Riverdale - Blackman

[oldschooldawg30]

i actually like him ALOT...

i think he does A GREAT JOB...

works hard...covers all the games...knows what he is taling about...has started the "chat" for all of us fans to interact with...tweets during a game...

i also think he is fair and is willing to discuss anything...

 

we are fortunate to have him in my opinion...

i've been around over 7 years...and he is by far the best we have had

and go to nashville if you want...it sure ain't better over there...

 

just wondering pbd in your opinion what has lead to blackman getting so much better the past few yrs? was it all shad and coaching, i wonder cause you got williams over at smyrna whos doing a good job and i remember when he first came over i was frustrated at times and vented on here and you spoke up and said that you thought alot of him and then you got wells at riverdale whos is doing a good job coaching the d or did shad hit the talent at the rite time

[pattonboysdad]

just wondering pbd in your opinion what has lead to blackman getting so much better the past few yrs? was it all shad and coaching, i wonder cause you got williams over at smyrna whos doing a good job and i remember when he first came over i was frustrated at times and vented on here and you spoke up and said that you thought alot of him and then you got wells at riverdale whos is doing a good job coaching the d or did shad hit the talent at the rite time

 

this is a good question and yet a difficult question...because it has so many layers and complex scenarios in what has happened...etc...

 

and i'm not even saying i'm right here...so this is in my humble opinion...and it would probably be done better in a conversation so all the nuances could be talked about...but...that's impossible

 

big picture...when josh had to start at blackman the last two games of his freshman year and all of his sophomore year...he was NOT ready to start in this district...but he had to because the talent level at blackman was not very good...and you only had about 50 guys out for the team...they went 0-10 in his freshman year...had only 17 on the freshman team...not good...it GRADUALLY improved and so did the wins...5-5 his senior year with a 7-0 loss to state champ oakland...

 

i think THE WORLD of bobby wells...as a person and as a coach...yet he was NEW as a head coach...had little talent...and he was in the midst of not only turning around a very very bad program...but the entire culture of football at blackman...not an easy job...he did take the program for the very bottom of 0-10 to 5-5...in 4 years...hats off to him...and he did so in the midst of what we know now...of having a bad heart...sometimes coaches are appreciated more down the road for what they did with what they had...and i think that is true of bobby...i am THRILLED for him at riverdale...what a god send for Coach A...

 

as you said...Matt was there during 3 of those years...and all that i saw told me this guy could coach...i do know defense...it is what i played at ECU...and i know what they were doing at blackman was sound...i'm just not sure they had the horses to do it with...

 

in comes Shad...who i think he is the best HS coach i have ever been around personally...he's made his mistakes early on...he would tell you that himself...but he came in having done that and been there...he knew exactly what to do...how to get it done...had won 2 gold balls...and exudes confidence and excitement...he breathed life into a program and took it from 5-5 to 10-2 in the first year...he did so with a group of seniors who had some talent...last year we go 11-2 and after the first year of winning...every young man who could walk and chew chewing gume wants to play football now...so last year and this year we have anywhere from 110 to 130 on the varsity alone...with 60 or so on the freshman team...now you have the numbers to get it done every year...and add to that Shad's ability to know when to push...his x and 0's expertise...his ability to get GREAT coaches around him...school and fan support because they are winning...and you have the makings of a great program year in and year out...

 

on a personal level...all three of these men left incredible impacts on my two sons...i've told all of them that on multiple occasions...even after the loss at smyrna...coach matt came up and asked "how are the boys"...wow! Bobby does it everytime is see him...and Jess will never forget shad nor be able to thank him enough for not only the experience of playing on winning teams...but for how shad treated him on and off the field...

 

lastly...to be a really good head coach...i think you need some time...shad got time to grow and develop at smyrna...bobby did not...and i hope matt does...most of us...if we are good at what we do...did not start off good...we got some time and grew into the job...hope this helps!

