2 record indicates) and should be a Top 10 team. Shiverdecker is impressive, may be the best back Jeff County has had since Thunderfoot Bales! Roll Tribe Roll!

Come on D-B fans! Bobby Dodd was great, but Bobby Cifers was the greatest player at D-B and the best in East Tennessee. Cifers was the national prep scoring champion in 1938 and 1939 ( breaking the national record in'39 that stood until 1953). He was the leading rusher at UT as a junior and would have been a front runner for the 1943 Heisman Trophy if the SEC had played football that year. His pro career was shorten by WWII but in the 4 years he was in the NFL he was a star. He lead the Lions in scoring in '46 and the Steelers in rushing in '48. He still holds the NFL record for the highest punting average in a single game! He was the first Tennessee prep player who was recruited nationwide and articles on him appeared in newpapers as far away as Chicago and LA. He was even featured in the Saturday Evening Post. The TSSAA elected him as the track athlete of the century because he won 10 different track titles( he actually did not even compete in track one season) during his career. Behind Cifers I rank Herman Hickman from Johnson City(played at Chattanooga Baylor) as second. He was an All american at UT, in the College Football Hall Of Fame and was a successful pro. I rank Steve Spurrier third. Honorable Mention: Ed Cifers(D-, Todd Daggs(Tennessee High), Rodney Wampler(Morristown East), Hal Littleford(Tennessee High), Cecil Puckett (D-, both Brent and Todd Collins(Jefferson County), Albert Davis(Alcoa), Hal Morrison(Sullivan), Leroy Thompson(Austin-East), Hal Miller(D-,Stan Fritts(Oak Ridge), Danny Spradlin(Maryville),D.D. Lewis(Knox Fulton),Bill Bates(Farragut),Mike Cofer and Terry Minor(Knox Rule), James Stewart(Morristown West);Randy Hall(Halls), Emmon Love(Oak Ridge). I know I left off a lot of big names but these are the guys that made opposing coaches change game plans.

About 6 months ago I saw an artilce where he was arrested for possession of a crack pipe outside a crack house during a raid in Tallahassee. The arresting officer was a former highschool teammate at Leon High School who recognized him.

I'm a UT grad and a big fan of both UT and Tennessee high school football. UT used to recruit big time in Tennessee. To get to the next level like Fulmer has tried to elevate the team, he concentrates on the top athletes in the country now. Tennessee usually has 5-6 top notch blue chippers and a dozen or so solid prospects. For those top 5 or 6 blue chips we are competing with every school in the SEC or the nation for them. I think we have done a good job. You cannot expect us to get every Leroy Thompson or Brent Collins every year. I would look at how successful all the "big fish that got away" actually were at other schools. Check out www.taca.net/allfbp.doc to see the members of the Tennessee teams for 1984 thru 1997 that played in the Tennessee/Kentucky All Star Game. Most of the big time players we lost to other SEC, Big 10 and ACC schools never actually played that much in college. The exceptions are guys like Chad Pennington(Knox Webb) or Mike Faulkerson(Dobyns-Bennett) who were not highly recruited but developed into good pro propects in college! Most people think that the local guy is go good and angry that UT does not recruit them. Alot of the All-State Players in Tennessee probably would not even start in some areas of the country. I would love to see a team of orange blood Tennesseans in Knoxville but I'd rather compete on the national level. Even the smaller schools like Memphis and Middle Tennessee State have more out of state players on the roster most of the time. I was excited when UT started making recruiting progress in CA,TX,IL and FL! Go Vols!

Duran Ferguson @ Dobyns-Bennett. He may the the best ever at D-B! That's saying something considering the legendary Boddy Dodd played QB there as well as two high school All-Americans Darrell Crawford(Georgia Tech) and Nick Showalter(Tennessee(played DE in college))! Looks like a defensive lineman - 6'3" 230lbs (compare to Jared Lorenzen at Kentucky). His uncle was an all conference OT at Marshall. He camped at Virginia Tech and Central Florida. Heard he also likes Florida and North Carolina.