smoltz

Amen! Oak Ridge was a very good team, well coached and played with a lot of heart. Atrisk, you are an embarrassment to their fan base. Now go play some Xbox!

Technical difficulties. Somehow this didn’t post yesterday before the game. Probably a Russian hacker!

That was a great way to cap a great year for the Irish! Beech was just too one dimensional on offense, and Catholic’s offense was just too diverse and potent for Beech to handle. You could tell how good Beech was when they were down, 24-7 and then came back to cut the lead to 3, 24-21. The fact that they battled back and made a game of it made the win even more special. Congrats to both teams on a terrific season! Sidenote: “Take that” Jody Wright (Fulton AD & TSSAA Board of Control member)! Jody can be seen staring at the ground as he is handing the championship plaque to Coach Matthews and shaking his hand. I guess it must be hard looking a coach in the eye when you have been spreading lies about their program over the last few years. Stay classy, Jody!

This is going to be a great game between 2 really good programs. After watching some film on Beech, I give Catholic a slight edge for 3 reasons. 1) While the Beech stud RB is a beast, their offense seems too one dimensional to dominate the Irish. 2) The D-line and LB’s for Beech’s D seem tough. However, I think they are going to face a mismatch when it comes to their DB’s against Catholic’s WR’s. 3) Catholic had arguably the toughest schedule in 5A while Beech had over half their regular season games against 5 teams with 3 or less wins on the season. I hope I’m right. Go Irish!

The crazy part about tonight's game was Catholic didn't play all that well in the first half and they still were dominating a very good Baylor team. They left some points out there and gave up some big plays to Baylor and still cruised 56-24. Go Irish!

How did your mighty Rebels do tonight? I heard Oakland played terrible tonight so you guys must have won big! Bahahaha! Keep us posted on the job search, you "message board" All Star! Lol

Said the guy who supports an "OPEN ZONE" school in the PUBLIC school division. P.S. How boring does your life have to be to have the time troll other schools game threds? Good luck on your job search!

We hope you're right Booger! "Catholic North" had some costly self inflicted wounds against Maryville last week that helped turn the tide in that game (a fumble around the Catholic 25 that resulted in a score and a terrible snap over the punters head in the 2nd half that gave the ball to Maryville inside the Catholic 10yd line- and this resulted in another easy Maryville TD). "Catholic North" can't afford to make anything easy for Harris & company tonight, especially in the first half. I think one major key to this game is going to be if "Catholic North" can make Harris earn his production on offense. While they have trouble stopping good offenses, they are still a very physical and hard hitting defense. If the Irish D can take some of the wind out of the UT commit's sails, that could bode well for slowing him down just enough on defense. I'm sure that will be a tall order though.

It's really beside the point how good a QB Barry Mathis was back in the day. Switching gears, the good news for Maryville is Coach Hunt gets his head coaching career started off with a big win. He has to have more pressure on him than any young coach in the State with the legacy of George Quarles, that he will always be compared to.

Thanks for clearing that up that the WHITE HAT was Barry Mathis, former Maryville star QB, and longtime supporter of the rebels. I understand any game in TN can have a referee on the crew that graduated from one of the schools playing, but the WHITE HAT having a MAJOR, MAJOR conflict of interest, is much different. Also, OldRebel2, can you confirm or deny that 2 other referees on that crew were also Maryville grads? I have heard at least one other member of the crew was not only a Maryville grad, but also a known Maryville homer who not only has deep ties does to the Rebels, but one that does some of his best work in 2nd half. And some people have said that 3 of the 7 man crew were former Rebel grads. You can spin it any way you want but if you guys were to lose at Fulton, with a former Fulton star player as the WHITE HAT and 2 other Fulton grads on the crew, you would want some heads to roll in the referee assigning hierarchy. Assuming there about 8 very questionable calls in the 2nd half. If just 2 of the 7 officials last Friday were Maryville grads with strong & deep loyalties to the Rebels, including the white hat, that would be considered very unethical and wrong on a couple of levels (and if 3 of the 7 were Maryville grads, that would be completely out of hand). First, any white hat with major ties to any Blount or Knox County school should never preside over a game as the lead official (WHITE HAT). Especially in a game with 2 state powers. Secondly, TSSAA asks officials in all sports to not only be fair and impartial, but also to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. I am extremely confident there are other crews in Blount Co. that have a WHITE HAT that is not only not a Maryville grad, but one that apparently has such a long and loyal connection to Maryville. On top of that, I'm also confident that there must be a crew or 2 that has less than 40% of its crew represented by Maryville alums. The point here is twofold. An assignor should know better than to assign a crew with many conflicts of interest to any game. That being said, a referee that is a WHITE HAT, with loyal & strong ties to one team, should also have recused himself from that assignment as soon as it came out. The assignor would have plenty of time to switch them to another game. I know this lack of checks and balances won't get cleaned up anytime soon. I just felt strongly that if it was true that it needed to be exposed for what it is. One thing for sure, the good ole boy network is alive and well in Blount County!