[oldschooldawg30]

thanks for answering my question pbd, first off i asked you cause i know you have been around the blackman program through all the changes the past 5 or 6 years and really appreciate your opinion, i was just wondering cause they were at the bottom for so many years and shad goes their and its like over night the whole blackman community drunk the shaderade, i would agree with you in surronding himself with good coachs like mitchell, watson come to mind he had some good ones at smyrna with one ive already mentioned and keasler, carson and wyant along with bringing robbins in to work with sonny

 

that is great to hear about coach williams and coach wells and how they still ask about the kids cause really that is what it is all about and having a teenage son myself has taught me that, and i think williams will be their a while but looking into the future because of the new school opening up and the feeder schools not producing it could be some rough years

 

and i didnt realize the numbers were so low on the football team those blackman years

 

after watching mathers go down and blackman almost winning was impresive, really played a team football game and should be proud cause 16 17 year old kids could have easily packed it up and said we cant win now

Edited October 16, 2011 by oldschooldawg30

[riverdaleman]

I know a lot of people may not be very happy with some of their coverage by the DNJ in fact i wish that there was some article about is winning the district after oakland lost BUT

WE as a county have grown not only did blackman and siegel open up but MTCS and eagleville both added football to their school. We used to have a writer for smyrna lavernge oakland and RIVERDALE when we played each other there was 2 articles on the game one from the RIVERDALE writer and one from the oakland writer now its all Tom can do to get a freelance writer to cover all the games in the county and there is no double coverage there used to be several articles a WEEK on each team and now you are good to get one a month we have less room in the paper for high school sports and unfortunatly either Gannett or the DNJ has not hired more writers to replace the ones that leave

Tom Does a GREAT job for the resources he has

[Lost Old Dad]

Best and SMARTEST thing Shad has done is get the QB Coach he has NO MATTER how he did it. Man turned Sonny Gray from a good QB, into a GREAT one. He is doing a similar job with the QB Blackman has now. Thursday nights game was a sample of it. Would not surprise me also that he is 'suggesting' the plays to be called on offense.

 

One of these days I really need to draw up my 'All Star' team of Coaches from the ones currently Coaching in Rutherford County. Example is I would LOVE to have Blackman's QB Coach and Coach White as my DC. Haven't decided on the rest.

[oldschooldawg30]

Best and SMARTEST thing Shad has done is get the QB Coach he has NO MATTER how he did it. Man turned Sonny Gray from a good QB, into a GREAT one. He is doing a similar job with the QB Blackman has now. Thursday nights game was a sample of it. Would not surprise me also that he is 'suggesting' the plays to be called on offense.

 

One of these days I really need to draw up my 'All Star' team of Coaches from the ones currently Coaching in Rutherford County. Example is I would LOVE to have Blackman's QB Coach and Coach White as my DC. Haven't decided on the rest.

 

i totally agree with you on robbins the qb coach lod, you know the man has a wealth of knowledge about the game, and heck some of the current coaching staffs are all stars staffs if you go back a decade or so i graduated in 95 and you should see some of my pics of our coaching staff, my son plays middle school football and has more coachs now then we had on our high school team back in the day, im amazed how football has grown overall in such a short time in this county and how every friday is a big game with kids who know each other and have played with or against each other at one time or another

Edited October 16, 2011 by oldschooldawg30

[Lost Old Dad]

i totally agree with you on robbins the qb coach lod, you know the man has a wealth of knowledge about the game, and heck some of the current coaching staffs are all stars staffs if you go back a decade or so i graduated in 95 and you should see some of my pics of our coaching staff, my son plays middle school football and has more coachs now then we had on our high school team back in the day, im amazed how football has grown overall in such a short time in this county and how every friday is a big game with kids who know each other and have played with or against each other at one time or another

 

When I went to Smyrna it had TWO Coaches for the football team period. One of them was 'Coach' Raikes. You might have known him as the Principal at Smyrna.

 

When my son was playing at R'dale, they had a staff bigger than most of the small colleges in Tn! Eleven varsity and six for the freshman team.

