2016 Preseason Class 6A Coaches Poll

[REBELRON]

Well of course #23 and the kicker were impressive. They were the stars of that team. They were why Ravenwood beat Maryville in the state championship game. Ravenwood's coach had a lot to do with that as well. #23's size., imo, is why he signed with TSU and not UT. I thought the U of M should have offered him.

 

However, I liked their QB. He didn't make a lot of mistakes. He ran the offense. He didn't try to do anything that wasn't within his ability. He had a high football IQ. When he did throw, it was pretty accurate. He wasn't the star ... but he was what Ravenwood needed.

 

 

 

23 and the kicker were outstanding. In my opinion Ravenwoods defense is the main reason they won the championship.  Ravenwood Nose Guard was in Maryville's backfield all night long.  Alcoa won the state title with their best defense in school history. Oakland had a very stout defense. Maryville scored 20 on Alcoa and 27 on Oakland. Ravenwood held Maryville to 17 points. Maryville had a great offensive team. Ravenwood shut down Maryville's run game and forced them to pass. 4 turnovers Ravenwood forced. Ravenwood had an outstanding secondary.

[BlackHavenSenator]

Who from Murfreesboro has beat the Red Dragon? Aw ok 

[REBELRON]

Who from Murfreesboro has beat the Red Dragon? Aw ok 

 

Murfreesboro teams may not have beaten Maryville but they are still real good football teams. Before Maryville started playing the Murfreesboro teams the Murfreesboro teams almost always went to the finals.

[tnfootball88]

Just crazy Murfreesboro teams can't beat Maryville.

[workinprogress]

To me the biggest difference between Maryville and other teams is that maryville is a program. Most of those kids have played together for quite some time. There is a chemistry there that's hard to beat. Add to that one of the best coaching staffs and community support and not many will beat that consistently.

[kwc]

23 and the kicker were outstanding. In my opinion Ravenwoods defense is the main reason they won the championship.  Ravenwood Nose Guard was in Maryville's backfield all night long.  Alcoa won the state title with their best defense in school history. Oakland had a very stout defense. Maryville scored 20 on Alcoa and 27 on Oakland. Ravenwood held Maryville to 17 points. Maryville had a great offensive team. Ravenwood shut down Maryville's run game and forced them to pass. 4 turnovers Ravenwood forced. Ravenwood had an outstanding secondary.

 

That defense was pretty stout. That same defensive tackle was blowing up our run plays all night long. You would have thought he was in our huddle. The O.C. put several different guys in front of him and none of them had any success in slowing him down consistently. In the semi-final game they kept us from scoring when we had 1st and goal on the 6 in the first half. They shut us out completely in the 2nd half all together. They held us to 13 points. They held you guys to 17. Yeah ... that was a really good 'D'.

 

However, there are those in the Whitehaven camp who have been complaining about Whitehaven's play calling for a while. No coordinator is going to get 100 percent approval from the fan base. I acknowledge that. But it just seems to me that there are a lot of folks who complain about the OC at Whitehaven, not just BHS. If Whitehaven doesn't score 'X' amount of points then it is the O.C.'s fault. Regardless of circumstances, Whitehaven isn't allowed to score below a certain point threshold offensively. It is just unacceptable. it doesn't matter who we face, where we play, or any other factor. If Whitehaven can't score. If Whitehaven seems sluggish. If Whitehaven has problems moving the ball. It's the O.C.'s fault. It's just the way it is. So ... irregardless of how good of a defense Whitehaven may face. Irregardless of where the game is being played. Irregardless of personnel ... injuries ... disciplinary actions ...etc. Whitehaven's offense BETTER score points or there will be 'H' 'E' double hockey sticks to pay. There are those in the Whitehaven contingency who believe that Whitehaven should never have a game where we can't move the ball and score consistently. If it happens, then the Whitehaven coaches need to be looked at.

 

That's what they believe and you aren't going to get them to believe otherwise. They believe that there isn't any team or any coach that we will face that should consistently shut our offense down. We have the athletes, when we do get shut down for whatever reason ... we are getting out coached.

 

It is what it is. 

Edited July 25, 2016 by kwc

[Soarman27]

Who does Mt. Juliet scrimmage I'm curious

[REBELRON]

That defense was pretty stout. That same defensive tackle was blowing up our run plays all night long. You would have thought he was in our huddle. The O.C. put several different guys in front of him and none of them had any success in slowing him down consistently. In the semi-final game they kept us from scoring when we had 1st and goal on the 6 in the first half. They shut us out completely in the 2nd half all together. They held us to 13 points. They held you guys to 17. Yeah ... that was a really good 'D'.