Might not be the ONLY reason. Is it true the WHITE HAT for the Maryville/Catholic game was a former Maryville QB?

IIs it true, the "WHITE HAT" for this game was Barry Mathis? If true, this would be completely unethical. I hear he is not only a very loyal Maryville alum, but he was also a star QB for Maryville back in the day. I have also heard 2 other Maryville grads were on that crew. I know there is no way to make sure all Friday night football crews are perfectly matched up and assigned so nobody calls a game for their former high school. I do think it is a MAJOR difference and a serous conflict of interest IF the "WHITE HAT" was an alumni and former star player for a team in a game that featured the 2 top ranked teams in this area. This should never happen. You can't throw flags on 5 plays that resulted in 1st downs, overlook an intentional grounding, call a pass that short hops the receiver a catch, have a line judge call holding on a player that didn't even make contact with a defender, and have all of these penalties go against one team and all in the 2nd half and not have people start wondering if this crew was partial to one team. I thought it was someone joking when they said on coacht last week that if it was a close game, Catholic better get ready to lose by 1 referee. I will feel so much better if someone in the know can tell me this is not true concerning "Barry Mathis" being the "WHITE HAT" and his alleged ties to Maryville. And for the record, in my opinion only, I think if these 2 teams played 10 times, each team would probably go about 5-5. And even if this was a "homer" ref crew, it doesn't diminish the heart and characer that the Maryville players displayed to come back in this game.

Thanks QSouth89, you just confirmed my fear that a dual threat QB could be a real threat to the Irish D. On a side note, FBfan26, does the PC band still do a dramatic entrance into the game/stands during the first quarter like they used to? Our bagpipe entrance is pretty cool but might have to give the early game swag advantage to the Firebirds if the band still does the grand entrance in the 1st Q.

I agree. Don't let Devil fans or bitter, whiny MC fans provide bulletin board material against the Irish. Nothing but respect for the Firebirds in Irish nation. This could be THE game of the weekend. From what we hear and see, PC has an abundance of playmakers, athletes in all three phases and big physical kids that can get the job done up front. QB (2,500+ yds), big time WR (30+ D1 offers) and a 1,000yd rusher makes you guys very scary and versatile on offense. The key for the Irish might be if they can handle the dual threat QB. I don't think Catholic has faced a legit dual threat QB. The Firebirds are also well coached like the Irish and both teams have weathered a tough schedule so this one should be more than worth the price of admission. That being said, I think whoever wins the turnover battle and makes the fewest mistakes (penalties, bad snaps, etc.) is likely to win this game. Go Irish!!

The forward pass was legalized in football around 1905. Webb still runs an old school, antiquated offensive system that has seen its better days. The Spartans are more like the Army teams of the early 20th century that got pasted by teams that were more progressive in their balanced running and passing attack. Instead of evolving with the times, Webb & Coach Meske are stuck in their ways, and instead of admitting they are taking a break from the rivalry because they are outmatched both athletically and coaching-wise, they want to throw, better yet, RUN, jabs at Catholic. I would love to see Coach Meske at one of this winter's basketball games between Webb & Catholic and ask him why the "rivalry" between these 2 schools is apparently healthy in all sports, except football. Like most years, both schools will attract capacity crowds, and unlike football, the basketball fans sit very close to the benches and the court. It is a much more "intimate" setting than a football game. I guess we should assume that the students, parents and other fans of these 2 schools that attend these basketball games are different than the ones that are creating the "unhealthy environment" for the Webb community at the football games. Or maybe it's the fact that Webb beat Catholic in basketball once (maybe both times) last year, and the chance to win those games is a "healthier" proposition for Meske and the Webb administration. To take it a step further, I would love for someone with more knowledge of the recent history of these two schools to rate how healthy the rivalry is in each sport. And, of course, I'm using Webb's definition of healthy as your present and future prospects of defeating your neighborhood, private school rival. Ex: Lacrosse Advantage Webb Extremely Healthy Girls Soccer W lost to KC 3-2 this year Moderately Unhealthy