EagleVolSteeler

31 minutes ago, Random1234 said:

The problem with concessions, like everything else nowadays, is the cost. $3 for a bottle of pop is crazy! 

Concessions are a bargain at high schools compared to college and the NFL. It's pretty much $5 for parking just about everywhere now. Some schools do not charge for parking like Powell and Knox Central. I am willing to help the schools out some for their programs like band or sports. But to me, there is not anything special about concessions unless they offer Chick-Fil-A. It's typical nachos and pizza and candy. 

1 hour ago, CherokeeTrail said:

Who is looking like the front runner for that job 

I am getting nothing from anyone that I would think had access to the committee or A.D. That includes media personnel - teachers- support staff. It’s been two weeks. There is a football banquet next week so maybe that takes precedence. 

3 hours ago, chs1984 said:

Not a Rhea Co. follower, but my stepdad is. My money is on someone not listed here.

 

I agree - Fitzgerald and Tabor are within a few years of retiring through the school system???  

Good - he hates Tennessee but chooses to live here. Hope he is miserable. 

18 hours ago, SheriffofRedRock said:

I'd say that 90% of schools in the state will not have any schedule changes for this upcoming 2024 season. The only change will be the home and away games will be flipped. Sometimes schools drop games for reasons known or unknown but that is very rare.

Tennessee schedules are for 2023 & 2024 and possibly beyond that. So I know East Hamilton had a filler game with Heritage (Georgia) that was for the 2022 & 2023 seasons. Looks like they will pick up Marion Co. this year that they did not play last year. I wish we had more North Ga. matchups with SE Tenn teams. But they are just on a different cycle. See a few TN vs Alabama games tho. The state of Tennessee has eight border states. 

What will the new school be named?

3 hours ago, Random1234 said:

He was making close to 100k at Rhea, did CC really go that much higher? If Pemb were to bring any assistant it  would be his O-line coach Romero, that is his right hand man. Two things that stick out from your post, Pemb doesn't touch the defense so if that is a challenge that is not good, also 40some players is not enough for his system. He drives players into the ground and injuries pile up. He's use to having twice that at Rhea so he uses the freshman as tackling dummies.  

All that said he does know the Wing-T better than anyone, and it's tough to gameplan for that in any given week when most teams now go spread. 

I heard years ago that The Baylor School would only play Rhea as the season opener because the Wing T was so different and they would have multiple weeks to practice for it. We lost to them twice. It was like playing a college team. Competitive first half. 

7 hours ago, atrisk said:

Fair enough. At 7-8 yards a play seems the ball control would be the defense. Looking forward to the change at CC.

In the playoffs - Ran up against Knox West’s Nathan Cottrell who signed with Georgia Tech. Tough back. Also lost to Sevier Co.’s Deuce Wallace that signed with Vandy. And Jordyn Potts (Tenn Tech) and Walter Nolan (A&M -Ole Miss) were at Knox Powell when we lost to them. They also had a Div. 1 WR. - one thing I will add is Coach Pemberton will not back down from scheduling any team. Just give him time. 
 

*Ronnie Cottrell was involved with UAlabama. Freudian slip

42 minutes ago, atrisk said:

If you ran it for 7-8 yards a pop why would you ever lose.

You can run the ball with success and control the clock and Ethan Davis avg about 150 yards a game over his career. But you also have to play defense and have great special teams and a great kicking game. Maryville was excellent in all phases of that. That was why they were such a successful team. But Rhea had some deep runs in the playoffs just came up a little short and ran into some really good qbs and def. Lines and secondaries. 

11 hours ago, BigTime1950 said:

I don't get to follow Rhea Co. Football all the time but l thought Coach Pemberton was a believer in the Wing-T. Did he change his offensive philosophy lately. When did his son play for Rhea Co., and what offense did Coach Pemberton change to?

