Oak Ridge!

[bladerunner]

From a D-B Indian, we are going to miss our rivalry with you guys this year. We wish you the best and hope to see you in the playoffs. You have got a tough conference but i'm sure you will do great. We will miss coming to the "Ship" great atmosphere, best in Tennessee.Roll Tribe......................

it was a great rivalry.

[slagiatt]

How did the Wildcats look??........................either one?? WC is now in our district, they have been pretty good in a tough league for the past few seasons. Did they dominate OR?. We hear that they have changed to a spread-type offense.

[slagiatt]

Never seen the OR people so quiet?? They must have not looked so good. Anyone see this thing?

[92Dragon]

Never seen the OR people so quiet?? They must have not looked so good. Anyone see this thing?

 

Most of the OR fans i have talked to have a " lets just wait and see" attitude.

[learningthegame]

Oak Ridge looked fairly strong Friday night. Coach Blade and his assistants are working very hard and it showed. I thought that Wilson Central looked fairly strong as well. No doubt, anyone at the game would have to acknowledge that this scrimmage was a defensive affair, but that is to be expected. Both teams are leanring a new offense, that includes the coaches. The only significant difference being that Coach Blade is installing his system, while Coach Aric has opted to install a system that he himself had to learn.

 

The Oak Ridge defense swarmed the field all night. The line play was outstanding, the effort was fantastic. Of course mistakes were made, but Coach Blade and his staff were giving immediate feedback. I thought the linebackers played hard and seemed comfortable with what they were doing. Overall they looked sharp.

 

The Wilson Central defense was very active. In my opinion they could be one of the stronger units in the mid-State this fall if they continue to progress.

 

As far as the Oak Ridge offense goes, they did well. In a scrimmage of this nature coaches focus on the subtle things. Are the O lineman winning battles at the point of attack? Are they picking up stunts and blitzes? Are running backs taking their steps properly and hitting the holes? Are QB's recognizng coverages? Are they seeing openings in their progressions? If one paid attention to detail Friday night, they would've seen Oak Ridge answering yes to these questions more times than not.

 

In closing, I think both teams could have an exciting season in 2009. For those with high expectations, be patient, Coach Blade is a winner, and so are his teams. But be reasonable in your critiques, the boys and the staff have a lot of work to do before Oak Ridge can bring home another trophy.

[slagiatt]

Oak Ridge looked fairly strong Friday night. Coach Blade and his assistants are working very hard and it showed. I thought that Wilson Central looked fairly strong as well. No doubt, anyone at the game would have to acknowledge that this scrimmage was a defensive affair, but that is to be expected. Both teams are leanring a new offense, that includes the coaches. The only significant difference being that Coach Blade is installing his system, while Coach Aric has opted to install a system that he himself had to learn.

 

The Oak Ridge defense swarmed the field all night. The line play was outstanding, the effort was fantastic. Of course mistakes were made, but Coach Blade and his staff were giving immediate feedback. I thought the linebackers played hard and seemed comfortable with what they were doing. Overall they looked sharp.

 

The Wilson Central defense was very active. In my opinion they could be one of the stronger units in the mid-State this fall if they continue to progress.

 

As far as the Oak Ridge offense goes, they did well. In a scrimmage of this nature coaches focus on the subtle things. Are the O lineman winning battles at the point of attack? Are they picking up stunts and blitzes? Are running backs taking their steps properly and hitting the holes? Are QB's recognizng coverages? Are they seeing openings in their progressions? If one paid attention to detail Friday night, they would've seen Oak Ridge answering yes to these questions more times than not.

 

In closing, I think both teams could have an exciting season in 2009. For those with high expectations, be patient, Coach Blade is a winner, and so are his teams. But be reasonable in your critiques, the boys and the staff have a lot of work to do before Oak Ridge can bring home another trophy.

 

 

hmmm!! a defensive affair.......................so each team's offense did not score!!

[ORWildcat1]

I'm glad Oak Ridge has got coach Younger back from Henry County coaching the offensive line, we will see a huge improvemnt in that area over last year. We have a new transfer at running back who is playing outstanding. We still have a way to go, but we have a great staff and a great group of young men. The attitude is a huge difference, you can just see it in their eyes. I can't wait till the season starts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[learningthegame]

hmmm!! a defensive affair.......................so each team's offense did not score!!

 

 

That's not what I meant by defensive affair. No, to answer your question, Oak Ridge did score. But there again, from a coaches perspective the score in a springtime scrimmage is not paramount especially when each team is only allowed 10 plays in which to score. Did the boys execute properly and did they move the ball, the rest can be dealt with over the summer and during the fall.

 

I am not affiliated with either team so I thought I could give a relatively unbiased synopsis of each teams effort. But, if I somehow made either teams offense seem anemic I apologize. I think Oak Ridge is progressing nicely and Wilson Central has pontential as well. It's a long summer neither team will be the same in 3 months and I think they will give their respective opponents fits.

