Big Surprises on the season:

[SSHawks12]

Who have been your biggest surprises / disappointments this season? I love to hear from other fans point of view, if a team has exceeded expectation or fallen well short of where they should be? 

 

Let me know! 

[chrisburr]

SURPRISES

Jefferson County

Bearden

Tullahoma

Marshall County

Lakeway Christian

Providence Christian

Knoxville Halls

Jellico

Red Boiling Springs

Oliver Springs

Loretto

Cornersville

Millington

Antioch

Liberty Creek

Memphis Business

Mitchell

DISSAPOINTMENTS

Fulton (Us)

Austin-East

Kirby

South Doyle

Seymour

Farragut

Fayette-Ware

Wayne County

McEwen

Humboldt

Halls (West TN)

Pigeon Forge

Claiborne

Maplewood

Karns

[Dadof2]

I’m sure a lot didn’t think Meigs would be one the better 3A teams in the state, considering losing the head coach and moving up a class, and being one of the smartest 3A schools.

[blazer1set]

Surprise --  Elizabethton was supposed to be mediocre, but so far they are looking like a real contender in 4A

[noonesfool]

The weather in Northeast Tennessee.

[BigDaddyDave]

17 hours ago, noonesfool said:

The weather in Northeast Tennessee.

Shhhhh! We don’t speak of such things!

[BigDaddyDave]

My biggest surprise and disappointment, is probably how down football seems to be, all across the state. It just doesn’t feel the same as it has over the last 5 or so years. Or maybe the balance of power is shifting from the usual suspects back to the field? I don’t know, but I guess it’s just going to have to play itself out.

[TheBlueprint]

14 minutes ago, BigDaddyDave said:

My biggest surprise and disappointment, is probably how down football seems to be, all across the state. It just doesn’t feel the same as it has over the last 5 or so years. Or maybe the balance of power is shifting from the usual suspects back to the field? I don’t know, but I guess it’s just going to have to play itself out.

TSSAA has watered down football everywhere by going to 6 public classes and 3 private classes. Regions are mostly uncompetitive across the board. And round 1-2 and in some cases 3 are nothing more than a long day of travel for a team/parents just to get blown out. Need to cut back on the classes and make regions bigger and only top 2 of each region make the playoffs. Every game would matter more and the product on the field would be much better 

TSSAA is going to make their money and the way to guarantee that is to have more classes, which means more regions, more playoff games, and more championship games. Back in the day, if you played til mid-November you were a dang good football team. Now some team make it to Thanksgiving week who have no business being there. The setup now makes the product on the field most Friday nights pretty bad

Just my 2 cents. Football was much better when every single game mattered 

[Dp81]

7 minutes ago, TheBlueprint said:

TSSAA has watered down football everywhere by going to 6 public classes and 3 private classes. Regions are mostly uncompetitive across the board. And round 1-2 and in some cases 3 are nothing more than a long day of travel for a team/parents just to get blown out. Need to cut back on the classes and make regions bigger and only top 2 of each region make the playoffs. Every game would matter more and the product on the field would be much better 

TSSAA is going to make their money and the way to guarantee that is to have more classes, which means more regions, more playoff games, and more championship games. Back in the day, if you played til mid-November you were a dang good football team. Now some team make it to Thanksgiving week who have no business being there. The setup now makes the product on the field most Friday nights pretty bad

Just my 2 cents. Football was much better when every single game mattered 

I will add to your thought. (And i may be wrong because i do not have facts) It seems that the salary for high school football coaches isn't as high in Tennessee as other states. which would cause the "great" coaches to get jobs in other states such as Alabama, Texas, Georgia. To get more specific it seems that the metro schools, Memphis & Nashville mainly, do not pay as well as rural schools. (booster clubs and such) I know coaches have left Madison Co. schools (northside, southside, Liberty Magnet) due to insufficient pay. All three of those schools have the athletes to compete with anyone but a "great" coach is going to go where the money is. 

My point is this (again correct if I'm wrong), but if TSSAA paid coaches better, then these schools would have better coaches which will also add to the number of competitive programs across the state. 

[BigDaddyDave]

18 minutes ago, TheBlueprint said:

TSSAA has watered down football everywhere by going to 6 public classes and 3 private classes. Regions are mostly uncompetitive across the board. And round 1-2 and in some cases 3 are nothing more than a long day of travel for a team/parents just to get blown out. Need to cut back on the classes and make regions bigger and only top 2 of each region make the playoffs. Every game would matter more and the product on the field would be much better 

TSSAA is going to make their money and the way to guarantee that is to have more classes, which means more regions, more playoff games, and more championship games. Back in the day, if you played til mid-November you were a dang good football team. Now some team make it to Thanksgiving week who have no business being there. The setup now makes the product on the field most Friday nights pretty bad

Just my 2 cents. Football was much better when every single game mattered 

I’m not a fan of the 2 playoff teams. I was involved in a 3-way tie back in 1988 (3A) between us (Betsy), Science Hill and TN High. We lost out because our 1 non conference game was with 3A Greeneville who had a worse record than Science Hill’s non conference game (2A Unicoi), but Greeneville beat Unicoi. So we played the tougher schedule. Kinda like UT playing Notre Dame and Florida playing Alabama A&T or Florida Atlantic. We finished the season 9-1 and ranked in the top 10 and didn’t make the playoffs. While other, much lower ranked schools with less teams in conference made it with .500 records.

I’d be ok going back to 5 division 1 classes but you keep those scholarship schools in a separate division. Based on need they say! Need a QB, need a RB, need some linemen. Need to get a life. LOL

[TheBlueprint]

34 minutes ago, BigDaddyDave said:

I’m not a fan of the 2 playoff teams. I was involved in a 3-way tie back in 1988 (3A) between us (Betsy), Science Hill and TN High. We lost out because our 1 non conference game was with 3A Greeneville who had a worse record than Science Hill’s non conference game (2A Unicoi), but Greeneville beat Unicoi. So we played the tougher schedule. Kinda like UT playing Notre Dame and Florida playing Alabama A&T or Florida Atlantic. We finished the season 9-1 and ranked in the top 10 and didn’t make the playoffs. While other, much lower ranked schools with less teams in conference made it with .500 records.

I’d be ok going back to 5 division 1 classes but you keep those scholarship schools in a separate division. Based on need they say! Need a QB, need a RB, need some linemen. Need to get a life. LOL

With 2 teams from each district or region making the playoffs every year, there will absolutely be really good teams sitting at home coke playoff time just like there was back when. But if that’s the case, then that means most schools in the playoffs are good, meaning better/more meaningful football games. Plus, you find out who is really the best team when you have to beat 4 quality opponents in November to win it all

 

I’m not dumb enough to think that there will ever be a perfect system because there won’t be. But there are plenty of other options to improve high school football in Tennessee than what TSSAA has in place right now 

[TheBlueprint]

43 minutes ago, Dp81 said:

I will add to your thought. (And i may be wrong because i do not have facts) It seems that the salary for high school football coaches isn't as high in Tennessee as other states. which would cause the "great" coaches to get jobs in other states such as Alabama, Texas, Georgia. To get more specific it seems that the metro schools, Memphis & Nashville mainly, do not pay as well as rural schools. (booster clubs and such) I know coaches have left Madison Co. schools (northside, southside, Liberty Magnet) due to insufficient pay. All three of those schools have the athletes to compete with anyone but a "great" coach is going to go where the money is. 

My point is this (again correct if I'm wrong), but if TSSAA paid coaches better, then these schools would have better coaches which will also add to the number of competitive programs across the state. 

TSSAA doesn’t pay football coaches. That is up to the school system