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pking34

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Everything posted by pking34

  1. In all justice, the latest FB coach is a VERY GOOD Track coach (coached Stratford to a TSSAA Track title despite Stratford not having a track) who took the Football job out of necessity when the new HC Stratford hired post-Jason Smith left the job before coaching his first game.
  2. Cane Ridge is (by far) the NEWEST Metro football stadium, and I'm going to guess the seating capacity (around 1200 on the home side and around 600-800 on the visitor side------ rough guesses from my one visit there) is a reflection of the current status of Metro football as a fan attraction. Most of the Metro stadiums were built to accomodate the crowds that came out to watch Metro HS football games 30-40 years ago. This is the one Metro stadium that was built to service the numbers of fans that come to Metro football games NOW.
  3. In the case of Coach Pitts, his background has been coaching in small-town environments, so i was always a little uneasy about what kind of fit he'd be as the HC of a "city school" such as Stratford. In the end, he returned to his comfort zone. I wondered what was going on when i saw that for the first time in a number of years, Stratford didn't participate in the Music City 7 on 7 at Vanderbilt, where they'd stunned a lot of folks last year with 5 first-day victories. LET'S TALK ABOUT COACH HERRELL. Herrell has already Coached a State Title Team at Stratford--- THE TRACK TEAM. AT A SCHOOL THAT CURRENTLY DOESN'T HAVE A TRACK. Does that success translate to football, which is a very different animal? We'll see, but Coach Herrell has already shown he knows how to successfully coach a team through an adverse situation to a successful outcome. that's an important attribute to have at Stratford. Better times are ahead for the Spartans----- the latest Metro budget includes 20 MILLION DOLLARS for renovations at Stratford, and a decent chunk of that money will go to improvements in athletic facilities. There's a rainbow behind those clouds.
  4. Just curious if any of you have been to the Football Stadium at Cane Ridge HS in Antioch and what your impressions of it were? Also, what's the approximate seating capacity there???????
  5. You know, I don't live in Maryville or claim to be a Maryville fan (I might know a half-dozen Blount Countians, tops), but it sounds like I have a higher opinion of the QB that led your team to a TSSAA title and was named Gatorade Player of The Year in Tennessee THAN YOU DO----------------- I personally think Robinette will become a very good SEC Quarterback at VU, because he has the talent and will be highly motivated to work hard and continuously improve. And yes, I don't think "greasy Franklin" (is that shot because Franklin's black?) would have "run off half the team to sign Kiel" once Robinette was enrolled at VU------- or even before.
  6. Think you meant to say STEVE SLOAN (Spurrier didn't become a HC till the late 80's at Duke). And VU won that game (Sloan's first big win). Do you remember if the PA announcer advised fans to hold the noise down when VU had the ball or when Georgia had the ball? i could see that when VU had the ball (makes hearing the snap count easier). If he was saying that when Georgia had the ball and I were the VU brass, there'd be a new PA announcer next game.
  7. The Maryland coaching change didn't work out well for O'Brien, a very good pro-style pocket passer who isn't as effective in a spread type attack that requires a QB who can run well. O'Brien will actually graduate from Maryland after this semester----- with 2 years of eligibility left. Franklin was O'Brien's OC and was who recruited O'Brien to Maryland. And for the record, "lil ol Vandy" won 4 more games in 2011 than "the big powerhouse Maryland". Edsall (Maryland HC), BTW, refuses to grant releases for players transferring from Maryland to transfer to Vanderbilt (a real b--ch move, IMO, because he'll release them to any other SEC school), so I now doubt O'Brien ends up at VU. Vanderbilt will probably sign a QB in every class, as most CFB programs do. For the benefit of anyone who doubts VU's commitment to Patton Robinette, Gunner Kiel (America's #1 ranked QB recruit in the class of 2012) contacted Vanderbilt when he changed his mind about going to LSU (Vanderbilt had been one of his 3 finalists), and the VU staff informed him that VU had signed their 2012 QB (Robinette) and that their offer to Kiel was no longer on the table. Kiel than signed with and enrolled at Notre Dame. That's commitment to a quality Tennessee QB and quality Tennessee kid, and whether you're a Vanderbilt fan, Tennessee fan, MTSU fan, or Memphis fan, that sort of commitment deserves respect.
