FormerMav

Mif, For the kids sake I hope they win. I know several of the kids on this team, I've had them over at my house. For the most part, I'm ambivalent on the coaches. I hate to think how bad the admin will be towards other sports, especially the girls sports, if they win it all. And, the cover up and acceptance for what happened in the 7v7 has left me and MANY other parents very bitter towards the program. An assistant principal told kids if they got caught with videos or pictures of it they would be expelled. Not other players, just regular students. Expelled. Re the earlier team. They had Marquis and Moog in the backfield. Stantin was a very mobile qb and athlete. I think he had rushed for 6 or 7 hundred yards that year and was in the hunt for most passing yards. There was no lack of offense prior to him getting hurt. But that was a huge factor, having his mobility limited. Defense could tee off cause he's no threat to run. I'm sure trying to drop back and get set with a torn ACL affected his pass game too. He had 4tds that game but also had 4 interceptions. GV had something to do with those but if he's 100% he doesn't throw those picks. For a while I held a grudge against a lot of the GV fans because more than a few cheered when he got hurt and rubbed it in people's faces. But it's not all of them and AC certainly has their share of trolls too. My opinion. You know I don't sugar coat anything.

Not even close MIF, that AC team with Stanton Martin, the older Noe, the older Moog, Colorusso, Marquis, the older Murphy.... was incredible. That team would put a running clock on this AC team. It just happened in a year that GV had one of, if not the best, teams in their history too. I still think if Stanton doesn't blow his acl in the first series, AC wins that game. He played the rest of the game with one leg.

There is some reasonable discussion here so I'll chime in. Be aware that the OP is a troll account though. Barring a key injury, I think AC can get by Betsy again. AC thought they had that game won and Betsy punched em in the mouth. Until that point in the season, Betsy looked pretty bad. The AC game was the coming out party. If, if AC plays to what they are capable of, I think they get Betsy but it should be a good game none the less. It's not as if they haven't beaten them in the playoffs before. I do not believe AC gets by GV though. Unless GV plays uncharacteristically bad or gets a case of the fumblesthey should win. GV is pretty consistent and well coached so I wouldn't count on that. Reasons I think GV wins. Depth on the lines and a solid defense. GV has played very good on D all year with several shut outs. AC is an absolute threat to win this game but I think GV wins if I'm honest.

I'm still not sold on mavs getting past GV. If they don't win it this year, it'll be a minute. With what they lose this year, next year is going to be... woof

I was impressed with the way the o line was able to open some holes. Mavs didn't have a lot of success on the edge, Bearden had some athletes with speed. But AC was able to open holes in the middle for some really nice gains. The last drive was a possession, game winning drive. They had about 7 run plays in a row that we're from 3 - 8 yards each and the one long run by Andrew. Eli Nelson (52) is a ball player. Wish we had about 4 more just like him.

I didn't think they had Gavin in there before. There's some interesting possibilities with it. If nothing else it gives you a really physical blocker. I still try to figure out a way to get him the ball from there though.

I just figured both teams would miss an extra point. Otherwise, nailed it.

Bearden had a really nice play to score there at the end of the half. AC helped get them in position with a penalty but that's HS football. AC had I think a 4 man rush. Everyone else dropped back in coverage. Receiver ran a nice post route and the QB threw a dart between two defenders. It was covered pretty well. Just a good play by Bearden. On that earlier formation I was talking about with Noe. He's a big physical target. Wonder if they could drag him across the middle from that to get him the ball in space. With the way Moog is running the ball a play action to suck the LB in, then a quick pass to Noe dragging across the format. Maybe a dig for there too. Noe isn't fast enough to be a home run every time, but man, get the ball to a guy like that in space? He can outrun linebackers but safeties and corner backs would have to make a business decision.

21-14 AC at the half. I saw an interesting formation tonight from AC with Noe on the outside edge on a bunch formation. I really like that wrinkle. Anyone know if they've done that before?

34-27 AC

It's a few fans that have tied their ego to the success of the program. Much of that due to the way the AD handles things. Many of us are pretty level headed. My personal opinion is that AC is somewhere in between OR and GV. I don't know if AC would put a running clock on OR but they would beat them by 3 scores minimum. I think GV has an edge on AC due to line depth though. If we could clone a couple more Eli Nelson's and Jaden Bullocks we'd be great. AC is pretty solid at most skill positions. (I hate that term, linemen are skill positions too).

If I was to break them down I'd say this. Elizabethton did a good job of scheming and used some timely big pass plays. They could chew up clock and limit possessions for AC which means AC had to be very efficient with possessions. AC came out a bit flat thinking they had it in the bag. They had to wake up. That's hard to do against a good team, which we all agree Elizabethton is. Against Rhea county it was a turnover fest. AC was clearly better but offensively and defensively were out of kilter big time. Nick Moog had some really uncharacteristic fumbles which led to scores by Rhea county on a short field. Rhea county isn't bad but they're not really good either. They are young but have potential. If we play like that against better teams we absolutely lose. I can't remember but wasnt it like 4 or 5 turnovers? 3 of them were on consecutive possessions I think too. I know the one to start the 2nd half we got the ball and fumbled it on our side on play 2 or 3 to start the half. This is HS football with 12 minute quarters we are taking about so a lot less time and fewer possessions than college. That means every possession takes on extra significance. But, they kept grinding and got the win. In the past I've seen them fold in those circumstances. 2 or 3 years ago, I think... we played Greenville at AC. It wasn't a bad game but a few breaks went against AC. Once they started playing Greenville from behind it got exponentially worse for AC. I watched players start to panic and try to hard to make a play. One play in particular stands out. We were behind and had forced a punt. Our player had no business trying to catch the ball but he and the team felt the pressure to make something happen. He tried to field the ball to run it instead of letting it go (we'd have ended up with it on our 20 yd line or so). He fumbled the catch, GV recovered and scored a couple plays later from a short field. The final score was a pretty good margin but AC was in that game for a while. I bring all that up to say that in those wins against Elizabethton and Rhea county AC didn't show the same panic or desperate play I've seen before. There was frustration but for the most part, they played through that and executed. That's what I mean by valuable lessons learned.

