cneagles13

Betsy has a solid team. They play disciplined, mistake-free football and run the football fairly well. That being said, they are going to have to make major defensive adjustments this week to keep this game respectable. GP ran the ball at will on their 3-4. They seemed to especially have trouble with GP's biggest back who is in the 6'2" 210 range. He probably had 75 or 80 yards after contact. Betsy just couldn't bring him down. I would imagine that Warren and Tyson would present the same problem for them, not to mention that Alcoa's line is substantially larger than GP's. Good luck to both teams.

As Burt Reynold's old college roommate would say, Not so fast my friend. Against five common opponents, GP posted a higher score against four of them. The other game, AE, both teams scored the same number of offensive points. They also gave up fewer points to three of the five teams. In the other two games, AE scored one more point while Erwin scored one more TD against the jayvee during garbage time. With all that said, I think these two teams are extremely evenly matched. I'll be shocked if either team wins by 17 point margin. As a result, I'm going to give the edge to the home team that doesn't have a two hour bus ride. GP - 20 Elizabethton - 14

As someone said earlier, 33 is the most Alcoa's given up since 2007. That year they gave up 42 to Maryville and 36 to GP. Prior to that, Huntingdon scored 41 in the 2004 title game.

Can't wait for the game. I'm expecting a slugfest. Hope to see a good crowd from Betsy. I know of few better places in East Tennessee to watch a game than the Mountain Thicket, but I am a little biased. For a great experience, I would suggest getting to Gatlinburg early to eat at Best Italian in Elks Plaza on the upper end of the strip or at Parton's Deli on 321 coming into town across from the Rocky Waters Inn (bring cash, Henry doesn't take plastic lol!). Safe travels for all coming our way. Hopefully classes will allow me to to do a little research and provide a more in depth analysis later this week.

I agree. I keep thinking that Fulton will recover or Red Bank will get back to where they were about a decade ago. Those are really the only other 4A teams in the east with a history of success. I'm a little confused though. What exactly does any of this have to do with Betsy at GP this Friday?

I agree. I was personally expecting a squib quick, but prior to that return, he had been pinned inside the 15 thrice including twice inside the ten. My guess, is Coach Hammonds saw the first TD return as the outlier in that set.

So there's no such thing as busted coverage. Your superior skilled team was also outgained by over 200 yards. Happy Valley is a solid team and provided a stiff test, but claiming you are the better team in a loss when you are statistically dominated in every category except kick returns makes you look out of touch. There comes a point in time when you must accept the outcome and move forward. I'm not trying to take anything away Happy Valley. This is the eighth season in a row that GP has played you, and this is one of the best teams I've seen. Congratulations on a good season. I'd love to see y'all added to our schedule as a nonconference game to keep this budding rivalry going.

Ya, a team giving up back to back kick off returns for TDs, which account for half of the opposition's points, isn't really a big mistake at all. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

Should be a really good battle. I'm going to wait a few days and do a little research before I predict a final score.

Both teams played a hard nosed game. Both teams also made plenty of mistakes. Tonight GP happened to come out on top.How about we just leave it at that instead of making excuses that detract from the effort set forth by teams.

That's one of the funniest things I've read on this board in a long time!

GP actually beat Happy Valley 17-7 in the first round of last year's playoffs. However, Happy Valley did win the last regular season meeting between the two in 2008.

AE with to much speed for the Buffs. I expect them two win by a score around 28-7.

GP leads the all-time series 6-2 dating back to the days of the old Appalachian Conference while each team has played a similarly weak schedule this season. GP and North have two common opponents this year in Erwin and East. In those two games, GP's margin of victory is twice that of Sullivan North's. The defenses are nearly statistically identical with each allowing around 17 points per game. However, GP's offense has been more prolific, averaging nearly 10 points per game more than SN. Like any GP team, this one loves to run the ball, averaging over 200 ypg on the ground. Senior tailback Walter Barber is over 1000 yards on the season at over 8 yards per carry. However, this team has been more willing to throw the ball with Senior QB Tye Marshall and the Senior receiving corps of Ron Durbin, Jeremy Hibbard, and Ryan Taylor. The passing game has also averaged over 100 yards per game with Marshall and Durbin hooking up 11 TDs on the season. I was unable to find complete statistics for the Raiders for comparisons, but their total points would indicate that they prefer a more grind it out approach. The stats would suggest a two possession victory for GP. However, the vast majority of previous games have been decided by a single possession. I think the big play capabilities of GP's skill positions, namely Barber and Durbin, will be too much for the North defense. Final Score GP 28 SN 18

If PF and Johnson County were both to get in (a big if), my understanding is that AE and PF would be the two teams that would move into Quad 2 because GP is located farther east than PF. Of course, that is contingent of TSSAA using the same criteria for drawing the Quads as they did last year so who knows.

