WEST TENNESSEE FOOTBALL IS AWFUL

[Bkbfan4ever]

Problem of all these no wins, or 1 and 2 win teams can be easily fixed if they will just take 3 teams from each region instead of 4.  Give 1 seeds a bye   That will probably never happen though because TSSAA will not make as much $

[Respect901fball]

50 minutes ago, SuperBowlKid1489 said:

Memphis East may be the worst team in TN right now after watching them last week. Moving down will definitely be a big help to them. Crazy how far they've fallen off in the last 2-3 years.

Memphis East is STEM high school only now.  If you don't meet the requirements, you aren't allowed to attend from my understanding.  I'm not sure they'll ever be what they used to be on the football field.

[CHARGERFAN]

As a Covington fan, I would like to move up to 4A if we could play traditional opponents like Ripley, Dyersburg, Haywood, in our region. After all, we beat 4A Ripley and 4A Crockett County this year and beat 4A Dyersburg in the jamboree, so I think that we could compete (at least this year). 

OTOH, our current Region 7-3A is listed as the toughest 3A region in the state (per Commercial Appeal). You have Milan, South Gibson, McNairy County, and Bolivar. None of those is a pushover. We played better vs 5A Munford and 5A Brighton than against our Region competition.

I will leave it to our Covington administration to choose to play up or not. I like the level at which our squad has played the last few years, but I don’t want us to be handicapped by low enrollment.

 

[TryNotToSuck]

I'm actually going to disagree with this, and for a few reasons. First, we have 21 counties, 8 of those counties have only one school (Lake, Crockett, Chester, Haywood, Hardin, Decatur, Henry, and Benton). With that being said, and despite there being tons of schools and those education academies in Memphis, we still don't have the quantity amount of schools as Middle and East Tennessee does. Also, look at the playoff brackets and you'll notice a few things.

In 1A, I see Hancock with a 2 seed at Region 1 with a 3-7 record. Those 3 wins are over Cosby, Unaka, and Jellico (combined record of 6-23). Jellico, Sale Creek, South Fulton, and Hancock County are the 3 teams in 1A that are in the playoffs with 3 wins or fewer, three of those four teams are of those are in Middle and East Tennessee. *SF combined opponent record over Humboldt, Gleason, and Dresden is 7-23*

Same situation in 2A where Bledsoe County and Marion County are in the playoffs, with 3 wins or fewer. Bledsoe County wins are Tellico Plains, Grundy County, and Polk County (combined opponent record of 9-21). Marion County has three wins as well, Bledsoe County, Tellico Plains, and Coalfield, (combined opponent record of 11-19). 

3A, Melrose is the only team in West Tennessee that is in the playoffs with a sub .500 record. Melrose is 4-6. However, they're 10 Middle and East Tennessee teams in 3A that are in with a .500 record. The only argument you can make is that out of the Melrose wins, two of them are winless and the other 2 only have 1 win. However, they're 4-6, they finished 4th in their region, so they're in the playoffs. But Melrose is the only West Tennessee team that is in with a sub .500 record. 

4A is different because the Memphis 4A region is awful. Memphis East is awful, Fayette Ware is not good, Craigmont is not good as well. You can add Chester County (R6) in there as well. However, Hardin County got robbed of a huge call against South Side that ended up costing them that game. If Hardin County won at South Side, they're the 2 seed and South Side will be 3. Right now, in my opinion, Hardin County is the best 3 seed in 4A. North Side is 6-4, but two of those losses are to teams that finished 10-0. South Side is good, but they lost Latham and it's hurting them. Haywood is still dangerous. Dyersburg got 4 running backs that can all rush for 100+ yards each in a game.

In 5A, it's Henry County and Henry County only. 

6A is all Memphis schools which will be Germantown, Whitehaven, and Cordova. That's all.

[TryNotToSuck]

I understand that West Tennessee is somewhat down. Adamsville and Lexington didn't have the season they were hoping. Humboldt needs to be a team that wins 8+ games in a season. Crockett is somewhat down to years past. However, MUS, Fayette Academy, Lausanne, Christian Brothers, Houston, Whitehaven, Germantown, Henry County, Dyersburg, Haywood, Covington, Peabody, Lake County, and Huntingdon are all legitimate threats to make it to Cookeville. 

[ManOfMillions]

1 hour ago, CHARGERFAN said:

As a Covington fan, I would like to move up to 4A if we could play traditional opponents like Ripley, Dyersburg, Haywood, in our region. After all, we beat 4A Ripley and 4A Crockett County this year and beat 4A Dyersburg in the jamboree, so I think that we could compete (at least this year). 