  8. Rivals has Mobley as a 5.6 3-star (middle range 3-star recruit), which is, BTW, the same ranking as Patton Robinette and has him in the 20-25 region of Tennessee's top 25. Let's keep something in mind----- half of Alabama's class are 3-star players, and Alabama has the #1 rated recruiting class in the country. Don't think it's the star rating as 2 of Tennessee's 3 in-state commits are 2-stars (although one of those is a kicker).
  9. Fabulous letter----- I liked it so much I sent out a link to this topic to all the fans on the Nashville Storm Facebook Fan Site (which is over 11,000 folks).
  10. I'm not any kind of insider, so keep in mind that this is just stuff I picked up combing the internet. What I've read was that Dooley was unimpressed with the 40 time Mobley posted at a Vol camp (even though he's been reported to have done much better 40 times elsewhere). The only way, IMO, to evaluate an RB is "live ammo", due to the importance of field vision and instinct (there have been a lot of superb RBs that weren't straight-line fast). IMO, Mobley has a chance to be a SUPERB SEC running back. Franklin's caught on to this, even if very late in the day, but Dooley still doesn't seem to have caught on to this. Would love to see Mobley stay in-state, but I couldn't blame him a bit if he stuck with Kentucky, who has evidently wanted him all along. We'll see. BTW, Andrew Jelks (OL-Henry County) is now a 4-star on Unapproved Website. This gives Tennessee (I believe) 10 4-star players in the class of 2012, and every one of Tennessee's top 25 players is at least a 3-star----- Tennessee HS talent is being better recognized this year than in past years by a considerable margin.
  11. No reason for embarrassment, because the Houston newspaper reporting this made the same mistake. Logo, BTW, is a very good coach-------- I believe he coached at Troy before joining the Johnson VU staff. Poorly researched journalism makes us all believe things that ain't so.
  12. Actually, that Coach (Ricky Logo) wasn't on James Franklin's VU staff----- he had been on the Bobby Johnson/Robbie Caldwell staff. So he didn't just leave------ he's been gone for a year.
  13. You know, I didn't post this up to start a Vanderbilt v. UT "woofing contest"----- just pleased that a great player who is also exemplary in every other way is going to get to play his college career instate. That's a "feel good" story to me. So here's my advice to both sides: TO THE VANDERBILT FANS- Vanderbilt has a lot to be pleased about in every area in James Franklin's first year--- but any gloating about the Dooley regime's struggles (whether real or just perceived) in Knoxville probably ought to wait until after the CJF VU regime GETS AT LEAST ONE VICTORY AGAINST THEM. Right now, the on-field bragging rights still reside in Knoxville, as close as that game may have been. TO THE TENNESSEE FANS- NO FOOTBALL CONDITION IS FOREVER, and a top-notch coaching staff with full support from their administration can change a football program's fortunes in a hurry. In my lifetime, Miami (FL), a private school very similar to VU, had a mediocre-to-bad football program until they hired Howard Schnellenberger. Kansas State was AWFUL till they hired Bill Snyder, and Florida State was bad until they hired Bobby Bowden. And some of the current football paradises????? For most of the early 90's, LSU was as bad as Vanderbilt. The thing that's changed the game at Vanderbilt (and some other high-academic private universities) is learning that a good football program DRAWS MORE ADMISSION APPLICATIONS (Stanford got 37,000 admission applications this year, a record by a country mile, and they credit Stanford football for this). So they see the value of spending a lot of money on football (James Franklin now makes more money than Derek Dooley, while Bobby Johnson was the SEC's lowest-paid Head Coach for virtually his entire tenure). Will this make Vanderbilt an elite SEC football program? Maybe, maybe not. But Vanderbilt isn't rolling over and playing dead anymore--- that part is very clear if you're paying attention.