[THEBulldog81]

When I went to Smyrna it had TWO Coaches for the football team period. One of them was 'Coach' Raikes. You might have known him as the Principal at Smyrna.

 

When my son was playing at R'dale, they had a staff bigger than most of the small colleges in Tn! Eleven varsity and six for the freshman team.

LOD I agree with you on Coach Robbins, he is one of the best around. But I think the RHS corners made the BHS QB look like Joe Montana, I don't think it was his ability that put all the passing yds up Thursday night. Heard that the corners were not the regular starters. I was glad to see he didn't hit any of the RHS cheerleaders on the pass that resulted in the grounding penalty. If BHS has to rely on the QB to carry them thru the playoffs it will be a short run at best.

[Lost Old Dad]

LOD I agree with you on Coach Robbins, he is one of the best around. But I think the RHS corners made the BHS QB look like Joe Montana, I don't think it was his ability that put all the passing yds up Thursday night. Heard that the corners were not the regular starters. I was glad to see he didn't hit any of the RHS cheerleaders on the pass that resulted in the grounding penalty. If BHS has to rely on the QB to carry them thru the playoffs it will be a short run at best.

 

 

I would love to see Coach Robbins teaching QB clinics here in Middle Tn. It would improve QB play greatly across the Mid State. Can you imagine what he could do with both R'dales and Siegels QB's? I am willing to bet at least one of Siegel's QBs is getting some 'hints' from the current MTSU QB coach. LOL

[mykidsdad]

I know a lot of people may not be very happy with some of their coverage by the DNJ in fact i wish that there was some article about is winning the district after oakland lost BUT

WE as a county have grown not only did blackman and siegel open up but MTCS and eagleville both added football to their school. We used to have a writer for smyrna lavernge oakland and RIVERDALE when we played each other there was 2 articles on the game one from the RIVERDALE writer and one from the oakland writer now its all Tom can do to get a freelance writer to cover all the games in the county and there is no double coverage there used to be several articles a WEEK on each team and now you are good to get one a month we have less room in the paper for high school sports and unfortunatly either Gannett or the DNJ has not hired more writers to replace the ones that leave

Tom Does a GREAT job for the resources he has

 

You kinda make my point. Most of the responses to my post make excuses for the coverage from a lack of staff to it could be so much worse. My point is that the reporter misses the obivious story. Blackman blows out Oakland the story was about the Oakland coach going into rebuilding mode. Riverdale wins the District and you get whipoorwills and tumble weeds. But wait hears come another excuse!

[DaBlueRaider]

I would love to see Coach Robbins teaching QB clinics here in Middle Tn. It would improve QB play greatly across the Mid State. Can you imagine what he could do with both R'dales and Siegels QB's? I am willing to bet at least one of Siegel's QBs is getting some 'hints' from the current MTSU QB coach. LOL

I know that Coach Robbins has given his time and worked at some camps/clinics in Murfreesboro in the past and is a excellent QB coach (second to none.) At the same time, I'm not sure how much players should try to impress or conform to coaching that is done in camps unless they plan to play for that coach at some point. From my experience, most coaches at camps teach different styles and technics on how a QB should take the snap, drop back, make decisions like give, pull, keep, pitch and/or throw the ball (all in a split second.) Although I get your point, the coaches every high school QB must impress and conform to is the group he's playing for. If you're simply trying to say Coach Robbins is great at what he does with QBs... YOUR RIGHT! I know that every player I've talked with that has been coached by him, love and respect the impact he has on their lives both on and off the field.

About the Siegel QB who may be getting 'hints' from a QB coach at MTSU, that's not needed. He really needs to go no further than the dinner table to talk with a former Flordia State QB who was taught by Bobby Bowden. Coach Bowden once quoted "Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel.†My point being... If you're a QB... Impress the coach your with.

Edited October 17, 2011 by DaBlueRaider

[Lost Old Dad]

Best thing Coach Robbins does is teach QBs how to 'read' defenses. Before he started coaching Sonny Gray look at how may picks he threw compared to afterwards.