Dobyns-Bennett Football

[plowboy2]

When I started hearing about how down the Indians were going to be this year I got a little gleam in my eye. Seems like when DB starts out weak they end up strong. For some reason they don't seem so hungry when they start out ranked #1 or end up ranked #1 entering the playoffs. The year they lost in the simi's to Riverdale (2001 or 2002, can't remember) I think was their best team. If you remember before the first game people were saying "worst DB team ever" The first game was against MBA and it went to 3 overtimes before MBA pulled it out. I think after 5 games DB had 2 wins and 3 loses. The coaching staff stayed after it and made a very good team out of what was not a very good team. I have seen the staff at DB do this more than once. I just think it wakes up the staff and the players when DB is on the weak side and they work harder and stay hungry the entire season. I think when the chips are down at DB this pride thing comes into play. I haven't seen anything like it at any other school.

Great comment.Have felt the same way for years.I want to jump up and shout this is one of those years.Got to keep my composure thought.Made the statement that some of these boys have the heart to do it,and was shut down with negativity about the team.I have seen some of the current players on the team grow up and know first hand the ability and talent is there.The entire staff needs to focus and keep the pride thing going.Teams and people love to bash DB because they know we come in strong with pride.(The Tribe)

[Mr. Crazy]

drdb you can say that all the seniors after they leave think that the team is not gonna be as good but thats not true. cause when i was a junior the junior class started almost every position so the whole senior class said that we were going to be alot better than they were before our season started last year. also there is no debate about graham not being able to coach big games, he just cant do it name a big game that he has done somethin to win in the past 2 years please name it

[compusatman]

compusatman,

we will just have to agree to disagree on a few subjects...I don't think east and middle are "better" as if it is an automatic...you probably don't think D-B was "better" two years ago against South, yet the Indians won...

Blount County has an open school policy...one example; one of Alcoa's WR/DB's lives within viewing distance of Knoxville Karns High School, yet is able to play @ Alcoa...many other examples of this open policy have been discussed on coachT (similar situation was in play in Memphis, Shelby County, that led to basketball situations like that of White Station being able to load up on many of the best and tallest)...

publicity is better in other parts of the state for individual athletes, more AAU exposure, recruiting "experts" living in the bigger city markets and making money by promoting some of their own over others they truly haven't seen enough to evaluate...

the "map" has been dictated by statements such as D-B always loses in the first round and the other teams could assist in repositioning the map by being more consistent, but then that takes a program being in place and that has so many variables (coaches, AD, fan support, parental support, school board attention and money, players with talent and work ethic, just to name a few)...

why is it that we are suppose to except the sentence that says Region 1 5A (the Big East) is a weak conference?...since the 5 classifications have been set, how many Knoxville or east TN teams have won the conference?...Sevier County has...Knoxville schools haven't, nor did the Blount County schools when they were in it (Karns, South-Doyle, William Blount, Heritage?)...in fact how many Knoxville schools have won Region 2 5A?...normally it is Oak Ridge...so why are we supposed to just say okay they are better?...D-B played MBA two straight years and split with them, and the game D-B lost went four overtimes and D-B was playing without fours starters who left with cramps and one starter whose knee exploded on the second half kickoff and another stater who injured an ankle, yet it went 4 OTs to decide...and MBA was in the private school championship game both of those years (best of my recollection)...who was better?...

Maryville High School is different from other 4A programs...and Mo West has been real good over the past few years, but who else in Region 2 4A have been consistently better than South, Tennessee High, and Elizabethton (especially under Coach Rider)?...now Mo East won last year in the playoffs and were better on that given day, but I just refuse to say Region 1 4A or 5A are of a lesser stature.

Roll Tribe Roll

 

Skunk,

You have some valid comments. I have come to respect your presence here on CoachT. As you probably expected, I am not attuned to the situation in Blount County or White Station. You most likely don't want to rehash old news but is TSSAA not in control of that situation? I mean if DB did not require tuition and all the other red tape then yes this county would be in a different state of affairs.