Shiny hook, too shiny AAMOF

The thing to watch and take away from this game for AC fans is the line play. Can we consistently control the line of scrimmage against the Bulldogs? I think athlete wise we match up well enough. Can we make it 4 quarters of play with good line play on both sides? I personally don't think we do but our skilled position guys can, and have, bailed us out before. If we win, it will be because we win with skill positions, good schemes and force them early to play catch up. We have some good, maybe really good linemen. We just don't have enough depth to substitute and go 4 quarters. As for all the other stuff, my thoughts on east Tennessee teams are in another thread, most of you have read them. I see no reason to change anything yet but I'll add one thing. Forcing other teams to play catch up... that forces a lot of teams into unfamiliar situations and exponentially increases chances for mistakes, like turnovers. This is especially true at the HS level. I've been critical of AC when needed but they have shown a remarkable ability to successfully play from behind this season. That could come in handy in the play off session.

We got all them fireworks and an empty trophy case.

Yeah, you guys figured that out at our expense. I was trying to be complementary of you guys while also saying that AC's secondary isn't susceptible to the pass as much as people think. We're above average IMO. Hope it came off that way.

No doubt all hs secondaries are subject to passing attacks but I saw Elizabethton throw 3 or 4 of the most beautiful deep fades ever. They were perfectly defended but perfectly executed. 2 or 3 of those led directly to scores. One was on a 4th and 3 from the 20 that Elizabethton scored a td on. You're not going to see many teams that can execute that play like that. I'm not sure Elizabethton can do that consistently and i mean that as a compliment. Those passes were that good. I like to think I'm pretty unbiased so I know that sounds like I'm making excuses. Where Elizabethton really helped themselves was being able to sustain drives on the ground and eat up clock while limiting AC possessions. Add those 3 or 4 passes at critical times and voila, Elizabethton leads.

Yeah, I haven't had enough coffee yet. I knew that the game was over, just got caught up in the conversation. I even posted something in the 4a section earlier about Boone and thier defense.

I know at times I sound like sour grapes for my school, I just see it for what it is and don't try to hide the flaws. Only way it gets fixed is to shine a light on it. We certainly have the potential to get to that level but there's too much focus only on football. It's caused fractures that no one wants to admit exist. Our MS coach is awesome. I know this thread has gotten off topic so I'll try to get it back on track. This week be a real test for the Boone defense. The level of competition is going to be higher with SH but Boone has been very consistent on D. That's the storyline I'm most interested in.

Swipes with the wisdom. Unfortunately we do not do that at AC quite like that. We have a decent feeder program that does well but I've never seen hs coaches there. If a parent had money, influence or power the AD and (some of) the staff bends over backwards to appease them and cover for thier kids misdeeds. There's not a lot of sharing athletes and AFAIK it isn't encouraged. Maybe a couple play Basketball or baseball. See my above post. If our middle school program goes away, our hs program will fold. I'll add this. Our middle school coach is a good dude and loves all athletes at the school. He loves football but isn't shy about giving love and support to other kids in other sports. He's what I wish for in an AD.

Swipes, question for you. From my point of view it looks like GV does a good job of supporting other sports programs at your school. Is that the case or is there some jealousy from other sports at the school towards football? Here at AC the other teams parents, maybe with the exception of boys Basketball and baseball, hate the way they are pushed to the side. Especially girls sports. I'm petty sure our AD would burn every single sports program to the ground and personally throw a thermite grenade into the locker rooms of every sports program at the school if it meant he could win one gold football.

I usually hang out in the 4a section but this was an interesting read. My thoughts are we have a shortage now that will get worse. It's not just any one thing but a lot of it is the abuse officials suffer. If your kids are good enough to play in college at the next level, one or two missed calls ain't changing that. Their body of work over a season will speak for itself. They may play 300 snaps a year on just one side of the ball. Even half a dozen bad calls won't change what they did. A college coach will still see what they need to.

https://tssaa.org/2022-fall-enrollments AC at 1042 Elizabethton at 879

Truer words have never been spoken. T$$AA cares about one thing.

I'd agree they are to 6a what Ac is to 4a. This could be the year they catch Maryville but like AC vs GV, until you actually do it.... That close loss to GV, where you definitely had chances to win would give me a lot of confidence. Yes, I know they're 4a but a great team is a great team. No one would snub thier nose if they beat Alcoa and say 'that's just a 3a team.' Oakland looks really good from what little I've seen but if DB made the semis or the finals I wouldn't be surprised. I'd be mildly surprised if they win it all though. I know we all make everything about that gold ball but in the end it's high school kids. Having a good season, maturing, learning how to operate as part of a team and most important, having FUN, should be enough. That's all I'd ask for.