Oak ridge football

[SweetScience]

14 hours ago, IanMackaye said:

OR hasn’t even sniffed a second place trophy in any sport in a while, let alone win one, so I don’t know what “tradition” means there any more. Years ago it was a different story.

Boys basketball state runner-up in 2014-15. Honestly they should’ve won it all, but had a meltdown with about 3 minutes left when Blackman started up a full court press and our young point guard lost his composure.

[catswild]

3 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

Boys basketball state runner-up in 2014-15. Honestly they should’ve won it all, but had a meltdown with about 3 minutes left when Blackman started up a full court press and our young point guard lost his composure.

I remember that well...I was there. It was like watching a car wreck in slow motion and not being able to stop it.

[SweetScience]

2 hours ago, catswild said:

I don't totally disagree with you on everything you say, but as I've said before, it's about linemen. Basketball and cross country don't require them, but football does. Basketball relies on athletes and OR usually has some good ones and they can usually compete with anyone. Those same athletes in football DEPEND on the linemen to create opportunities to showcase their talents. Have you ever watched line play or are you like most fans and just watch the ball? The OR linemen are good kids I'm sure but the teams that have been winning titles are way bigger than OR's linemen, plus they have great athletes. OR just doesn't have enough good, big linemen. Rhea County and Catholic were VASTLY superior to OR up front. When I watched Central on TV in the title game last year, they were HUGE and athletic up front. OR just hasn't had that in years. When they do have maybe one big guy, he can't move. I focus on line play in every game (I was a lineman). I'm surprised that your brilliant Elite buddy hasn't noticed this.

It's easier to compete statewide in basketball because it's athletes vs athletes...no linemen, but in football it's athletes/linemen vs athletes vs linemen.....totally different story.

As far as the OR tradition is concerned, it's great but why is it even being talked about? What's the point? If you don't like the OR tradition, then don't speak of it...that's easy. If you appreciate it, then mention it. What's it got to do with anything?

 

One of your best posts ever on here. Preach!

[catswild]

21 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

One of your best posts ever on here. Preach!

Thank you Sweets......

[BigTime1950]

4 hours ago, catswild said:

I don't totally disagree with you on everything you say, but as I've said before, it's about linemen. Basketball and cross country don't require them, but football does. Basketball relies on athletes and OR usually has some good ones and they can usually compete with anyone. Those same athletes in football DEPEND on the linemen to create opportunities to showcase their talents. Have you ever watched line play or are you like most fans and just watch the ball? The OR linemen are good kids I'm sure but the teams that have been winning titles are way bigger than OR's linemen, plus they have great athletes. OR just doesn't have enough good, big linemen. Rhea County and Catholic were VASTLY superior to OR up front. When I watched Central on TV in the title game last year, they were HUGE and athletic up front. OR just hasn't had that in years. When they do have maybe one big guy, he can't move. I focus on line play in every game (I was a lineman). I'm surprised that your brilliant Elite buddy hasn't noticed this.

It's easier to compete statewide in basketball because it's athletes vs athletes...no linemen, but in football it's athletes/linemen vs athletes vs linemen.....totally different story.

As far as the OR tradition is concerned, it's great but why is it even being talked about? What's the point? If you don't like the OR tradition, then don't speak of it...that's easy. If you appreciate it, then mention it. What's it got to do with anything?

 

I keep up with OR. I have some very loose connections with the football team from way back. You are right about the linemen. Back in the old veer and option days you could get away with quick, strong but smaller linemen. Now with spread offenses and passing you need to be bigger to pass block bigger  stronger defenders.  Linemen are bigger on average today. There are some big ones that are strong and have good feet. Not every team has them.

[SweetScience]

I don’t know about y’all, and trust me I know the line was decent last year by our recent standards and I’m well aware of the fact that they’ll get better. But, there was not only an obvious size differential (especially our OL vs Maryville D line barring our 1 big guy), but there was also from what I saw a vast difference in strength. The Maryville D line was in the backfield in at most 1 second every time we hiked the ball, but as you have both pointed out, that goes back to the size differential. I don’t see us competing for another state championship anytime soon unless we get some bigger and stronger linemen. We can get away with it with most of the teams we play in our district, but when you start playing the big boys it’s a totally different story. All of this talk about athletes is a moot point if they have nowhere to run or the QB has zero pass protection.

