Who is the best team ever in TSSAA history?

[wingman10]

Glencliff had some great teams in the 60's

[GWAVE1]

What happened to Corey Lewis?

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Corey Lewis contracted leukemia and made a valiant fight against the disease that eventually took his life a few years ago. He was a finalist for Mr Football and got a scholarship to Auburn. While at Auburn his mother passed away from the same disease and he raised his 2 younger sisters while taking a back seat on the football field. Stan White got the starting QB job and Lewis quietly ended his football career playing special teams. He recovered a fumble in the Peach Bowl his senior year to preserve an Auburn win. He was living in Atlanta when he was diagnosised with the disease. He made several trips to Texas for treatment and at one time had the disease all but beat but it flared up again and his body eventually gave out. Lots of Gallatin football players and coaches attended his funeral. He will always be remembered for the most famous play in Gallatin's history. In the playoffs against Germantown, he ran a 90 yard QB keeper for the go ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. He then, exhaustedly, ran for the 2 point conversion. Corey will always be remembered as being a class act and one heck of a highschool football player. Gallatin vs Jefferson County in 87' will always be a game that I will cherish throughout my life.

[REBELRON]

1993 Cleveland State champs allowing only 42 points on defense scoring 48 of they're points on defense  three running backs rushing for 1000 yards out of the potent wing t attack keith cobb kevin cobb and i fogot the fullback's name but i remember cause he had 1000 right on the nose they beat a very good brentwood academy who had tito lee whho u would be hearing about in the nfl too bad he commited suicide i sure would like to of seen how far that would have went

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That backfield for Cleveland that year was Kevin and Keith Cobb,Dante Hickey at running back and Cory Prigmore at quarterback. They also had a big fullback who knocked open the holes for those fast studs Cleveland had. I saw that Cleveland team beat Maryville 70-28. It was 28-21 halftime with Cleveland in front. The Maryvillle crowd gave the Maryville team a standing ovation at halftime for playing Cleveland close. In the 2nd half Cleveland poured it on. 5 plays 5 touchdowns. In the 2nd half it would be Cobb 80 yds TD,Hickey 80 yds TD You get the picture. This Cleveland team along with the 2000 Alcoa team had more team speed than any team I ever seen. The big difference between those 2 teams was Alcoa in 2000 wasn't big or physical on the line. Cleveland had some monsters on the offensive line. I remember them having a tight end who was at least 6'6 225lbs. I remember seeing this Cleveland team walk off the field. They had some specimens on that team. I remember an offensive lineman having a full beard. He looked like a 30 year old man instead of a 17-18 yr old kid.

[biglon68]

1945-1949 Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett ranks up there, lost only one game in 5 seasons. State Champs in '45, '47, '48 & '49. Ranked 2nd in '46. Southern Champs in '48 and '49. The '47 team was unscored on in regular season with the only points scored on them being 6 points on a busted play in a bowl game against Georgia State champs Atlanta Marist. Had 1 future NFL player, 2 High School All-Americans and at least 18 SEC signees I'm aware of in addition to numerous small college players. The 11 starters on the '49 team is the only team I've ever heard of were they all were offered schlorships as a whole team by an SEC school. D-B Alum Bobby Dodd offered to the starting 11 and 7 of them decided to sign with Georgia Tech which was the foundation along with '48 D-B All American and 1952 Georgia Tech All-American Hal Miller that led Tech to the 1952 National title. A Chicago sports writer dubbed them the "Little Notre Dame" and in two of those seasons they actually traded in the traditional maroon and gray for Notre Dame green and gold.

 

 

Roll Tribe

[wingman10]

Corey Lewis contracted leukemia and made a valiant fight against the disease that eventually took his life a few years ago.  He was a finalist for Mr Football and got a scholarship to Auburn.  While at Auburn his mother passed away from the same disease and he raised his 2 younger sisters while taking a back seat on the football field.  Stan White got the starting QB job and Lewis quietly ended his football career playing special teams.  He recovered a fumble in the Peach Bowl his senior year to preserve an Auburn win.  He was living in Atlanta when he was diagnosised with the disease.  He made several trips to Texas for treatment and at one time had the disease all but beat but it flared up again and his body eventually gave out.  Lots of Gallatin football players and coaches attended his funeral.  He will always be remembered for the most famous play in Gallatin's history.  In the playoffs against Germantown, he ran a 90 yard QB keeper for the go ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter.  He then, exhaustedly, ran for the 2 point conversion.  Corey will always be remembered as being a class act and one heck of a highschool football player.  Gallatin vs Jefferson County in 87' will always be a game that I will cherish throughout my life.

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Good post. He was a special perosn who God put on earth

[biglon68]

The best modern team has to have been the 94 Riverdale squad, they had several D-1 players Peebles, Duke, Griffin, Bryant and the LB, I think his name was McGowan. But What made them special was that they were disciplined in all aspects of the game with excellent special teams, execution and fundamentals top to bottom. I've lived in East or Middle Tennessee most of my life and have seen most of the teams from the past 20 years mentioned on this thread play or played against them. MBA, Riverdale, Oak Ridge, Dobyns-Bennett(although they choke in playoffs recently which I can say because I played there!) , Maryville, Brentwood Academy and Alcoa consistently maintain a great program year to year. Several schools like Germantown, Oakland, Jefferson County and Red Bank have had exceptional streaks! The second best team I've ever seen was the 1986 Austin-East team with 4 future NFL players, they were Class AA state champs, D-B scrimmaged them in pre-season and they ran all over us, we were beat in the playoffs by eventual Class AAA State Champs Knox Halls, Austin-East could have easily beat them by 4 td's. The third best team I've seen was the 1987 Jefferson County Patriots, they were very similar to the 94 Riverdale team. The three best games I've seen are (3) 1987 playoffs Tullahoma Wildcats(2 future NFL players) at Jefferson County, (2) 2001 Dobyns-Bennett at MBA and number one is 1991 Paducah Tilghman, KY at Oak Ridge which went down to the very last play! The school producing the best athletes from a recruiting standpoint in the last 10 years has to be Melrose, runs the program like a small college team and they have speed, size and more speed and more speed, they must have the most number of D-1 signees in tha state the last decade! Sorry, I love high school football and tend to ramble.