  14. Agree with you totally. The Nashville Storm has our own "Pencil Foundation" that is involved in support activities for elementary schools in some less than prosperous neighborhoods, and I've gotten to sit in on some classes. Public education is both a VERY DIFFICULT and VERY "VALUABLE TO OUR COMMUNITY" job----- anyone that doubts me on that one needs to spend 8 hours with the same group of 25 kids (not your own) and try being interesting and compelling to them for the entire day----- and then do this 180 times every year. And yet, without the dedicated people who do this for modest pay, the fabric of our society falls apart. i honestly believe the education product our teachers produce is very good, but parents need to learn to place the appropriate value on it.
  15. Know that this board is about High School football, but most of this board's regulars know former HS football players with the potential to get paid to play football at some level. Anyway, this tryout, involving 2 pro arena football teams, is a rare event in Middle Tennessee in terms of an open-to-the-public opportunity to display your talents to a team that pays its' football players (the last such open tryout in Nashville for a paying pro team was conducted by the Nashville Kats on the Labor Day weekend of 2006, drawing about 105 participants). Anyway, the pro arena teams involved are the Alabama Hammers (Huntsville, AL) and the Knoxville Nighthawks, both members of the Professional Indoor Football League. The tryout will be at Franklin Road Academy on Saturday, January 21, with registration at 11 AM. For details, click on the link: http://www.alabamahammers.com/news/78-the-alabama-hammers-and-knoxville-nighthawks-announce-an-open-tryout.html
  16. Know that this board is about High School football, but most of this board's regulars know former HS football players with the potential to get paid to play football at some level. Anyway, this tryout, involving 2 pro arena football teams, is a rare event in Middle Tennessee in terms of an open-to-the-public opportunity to display your talents to a team that pays its' football players (the last such open tryout in Nashville for a paying pro team was conducted by the Nashville Kats on the Labor Day weekend of 2006, drawing about 105 participants). Anyway, the pro arena teams involved are the Alabama Hammers (Huntsville, AL) and the Knoxville Nighthawks, both members of the Professional Indoor Football League. The tryout will be at Franklin Road Academy on Saturday, January 21, with registration at 11 AM. For details, click on the link: http://www.alabamahammers.com/news/78-the-alabama-hammers-and-knoxville-nighthawks-announce-an-open-tryout.html
  17. Know that this board is about High School football, but most of this board's regulars know former HS football players with the potential to get paid to play football at some level. Anyway, this tryout, involving 2 pro arena football teams, is a rare event in Middle Tennessee in terms of an open-to-the-public opportunity to display your talents to a team that pays its' football players (the last such open tryout in Nashville for a paying pro team was conducted by the Nashville Kats on the Labor Day weekend of 2006, drawing about 105 participants). Anyway, the pro arena teams involved are the Alabama Hammers (Huntsville, AL) and the Knoxville Nighthawks, both members of the Professional Indoor Football League. The tryout will be at Franklin Road Academy on Saturday, January 21, with registration at 11 AM. For details, click on the link: http://www.alabamahammers.com/news/78-the-alabama-hammers-and-knoxville-nighthawks-announce-an-open-tryout.html
  18. Know that this board is about High School football, but most of this board's regulars know former HS football players with the potential to get paid to play football at some level. Anyway, this tryout, involving 2 pro arena football teams, is a rare event in Middle Tennessee in terms of an open-to-the-public opportunity to display your talents to a team that pays its' football players (the last such open tryout in Nashville for a paying pro team was conducted by the Nashville Kats on the Labor Day weekend of 2006, drawing about 105 participants). Anyway, the pro arena teams involved are the Alabama Hammers (Huntsville, AL) and the Knoxville Nighthawks, both members of the Professional Indoor Football League. The tryout will be at Franklin Road Academy on Saturday, January 21, with registration at 11 AM. For details, click on the link: http://www.alabamahammers.com/news/78-the-alabama-hammers-and-knoxville-nighthawks-announce-an-open-tryout.html
  19. Agreed------ Patton Robinette could be the HARVARD or YALE Quarterback, but he has SEC talent-------
  20. Academically, as i understand it, the VU criteria for athletes is "a reasonable expectation that they can attend VU and earn a degree"------- which is A LOT DIFFERENT than what it takes for a non-athlete to get in VU. The reason VU is hard to gain admission to if you are a non-athlete is SUPPLY AND DEMAND----- in a typical year, VU has room to admit say, 1500-1800 freshmen, but there are 10000+ applicants for those spots. So if you're a non-athlete, you'd probably better have a 30+ ACT and rank in the top 5% of your class. The scholarship athletes, though, are in effect a separate "pool"------ and actually, you've got a few athletes on campus whose ACTs were even less than 20. And that part of it didn't start with James Franklin----- that's been the case for about 20 years now. I'm not a VU graduate, so I hope I explained this properly.
