Bellsburg2

I think the biggest reason for lack of inter-play is there are 9 teams in the West region, so the schedule is nearly full already. With the teams all so scattered, the schools that are actually out West are unlikely to fill their 2 empty holes with another DII-A opponent 3-5 hours away. I can’t speak for the middle TN teams. Were it not for politics, common sense would have the class divided into 3 regions like in every other sport, leaving some breathing room in the schedule.

Union City has the pieces to work with. First outing is always a crapshoot, particularly when USJ already had a game under their belt. Union City QB is very talented and the bruising RB is a ball player too. With a rhythm and timing based offense, snaps must be sharp and accurate. This is a fixable issue that comes with more and more reps. Adamsville may not be entirely sure what they are working with yet, being part of 2 big mismatches to start the season. I don't think anyone wants to use Hardin Co as their measuring stick right now. This should be a fun one to watch and I'd guess it will be a battle into the 4Q. Good luck to both teams.

Perhaps with a less confrontational title, we can get a little chatter going about this game. This should be the one week of the season where we can get the D2 board hoppin. What say you, Trinity peeps? Last year this proved to be a rivalry game at its finest, with the Bruins clawing back from a big first half deficit before taking the lead for good in the 4th quarter. Will this week prove to be the same?

There have been 35 total COVID deaths in the US in males 5-18 years of age. THIRTY FIVE. I can't find the data, but presumably most of these had some underlying health issues. Bottom line is: healthy kids need to be in school and playing football.

Gold balls are so gaudy. We have a whole case full of silver ones if you want us to bring them to the party.

How is FA doing their tickets? Did you guys send a specific allowance to the visitors? Just curious, as USJ will be headed that way later in the season. Lord willing, we are all still playing ball in October! Good luck on Friday night. I don’t know much about MH, but their program has a pretty good history.

I know they swapped film, maybe from an inter-squad scrimmage? Not entirely sure. Scout team is attempting to mimic some of the triple option looks. Nothing like the real thing, though. Losing a day of prep stinks for both teams, but better than playing in a hurricane I suppose.

Peabody, I don’t blame your for your misperceptions (sorry for the big word), but you can take that scholarship chatter somewhere else. The vast majority these kids have gone to USJ together since kindergarten and played football together since 5th grade. There is ONE non-freshman player on the roster new from last year and it is his second year at USJ. We graduated most of our starting skill players and lost our top returning offensive producer for other reasons. We have some returning veteran hogs and experience under center. Some JV from last year has indeed stepped into varsity roles. We take pride in our own pipeline down here and I think you’d be pleasantly surprised if you paid more attention.

Shots fired. I think it'll be closer than that. I'm not sure the offense will be clicking well enough to hang 42 without some big turnover help. Bruins defense is pretty well equipped to stop the run and forced 2 fumbles and 3 INT last week. Current forecast looks like the game may be played in the remnants of a hurricane, so ball security for both teams may be a big factor. USJ is very strong in the kicking game, but weather could neutralize that to an extent as well. The Bruin faithful typically travel well but if the forecast is awful, that may lower the numbers a little.

We haven't heard from our coach yet... any idea what the ticket allotments will look like for friday night? With this being their season opener, I'm sure the UC faithful will be hungry for some football, but I'm sure attendance will be limited in some way.

Final stats from last night showed total yards USJ 327 (167 pass/160 run) to NCS 51 (70 pass/-19 run). These stats certainly were helped by the opposing QBs' tendency to scramble around backwards under pressure, but also demonstrate a good balanced attack for the Bruins and their ability to defend the run.

USJ dominated the LOS on both sides tonight against a big veteran NCS front. NCS seemed to have more depth, rotating 8-9 guys on the offensive line, but couldn't find a combo to keep our guys out of the QBs face. Conditioning wasn't a big factor as the Bruins seemed to hold up well for 4Q, but cramps were a bit of an issue in the second half for both teams as one might expect in August. Bruins had a good balance of run plays, options, and short passes to keep the sticks moving. Only aired it out a couple of times. Secondary came up with a handful of turnovers thanks in part to the steady pressure from the front seven. NCS had to work hard for yards on the ground as well. No significant injuries, so the Bruins should be healthy for the road trip next week.

A few sprinkles early but turned into a beautiful night for football. Defenses dominated early until USJ pushed NCS back for a safety, then responded quickly with a TD on the resulting possession. The Bruins' front 7 set up camp in the NCS backfield most of the night, disrupting much of their game plan and forcing 3 INTs on the night. USJ was balanced on offense, moving the ball fairly well all night. Both teams added a late TD with the final score USJ 30, NCS 7. As is the case with most games, turnovers and winning the LOS was the difference.

Weather may be iffy for Friday night. Current forecast has high chances of rain throughout the day that seem to clear up a little before game time. If that forecast holds, might just be a good night for football (and not even feel like August). Kickoff at 7:00, gates open at 6:00 and lock at 7:30. Home seats are sold out but they did have some SRO tix left over. Hoping NCS fills their allotment and we should have a decent (spaced and masked) crowd on hand.

I was told this game was cancelled because SGC has a player with COVID and a good chunk of the team is quarantined until next week. Assuming that's true, it's a win for the Tigers and a "no contest" for the Hornets.

