Indynation17

Here's what you have to know about a Coach Blade team - he puts all his top big athletic speed guys on offense (linemen & skill players) and will not let them play on defense. He's an aggressive play caller and loves the big play. (Too much sometimes)The interception play right before halftime was the turning point in the game. I would have liked to see him run it with only 1:18 left before halftime but that's just not his nature and was a big reason Indy was 29-0 to that point. Actually Coach Blade had the perfect play called against their defense and if Hines throws the ball on time to Guidry he scores a touchdown no question about it and Indy has all the momentum going into the second half with a running clock and essentially taking Hardin and their running game out of the equation for a little bit. The other part of that play was the Interception return and the hustle play by Murphy on the tackle/strip of the ball recovered by Indy. It would have been a big swing of emotion for both teams if it was ruled a fumble. Refs determined he was down before ball came out and it was difficult to argue either way after watching the play a few times on film since it was a bang bang play but great effort all around and the type of play you would expect to see in a championship game. Next thing you know Farragut scores on the last play of the Half and they have all the momentum. The reason Farragut won this game is the difference in coaching philosophy. Coach Blade wants to outscore you with his offense and hold on with a younger undermanned defense. Coach Courtney puts his best 11 players on the field at all times on offense and defense and that won him the ballgame. Coach Courtney clearly has the recipe to beating Coach Blade now that he is 4-1 all time against him at both Oak Ridge & Indy. Coach Blade needs to re-evaluate how he uses his talent if he wants another Golden Ball especially since Indy will be moving up to 6A next season.

Congratulations for the coaches and players of Farragut for a hard fought and well deserved first 5A State Championship in school history. You are very deserving of being the top team in 5A for 2016!

May the best team win and no injuries on either side!

BigGray12 point well taken Indy is expecting a fight to the end from Farragut that is for sure. They have a RB/LB #1 that is their best player and I really like the way he plays. They have 3 or 4 players that play both ways and that will hurt them a bit later in the game. Indy doesn't have any players going both ways but I assume Guidry #7 (Mississippi State commit) will see a healthy dose of defense tomorrow. Speed is definitely on Indy's side but I assume Farragut will try to take a page out of Brentwood's playbook and run the ball with #1 to kill clock and limit Indy's opportunities. Sounds like this is lining up to be a good game!

adalum96 glad to have you aboard and discussing the Farragut side. I was trying to show as last year's Juniors and this year's seniors how things have trended for both programs. Last year we had mostly seniors on offense and graduated all the skill positions so there were A LOT of question marks coming into the season about our offense. On defense last year we had mostly juniors starting and this year their veteran leadership definitely helped keep the boat steady. Farragut lost in the second round last year and Indy won all 15 games. I was trying to make the point that experience in big games will hopefully pay off for Indy tomorrow night. No disrespect to Farragut at all just trying to make an apples to apples comparison.

ZoneRead56 for the record Farragut is no Cane Ridge! In fact if you look at the film against Ooltewah I think Ooltewah was the better overall team but they folded under pressure at the end and Farragut took them out. So hats off to Farragut! Cane Ridge had their opportunities against Indy and just couldn't get it done. Without a doubt Cane Ridge is the second best team in 5A this year if that makes you feel any better.(That's just my opinion)

If you look at the win/loss records of both teams you can see that clearly the competition is higher in Middle Tennessee than in East Tennessee this year. (probably last year as well) Indy's opponents combined records were 81-66 Farragut's opponents combined records were 72-74 Both teams played against one 6A team and won. Indy beat Smyrna (6-5) 21-7 on the road and Farragut beat Bearden (4-7) 28-27 at home. Over the past two year period Farragut has had an excellent record at 23-3. Indy has played 3 more games in that period and hold an undefeated winning streak at 29-0. The three losses for Farragut will get exposed at some point in this game and Indy should take this one comfortably in the second half.

I'm a believer that the numbers always tell the story. You are correct Admiral the offenses are very close with their production with Indy QB throwing for 3,500 yards with 38 TD's and the Farragut QB throwing for 3,300 yards and 43 TD's. I think the big difference here will be the turnovers with Indy QB throwing 13 Int's compared to 5 for Farragut QB. Slight edge here on paper goes to Farragut. You protect the ball and you win it's that simple. I do think that there is a bit of a difference in the competition the two teams have played so far but I'll have to compare their schedules. I don't believe they have played any common opponents.

Ok AdmiralDude thanks for jumping in and confirming/commenting for Farragut. Both offenses should put up some scores but who's defense is better? Looking at the numbers Indy gave up 236 points during the season and Farragut gave up 283. Big advantage for Indy on pressuring the QB as Indy has 53 sacks to only 25 for Farragut. This will be a telling part of the game in my opinion.

Since nobody from Farragut is helping me out here I was able to pull some past information for comparison purposes. Some interesting facts here that should make the game more compelling - Coach Blade was 1-3 vs Farragut when he was the HC at Oak Ridge, Farragut has not been to a State Championship game as far as I can see in their 40 year history, this will be Indy's 3rd trip to the State Championship game winning once and losing once in it's 15 year history. This will be Coach Blade's 5th trip to a State Championship game (counting his time in CA) and he is 3-1. Who has the edge in this game based on these stats?

I was one that also thought the 6A Champioship game was played last week between Maryville and Oakland but after reading all these threads from the West maybe I was wrong. It sounds like both teams are heavy weights coming in undefeated and like to ground & pound. I'm thinking this may be a close one with a special teams play being the deciding factor.

DominateTheTrenches - you know it! We will finish strong here with laser focus on Farragut Friday night with another championship effort. When we move to 6A next year the rumor has it our first game will be against Oakland and we will have our work cut out for us right off the bat. Having two SEC receivers and a dominant RB should keep us very competitive and our OL will be even bigger next year to battle with the big boys! Indy's ready for whatever comes our way.

Congrats to Indy's TJ Sheffield on his verbal committment to University of Tennessee last night! It will be great to see Scurry and Sheffield both wearing Orange and White in two years! RavenNation haven't heard from you in a while but yes we are still excited about our D1 athletes as they continue to work hard get more attention and looks from top Universities. It's too bad your WR's haven't generated much attention but I do think highly of #6.

zoneread56 you are correct that Indy had only 2 close games last year (Smyrna & Hillsboro) and this years' team had 4 close games (Smyrna, Cane Ridge & Brentwood 2x) At 29-0 Indy has gotten everybody's best shot but somehow always comes up with a victory. Last year's team was dominant no question, this year's team has had to dig deep a few more times. They know how to get on top and finish you, they have experienced being up and losing momentum (Cane Ridge) and coming up with big plays at the end to hold on and they also have played from behind (Brentwood) and had the mental toughness not to panic and keep making plays to win. You can bet the gold ball will be coming back to Wilco with Indy again this Friday night.

I don't know if I would have laughed..... but there were question marks coming into the season that's for sure. For those who don't know much about Hines here's the book on him. As a Freshman QB he led the Indy team to a 9-1 record and Division title. There are no playoffs for the Freshman level. As a sophomore he took a year off from football and concentrated on baseball as a pitcher throwing in the upper 80's. He had an elbow injury that required surgery and his pitching career was over. He came back out for football as a Junior and did the grind working on his development on JV. He paid his dues and now has an opportunity to lead his team to a state title. He is 4.0 honor student and has a calm demeanor which is needed at the most important position on the field.