mbdfan

Murphy's youth league teams rarely are anything special, a lot of Murphy's best athletes don't even start playing until JV level. Youth league literally means nothing

I know it wasn't really South Pitt posters talking all that smack, so to you guys I say good game and good luck on the rest of your season. I wish these two could have played the last 15 years, probably some awesome games in there. As far as Basin goes they just need to thank their lucky stars that they don't play Murphy. Being totally honest they'd have about the same record as Andrews has against Murphy over the last 40 years (1 win) if they weren't too chickens#%! to play.

Probably will now that Laney is out for the season with a broken leg. A shame because they were building some real momentum. South Pitt had some athletes and talent but I was expecting much much more after all talk on here to be completely honest. I truly dont think they want any part of a good Murphy team.

I'm just going to keep it 100, this is easily the worst Murphy team in 16 years talent wise. I hope given all the bluster and bravado in this thread from some that this is way below South Pitt's normal level because a standard Murphy team would absolutely drag the bunch I've saw tonight.

Sounds like Murphy's all conference center and their starting fullback/outside linebacker are out tonight with injuries suffered in practice this week. A very tough game just got that much tougher. Murphy doesn't have the depth to cover those kind of losses this season.

South Pitt reminds me quite a bit of a 1A North Carolina team that Murphy has played several times over the years, Mount Airy. Mount Airy holds a 3-2 edge over Murphy in their 5 meetings.

Well I'd say the '86 and '87 Murphy teams that had 5 D1 signees, including the Gatorade national high school player of the year and future NFL All Pro wide receiver along with an All ACC offensive lineman would have something to say about that. I think it's safe to assume that Murphy team would be just fine talent wise against any public 1A TN that's been fielded. Look I'm not going to get into a pissing contest though, back to the matter at hand. Bottomline both are historic programs in their state and although Murphy doesnt remotely have the talent and athletes they once had, I think they'll still show up and give South Pitt a decent game Friday. I just wish they could have played before the pipeline of talent dried up here.

Wrong. Swain won 1AA in 2011 and Murphy was in the 1AA regional final in 2005 and 2017 a few of the years they were 1AA. And saying TN 1A has more athletes is just flat out wrong. The SMC is a sliver of the 1A pie, once you get past Asheville the central and eastern part of the state are totally different demographically. I don't want to make this about race but North Carolina has way more black people than the state of Tennessee, Tennessee 1A doesn't have more "athletes", you are basing that on nothing but assumptions. I've actually watched many of the Tennessee state football title games over the last decade and your statement doesn't line up to reality, sorry. TN and NC 1A are similar at the top in terms of team strength and talent. The difference is North Carolina is deeper, more teams and more good teams. But you can expect that when North Carolina has a lot more schools and people than the state of Tennessee.

Any of the Murphy teams from '08 to '20 could have competed with SP and some of those a lot more than just compete, if the two schools had played every year during that stretch no doubt Murphy would have some wins in there and the same obviously goes for South Pitt. It would've been a great series, it's really unfortunate the two waited this long to get together but I don't think that's a coincidence either. As far as last season goes Murphy had enough talent to get to at least the regional title game if not the state title game in my opinion and with the previous coaching staff they probably would have, but they really underperformed. I've talked to knowledgeable folks associated with other teams in our conference, including one rival coach that agreed Murphy definitely had the most talent in the conference last season but didn't make the most of it. Now this year? the talent just isn't there this season for Murphy compared to years past and next year will be even worse in that respect.

I wish it could've happened any time between 2008 and 2020 when Murphy was pumping out really talented team after really talented team virtually every season, to go along with excellent coaching. It saddens me that South Pitt won't get to know what a real Murphy team was all about.

Murphy has a couple of young assistant coaches that have potential and are good guys. Also I don't want it sound like I'm hating on Watson, I'm not. Watson knows football, he was/is a good offensive coordinator. But he just doesn't have the mindset or leadership qualities especially in terms of discipline to be the head man, the CEO, in my honest opinion. He also doesn't have anywhere near the staff Gentry did. When Gentry retired so did Murphy's longtime line coach (which has been a huge blow) and Murphy's long time d-coordinator left for a job in Georgia (another huge blow) those two were two of the best assistant coaches in NC 1A football. Those losses hurt just as much if not more than the loss of Gentry. Watson was dealt a rough hand to be fair to the guy.

Murphy has had teams that could have matched up athlete wise with this SP team and have beat teams with more speed and athletes than South Pitt will put on the field Friday in the past (Albemarle, Mountain Island, Plymouth, etc.) but that's irrelevant as far as Friday goes, this isn't those Murphy teams. With that said I think Murphy could keep things interesting Friday for a bit with their size upfront and the power run game, I think in the end South Pitt's talent and athlete advantage wins out. Murphy will likely struggle on D, this is one of the weakest secondaries Murphy has ever fielded and Murphy is deficient at middle linebacker, too much youth and a lack of speed.

Your Hayesville family is correct, this Murphy team lacks the skill talent and speed of past iterations and doesn't have the same level of coaching either. Murphy just doesn't have the same caliber of athletes coming through the pipeline these days and when you couple that with clear question marks with parts of the coaching staff you're left with what is soon to be a shell of the program of yesteryear I'm afraid.