FormerMav

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.

Now that we're 8 games into the season there's some trends and trajectories we can see developing. I know I included some 5/6 a teams in here but they're area teams that many of us have played. Let's talk about Daniel Boone. Through 7 games they've given up 5 touchdowns. That's it. Sure they can score, maybe not as prolific as some other teams but they can definitely put points on the board. With that defense they don't need to score a lot. The can score 1 TD and it's enough to win. How deep of a run do they make? This has a bit of a 'feel good story' to it IMO. Elizabethton is getting better each week. I think we can all agree this is not the same team that started 0-3 scoring only 7 points total in 3 losses. Arguably those 3 losses were against really good competition in SH, GV and Daniel Boone (who we now know has a really good defense). Since then they are 3-1 and have scored 34, 35, 47 and 55 points. Sure, with the exception of AC the competition wasn't as strong but they are clearly on the upswing. The demise of the green devil has been grossly misrepresented. They've had 4 shutouts and 2 close games, which they've won both. Oak Ridge has some athletes and speed, and the green devils put a running clock on them. Greenville is still Greenville. AC is a little harder to figure. I've been to a few games this year. They have some athletes at every position, but not every position if that makes sense. Great running game and backs. Prolific passing ability with several deep threats. Defense is improved but still susceptible to a big play. That's just high school football I guess. Overall they're good but not the best AC team I've ever seen. The team that lost a close one to GV a few years ago at GV with the older Noe and Moog was terrific. Literally any other year and that team wins it all, no questions asked. It just happened in a year where GV was probably the best they had ever been. I'm not saying AC can't win it this year but they need to be more consistent. To their credit they found a way to win against a resurgent Elizabethton and a scrappy Rhea county team. To me, AC is the wild card this year. Clinton, despite all the talk, is only marginally better. OR is devastated by injuries but I don't think it really matters. They're mid pack at best if healthily. West is a beast. Don't know what else to say here. If they're clicking on all cylinders I can't think of a team that could beat them. Maryville is down a bit, maybe? Until it happens over the course of 2 or 3 seasons it is an anomaly. They're still a really good football team with really high expectations that are hard to live up to. The poor Halls red devils are bad this year, worse than anyone thought they'd be. Powell is back down to earth this year. With Potts at qb they have a chance to win any game but they're not the same team from a year ago. They're good, but not great. Thoughts? Who'd I leave out?

Called it