Whitehaven vs Lausanne, Friday, Wk 4, at Rhodes College

[Lead]

37 minutes ago, WilsonJr1990 said:

Haven’t seen officially, but heard he broke 250. It was tough sledding against that D. May have had 40+ carries 

He is a great back no doubt. Michigan got a gem!

[coach10ac]

We had our chances. That bad snap on the missed XP really hurt. We get that one stop the way we did game over!!! But when you have a RB like that,  you run him till the wheels fall off. And that's what they did.....I ain't mad. heckuva game 

[kwc]

On 9/8/2018 at 1:20 AM, WilsonJr1990 said:

Haven’t seen officially, but heard he broke 250. It was tough sledding against that D. May have had 40+ carries 

It wouldn't surprise me one bit. That man has wiggle, speed, power, and vision. In OT, he wanted the ball. I don't think we will see another back all year as good as 'The GOAT'. Like coach10ac said, I ain't mad. One heckuva game. 

Edited September 10, 2018 by kwc

[TraderB]

On 9/7/2018 at 9:48 PM, Havengrad04 said:

23-26 Lausanne... Great game, one of the best I’ve seen in a while. Eric Grey is a beast.  We had way too many dropped passes. 

Quick summary:   

 

1)  Lausanne dominated the line of scrimmage.

2)  Eric Gray is a smaller version of Barry Sanders, no exxageration!

3)  Whitehaven has the heart of a Champion -- they absolutely refuse to quit, and seem to summon laser-focus and peak performance when smacked in the mouth!

4)  If these two teams played 10 times....IMHO, Lausanne would likely win 7 or 8 of them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a Public school graduate, I'm a bit partial towards the Publics (I've got nothing against the Private schools, though -- just to be clear).   So, I  was absolutely pulling for Whitehaven.    Reality set in very quickly, however, given how the game swiftly unfolded.  As such, the final outcome was 100% expected:

From the opening bell,  Lausanne absolutely and completely DOMINATED the line of scrimmage -- on both sides of the ball....the entire game!    This development was 100% shocking,  given Whitehaven's defensive emphasis, depth and # of D1 players.    Numbers 75 and 68 for Lausanne were simply like men amongst boys, with #75 being totally unblockable!!    Offensively, I think #75 was the LT....68 was RT.   Defensively, I think they held down the same positions.

QUESTION:   Does anybody know the "scoop" on these 2 players?   Also, what/any scholarship offers?   

Good Lord, the Univ of Memphis needs to be recruiting these two players...VERY HARD!

Anyway, primarily due of its two "beasts" up front, combined with 4 wide-outs and Eric Gray's speed and extreme elusiveness,  Gray consistently found massive running lanes.  He routinely popped off runs of 6 to 7 yards, often picking up 3 to 4 yards before he was even touched!   Literally every time he touched the ball and took one cut, it felt like he was gonna take it to the house!  I don't know what his final yardage tally was, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wound up with close to 300 yard rushing!     Even when Lausanne got into a 2nd or 3rd and 15+ yards to go, via penalties, they still routinely picked up the first down -- either via Eric Gray and/or their (underrated) strong-arm, accurate QB.   It got to the point where one came to EXPECT Lausanne to pickup those long 1st downs.

Barring injury, I predict that Eric Gray will ultimately play football professionally.  This kid is flat-out that good!  Wow, just wow!!

As for Whitehaven --  Goodness gracious, this team has the heart of a Champion!   Just when it seemed that they were totally deflated (after falling behind 20-7 in the 3rd qtr),  out of confidence and would get blown out, they sprang back to life like dormant grass in the springtime!    Desperate times call for desperate measures --  that is precisely how Whitehaven began to play, at that point.

Whitehaven's offense:    its running game got totally shut down -- null and void, even picking up just 2 yards was a mighty struggle!  

Kudos the the Quarterback --  he was running for his life.... A lot, yet still has the poise and mobility enough to slip out of the grasp and find open receivers.   He connected with them enough that it kept the game close, giving Whitehaven an excellent chance to pull out the victory.    Sure, he missed on a lot of passes but -- given the constant duress that he was under from Lausanne's defense -- that's totally understandable.    His receivers didn't help his cause -- they managed to drop a fair number of passes......   Thank goodness for a passing game, else this game would have been a total blowout!

Whitehaven's defense:   While they simply could not stop Eric Gray & Lausanne's running game,   Kudos to the defense for forcing timely Lausanne turnovers!  This halted Lausanne scoring drives, ultimately leading to points-off-turnovers for Whitehaven.... At the end of the day, I honestly think Whitehaven's defense did an admirable job by holding Lausanne to "only" 26 points, while yielding whatever yards to Eric Gray!    In fact, I strongly suspect that  this just might turn out to be Lausanne's lowest point total all year!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bottom line:

Lausanne's line play is so overpowering, I'll be shocked if they don't breeze to a 3rd straight State Title!   I simply don't think that there's a defense that can shut down their offense.  Yet, their defense is quite stout -- expecially run defense;  pass defense, a little less so...