 

However, there are those in the Whitehaven camp who have been complaining about Whitehaven's play calling for a while. No coordinator is going to get 100 percent approval from the fan base. I acknowledge that. But it just seems to me that there are a lot of folks who complain about the OC at Whitehaven, not just BHS. If Whitehaven doesn't score 'X' amount of points then it is the O.C.'s fault. Regardless of circumstances, Whitehaven isn't allowed to score below a certain point threshold offensively. It is just unacceptable. it doesn't matter who we face, where we play, or any other factor. If Whitehaven can't score. If Whitehaven seems sluggish. If Whitehaven has problems moving the ball. It's the O.C.'s fault. It's just the way it is. So ... irregardless of how good of a defense Whitehaven may face. Irregardless of where the game is being played. Irregardless of personnel ... injuries ... disciplinary actions ...etc. Whitehaven's offense BETTER score points or there will be 'H' 'E' double hockey sticks to pay. There are those in the Whitehaven contingency who believe that Whitehaven should never have a game where we can't move the ball and score consistently. If it happens, then the Whitehaven coaches need to be looked at.

 

That's what they believe and you aren't going to get them to believe otherwise. They believe that there isn't any team or any coach that we will face that should consistently shut our offense down. We have the athletes, when we do get shut down for whatever reason ... we are getting out coached.

 

It is what it is. 

 

I think Whitehaven's coaching staff does a great job. I know George likes Saulsberry and the other Whitehaven coaches a lot. It is great to have talent. Whitehaven has always had a lot of it. But! Whitehaven never competed for Championships until Rodney Saulsberry showed up.

[BlackHavenSenator]

Murfreesboro teams may not have beaten Maryville but they are still real good football teams. Before Maryville started playing the Murfreesboro teams the Murfreesboro teams almost always went to the finals.

Until it happens I must remain skeptical. 

[BlackHavenSenator]

To the point that K-Dub made about our OC...

 

As a person that had an up close and personal contact regarding the "philosophy" let me explain the issue with the Ravenwood game from the Semifinals last season...

 

Ravenwood had a 5'6" / 5'7" average athletic CB that played cover 1 or 3  the majority of the night on the side of a 6'3"/6'4" decent WR... We threw one or two fades with that match up when it mattered (before the starting QB got hurt) and so happen to score one TD... (Clears throat)... There was a Goalline stand had by Ravenwood in the 1st quarter after the offense drove down the field with relative ease on either the first or second drive of the game. PLEASE refer back to the 5'7" CB vs 6'3" WR match-up... 3 of the 4 downs that Whitehaven was stopped on were within the 5 yd line and ALL the plays were up the gut RUN plays... We should have thrown the jump ball ONCE in that situation as it came back to haunt us...

 

Let me continue, Whitehaven didn't score ANY POINTS in the Second Half... You mean to tell me that an Offense that was moving the ball relatively easy in the first half (I think Whitehaven had like 150 yds of Total offense at halftime)  gets shut out in the second half is beyond critique... Aw ok. This is why what happened last season makes me and other fans so angry, WE HAVE SEEN THAT TYPE OF L before. (Loud Yell)... Literally the last game I coached at Whitehaven that is how we went out against Smyrna in 2010... Hayle, the offense didn't score ANY points against Maryville in the 2011 Title game when we had just put up an easy 40+ the previous week against Mt. Juliet!  BRUH, yall don't get how upset I get. So please understand when I talk it's coming from a place of passion that I can't keep under wraps. I understand the other teams have talent and may be better than Whitehaven. I can take it when we lose but honestly the reason we lose, from my point of view, is usually because of something WE did or DIDN'T do. I can't be convinced otherwise. 

Edited July 26, 2016 by BlackHavenSenator

[BKisler]

To the point that K-Dub made about our OC...

 

As a person that had an up close and personal contact regarding the "philosophy" let me explain the issue with the Ravenwood game from the Semifinals last season...

 

Ravenwood had a 5'6" / 5'7" average athletic CB that played cover 1 or 3  the majority of the night on the side of a 6'3"/6'4" decent WR... We threw one or two fades with that match up when it mattered (before the starting QB got hurt) and so happen to score one TD... (Clears throat)... There was a Goalline stand had by Ravenwood in the 1st quarter after the offense drove down the field with relative ease on either the first or second drive of the game. PLEASE refer back to the 5'7" CB vs 6'3" WR match-up... 3 of the 4 downs that Whitehaven was stopped on were within the 5 yd line and ALL the plays were up the gut RUN plays... We should have thrown the jump ball ONCE in that situation as it came back to haunt us...