It only changed with the personnel you had for that game. When he had the tight end that signed with Memphis - it was more of a Power T utilizing the tight end more. When the season began and you had five or six healthy backs it was Wing T all the way. By the eighth or ninth game and injuries piling up it needed to switch over to an two backs i-formation. In the playoffs - you were facing teams with a lot more depth and players not needing to play both ways - you had to pass more. At times - they have had great qbs that throw a little but that's not the bread - n - butter. If you can run it for 7-8 yards a pop why would you ever throw the ball? 

8 hours ago, Wardawg1969 said:

Jason Fitzgerald most obvious followed by Doug Greene, Tyler Manes, Josh Roberts and Matt Moody.

Doug Greene? You mock us? ......You know Rhea Alumni John Allen is an assistant at Dalton. He's been a head coach for many years. But, just my opinion, that you have a principal from Oak Ridge and I believe it will come through that connection. 

Knox Central has only the home side stands. Which is really odd as their football team was on what would normally be the visitor side. That means the chain gang is on Knox Central sideline. They did not let fans on their field after the game. 

1 hour ago, RCfan said:

Things have been souring at Rhea between Pemberton and the community for a few years now. That I know for a fact. As to why they soured - I only know the rumors and what I hear from parents that still have kids in the program and I wouldn’t want to spread unfounded or biased rumors. Let’s just say that there is a large part of the Rhea fan base  that is very happy he is leaving and that is not the normal reaction when you lose a coach with a win loss record like Pemberton has. 
He probably should have left a few years ago….I will loosely quote Harvey Dent in saying “you either leave a hero or hang around long enough to become the villain” 

The Eagles have been down the last couple of years but these issues go way back farther than that. I will let some of our other folks that are closer to the situation fill in the blanks.

GO EAGLES!!!

Yes -very true. I attended every game last year and I have only missed a few games in the last ten years. I try to make every home game, but I just can't always make the long road trip games. Coach Pemberton took over a program that was in shambles before 2013 and built them up pretty quick. He has coached some great players that have played at the small college level. But it is impossible to sustain - unless you are Alcoa.  I will say the home attendance has dwindled, even before Covid. The season ticket holder seats did have a waiting list. Now you can sit wherever you want. The home crowd is not intimidating in that huge stadium. When they introduce the coaches over the P.A. -  it is eerily quiet. I believe the fan base wants to throw the ball 50 times a game and have that quick strike capability. But that's just not Rhea County football. I love Coach Pemberton for what he accomplished at Rhea County. I really do wish him the best. But for some reason it soured in 2017. I will say maybe the most telling oddity is how very few former players attend current games. (That could be a lot of factors inc. work, school, moves,...) But I do hope things get back to the rockin' glory days. It's a great atmosphere with Eagle Stadium beside that mountain. Maybe someday the businesses will close on a Friday night and the community will come out and support the Golden Eagles. 

What's the holdup on 2024 football schedules? I feel like in years' past they have been released already. I think most teams will play the same exact teams as '23. 

For Rhea County - it's McMinn County. Although for some years they were not in the same district. 

14 hours ago, Eagle57 said:

Did Ethan Davis play? Was out of town and didn't listen. Sounds like a blowout?

Ethan still nursing the sprain. Has another Dr. visit soon. 

1 hour ago, HTV said:

Boy, you are a whiner.  

Why would a neutral crew have been trying to help Karns or hurt Walker Valley?  

And again, I have absolutely zero ties to Karns, but you seem to be convinced that the officials were trying to help Karns.  

For what reason would they do that?  

I could be a totally neutral bystander and say the officiating is at an all-time low. If a flag is thrown and there’s a major conference - they never will admit they are wrong. Too many times - they don’t take control of a game early on and head it off. Then they take over the game. It’s probably only going to get worse. 