Whitehaven absolutely must find a way to improve its line play, on both sides of the ball (especially offensively), if it genuinely expects to return and win a State Championship. 

Edited September 11, 2018 by TraderB

[Haven04]

6 hours ago, TraderB said:

Quick summary:   

 

1)  Lausanne dominated the line of scrimmage.

2)  Eric Gray is a smaller version of Barry Sanders, no exxageration!

3)  Whitehaven has the heart of a Champion -- they absolutely refuse to quit, and seem to summon laser-focus and peak performance when smacked in the mouth!

4)  If these two teams played 10 times....IMHO, Lausanne would likely win 7 or 8 of them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As a Public school graduate, I'm a bit partial towards the Publics (I've got nothing against the Private schools, though -- just to be clear).   So, I  was absolutely pulling for Whitehaven.    Reality set in very quickly, however, given how the game swiftly unfolded.  As such, the final outcome was 100% expected:

From the opening bell,  Lausanne absolutely and completely DOMINATED the line of scrimmage -- on both sides of the ball....the entire game!    This development was 100% shocking,  given Whitehaven's defensive emphasis, depth and # of D1 players.    Numbers 75 and 68 for Lausanne were simply like men amongst boys, with #75 being totally unblockable!!    Offensively, I think #75 was the LT....68 was RT.   Defensively, I think they held down the same positions.

QUESTION:   Does anybody know the "scoop" on these 2 players?   Also, what/any scholarship offers?   

Good Lord, the Univ of Memphis needs to be recruiting these two players...VERY HARD!

Anyway, primarily due of its two "beasts" up front, combined with 4 wide-outs and Eric Gray's speed and extreme elusiveness,  Gray consistently found massive running lanes.  He routinely popped off runs of 6 to 7 yards, often picking up 3 to 4 yards before he was even touched!   Literally every time he touched the ball and took one cut, it felt like he was gonna take it to the house!  I don't know what his final yardage tally was, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wound up with close to 300 yard rushing!     Even when Lausanne got into a 2nd or 3rd and 15+ yards to go, via penalties, they still routinely picked up the first down -- either via Eric Gray and/or their (underrated) strong-arm, accurate QB.   It got to the point where one came to EXPECT Lausanne to pickup those long 1st downs.

Barring injury, I predict that Eric Gray will ultimately play football professionally.  This kid is flat-out that good!  Wow, just wow!!

As for Whitehaven --  Goodness gracious, this team has the heart of a Champion!   Just when it seemed that they were totally deflated (after falling behind 20-7 in the 3rd qtr),  out of confidence and would get blown out, they sprang back to life like dormant grass in the springtime!    Desperate times call for desperate measures --  that is precisely how Whitehaven began to play, at that point.

Whitehaven's offense:    its running game got totally shut down -- null and void, even picking up just 2 yards was a mighty struggle!  

Kudos the the Quarterback --  he was running for his life.... A lot, yet still has the poise and mobility enough to slip out of the grasp and find open receivers.   He connected with them enough that it kept the game close, giving Whitehaven an excellent chance to pull out the victory.    Sure, he missed on a lot of passes but -- given the constant duress that he was under from Lausanne's defense -- that's totally understandable.    His receivers didn't help his cause -- they managed to drop a fair number of passes......   Thank goodness for a passing game, else this game would have been a total blowout!

Whitehaven's defense:   While they simply could not stop Eric Gray & Lausanne's running game,   Kudos to the defense for forcing timely Lausanne turnovers!  This halted Lausanne scoring drives, ultimately leading to points-off-turnovers for Whitehaven.... At the end of the day, I honestly think Whitehaven's defense did an admirable job by holding Lausanne to "only" 26 points, while yielding whatever yards to Eric Gray!    In fact, I strongly suspect that  this just might turn out to be Lausanne's lowest point total all year!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bottom line:

Lausanne's line play is so overpowering, I'll be shocked if they don't breeze to a 3rd straight State Title!   I simply don't think that there's a defense that can shut down their offense.  Yet, their defense is quite stout -- expecially run defense;  pass defense, a little less so...

Whitehaven absolutely must find a way to improve its line play, on both sides of the ball (especially offensively), if it genuinely expects to return and win a State Championship. 

