Ranking of the teams in the Blue Cross Bowl

[46on2]

It just cracks me up how the small schools get no respect. We could not beat all the PRIVATE schools because they recruited. You can call it what you want. SP has never recruited, just had hometown talent. Smyrna and Maryville would not have won state championships in 4A and 5A if Brentwood and MBA were still in the regular classifications. With that said, I respect these two teams along with Alcoa. When you win state championships year and year out you have to have a good program. A school the size of SP (241 students) can't loose 10-15 quality senior players and compete for the championship every year. Most of the time, our team has 30-40 players tops. Just remember South Pittsburg may be small, but on a good year we could compete with any team in the state. Until we played one of these teams, we would never know.

 

GO PIRATES!!! 2007 1A State Champs!!!!

 

the Rodney Dangerfield of highschool football in Tn. this year. I can see where people in general would think a 1-A team wouldnt be able to stay on the field with most teams in higher classifications. (98%) of the time that is true.But this was a special team that doesnt come around but once or twice in a lifetime and I am 54 years old.I have watched some pretty good teams from SP. play over the years and NONE I repeat NONE have had the offensive power of this team. Some have been better on the other side of the ball.With this said I know it will hurt some peoples feelings that played on some of the earlier teams.No insult intended. I played on the 1969 championship team myself we had wigfall a GREAT back maybe the best but this team would have killed us with big plays.I talked with a coach from Redbank who said he thinks we would beat them 7 out of 10.Alcoa would have to play a near perfect game to beat this PIRATE TEAM.Maryville,Smyrna,Maplewood no dont think so but anyone else we could play with this ONE YEAR.DONT UNDERESTIMATE THE BITE IN THIS SMALL DOG IT IS A LOT STRONGER THAN IT LOOKS ON PAPER.

[Antwan]

Yes, it is a moot point. Nevertheless, I am always amazed at how these teams that lose to BA and MBA early in the regular season (e.g., Brentwood High 2002, Ravenwood 2005) are deemed unbeatable at the end in rematches.

 

Brentwood '02, Ravenwood '05, and Smyrna '07 can have their mythical end-of-season wins; I'll take the real ones any day of the week.

 

 

I don't think you can compare early season wins to the playoffs. All of those games you mentioned went down to the wire. Who knows who would have won playoff games at the end of the season? I saw the BA/Smyrna game. I think Smyrna would have won that game if Gray hadn't gone out. I saw a different Smyrna team in the title game. How many times have you seen one team beat the other and come back to win the playoff game? I would put Smyna against MBA or BA at the end of this season. Isn't that what this thread is about? This year.

[46on2]

I don't think you can compare early season wins to the playoffs. All of those games you mentioned went down to the wire. Who knows who would have won playoff games at the end of the season? I saw the BA/Smyrna game. I think Smyrna would have won that game if Gray hadn't gone out. I saw a different Smyrna team in the title game. How many times have you seen one team beat the other and come back to win the playoff game? I would put Smyna against MBA or BA at the end of this season. Isn't that what this thread is about? This year.

 

YES, THIS YEAR ONLY! Last time I looked every team graduates Senior players each year that is why each years team has a different identity.Isnt this speculation GREAT? SOUTH PITTSBURG PIRATES 1-A STATE CHAMPS 2007!

[rollredroll]

How many times have you seen one team beat the other and come back to win the playoff game?

 

 

Plenty...but not when I saw Ryan and BA a second time this year (in fact, I saw them get beat worse than the previous time). It's not just the loser that sometimes gets better later in the season.

[Rankinated2010]

4 In A Row............................

[OLD PIRATE]

the Rodney Dangerfield of highschool football in Tn. this year. I can see where people in general would think a 1-A team wouldnt be able to stay on the field with most teams in higher classifications. (98%) of the time that is true.But this was a special team that doesnt come around but once or twice in a lifetime and I am 54 years old.I have watched some pretty good teams from SP. play over the years and NONE I repeat NONE have had the offensive power of this team. Some have been better on the other side of the ball.With this said I know it will hurt some peoples feelings that played on some of the earlier teams.No insult intended. I played on the 1969 championship team myself we had wigfall a GREAT back maybe the best but this team would have killed us with big plays.I talked with a coach from Redbank who said he thinks we would beat them 7 out of 10.Alcoa would have to play a near perfect game to beat this PIRATE TEAM.Maryville,Smyrna,Maplewood no dont think so but anyone else we could play with this ONE YEAR.DONT UNDERESTIMATE THE BITE IN THIS SMALL DOG IT IS A LOT STRONGER THAN IT LOOKS ON PAPER.

 

Old Pirate agrees with this old pirate. This team had so many weapons it would be hard to not consider them one of the best. OP says he didn't say...... the best. That is for the each individual to decide in their own mind????

