8BALL

Mcdermott from McMinn County has 1549 yards with 24 TD and 7+ ypc. Had 225+ yds (on 21 carries) last week vs Bradley and only had 1 series in the 2nd half.

congrats to the owl freshmen. does this mean another 10-0 season from the varsity in 3 years?

and you may very well be right. that's why i'm looking forward to next week's game. too bad i can't make it to sevierville. "In McMinn McDermott is the only really good back they got" is kindof like saying that the Indy Colts don't have another good QB other than Manning. McMinn does have some good quality backups, but they are not going to give them carries instead of mcdermott. hello? those couple of runs from the qb has amounted to over 400 yards. 4 receivers are averaging over 15 yards/catch (3 of them have over 10 receptions each and the 4th has about 5) FBs run well (both over 5 ypc) just don't get a lot of carries. be careful about the statement of "if you stop mcdermott, you stop mcminn" though. 1. Ooltewah's the only team that has been able to 2. mcminn beat Oak Ridge with mcdermott only playing the 1st qtr (left due to injury) and Soddy Daisy with mcdermott getting just a few carries (same injury). mcminn's D may not be as good as sevier's but they've been pretty solid most of the year. prone to giving up the big play a couple of times a game, however. neither heritage nor BC got past midfield until they brought in the subs late in the games. I know heritage and BC aren't playoff calibur, but that's impressive nontheless. BC had a 1,000 yard rusher and had been able to move the ball on just about everyone they played. of course, we could both go on and on i'm sure. so i'm done posting. looking forward to a good 1st round matchup.

1. of course bradley isn't sevier co. but the point is mcminn came out against an average bradley squad and completely dominated the game in all 3 phases. i mean how many times do you see an opposing coach asking the game to be shortened? i know sevier county has had good recent games. last week vs. bearden, wow, and against #1 DB. but what about recent wins over below avg teams in seymour, campbell co, and jeff co? not nearly as dominate as mcminn has shown against similar opponents in recent weeks. 2. If sevier county plays 8 in the box then i believe it will be a long night with the qb and receivers mcminn has. (i'm using the same argument b/c mcminn's qb has more passing yardage than sevier's) but if they do not play 8 in the box then the big and physical line could open big holes for the all-state candidate mcdermott (twice the yardage thomas has, 1500+ to 600) ummm...when i use this thinking, i'm going to pick mcminn.

i'd have to say the biggest difference in the mcminn team right now and the one that lost 3 straight at the beginning of the season is that the players know they can play with anyone. confidence goes a long way when you have some ability to go with it.

Looks like we know how things will look for round 1, what about round 2? Round 1 DB vs WB = DB Sevier vs McMinn = McMinn Bearden vs Farragut = Farragut Science Hill vs Ooltewah = Ooltewah Round 2 DB vs Farragut Ooltewah vs McMinn Region 2 is 4-1 against region 1 this year in head to head battles. WB (4) beat Sevier (2) 24-12 OR (5) beat Jeff Co (6) 48-7 Heritage (8) beat Campbell Co (7) 29-14 Farragut (2) beat Bearden (3) 27-14 OR (5) lost to DB (1) 10-33 There is no doubt that top to bottom region 2 is stronger this year. Going into friday nites game, 6 teams in region 2 still had a mathematical shot at reaching the playoffs. That was not the case for region 1, where it has been pretty evident for awhile who the top 4 were. In head to head games against playoff teams between these two regions, region 2 is 2-0. Just trying to back up my predictions with some facts. Of course, as already has been stated on this thread, there is no dominate team in these two regions, so the chance of my predictions shaking out are about 10%. Playoffs will be interesting.

it pretty much was. mcminn scored an offensive TD, defensive TD, and special teams TD. the only time heritage made it past mid-field was on a fumble. they threw an INT within a couple of plays. heritage did throw the ball quit a bit. i guess any team that does that is capable of a big play. and they do have some size. don't take them lightly and it won't be close. my advice also for WB, you need to use this game as a springboard to the playoffs (a trip probably to DB). you definitely don't want to go up there after a so-so week against heritage.

it was 41-0 at halftime, i think. i believe mcminn started subbing about midway in 3rd.

WB will have no trouble with this one. McMinn was able to do anything they wanted offensively and defensively kept heritage inside their own territory all nite. the 14 points were against the subs. i was kind of surprised that your score against BC was close, especially considering BC did not beat heritage by much. did WB not play a good game or is BC that much better than last year?

You left out the Oak Ridge game. Oh wait, that's OR that's waiting to wake up from that one.