[Mr. Crazy]

plowboy tell me who are the players there that have all this talent and tell how you know first hand and tell who has grown up in these months they have been working out and doing stuff just tell me cause i just want to know

[drdb2]

Mr. Crazy,

 

Clark has been the head coach at DB a lot longer than the past 2 years... he has also been in a lot bigger games than the first round match-ups that the team has dropped those years... to base the claim that he simply cannot win big games on the results of the past two years is ridiculous... I wouldn't even call those playoff games "big" games

[skunk]

compusatman,

The situation in Memphis/Shelby County changed after the J.P. Prince led White Station state basketball championship (their 3rd in 4 years?) where there was no longer an "open door policy" and that led to the White Station head coach leaving for a private school in west Tennessee...and #6 for Alcoa's football team and he also plays basketball lives in view of Knox Karns, so I am truly not sure what the TSSAA has done...I am just a firm believer in "on any given night" (within reason)...I have seen things happen in the course of a game that could not be anticipated that decide the outcome...two examples regarding D-B football - D-B vs Red Bank in Chattanooga in the 5A semi-finals, D-B has the top passing offense in the state (Chris Henry captain of MTSU's football team his senior year, and Gerald Sensabaugh as their receivers and a record setting QB in Scotty Butler) and probably the quickest back to ever wear the maroon and grey in Adonis Johnson and we are playing Gerald Riggs' Red Bank team...beginning at about 4:30pm Chattanooga receives over 5 inches of rain before the 11 o'clock news begins...on a dry field or even reasonably wet one, it isn't a game...two years later D-B vs Riverdale in the semis in Murfreesboro a short punt by the Indians punter is touched by an D-B player (but not downed) and is picked up and run into the endzone by a Riverdale lineman for the deciding TD...heck lets go to the D-B vs South (the 7-6 win for D-, there's not a South fan living that thinks that one was won by who should have won, the two late fumbles (even though caused by good defense and not just a dropped ball) made the difference in the game...none of those three examples were decided by "bad" coaching, nor were they decided by "good" coaching...getting to those games and achieving those opportunities were the result of good coaching and good efforts by some high school athletes and some luck and some God given grace, so thus "on any given night"...I just can't say that anywhere is automatically better and again, I think the basketball gives vivid examples...when the open door policy was in effect for Memephis White Station got a large number of outstating basketball players (Dane Bradshaw, Travis Strong, Courney Pigram, J.P. Prince, etc.) and won championships, but when the school was going to have to rely on the athletes in the specific geographic school district the coach retires and they haven't made it back to the state since...plus this year when the middle and west were supposedly (ask all the recruiting "experts") so much better that anything the eastern end of the state could offer and then Maryville wins the state 3A basketball championship...

and you are (again) exactly correct that without a tuition situation we could be looking at the best in football from NET all going to a particular school (for a coach or facilities or whatever) and the same could and would be true for basketball and baseball and swimming and tennis and so on...

I think Coach Clark has done an outstanding job @ D-B...his teams have won some they probably shouldn't have and they have lost some they should have won...but the Indians dressed out for all of them...I think he loves the kids and that is shown by his actions...I think Coach Carter has done an outstanding job at South and is a good fit for the school and the community...would you like to change some stuff from the Mo East game?...sure you would and so would he...would I like some things different in the Wm Blount game? sure I would and so would he...but "on that given night"...

 

 

Roll Tribe Roll

[bud]

I could not have said it better Skunk.

[compusatman]

compusatman,

The situation in Memphis/Shelby County changed after the J.P. Prince led White Station state basketball championship (their 3rd in 4 years?) where there was no longer an "open door policy" and that led to the White Station head coach leaving for a private school in west Tennessee...and #6 for Alcoa's football team and he also plays basketball lives in view of Knox Karns, so I am truly not sure what the TSSAA has done...I am just a firm believer in "on any given night" (within reason)...I have seen things happen in the course of a game that could not be anticipated that decide the outcome...two examples regarding D-B football - D-B vs Red Bank in Chattanooga in the 5A semi-finals, D-B has the top passing offense in the state (Chris Henry captain of MTSU's football team his senior year, and Gerald Sensabaugh as their receivers and a record setting QB in Scotty Butler) and probably the quickest back to ever wear the maroon and grey in Adonis Johnson and we are playing Gerald Riggs' Red Bank team...beginning at about 4:30pm Chattanooga receives over 5 inches of rain before the 11 o'clock news begins...on a dry field or even reasonably wet one, it isn't a game...two years later D-B vs Riverdale in the semis in Murfreesboro a short punt by the Indians punter is touched by an D-B player (but not downed) and is picked up and run into the endzone by a Riverdale lineman for the deciding TD...heck lets go to the D-B vs South (the 7-6 win for D-, there's not a South fan living that thinks that one was won by who should have won, the two late fumbles (even though caused by good defense and not just a dropped ball) made the difference in the game...none of those three examples were decided by "bad" coaching, nor were they decided by "good" coaching...getting to those games and achieving those opportunities were the result of good coaching and good efforts by some high school athletes and some luck and some God given grace, so thus "on any given night"...I just can't say that anywhere is automatically better and again, I think the basketball gives vivid examples...when the open door policy was in effect for Memephis White Station got a large number of outstating basketball players (Dane Bradshaw, Travis Strong, Courney Pigram, J.P. Prince, etc.) and won championships, but when the school was going to have to rely on the athletes in the specific geographic school district the coach retires and they haven't made it back to the state since...plus this year when the middle and west were supposedly (ask all the recruiting "experts") so much better that anything the eastern end of the state could offer and then Maryville wins the state 3A basketball championship...