On 11/3/2021 at 1:49 PM, oridgecat said:

It's the guy to the right of the slot back pretending to be on the line of scrimmage.  He is about 3 inches behind the rest of the down lineman.  If you are "off" the line, it has to be farther than that.  The "off" player's head cannot be in front of any part of the other down linemen.  His head is only a few inches behind the other lineman.  So the guy that caught the pass is covered up.  Plus, if the guy really is "off" then you have 5 in the back field, which also equals ineligible.   That was one of the plays that white hat apologized for when they sent him to West for the formal apology.  

That’s old film - That young man went to play on the offensive line at Memphis. It’s not really in the playbook anymore. 

3 hours ago, Rhea Co. said:

Looking back at last year DeSean only had 184 on us last year with 153 coming on 2 plays. I think DeSean will get his yards this time but with the style Rhea plays I think we can limit the yards under 200 again. Defense is playing pretty good and the offense is clicking. Hopefully Mayberry is not too banged up and we can get Elsea and Robinson back for next week. 

Did he also have a kick return for a td? No way I would give him the opportunity. 

On 10/31/2021 at 6:27 PM, Rhea Co. said:

Yeah hopefully he stays healthy in the playoffs with the increased workload. I definitely can see Martin running the ball more in the playoffs like he did earlier in the season. I’d like to see more production out of Crowe but I know he’s not been 100%. Pemberton always has something up his sleeve for the playoffs that we haven’t seen during the regular season. 

He seems to be very good at making a few switches or tweaks to the offensive or defensive line. Need an improved pass rush to make the QB make some mistakes here on out.  

On 10/23/2021 at 1:31 PM, kentuckyman said:

If Rhea ever learns to play defense they would be dangerous 

The way I see it at least - Rhea is doing better against the spread compared to other years. That is almost all the teams we face run a spread. If other offenses take a receiver and sit down - it’s Just hard to defend. You can’t always outscore the other team. 

21 hours ago, DirkdIggler1 said:

Nevermind, I read that wrong. You think they would prefer to play Rhea county over mcminn county? 

Yes - maybe it is more of a challenge. Plus - they have #### us out last two times in playoffs. Also - one year I think OR positioned themselves to go down to Soddy-Daisy a team they have manhandled. Just sayin’. 

28 minutes ago, RCfan said:

While I’ll agree Rhea Co backs down from no team, I don’t recall a Maryville / Rhea Co game where we lost on an missed kick - closest game I can recall was at Maryville in 2000 and the Eagles lost 21-6. We played Oakland closer at home in a Semifinal loss 27-17 in 89.

I got nothing but respect for both Maryville and Oakland but if they meet up again in this year’s Championship game, make no mistake I’ll be pulling for the Rebels to bring that trophy back to East Tennessee where it belongs.

Oh and back on topic… I would like to see the Bears pull the upset but in reality, Bradley has another appointment Friday night with Maryville out at the ole woodshed. 

You are correct - I did find in the guide Rhea County played at Maryville 7 times in the playoffs. (Always at Maryville) - but it does seem one game was really close 21-10 and another 21-6, but could be a misprint. 

1 hour ago, KnoxVil said:

So Rhea played Maryville?

Rhea Co. doesn't back down from anyone - They have had a hard time filling schedules like a lot of teams. They have had to play a team from Indiana, North Carolina, and had one scheduled at Kentucky this year, that was dropped to play a home and away with Alcoa. They played at Elizabethton this year. Murfreesboro Blackman and Cane Ridge years before. Jeff Co., Riverdale in the playoffs - you name it. I believe one year Rhea came very close to Maryville in Maryville and missed an extra point and lost. Maryville has won 140 straight region games and hasn't lost that since the year 2000. What's your point? A lot of schools do not have the luxury of not playing kids both ways - recruiting - home cookin' - etc...Maryville face it just needs to play private schools and out-of-state schools. They are great for around here.....but when they get drilled 49-7 in the 'ship???????

Wouldn't surprise me that OR would sandbag it to come down to Rhea County next week. Campbell Co. and OR have very similar scores when playing common opponents.