Assuming no letdowns or surprises, WB (or OR) will be the best #4 seed in the state. The #5 who doesn't get in is better than most #4 seeds out there and some #3 seeds. The region has shaped up to have 5 pretty evenly matched teams (ooltewah is obviously champs but they beat mcminn, wb, farragut by a combined 16 points; clearly they are not head and shoulders above the next four). WB will represent the region well against DB if that is indeed how in shakes out.

the original post by oskie only said that he heard a rumor. isn't that all that shows up on coacht anyway, opinions and rumors? since that is all he heard, oskie's probably not the guy to bring up specifics. i like the way that an owl fan quickly pointed the finger in mcminn's direction without anything to back it up, though.

i agree. saying a back only had so and so if you take away his 8 carries for over 10 yards. that is like saying georgia stopped tennessee if you take away their 7 scoring plays. i mean they weren't successful on the other 66 plays, right?

which are what?

mcdermott passed the 1,100 yard mark this past week with 160+ yards against the govs including a TD run on 3rd & 10 in OT. avg is about 7 ypc. he only played the 1st qtr and OT period against OR, and had about 75 yards, due to injury and only got a few snaps against SD for the same reason. he torched a capable rhea co. D for 230+ yards the week before OR. he very easily could have 100+ more if he had played those two entire games. he could have had more than the 135 yards he had against farraguts D if mcminn hadn't been down so much in the 2nd half and been forced to throw the football. ooltewah has been the only team that has been able to stop him and i think that was more of the owls defensive front winning the line of scrimmage. with heritage and bradley left to play, i would predict he'll end regular season with about 1600. I can't comment on the rest of the state but I don't think there is a better back in the region (and there are many...marshall, walker, sterling, moody, bingham). I do like the marshall kid from ooltewah though. he runs hard every snap. if mcdermott ever gets to that point, watch out!!

govman, any word as to whether anything could come of this? A forfeit would mean WB is in the playoffs for sure and could possibly avoid a 1st round matchup in kingsport.

kindof like OR did last week? i'm not going to get into a debate, but i say mcminn took it. WB at least had a chance to win in OT.

You didn't watch the same game i did. McMinn did have about 100 yards more of total offense. the game is 14-7 farragut when mcminn's qb throws an int in the flat that goes for a TD just before half. mcminn also fumbled twice in the second half inside their own territory. mcminn's D stopped farragut on both of those possessions on 3 and outs if i'm not mistaken but farragut was able to kick FGs. those three plays alone accounted for 13 of farragut's points and all were mistakes by mcminn. you don't know much about football if you think farragut dominated that game. unless of course you're talking about on the scoreboard.

It's easy to say you improved against the likes of bradley and heritage, both teams themselves are not very good. You even lost to bradley. this one won't be close. My prediction: Mcminn scores as easily as they want to and the first D only gives up a FG.

mcminn scored first on 4th down from the 2. OR scored on 3rd down, went for two and pass fell incomplete. Mcminn could have had a chance to win in regulation but threw an INT in the end zone with 15 seconds left. OR in turned fumbled which mcminn returned to about the 15 with 2 seconds left, but the ball carrier was called down. Go Cherokees.

McMinn runs a 4-4 on defense with a cover 3 behind it (they mix in man-to-man i think as well). To my knowledge they haven't been in a cover 2 at all this year.

i thought rhea cos defense was pretty quick. explains why mcdermott didn't have any big gains. he did of course have 200+ yards. fb also ran over rhea. doesn't matter how much speed you have if you can't bring people down. looked like mcminn's D was much more impressive. except for a long TD pass early, had no trouble with rhea's O. good luck this week vs. OR!

Why not post some of your suggestions as to how you would instill discipline in this team. What would you do to help the players hold on to the ball? Obviously, the coaches haven't tried anything. FYI - on words with long vowels sounds, drop the "e" before adding "ing". (ex - make becomes making) McMinn 31 Rhea 10

i believe that nigel will be back before the end of the year. it's not certain how long he will be out. definitely not back this week or next.

I would go along with that. My definition of a successful season is winning the games you're supposed to. A good season is winning those and then beating someone you're not supposed to. Although I expected McMinn to be at least 2-1, I think you would be hard pressed to say McMinn was supposed to beat Ooltewah and Cleveland after coming off of two 3-7 seasons. Could they have? Sure. Did they think they could? Probably. Did the fans expect them to? Obviously. I don't think McMinn is off track yet. But they definitely haven't started down the road to a good season just yet, either. A win this Friday nite against a team they are supposed to lose to (easy McMinn fans, just stating facts. I mean farragut was one of the top teams in the region and state last year and they have many returning starters) would put them on pace for a good year. Good luck Cherokees!