 

Let me continue, Whitehaven didn't score ANY POINTS in the Second Half... You mean to tell me that an Offense that was moving the ball relatively easy in the first half (I think Whitehaven had like 150 yds of Total offense at halftime)  gets shut out in the second half is beyond critique... Aw ok. This is why what happened last season makes me and other fans so angry, WE HAVE SEEN THAT TYPE OF L before. (Loud Yell)... Literally the last game I coached at Whitehaven that is how we went out against Smyrna in 2010... Hayle, the offense didn't score ANY points against Maryville in the 2011 Title game when we had just put up an easy 40+ the previous week against Mt. Juliet!  BRUH, yall don't get how upset I get. So please understand when I talk it's coming from a place of passion that I can't keep under wraps. I understand the other teams have talent and may be better than Whitehaven. I can take it when we lose but honestly the reason we lose, from my point of view, is usually because of something WE did or DIDN'T do. I can't be convinced otherwise. 

 

BHS , I think that is why so many fans of the game get upset about with the programs they back. It just makes you scratch your head. The game is tough enough alone without beating yourself by not taking advantage of matchups and certain strengths a team may have over another.

 

To me; this is what makes Maryville so good. They just don't make those kind of mistakes. They may not have the athletic talent of other programs; but they run as a well oiled machine in all phases from coaching down.

[kwc]

To the point that K-Dub made about our OC...

 

As a person that had an up close and personal contact regarding the "philosophy" let me explain the issue with the Ravenwood game from the Semifinals last season...

 

Ravenwood had a 5'6" / 5'7" average athletic CB that played cover 1 or 3  the majority of the night on the side of a 6'3"/6'4" decent WR... We threw one or two fades with that match up when it mattered (before the starting QB got hurt) and so happen to score one TD... (Clears throat)... There was a Goalline stand had by Ravenwood in the 1st quarter after the offense drove down the field with relative ease on either the first or second drive of the game. PLEASE refer back to the 5'7" CB vs 6'3" WR match-up... 3 of the 4 downs that Whitehaven was stopped on were within the 5 yd line and ALL the plays were up the gut RUN plays... We should have thrown the jump ball ONCE in that situation as it came back to haunt us...

 

Let me continue, Whitehaven didn't score ANY POINTS in the Second Half... You mean to tell me that an Offense that was moving the ball relatively easy in the first half (I think Whitehaven had like 150 yds of Total offense at halftime)  gets shut out in the second half is beyond critique... Aw ok. This is why what happened last season makes me and other fans so angry, WE HAVE SEEN THAT TYPE OF L before. (Loud Yell)... Literally the last game I coached at Whitehaven that is how we went out against Smyrna in 2010... Hayle, the offense didn't score ANY points against Maryville in the 2011 Title game when we had just put up an easy 40+ the previous week against Mt. Juliet!  BRUH, yall don't get how upset I get. So please understand when I talk it's coming from a place of passion that I can't keep under wraps. I understand the other teams have talent and may be better than Whitehaven. I can take it when we lose but honestly the reason we lose, from my point of view, is usually because of something WE did or DIDN'T do. I can't be convinced otherwise. 

 

Now when you read a critic of your beloved program from someone who bleeds the colors of the school if you were to cut their wrists ... you don't sit there and say that he's crazy or delusional. BHS makes valid points when presenting his frustration. I myself saw the mis-match and I know I'm not the only one. Yes, we have that fade play in the tool bag because I've seen us use it on more then one occasion. However, I had no reason to believe that the 'O' wouldn't be able to score with a first and goal from the six (6) yard line by running the ball up the gut. It's what we do. Ravenwood stopped us. Everyone knows what is said about hindsight. Quit frankly, if we had it to do all over again, I wouldn't be mad at the O.C. if he did it the same way. Whitehaven has a big bruising OL with some big brusing FBs and some very capable RBs with four (4) tries to get it in from the six (6) yard line. I expected us to punch it in as did our O.C. In my mind his play calling was sane and rational. The difference being ... in 2012, we executed those types of plays to perfection. Other times we haven't. But ... if you are a goose, then you do what a goose does. In those types of situations, Whitehaven runs the ball. It's what we do.

 

 

As the rock band "The Police" once ended the song Synchronicity II with the lines in it's lyrics that said ...

 

"Many miles away ... there's a shadow on the door,

Of a cottage on a shore ....

Of a dark ....

Scottish Laaaaaaaake ... "

 

"Many miles awaaaaaaay"

"Many miles awaaaaaaay"

"Many miles awaaaaaaay"

"Many miles awaaaaaaay"

"Many miles awaaaaaaay"

"Many miles awaaaaaaay"

Edited July 26, 2016 by kwc