[catswild]

6 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

I don’t know about y’all, and trust me I know the line was decent last year by our recent standards and I’m well aware of the fact that they’ll get better. But, there was not only an obvious size differential (especially our OL vs Maryville D line barring our 1 big guy), but there was also from what I saw a vast difference in strength. The Maryville D line was in the backfield in at most 1 second every time we hiked the ball, but as you have both pointed out, that goes back to the size differential. I don’t see us competing for another state championship anytime soon unless we get some bigger and stronger linemen. We can get away with it with most of the teams we play in our district, but when you start playing the big boys it’s a totally different story. All of this talk about athletes is a moot point if they have nowhere to run or the QB has zero pass protection.

You're exactly right and I agree with you. When I see the middle school teams the linemen usually look the size of backs. The OR skill position players are usually among the best around but our linemen get outmanned by the likes of HVA, DB, Farragut, Powell, Rhea County, Catholic, etc.  I think the Catholic linemen eventually wore our guys down last year after we built a big lead. I agree...no state title for OR football until they get several big and strong linemen. I watched the only big guy we have against Maryville and they were by him before he moved.

[catswild]

1 hour ago, BigTime1950 said:

I keep up with OR. I have some very loose connections with the football team from way back. You are right about the linemen. Back in the old veer and option days you could get away with quick, strong but smaller linemen. Now with spread offenses and passing you need to be bigger to pass block bigger  stronger defenders.  Linemen are bigger on average today. There are some big ones that are strong and have good feet. Not every team has them.

We are one of those teams.......

[SweetScience]

4 minutes ago, catswild said:

You're exactly right and I agree with you. When I see the middle school teams the linemen usually look the size of backs. The OR skill position players are usually among the best around but our linemen get outmanned by the likes of HVA, DB, Farragut, Powell, Rhea County, Catholic, etc.  I think the Catholic linemen eventually wore our guys down last year after we built a big lead. I agree...no state title for OR football until they get several big and strong linemen. I watched the only big guy we have against Maryville and they were by him before he moved.

Correct. But, like you said, even when we do have a few big linemen like we did in 2014 with the likes of Chapman, Burum, and 1 or two others that year they are just slow and have no amount of footwork when they go against a quick line like Cleveland had that year in the playoffs. As big as a few of those guys were that year they were awful run blockers for some odd reason. We couldn’t run against Cleveland or Rhea Co in the playoffs that year. I don’t know, I’m almost under the impression that we are cursed at OR as far as linemen go lol. The best line we’ve had the past 15 years was in 2005, and we went to state that year.

[SweetScience]

3 hours ago, catswild said:

I remember that well...I was there. It was like watching a car wreck in slow motion and not being able to stop it.

Yeah, it was kinda like sitting and watching a train wreck about to happen. You could see it slowly transpiring and knew what was about to happen, but you couldn’t stop watching it. That was one of the toughest defeats ever for me personally as an OR sports fan because we were so close and within inches of hoisting the gold ball. It was an agonizing defeat and a heckuva long ride back from Murfreesboro.

[catswild]

6 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

Yeah, it was kinda like sitting and watching a train wreck about to happen. You could see it slowly transpiring and knew what was about to happen, but you couldn’t stop watching it. That was one of the toughest defeats ever for me personally as an OR sports fan because we were so close and within inches of hoisting the gold ball. It was an agonizing defeat and a heckuva long ride back from Murfreesboro.

It was agonizing for sure...crushing

[catswild]

19 minutes ago, SweetScience said:

Correct. But, like you said, even when we do have a few big linemen like we did in 2014 with the likes of Chapman, Burum, and 1 or two others that year they are just slow and have no amount of footwork when they go against a quick line like Cleveland had that year in the playoffs. As big as a few of those guys were that year they were awful run blockers for some odd reason. We couldn’t run against Cleveland or Rhea Co in the playoffs that year. I don’t know, I’m almost under the impression that we are cursed at OR as far as linemen go lol. The best line we’ve had the past 15 years was in 2005, and we went to state that year.

That's a big reason why we went to the state that year...and we should've won it. Blew that one but that's another story in itself.