I have nothing wrong with GP, but what they have done the past 2 off-seasons with transfers is a little more out there then just transferring from one school to the other. I'm glad to see GP, and their massive team, all they need is a TRUE point guard and they will have a great shot at state. Their addition to that district has made it the most competitive basketball district I can remember having around here. Appreciate the words about their team, but my point is Jose Agosto is the only true transfer to the program, and his family knew Raul and wanted him to play here, simple as that. As mentioned before, Morrease Barber transfered here for VERY real and personal reasons that in no way had anything to do with basketball (the kid is a stand-up guy in a sit-down world if you ask me). We have his brother Walt (who is primarily a football player) as a result of him seeing how things have been for Morrease here. Contrast that to the literally dozens of "transfers" within Knox County, and well . . . we are hardly running a basketball mill up here in Gatlinburg. You hit the nail on the head on the point guard (my son). He would love nothing more than to move to 2 guard, and has been shooting well enough to fill the spot left by McKinley Maples - but he is doing his best to fill the 1 spot, and is working hard in this off season to play the role his team currently needs. We shall see how it goes. Mr McCroskey, Been out of the loop for a few weeks now. How has the team looked during camps?

Hahaha that is true

GP is playing in the region tournament because they took care of business during the regular season. Following your line of logic the last two games they played should carry more weight than the 12 regular season district games that each team played. Under that scenario, especially in a very competitive district such as this one, they regular season is rendered meaningless. If anything, the TSSAA should eliminate the district tournaments altogether and have the top four teams in the district standings at the end of the season placed into the region tournament. I also think it is time to let the suspension issue die. You have already admitted that you have no inside knowledge of the situation, yet you continue to imply that the only reason the suspensions were inacted was to throw the consolation game. It's an unpleasant situation, but I assure you that everything that happened is as MMcCroskey said. Unless you have intimate knowledge of the situation, it would be advisable to not question the integretiy of the coach. Besides, as a former coach, you should know that there are much less obvious ways to influence the outcome of the game if that were Coach Placeres' desire. If a coach's intent was to throw a game, suspending all but two varsity players is too obvious and stupid a manner of doing so.

You are right on target. The coach has known about these issues for some time but chose the consolation game of the district tournament to suspend these players for a "violation of team rules". I too, applaud any coach for taking disciplinary actions but the timing of these suspensions is a llittle odd. If you are really serious about teaching the kids a lesson, take the action when it really means something. This action could have been taken earlier but the coach chose not to do so. I would advise listening to MMcCroskey. I think it is important to remember there are more important things in life than winning basketball games. Coach Placeres did what he thought was best for the players in question, and I am confident he made the correct decision that was in no way, shape, or form affected by any desire to throw the game.

Sorry, tranferring is not against the rules, recruiting is. Hopefully both schools and coaches know better!!! LOL The underlying issue here is the idea of the pot calling out the kettle. Pigeon Forge has a history of having athletes magically appear on their doorstep. If you don't believe me look at the starting lineup for their 2005 baseball team that was state runner-up. It's like a burgler turning in a con artist. Add to that the fact that the only people who know if any recruiting occured are the Coach Placeres and kids in question. Does the whole situation seem to true to belief? Yes, it does. But so does the idea that a high school basketball coach who recently became a father left his pregnant wife alone all summer to fly around the country with Ed Orgeron and Bruce Pearl as part of some super recruiting team. The bottom line is these kids (and its important to remember that they are just kids) have formed a bond as teammates that is much stronger than any of these distractions. And I must say, it has been a joy to watch them grow as a team, as basketball players, and, most importantly, as quality young men.

I think the person in question was just a little frustrated from the Lost... I mean, why would you quit after a lost other then being frustrated.. I don't know how realiable this is, but I was told through the grapevine that the player in question had family obligations that prevented him from participating in the practice Fulton held after the the loss to West. He was then given the choice between practicing and not fulfilling his family obligations or quitting.

The thing is it looks like UC needs Vittitoe to put up 30 points a night to compete. He's a terrific high school ball player, but I don't think he will be able to put up those kind of numbers every night and that's what they need to win. On a different note, does Gibbs play enough defense to continue the early season roll they've been on? They recently gave up over 80 points to a Pigeon Forge team whose offense would make Kevin O'Neil proud. I'll go out on a limb and predict that the two state tourney reps for Regions 1 and 2 come out of this district.

I have never seen anything like it personally in an all-star game. The east coaches really made it obvious they were from the Chatt. area. 31 times to 2 is terrible, you don't do that to a kid. You were right about Mr. Wilson. Some talent indeed! he really needs to go play college football, it would be a waste of talent if he didn't. As for Weston, I really think Carson Newman his high on his list. I personally feel he would be a great fit there on either side of the ball playing the full back postion in there offense or LB in their defense. I would expect CN to recruit him as a LB. All 3 starting LB's graduate this year, and in CN's split-back veer there really isn't a fullback position. As a CN fan, I would love to see us pick up him and Stone both.

They're right here on this site under schedule rankings. A site devoted to Tennessee football and may know a little more about what this state has to offer. Guess is, your site's writers couldn't name a Tennessee team off the top of their head without having to look something up other than maybe Maryville or possibly Alcoa. Stick to the state not some nationally known site that has never heard of Greeneville or Red Bank. Nice try buddy. The Massey Ratings are based on a formula established by a math professor (Kenneth Massey) at Carson-Newman. Last time I checked, that's located in Jeff Co., a team Greeneville played this year.

True. But he's won 298 other games so I'm not to concerned about his coaching ability.