  21. Actually, probably 80% of Alabama's team would be academically recruitable by Vanderbilt (whose criteria for athletes is simply that they be guys who would have a reasonable chance to earn a Vanderbilt degree). An important thing to remember is that the SEC's public universities are LAND-GRANT universities intended for the state's best students. While there aren't a lot of Patton Robinette's out there (who are All-Americans in the classroom too), the proportion of SEC athletes who could earn a degree from an academically elite university like Vanderbilt is actually very high. Vanderbilt's past problems in football haven't been because of their academic excellence---- their problems have been because of an unwillingness to fund football at the level other SEC universities do, leading to decades of bad teams. That's the part of the equation that has changed at Vanderbilt---- they are now willing to pay what it costs to get and keep top-notch coaches, build better facilities, and fund recruiting budgets at a high level. If you take Tennessee's 20 best players in this Senior class, I'll bet Vanderbilt has at least recruited 80% of them.
  22. James Franklin should be good news for any fan of Tennessee HS football that feels (and I've seen this sentiment expressed on this board OFTEN) that Tennessee's best HS football players haven't gotten the proper respect in recruitment. Tennessee's best HS players now have a choice in terms of playing in a quality football program at a quality school in America's best conference----- that doesn't require them to LEAVE TENNESSEE. And if you're a University of Tennessee fan who feels UT should pay more attention to the top players in our own backyard, this should be good news for you too----- because now Tennessee HAS to pay attention.
  23. I think Coach Franklin prioritizes Tennessee players and any Tennesssee youngster that has SEC talent will be getting a lot of attention from Franklin---- of VU's 20 current commits, 6 are from Tennessee (Patton Robinette, Brian Kimbrow, Caleb Azubike, Barrett Gouger, Corey Batey, Andrew Jelks). Kimbrow's the State's #1 ranked prospect, and i think all of them are in the top 20. And VU's still working at least 3-4 other in-state prospects that I know of. And Franklin's now being paid enough (3 million a year) that anyone that wants to lure him from Nashville better back up the Brinks truck---- and he now sets the assistants salaries, and every facility upgrade you could ask for is on the way. VU had a large spike in applications after the 2008 bowl game, and the administration has concluded that quality football is good for business. Once Franklin got bowl-eligible in Season 1, they were quick to break the bank to keep him and give him everything he needs.
  24. The 2010 and 2011 National Champion Nashville Storm Minor League Football Team are seeking part-time assistant coaches in the following categories: 1- Offensive assistant 2- Running Backs 3- Defensive line These are paid positions (although not at a high pay scale), and an excellent opportunity for former players familiar with sophisticated offensive and defensive systems to try their hand at coaching without needing teaching certifications. Interested parties seeking more information should e-mail Nashville Storm Director of Football Operations/Head Coach Charles Hunter at [email protected]. No phone calls on initial contact. The Nashville Storm official website is located at http://www.nashvillestormonline.com .
  25. Maryville QB Patton Robinette, the Gatorade Player Of the Year in Tennessee, evidently had a REALLY last-minute change of heart WHILE GOING THRU ORIENTATION AT NORTH CAROLINA and decided to play at Vanderbilt----- Patton will be enrolling at VU tomorrow. From every film I've seen, Vanderbilt's gaining a superb QB that is a great student and first-class young man. This news is out on the Rivals boards at both North Carolina and VU.
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