MeritIII

Central should hold their own for the first round. Their back will get his yards and they could make it back for a rematch in a few weeks if they catch some breaks. Time will tell, but West will need to win as well. Anything can happen in the playoffs. No room for a bad game now. Congrats to the Rebels. Team looked solid on both sides of the ball and truly shut Central down after that first drive. Offense looked good throwing and running tonight. Let’s keep the momentum.

I hate playing in the IFL -we always end up losing to everybody in that league.

Thanks Stars. Have to admit that was a tough one. Maryville gave us everything we could ask for - which makes me laugh when people say you are “down”. It speaks volumes about your program. If one or two breaks go a different way, the outcome changes. Praying for 0, hope it’s not as bad as it looked. Mrs. Meritiii would definitely have enjoyed this season to date. Hope we can live up to the hype and finish it out. Did not pull for you tonight, but always pull for our fellow Rebels for the every other game. Your program has set the bar for where every other program wants to be. Glad Maryville and West will continue the series.

Non Region game for either team - so other than bragging rights - not a must win for either. Maryville has owned West (even took out our state championship team fairly easily). I will be pulling hard for West Friday night, but until they show they can climb the Mount Maryville, I think the mental edge goes Maryville. A coin toss decided by who makes the fewest mistakes and how the breaks fall. No different than the Alcoa game - one play away from a win or a loss (two year in a row really). Build experience, get better, stay healthy - build for the playoffs.

A+ In your trolling- but you probably won’t get many bites here. I’ll help you out - name the two teams that both Rebels lose to in a second round match up.

Thoughts on SC not punting late in the game deep in their own territory? Showing confidence in your O, lack or confidence in your D or punt team or something else? Easy to second guess - but I punt.

Objectives for Friday: 1. Score early and often 2. ZERO injuries 3. No ejections for stupidity 4. Build playtime for next years team 5. Shake hands and start prepping for the next game

West has played Farragut and Bearden - both 5-2 - with both only losing to West and Maryville.

We went back to back in state semi finals before Cottrell or Marshall scored their first varsity TD - what else you got? That said - loved the Seth and Nathan years.

I’m sure it’s not related to any improvements in the football team’s performance, but the rezone just happened to coincide with West’s first full group coming up through their youth program. Is there any correlation between strong youth programs and a teams performance in high school? That is of course assuming the players don’t get recruited off to play somewhere else. That group went from 2 4-6 seasons to back to back semi finals. It also certainly helped West to not meet Maryville in the playoffs every year.

So did we take all that talent from Bearden? If you haven’t noticed - most school zones shifted to the west - so we picked up mostly Bearden kids. Never knew Bearden was a football powerhouse. Central received several former West zoned kids in the rezone - how has that worked out for Central?

West has been around 71 years - and has won more games in the last 11-12 years than the previous 60 combined. Seems funny to me that they are now the benchmark of 5A that they either win state or they choked. West realizes we are new to the game. We have 1 state title in 71 years so don’t hold us to the standard.

West has had a history of struggling with Heritage, so I’m not ready to celebrate just yet. That’s why we play the games. Hope we can put them away early, avoid injuries and work on some experience for the backups. Ask me at halftime and I’ll let you know if that play is working out.

Nice win by the Tigers - you have at least 1 fan watching you from 5A in Knoxville, Been spending some time in Lafayette recently. Keep rolling -

What he said right there. If you thought that late hit call at Alcoa was bad - go back and watch that game. I still have no clue how they gave Oak Ridge that ball back under any interpretation of any known rule of football. That group of Rebels got robbed.

Thanks Stars. Good game - both teams answered the bell when momentum swung the other way. Just like last year 2 good teams battled - it came down to a few plays - and this year the plays broke our way. Funny - you win a game and suddenly we are the 5a state champs and we either win it or we choked. I’ll pass - lots of games left to play and several teams in 5A have the talent to send us home. As far as the Red Rebels, not looking forward to that fight - just want to play a solid 4 quarters - which we have never done. Maryville has a way of bringing teams back to reality.

I learn every weekend how good I am at predicting scores compliments of the MGM Sportsbook App. So I’ll just leave it as - we will show up and let’s see what happens.

All is well - hope everything is good with you and yours. We need to get together for dinner when the rebels play later this year.

I am going with - one af the two comments above will be true. Either West or Farragut will win tonight. Just not sure who shows up to play yet. I’ll hold off until tomorrow to make my prediction.

That’s a bold prediction from what I saw on Friday/Saturday night. Let’s see what they do with the ADs this week. Farragut looks solid and gave West all they could handle in last year’s shootout. I like our chances, but we have a lot to work on if the Rebels are to win this week.

Congratulations to Powell. Your defense owned us tonight. No excuses - we had no answer for the big man. Good luck bringing it home. Let’s do it again next year.

What he said.

Never said I was going against West to win - I like our chances when we play well. Especially if we could get some of those awesome paid off Knox County officials.

I feel better about West’s chances now based on which way the trolls are predicting.