Trader I agree with majority of what you said BUT I also know that we were without our star linebacker and our star offensive lineman. I didn’t even wanna mention it at first because it would seem like an excuse  but I know for a fact that a Bryson Eason on the field would have helped our defense slow down Gray a little bit. That’s almost but not quite equivalent to Gray being out for this game on offense for them, he’s that much of a game changer and the heart of our defense and we still held our own against one of the top 5 backs in the nation without him. Lausanne operates like a fine tuned machine on both sides of the ball and still we had opportunity after opportunity to make plays that are necessary to beat a great team thats well coached and can match your athleticism. Too many dropped balls and we a missed extra point while the game is tied up 20-20 in the 4th quarter which just can not happen. I’m proud of how we fought to overcome adversity despite being shredded by Barry Sanders Jr. I agree that our o line was getting whooped and our qb was running for his life all game but our best o lineman UT committ Melvin McBride was out as well. I get that injuries are s part of there game but the two areas where we were missing our best players are the areas that got exposed. I have no doubt that Lausanne will cruise to another title. Im happy for them and Gray is one of the best backs I’ve ever seen and seems to be just as good off the field as well but as far as your odds of them beating is 7 out of 8 times if we play. I would still have to disagree and split it down the middle. I hope we play them every year, it only makes our players and program better. 

Edited September 11, 2018 by Havengrad04

[kwc]

11 hours ago, TraderB said:

Quick summary:   

 

1)  Lausanne dominated the line of scrimmage.

2)  Eric Gray is a smaller version of Barry Sanders, no exxageration!

3)  Whitehaven has the heart of a Champion -- they absolutely refuse to quit, and seem to summon laser-focus and peak performance when smacked in the mouth!

4)  If these two teams played 10 times....IMHO, Lausanne would likely win 7 or 8 of them.

TraderB:

Long time no see. Good to see you making commentary on the T again. I see it took a big game to draw you out from your CoachT sabatical. 

Don't stay away so long. You've been missed. If is no one else but me who has missed your spirit and enthusiasm for high school football in Memphis.

That game was a doozy, wasn't it?

I think Eric put 300 yards on our vaunted defense. I haven't seen a RB carve up a Whitehaven's 'D' like that in quite a while either. Humbling doesn't begin to express the feeling. 

He is quite special. So is the Lausanne O-line and D-line.

[BlackHavenSenator]

This man said we were dominated on the line... dang, I swear we had as many or MORE TFLs than them... anyway I won't be triggered off of a another person's slanted viewpoint I'll be triggered over My own viewpoint...

The lack of creativity, consistency offensively along with no solid qb play is the reason we lost this game. If the QB can't throw a drag, slant, stop, or curl (I say that because I don't recall seeing these throws called) please find another QB OR run more read option. Stop asking dude to throw deep outs and deep balls like he's Jeff George. Geezus Chris! I need us to tighten up offensively. We can talk defense if we want but guess who got us to OT... the defense with a massive stop. If we ever lose a shoot out I will be the first to point fingers defensively but when we lose we lose the same way for the same reason. We don't put up enough points, offensively. And please get a goalline package with a goalline back with Size. I love #11 but running him around the goalline is silly against a good, stout defense 

Edited September 11, 2018 by BlackHavenSenator

[WilsonJr1990]

I will say, I agree with most of what has been said. I don’t think Lausanne wins 7-8 out of 10, I think they win 5-6, so almost a push with them being the slightly better overall team. Obviously injuries to Whitehaven played a big role (I didn’t realize McBride was out. Didn’t he come back the week before?) I think if those two play on that particular night, Whitehaven gets the win. However, I don’t think Lausanne played their best at all. Very hard to beat a team like Whitehaven with 3 turnovers, 2 of which were not forced (the punt and interception.) The forced fumble was a great play by that LB, couldn’t tell which one it was. But overall, I think both teams made some great plays and some I’m sure they wish they could have back and it resulted in a great game between two fairly evenly matched teams. 

 

To answer TraderB’s question about the 2 big fellas up front: #75 is a senior with multiple D1-AA offers and some D1-A watching closely to see how this season plays out. Hasn’t committed anywhere to my knowledge. #68 is a junior but I’m not sure where is recruitment stands right now. He was one of the few kids from last years team that was ineligible most of the season due to their co-op being changed. 

[Haven04]

 

[WilsonJr1990]

I heard the that Shelby County Schools live streamed the game. Anyone know if there’s a place to re-watch?

[kwc]

11 hours ago, WilsonJr1990 said:

I heard the that Shelby County Schools live streamed the game. Anyone know if there’s a place to re-watch?

It's not on the 88.5/C19 website.

[kwc]

On 9/11/2018 at 1:57 PM, BlackHavenSenator said:

And please get a goalline package with a goalline back with Size. I love #11 but running him around the goalline is silly against a good, stout defense 

BHS:

I agree 100 percent with the goaline package.