[Antwan]

Plenty...but not when I saw Ryan and BA a second time this year (in fact, I saw them get beat worse than the previous time). It's not just the loser that sometimes gets better later in the season.

 

 

I agree...but I think Smyrna was a much better team at the end of this season. I am sure BA was too...but I didn't think the best team won that night either.

[Ole3putt]

Good grief...... just list'em as class..

DI

1.AAAAA

2.AAAA

3.AAA

4.AA

5.A

 

DII

1.AA

2.A

 

or you could say;

DI

1.A

2.AA

3.AAA

4.AAAA

5.AAAAA

 

DII;

1.A

2.AA

 

Will that work...............

[TheTruthPrevails]

Here is a somewhat unbiased opinion on the Pirates of South Pitt. I have seen this team a number of times this year since Marion made another early exit as usual. This Pirate team, as we all know would have beaten all 1A teams rather handily this year. They could have beaten most teams in 2A as well. I believe 75% of 3A would have fallen to the pirates. 4A and 5A, there are some teams that they could beat, but probably not half of them. The problem that they would have is when they came up against teams that could match their speed, and had more size than they did. Hampton was big and had a little speed, but that 350 pounder wouldn't have played on the good, higher class teams. I will say that South Pitt is probably one of the fastest teams in the state with 5 or 6 who run a 4.6 or better. I think Alcoa definitely would have beaten them up with their offense. South pitt did struggle with Tyner's speed and Alcoa is lightyear's ahead of them. They would beat, I believe Red Bank in 4A, who was ranked all year. They would, however struggle with teams that passed the ball and had a good line. McKenzie dropped a ton of balls early that could have had them sticking around for at least a quarter. Some say this is the best South Pitt team ever, but I would disagree with that because that 94 team, although not as talented on offense, had a shut-down defense, and this pirate group didn't.

[Batman]

Here is a somewhat unbiased opinion on the Pirates of South Pitt. I have seen this team a number of times this year since Marion made another early exit as usual. This Pirate team, as we all know would have beaten all 1A teams rather handily this year. They could have beaten most teams in 2A as well. I believe 75% of 3A would have fallen to the pirates. 4A and 5A, there are some teams that they could beat, but probably not half of them. The problem that they would have is when they came up against teams that could match their speed, and had more size than they did. Hampton was big and had a little speed, but that 350 pounder wouldn't have played on the good, higher class teams. I will say that South Pitt is probably one of the fastest teams in the state with 5 or 6 who run a 4.6 or better. I think Alcoa definitely would have beaten them up with their offense. South pitt did struggle with Tyner's speed and Alcoa is lightyear's ahead of them. They would beat, I believe Red Bank in 4A, who was ranked all year. They would, however struggle with teams that passed the ball and had a good line. McKenzie dropped a ton of balls early that could have had them sticking around for at least a quarter. Some say this is the best South Pitt team ever, but I would disagree with that because that 94 team, although not as talented on offense, had a shut-down defense, and this pirate group didn't.

 

This is a great post. This pirate team was very good and their weakness would have been the defense. The 94 team and the 99 team both had better defenses. We will always be in some disagreement over which is the best.

[fatrock386]

the Rodney Dangerfield of highschool football in Tn. this year. I can see where people in general would think a 1-A team wouldnt be able to stay on the field with most teams in higher classifications. (98%) of the time that is true.But this was a special team that doesnt come around but once or twice in a lifetime and I am 54 years old.I have watched some pretty good teams from SP. play over the years and NONE I repeat NONE have had the offensive power of this team. Some have been better on the other side of the ball.With this said I know it will hurt some peoples feelings that played on some of the earlier teams.No insult intended. I played on the 1969 championship team myself we had wigfall a GREAT back maybe the best but this team would have killed us with big plays.I talked with a coach from Redbank who said he thinks we would beat them 7 out of 10.Alcoa would have to play a near perfect game to beat this PIRATE TEAM.Maryville,Smyrna,Maplewood no dont think so but anyone else we could play with this ONE YEAR.DONT UNDERESTIMATE THE BITE IN THIS SMALL DOG IT IS A LOT STRONGER THAN IT LOOKS ON PAPER.

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[mcwrestler]

I respect South Pitt, they impressed me, but they just are not on the level of Alcoa. Alcoa would not have to play near perfect to beat them, South Pitt would have to play near perfect and get alot of Alcoa turnovers to stay in the game. South Pitt can big play but so can Alcoa. Coaching advantage-Alcoa, Talent Advantage-Alcoa, Depth-Alcoa barely, all signs point to Alcoa IMO. Good year South Pitt, maybe we will see you all in Alcoa sometime.