Having a new coach (especially amid all the COVID challenges, etc) is even tougher this year than usual. I understand he is from the same "tree" so I assume there will be some continuity of terminology and system and that should help. Any version of the triple option can be difficult for opposing teams to prepare compared to more typical schemes. From a personnel standpoint, USJ should be pretty well equipped to defend the run, returning a veteran front line from last year including 2 all-state guys. Plenty of talent at the second level, but several new starters filling holes left by graduation. I am not expecting a polished product from any teams at this point in the season, but this should be a fun matchup. We will know a lot about our team after this week's matchup with Nashville Christian. I recall a handful of playoff clashes between UC and NCS in the early 2010s. As for the above conversation, I would assume UC gets a win and LC gets a "no contest". If they replace the game, I doubt they could claim a win from the cancelled matchup. It may be too late to find an opponent for this week, but probably won't be from a lack of trying. They could always give Lexington a call, their Friday night just opened up with SGC having to cancel.

UC had their week 1 and 2 games cancelled and has picked up USJ for week 2. I tried to start a conversation about our week 1 matchup, but the DII board is nothing but crickets. Can someone could tell me how the Tornadoes are shaping up this year?

This is true, but ONLY if no other positive contact can be traced. The lag of symptoms makes this issue that much more challenging. A player could theoretically play multiple games positive then develop symptoms and get tested. If a kid who never left the bench tests positive, does the other team have to quarantine? Scenarios are endless. The hope for HS FB (over college) is the typical lack of symptoms in young people combined with the lack of routine asymptomatic screening.

Enjoy the next week or two, boys. If schools fail to limit attendance and pack people in like sardines, cases will rise and football will be shut down faster than you can blink. I realize that no plan is foolproof, but I assure you that leaving a little breathing room and making some effort at distancing makes a difference. It's painful for everyone and we are all hungry for football. Maybe a few fist fights over people not wanting to wear masks will ease the sting a little. I just don't have much confidence that the full season gets played. Here's to hoping I'm wrong.

This week 1 region battle provides a rematch of last year's state semifinal game. The Bruins won the last meeting 28-7 after losing a close one at home to the Eagles in the season 28-27. USJ was scheduled to travel to Bellevue this year, but due to current restrictions in the midstate, they requested to travel to Jackson for the game. I would expect both teams to come out a little rusty with the lack of scrimmages and jamborees this year. NCS lost some talent on both sides of the ball, but should return a lot of experience in the trenches and a good amount of their offensive production. USJ will be strong up front on both sides of the ball and I would expect the battle on the line of scrimmage to dictate the ballgame. Andrew Smith will be the clear starter at QB after gaining some valuable experience starting a handful of games each of the last 2 seasons, but he will be looking at several new targets as the Bruins replace nearly all of their skill player production from 2019. Senior transfer Myles Mayo could be an upgrade at tailback. Steele Haynes and Tyke Tabor, both impact players on the defensive side last year, look to make a difference on offense as potential targets for Smith. Crowd limitations and other protocols may temper the environment a bit, but I know I'm ready to watch some Friday night football. Overall, I am expecting a fairly low-scoring and probably ugly football game. I may get brave enough to make a score prediction later in the week, but I'll leave it at that for now.

His younger son (2022) is a stud baseball player that could play on any team in the state. Losing him hurts more than big brother in the overall picture.

This is going to get worse before it gets better. Numbers will rise dramatically over the coming weeks, but I am hopeful that some of the actions in recent days will help to curtail that rise. Social media is not real life, but currently there are only two voices out there: "this is no big deal" guy and "we're all gonna die" guy. These generally represent the far wings of the political spectrum as well. I have no doubt he truth lies somewhere in between. People you know will be affected by this. If we can slow the spread enough to allow the number of severe cases to remain manageable, then we can keep the death rates low. I believe the sports and school restrictions will last longer than we would hope, but we will know for sure in about 2 weeks. To answer your original question: Regardless of the upcoming weeks' events, this thing will run its course well before fall football.

She was certainly no Macey Lee, at least not tonight. On the other hand, I can't imagine the frustration of coming into the second half of a do-or-die game with your team in a 30 point hole. I have to assume a 1/2 game suspension would have to be something disciplinary. They also dropped 2 straight in the region and I'm not sure if she played in those games or not.

Strength is definitely in the West and they will have 2 more teams in the final 4. I don't think it's out of the question that all 4 teams could come from this end of the state. That would certainly set up well for TCA, given that they have battled these teams all year. TRA has shown that they can play with them on a couple of occasions for sure. TCA has better quality depth and those fresh horses late in the game have allowed them to pull away from most competition. They should be heavy favorites moving forward.

I agree D2 is a little strange, but it get easier to decipher because every sport (except football) uses the same exact State XII bracket. Region tournaments each determine seeds 1 thru 4, then they are placed in a standard bracket. Each of the 1 seeds gets a bye to state quarters and one of the 2 seeds gets a bye as well. This rotates on a 3 year schedule and East #2 gets it this year. They also have a few exceptions that prevent teams from having to travel 400 miles to play a game (for example USJ baseball played CAK in State XII last year at Middle #1 which was Friendship Christian). One other caveat is for baseball and softball, first round of State XII is single game, but State Quarters are best of 3. Taking this week for example, each team that won on Tuesday is guaranteed at least 3 more games including a State XII or State Quarters game. Adding a little more confusion, each of the 3 regions determines its own plan to find seeds 1-4. Middle always plays districts then region. West has one big region tourney.