OTOH, our current Region 7-3A is listed as the toughest 3A region in the state (per Commercial Appeal). You have Milan, South Gibson, McNairy County, and Bolivar. None of those is a pushover. We played better vs 5A Munford and 5A Brighton than against our Region competition.

I will leave it to our Covington administration to choose to play up or not. I like the level at which our squad has played the last few years, but I don’t want us to be handicapped by low enrollment.

 

Well said charger fan. O yea you forgot to mention that if you play in 3a your playing for second anyways.... So I like it I would rather play 4a as well. 

[Rob_M]

Millington is way down. But, have won the games they had to win. Ral Egypt and Trezevant now have the athlete base that used  to feed into Millington.  Proud of the way this Millington team has kept fighting. RB#7  has had  a really nice SR year in his first year on the Gridiron. Over 800 yards. QB Tommy Clifton is tough as nails and Trojans have 2 WR's with speed to take it the distance.  With that said, Ripley can win this one in the #1 vs #4 matchup if Millington doesn't play well. #GoTrojans!

[Trojan]

5 hours ago, CHARGERFAN said:

As a Covington fan, I would like to move up to 4A if we could play traditional opponents like Ripley, Dyersburg, Haywood, in our region. After all, we beat 4A Ripley and 4A Crockett County this year and beat 4A Dyersburg in the jamboree, so I think that we could compete (at least this year). 

OTOH, our current Region 7-3A is listed as the toughest 3A region in the state (per Commercial Appeal). You have Milan, South Gibson, McNairy County, and Bolivar. None of those is a pushover. We played better vs 5A Munford and 5A Brighton than against our Region competition.

I will leave it to our Covington administration to choose to play up or not. I like the level at which our squad has played the last few years, but I don’t want us to be handicapped by low enrollment.

 

This is mid cycle but this years enrollment numbers would put Dyersburg and Covington in 3A. Dyersburg was the bottom team in 4A and Covington was the top team in 3A this cycle. Both are well below the 3A cut off this year.

[Trojan]

Memphis East numbers are down but they are always low. They usually have 2A and 3A numbers and elect to play up. They lost their coach which resulted in several players leaving. They were 4A State Champs year before last and have been a power over this way for years. I really hate what has happened.

[REBELRON]

Hard to believe that Memphis East is winless. Especially after they won state 2 years ago.  Hard to believe Melrose is as down as they are.  I remember watching them win State Titles in 1996 and 1998. Those teams were great. Especially the 1996 team. I also know in 2002 and 2003 Melrose made it to the semifinals and lost 2 close games vs outstanding Hillsboro teams. In 2004 and 2005 Melrose lost 2 close games vs Maryville in State Championship game. Melrose was the best team Maryville played both years. Melrose was awesome on defense those years.

[Kevin38]

2 minutes ago, REBELRON said:

Hard to believe that Memphis East is winless. Especially after they won state 2 years ago.  Hard to believe Melrose is as down as they are.  I remember watching them win State Titles in 1996 and 1998. Those teams were great. Especially the 1996 team. I also know in 2002 and 2003 Melrose made it to the semifinals and lost 2 close games vs outstanding Hillsboro teams. In 2004 and 2005 Melrose lost 2 close games vs Maryville in State Championship game. Melrose was the best team Maryville played both years. Melrose was awesome on defense those years.

Yes! I remember watching those games on TV, that defense was off the charts, the scores would be like 12-6 or 10-7, dont remember exactly, they had good RBs on offense but were 1 dimensional which was their demise against you guys!

[tradertwo]

6 minutes ago, Trojan said:

Memphis East numbers are down but they are always low. They usually have 2A and 3A numbers and elect to play up. They lost their coach which resulted in several players leaving. They were 4A State Champs year before last and have been a power over this way for years. I really hate what has happened.

The thing that kills Memphis is that players move around like free agents. The good teams are great and the not so good are awful, because all the athletes migrate to the few that are currently prominent. Coaching ( I'm gonna get blasted ) is suspect city wide with a very few exceptions. Whitehaven is a prime example...they have two gold balls (one legit) over Maryville, yet have had tremendously more talented teams...D1 athletes at almost every position (and some on the bench), versus Maryville's precision play with some good athletes, but few D1 3,4, or 5 star recruits. Good coaching and distribution of talent more evenly would balance the scales.