and you are (again) exactly correct that without a tuition situation we could be looking at the best in football from NET all going to a particular school (for a coach or facilities or whatever) and the same could and would be true for basketball and baseball and swimming and tennis and so on...

I think Coach Clark has done an outstanding job @ D-B...his teams have won some they probably shouldn't have and they have lost some they should have won...but the Indians dressed out for all of them...I think he loves the kids and that is shown by his actions...I think Coach Carter has done an outstanding job at South and is a good fit for the school and the community...would you like to change some stuff from the Mo East game?...sure you would and so would he...would I like some things different in the Wm Blount game? sure I would and so would he...but "on that given night"...

Roll Tribe Roll

 

I'm not quite as vain as my posts might allude to. What Stacy endured last year is enough for any man. On or off the field. True, after MEast I felt he did not have championship mentality. I was quiet. Come full circle it looks as though he learned his lesson well. I can relate to that type of education. I'm behind him 100%. I can't wait to see what his soul learned. I'm not purporting to have Graham's head on a platter. But how long has he been there? 20 years? You can cite a couple of games to make a point and the point is well taken. But I'm not talking about a couple of games. I'm not talking about a couple of schools. I'm talking about NET. We are considered bumpkinville. I for one am tired of it. Is it Graham's fault? Is it Stacy's fault? Well, they are the leaders of the region at the moment. But it is actually the fault of us all. How do we change that? So you say let them do their job and give them time to do it because they are doing a pretty good job as it is. I say, they can do better. We all can. I'm not saying my way or the highway or put up or get out...whatever...I'm saying...crank it up a couple of notches. Yes, fate slaps you sometimes and gives you no chance at a fair fight. So what do you do? Take your number and have a seat? We teach our children to control what they can and respect what they can't. And when you fall down to get up and do it again...only better, harder, again, and again with persaverence until we are masters of the task or respect those who are. I am not the purveyor of a witch hunt but instead an advocate of attempted greatness and fully well believe that the smallest one can be the greatest one..."on any given night!"

[plowboy2]

Well Mr. Crazy if you haven't heard,Justin Slyster ,Jamie Crawford ,Matt Osborne,Brad Baker,Lane Taylor,Bart Ring,Clayton Kilgore,Tyler Brown,Joe Doran,Dylan Harvey,Duke Tumlin-just a few impact players who will bring their A game.

[compusatman]

Well Mr. Crazy if you haven't heard,Justin Slyster ,Jamie Crawford ,Matt Osborne,Brad Baker,Lane Taylor,Bart Ring,Clayton Kilgore,Tyler Brown,Joe Doran,Dylan Harvey,Duke Tumlin-just a few impact players who will bring their A game.

 

I knew you weren't that far down...

[plowboy2]

I knew you weren't that far down...

Shh-Shh- not to loud compusatman.We are in a re building mode!

[rolltriberoll]

Well Mr. Crazy if you haven't heard,Justin Slyster ,Jamie Crawford ,Matt Osborne,Brad Baker,Lane Taylor,Bart Ring,Clayton Kilgore,Tyler Brown,Joe Doran,Dylan Harvey,Duke Tumlin-just a few impact players who will bring their A game.

 

 

What about Robert Hogg? He played well - especially later in the season last year.