Mount Juliet at Lebanon

[MJGOLDENBEARS]

This appears to be a barn burner in the making. How any 6a team can't muster up a halfway competitive team is beyond me. Especially when you're talking about Lebanon, a prime area for talent, large school, a lot of diversity, big population. It just doesn't seem to matter for them, 8 years in a row now they have been stuck in a funk. Is there anyway out?

[steelcityroller]

Not that an analysis is needed to know who wins this game but....

 

Mt. Juliet is 2-2 and has played good competition so far in Gallatin, Cane Ridge and Ravenwood.

 

They probably haven't been as good as they would have liked on offense against Cane Ridge and Ravenwood scoring 19 and 7 points in those games. But they scored 26 on Gallatin and 41 on Franklin County.

 

However on the defensive side of the ball Mt. Juliet has been solid. They held a Gallatin to 6 points and that team has since scored 35, 50 and 50 in their last 3 games. They held Ravenwood to 12 points. They held Cane Ridge to 27 points and that team has scored 39, 47 and 50 in their other 3 games.

 

Then you have Lebanon who is 0-3 having lost to Warren County, McGavock and Summit by a combined score of 104-13. Warren County and Summit who thought to be some of the easier games on their schedule.

 

On offense Lebanon is averaging 101 yards rushing and 39 yards passing through 3 games. So they are averaging 140 yards of offense per game. They have scored 13 points in 3 games. I might be wrong but I believe that both of those touchdowns came late in the 4th quarter when the game was well out of reach.

 

On defense Lebanon is giving up 285 yards rushing and 109 yards passing per game. They have allowed 104 points most of which were in the 1st half. Summit had 41 points at halftime last week before calling off the dogs.

 

Out of the 3 opponents Summit looks like a good team through 4 games. McGavock is 1-3 and lost their other 3 games by 24, 32 and 36 points. Warren County is 1-2 and lost their other 2 games by 20 and 22 points against Cookeville (5A) and Dekalb County (3A).

 

In my opinion Lebanon is staring a 0-11 season right in the face. The only games I can see where they might have a chance is against Antioch and Portland. And Antioch is better than last year. They beat LaVergne and put up similar offense/defensive numbers against Cane Ridge as a McGavock team that dominated Lebanon. Portland is 1-3 but at least are scoring offensively with 83 points in their last 3 games.

 

Mt. Juliet 45

 

Lebanon 0

[zoneread56]

gonna ask some of the wilson county guys, what in you alls opinion is the problem at lebanon? they have a large pop to pull from and seem to have a good amount of athletes but never can win.. is it coaching, admin, players or what?  interested to hear you guys thoughts on this

[mjhoops2016]

The growing trend leads to making football fun so your best athletes come out to play. The best athletes are picking other sports at Lebanon. My bears win big.

[slagiatt]

gonna ask some of the wilson county guys, what in you alls opinion is the problem at lebanon? they have a large pop to pull from and seem to have a good amount of athletes but never can win.. is it coaching, admin, players or what?  interested to hear you guys thoughts on this

You need to ask the real "Blue Devil Guru"  Wilson Post + game radio announcer---Tommy Bryan that question? He seemed to think that Harp was the reincarnation of coaching royalty at the time of hiring, and that the trophy case was getting ready to be filled. I would be curious as to how he thinks now. There is a problem there, and I do not think it is coaching.

I do think the split school system LSSD & WCS is part of the problem, but am not really sure about that. It is a curious thing that occurs from time to time; it is easy to go from the penthouse to the outhouse, but the climb back up to the penthouse seems to be much harder, and take longer. You got to have some talent and avoid injuries; the higher classes require a bit more depth in the talent dept. The cupboard appears dry for the Blue Devils. They could be the next 0-11 team; that includes a long road trip to Memphis. *note........this set-up needs to be fixed in some way. IMO

[GWAVE1]

You need to ask the real "Blue Devil Guru" Wilson Post + game radio announcer---Tommy Bryan that question? He seemed to think that Harp was the reincarnation of coaching royalty at the time of hiring, and that the trophy case was getting ready to be filled. I would be curious as to how he thinks now. There is a problem there, and I do not think it is coaching.