[ORWildcat1]

hmmm!! a defensive affair.......................so each team's offense did not score!!

 

 

 

Actually both teams scored, but as most people know, this wasn't a real game. Like "learningthegame" said, each team only is only allowed 10 plays in which to score. Oak Ridge did score the most points, however, the 1st string on both teams didn't play very long. So there was no real winner.

 

"learningthegame" you have nothing to apologize about. Some people just read the Oak Ridge threads to try to find the negative. Some of our rivals would love to see Oak Ridge stay down........that's the only reason they are are reading this thread. Also, Stanton Stevens still has some buddies on here too, and yes, some are still very bitter.

[Govolsknox]

I enjoyed the scrimmage Friday night. This was my first opportunity to witness first hand Coach Blade and the 2009 - 2010 Wildcats. (BTW, I sat close to the new coaches family, and they seem like a wonderful family.)

 

Disclaimer: I am not a coach, so these are just opinions and observations of a fan.

Overall, I was impressed with what I saw. Some observations ( I will only comment on OR first team vs. WC first team): I believe there were 3 series offense, and 3 series defense for the first teams. Each team started at the 30 and had 10 plays to score. The OR defense is ahead of the offense, as would be very common at this point in the "season." The 1st defense was overpowering for the majority of the snaps. It was difficult for the WC 1st team to make a play for positive yardage. The amount of pressure that the DL was able to put on the QB consistently was remarkable. This was particularly important against the spread offense that WC runs. If you cannot pressure the QB in the spread and you give him time, the results generally will not be good. The size of the WC OL was impressive (#52 and 56 size looked like players at the next level to me) but the OR DLmen were able to much more than hold their own. OR LB's and DB's were also able to defend the draw / delayed handoff to the running back, and were able to contain consistently the short yardage, high percentage passes. WC never had time to throw long. WC did help OR as several throws sailed over the head of an open receiver that would have yielded short - medium yardage, although OR players were in good position to limit the gain. The pressure from OR was at the very least a contributor in these situations. WC did have a few plays where the first team was able to pick up good chunks of yardage. Again, this is one of the things that makes the spread difficult to defend in HS as it forces the defense to perform at it's best play after play after play or give up big yardage; IMO much more than many other offenses. Still some work to do, but a great effort. At first glance, OR appears that they may have a potentially dominant defense, but time will tell how much was OR's strength on defense or WC's struggles on offense.

 

The OR offense appeared much improved over last year, with a lot of work still to do to get where they want to be. Having watched a fair amount of spread variations run very well, I did not feel like last years staff had gotten the team where they needed to be to be effective in that style offense. In this scrimmage, you could tell that a tremendous amout of progress has been made. This summer's 7 on 7 and scrimmages are critical to having these men ready to run this offense this season. Z. Zulliger did a great job at QB. I didn't see a limp, but I believe I did see a lot of tape on both ankles. This may have effected mobility some. IMO, you can make this offense work either way. If you can spread them out and run effectively, it will allow you to pass some. Or, if you can make them pay with a controlled passing game, it will open up the run. OR still has work to do in this regard. There were some nice running and some nice passing plays, but not enough consistency to put pressure on the defense. While the OR offense looked better against the WC defense than the WC offense looked against the OR defense, I would have to give the nod to both defenses over both offenses. Neither 1st team scored. OR had some nice short and medium yardage passing plays. The timing just wasn't there yet on the deep patterns, although Zulliger showed very good arm stength. IMO, in order for the spread to be effective enough to compete for championships, you have to be able to stretch the field and make them respect the deep ball. I am confident that through the summer, practices, passing league, and scrimmages that OR will develop the timing for the longer patterns. It was hard for me to get a good read on the running game for OR. I saw glimpses of good stuff. #11 appears to have good talent. With just a few carries, it's hard to say, but I might like to see him hit the hole a little quicker and harder and THEN look. I also would like to see who coach Blade has in mind for a change up. I will say that the younger Zulliger looked fantastic running the ball, although that was not against the 1st team defense.

 

I will agree with some others who have said that there may not be the number of "burners" that we have seen in past years, and we may be missing some super athletic guys like we have had. Generally we haven't had them in great numbers, but we've had a few every year. I won't draw a conclusion after one scrimmage, but I'm not sure that I see a Rogers, Coffey, Stephens, Summers, Bohanon, etc. Having said that, even if that's right, you don't have to have those players to be successful, and coach Blade appears to be getting these guys to play as a team.

 

Players that stuck out to me: The entire DL, both Zulligers, #2, #22, #47. There are many more that played great, these are just a handful that stuck out to me in a good way.

 

Roll Wildcats Roll! /thumb[1].gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":thumb:" border="0" alt="thumb[1].gif" />

[EXCHEQUER]

anyone seeen geoff? wouterdr?

[Tnbreakers]

anyone seeen geoff? wouterdr?

 

 

That's funny!