NETNSportsFan

Yes, Jeremy Boksins was hired as Athletic Director at TCCA and they went 8-2 in their 8 man football this year. Moving to 11 man soon. Their basketball program is killing it right now, already seeing players coming just for bball and they had a sell-out crowd for their game against Oak Hill last week. I hear they have a goal to be a sports school and compete with other private schools in that aspect. They'll be in their new 90 million facility and be TSSAA in 2025.

I never said they weren't good guys- but Coach Quarles is a "good guy" too. Does't make him a good coach. And let's see how ETSU handles that situation. East TN school administrators need to decide if football is as important to them as it is in Knox and make decisions accordingly. If they're good with status quo... then go ahead and pat each other on the back for beating your conference rival and call it a season. But it'll be the same story year after year come playoffs.

Former Blazer is spot on with #1. Eddie and Shawn live and breath football all year long. They are involved in the pee-wee program and they invite those young players to be a part of Friday nights. Those little ones idolize the HS players and can't wait to be one. It's a completely different attitude from birth in those cities and it shows in every aspect and that's why they are champions- because they have a champion mentality. Both those programs have incredible community support as well, as does smaller programs like Hampton. Most JC or Kpt residents could care-less about their high school football program and it really shows on Fridays. Boone actually has a great fan base- but their good-old boy coaching system has been running the same thing for 20 years. You've said it before BlazerSet... Run, Run, pass (penalty), punt. Even when they work on a great play all week the coaches often are too scared to run it on Friday night. Too conservative and too stubborn to try something new. And their pee wee program struggles as well. I think they had one age group that did go to the championship this year- but Elizabethton swept 3 of the age groups in the end. If NE TN really wants to start competing in football it would take a changing of the coaching staff at most of the schools and then duplicating what Eliz and Greeneville does with the pee wee program and creating a championship mindset and in about 10 years you'll have some great teams that might get past the 1st round. Last year would have been Boone's year if the QB wasn't hurt. As someone on the team said, they were even good enough to overcome bad coaching- but this year's team wasn't nearly as talented and those coaching calls and ill-prepared defenses were glaring.

What happened to the 3rd string guy?

West Ridge and Lakeway Christian's game was cancelled and is not being made up- money was refunded- you don't hear Lakeway belly-aching like the Cyclones.

That's actually a good idea to change next's year's game to be home again for Elizabethton vs Boone. Won't help this year, but will make up for that lost revenue that Elizabethton missed out on this year.

Yes- that is Mo. West's bye week so they agreed to add it without having to play again on Friday. Greeneville does play Volunteer on that Friday- but that isn't going to be a difficult game. Glad it worked out for them to get the game in. That will be tough for Mo West to prepare for Greeneville only having Th-Monday to practice. I agree it wasn't fair to either Elizabethton or Greeneville for their games to be cancelled but can't control weather. Penalizing a team sets a dangerous precedent come basketball season when weather cancellations are commonplace.

Actually Ewrin returned 7 of their 8 top tacklers on defense, and it's a school that's a few hundred students bigger than Boone from the city of Asheville. So you've got to assume they have some athletes to choose from. I think Ewrin's offense was less than average but I think their defense will prove to have been pretty solid and a great 1st game for the Blazers to see where their weakness are. Greeneville's QB is good, (not top 3 in the state, lol) but many of those yards came from wide-open receivers who ran the distance. How well will he do when he has to make a drive down the field connecting on 3rd r 4th downs? Tennessee was picked to win the 5a, but those 1st games are never a good indicator of how good a team is until you have some same-opponents, apples to apples comparisons. Like last year everyone thought West Ridge was so great when they blew out Volunteer. Turns out those were two terrible teams with Volunteer just being more terrible than WR.

So last year's 30-0 score with starters coming out in 3rd q wasn't a stomping?

Boone has a lot to work on for sure, but Boone's starting QB wasn't there. Freshman at QB. Also missing starting center and linebacker Henry Hamlin.

Believe that's a different family.

Yes, Gib Maupin transferred from Eliz to DB.

Boone losing about 19 seniors, but not their QB, RB or defensive player of the year. If they can get the linemen in tune I think it'll be a reloading year. 2nd string got lots of playtime in many of the games. If all the Jrs come back they should have another strong senior class of about 15.

West was really, really good. And I've been told good sports too... no extra shoves or after the whistle activity etc. Good luck to West the rest of the way. Was surprised how inefficient Boone was without starting QB.

Ya, we've heard you all year long. I believe the first post this year was something you heard from the coaches about the QB not being any good? Boone's offense on the "struggle bus" is another of your famous quotes. Jenkins is #8 for passing yards for Class 5A in the state. Aiden Riner is #16 for rushing and that's with missing 2 games. Seems to me they move the ball just fine- and more than enough to have the best record the school has ever had. Short fields have helped but it didn't stop them from getting the yards when they needed to. After this week no one is in the mood for anyone who doesn't believe in those boys. They may get stomped tonight but until the buzzer sounds true fans are going to bet on the blazers.