I do think the split school system LSSD & WCS is part of the problem, but am not really sure about that. It is a curious thing that occurs from time to time; it is easy to go from the penthouse to the outhouse, but the climb back up to the penthouse seems to be much harder, and take longer. You got to have some talent and avoid injuries; the higher classes require a bit more depth in the talent dept. The cupboard appears dry for the Blue Devils. They could be the next 0-11 team; that includes a long road trip to Memphis. *note........this set-up needs to be fixed in some way. IMO

It already has been. Just not in effect this year.

[steelcityroller]

gonna ask some of the wilson county guys, what in you alls opinion is the problem at lebanon? they have a large pop to pull from and seem to have a good amount of athletes but never can win.. is it coaching, admin, players or what?  interested to hear you guys thoughts on this

 

My thoughts

 

(1) Friendship Christian. They back-to-back state championships in 2A in 2011 and 2012. How many of those kids were zoned for Lebanon High School? Quite a few. How many do they have now that are zoned for Lebanon High School? Quite a few.

 

If you are a parent and your child is pretty good at football where would you rather they play? At a school that struggles to win anything more than a couple games or a private school where they can compete for state championships and get more exposure from colleges....

 

The best players at Walter J. Baird and Winfree Bryant end up getting recruited by Friendship Christian. Winfree Bryant has a dominant lineman right now and he won't be playing for Lebanon High School as he is being recruited by all these private schools. You look at the Junior and Senior classes right now and a good portion of kids that were the best players in Jr. High are playing for Friendship.

 

(2) Lebanon is a starter town for families. Almost 40% of the residences in Lebanon are rentals. In comparison to places like Mt. Juliet where its like 20%. There are more families that come and go from Lebanon. That means more kids going and coming from the program. And not just high school but that is means that kids moving around town might find themselves jumping middle school programs as well.

 

(3) Residential demographics. This is adding on to #2. The families in Lebanon are more likely to be single-parent or unmarried households. The families in Lebanon are more likely to be single-mother households.

 

Why does that matter? A single-mother that is having to support a family is she gonna have time to take her kid to all the practices and games? Who is more likely to push their kids into athletics a father-figure or a single-mother?

 

(4) Culture. Walter J. Baird and Winfree Bryant both have somewhere in the neighborhood of 500-600 students. How many on the football teams? 25-30?

 

When you see these kids outside playing ball they are playing basketball. Alot of these kids follow the NBA more than the NFL or NCAA Football. Alot more kids go tryout for basketball.

 

That isn't on the those programs either as both Walter J. Baird and Winfree Bryant have good coaching and programs in place. Walter J. Baird is very good on a regular basis at the Jr. High level.

 

These are mostly inner-city kids that have other things that they would rather do than play football.

 

(5) A divided system of schools with County and City divisions. The Elementary and Middle Schools are mostly ran by the City. The High Schools are mostly ran by the County. So you get a slightly different guidance from the beginning to the end.

 

Lebanon High School gets students from Walter J. Baird, Winfree Bryant and Carroll-Oakland. That is 3 different schools. So when these kids go over to High School you got 3 different groups of kids trying out for the football team coming from 3 different offenses, defenses and coaching styles. 3 different groups of kids that have never played together.

 

In comparison look at Mt. Juliet Middle School. They have around 1,400 students. So those the majority of those kids at Mt. Juliet High School have played together since Middle School. They also don't have to take 3 different groups of kids and teach them completely different offensive and defensive schemes.

[steelcityroller]

Mt. Juliet 54

 

Lebanon 19

 

Final

[MJGOLDENBEARS]

Finally a real challenge next Friday.

[workinprogress]

Golden bears your comment makes it sound as if your team hasn't had a challenge. You do remember the two losses right .

[MJGOLDENBEARS]

Golden bears your comment makes it sound as if your team hasn't had a challenge. You do remember the two losses right .

Can you admit we are a solid team this year? Or would you rather avoid the facts, we lost to undefeated Cane Ridge and a really solid Ravenwood team that has been underrated. The true test comes next Friday when MJ has a chance to quiet the doubters like workinprogress who only wants to focus on the negatives surrounding the program.

[workinprogress]

I have no doubts whatsoever that Mt. Juliet is a solid team. I have respect for the program and for the job the coaches do. I have no respect for fans that constantly run their mouths. Now will you admit that Mt. Juliet is not finally getting a challenge like you stated in your post. Two losses out of five games means the team has been challenged.