[REBELRON]

Biglon

 

That 86 AE team was awesome. Of all the teams Maryville has played over the years they were the 2nd best. Only the 93 Cleveland team was better.

[biglon68]

Biglon

 

That 86 AE team was awesome. Of all the teams Maryville has played over the years they were the 2nd best. Only the 93 Cleveland team was better.

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That scrimmage with A-E was a three way scrimmage at Jefferson County. We knew we were in trouble when A-E broke the huddle and the skill players Leroy Thompson(Penn state, NFL 6yrs), Joe Fishback(C-N, NFL 4yrs), Joey Smith(Louisville, NFL 2 yrs) and Von Reeves(Tennessee, NFL FA) were all bigger than our biggest defensive linemen! That scrimmage had 5 future NFL players including Todd Collins(Jeff Co, NFL 9yrs) and Mike Faulkerson (D-B, NFL 4 yrs).

 

Congrats to Maryville on a great season, man handling TN High and handling Melrose's speed was impressive.

[REBELRON]

Thanks for the props biglon68.

 

I know how you felt. AE's skill players were bigger than our line also. Maryville went 12-2 in 1986. Both losses were to AE. 33-7 in the regular season and 21-3 in the smifinals. Maryville had a real good team that year but they were an overachieving team. Not a lot of great talent on that team. Don Story got the most out of that team. AE had everything. Great skill players. Big offensive and defensive line. If Maryville and AE played 10 times that year AE would have won all 10 games. AE has a pretty good football team now but that 86 team would beat the 2004 team to death. I am not putting down this years AE team at all. It was that the 86 AE team was awesome.

[biglon68]

Pearl Cohn was the most talented team I ever seen. They had no discipline at all. They had over 200 yds in penalties in the state title game vs Maryville. I can see why a team like MBA beat them. I believe that Maryville had stage fright in that game. Maryville was behind 36-9 at halftime. Pearl Cohn scored on a blocked punt and interception return. Pearl Cohn was a much better team than Maryville.

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I had lived in North Carolina a few years and moved back to Tennessee in 1998 and had heard how great Pearl-Cohn was in 1997. So I went to the 1998 MBA at Pearl-Cohn game. I understand that the 1997 team was several times better than the 1998 team, but they were still ranked number 1 and MBA was ranked 1 in DII as well. MBA had about three players who were talented enough to play D1AA and Pearl-Cohn had Santonio Beard and a bunch of incredible athletes and physically imposing guys(looked like a small college D line)! The Pearl-Cohn offense lacked discipline and mental prepardness for the game, they had like 3 false start penalties, 3 substitution violations(12 men in the huddle) and had to waste two time outs because they broke the huddle with only 10 players(how does that happen twice in a game unless it is peewee league). I don't mean any disrespect to the team or coaches but I just sat there thinking what could Gary Rankin or Graham Clark do with this much athletic talent. If Riverdale, Dobyns-Bennett, Oak Ridge or Maryville had that type of talent they would be ranked up there with the Concord De La Salle's, Cinncinnati Moellers's and Charlotte Independence's around the country.

[biglon68]

1967

Cookeville Central Cavaliers.

 

9-0 regular season,beat Clarksville in Civitan bowl to finish 10-0

finished season ranked #2

 

All State Quarterback  Watson Brown.

 

Evidently state playoff system hadn't started yet,anyone know exactly what year that started?

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Playoffs started in 1969

[Redtwin]

I had lived in North Carolina a few years and moved back to Tennessee in 1998 and had heard how great Pearl-Cohn was in 1997.  So I went to the 1998 MBA at Pearl-Cohn game.  I understand that the 1997 team was several times better than the 1998 team, but they were still ranked number 1 and MBA was ranked 1 in DII as well.  MBA had about three players who were talented enough to play D1AA and Pearl-Cohn had Santonio Beard and a bunch of incredible athletes and physically imposing guys(looked like a small college D line)!  The Pearl-Cohn offense lacked discipline and mental prepardness for the game, they had like 3 false start penalties, 3 substitution violations(12 men in the huddle) and had to waste two time outs because they broke the huddle with only 10 players(how does that happen twice in a game unless it is peewee league).  I don't mean any disrespect to the team or coaches but I just sat there thinking what could Gary Rankin or Graham Clark do with this much athletic talent.  If Riverdale, Dobyns-Bennett, Oak Ridge or Maryville had that type of talent they would be ranked up there with the Concord De La Salle's, Cinncinnati Moellers's and Charlotte Independence's around the country.

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Players off of the 98 MBA Team:

Hunter Hillenmeyer - Vanderbilt - Starting for Chicago Bears

David McIntosh - UNC

David Farrell - Three Time All Ivy at Yale

Jay Davis and Ben Burn both walked on and Played one year at Vandy

Blake Bergeron - Three Year Starter at Davidson

Will McMurry - Three Year starter at Davidson

Todd Prevost - Furman

Jonas Rodriguez - Yale

Tate Rich - Yale

Barton Simmons - Yale, twice all Ivy

Matt Neal - three year starter at Sewanne

James Pittman - Rice

Ingle Martin - Florida/Furman

Moses Osemwegie - Vandy - 1st Team All Sec

Dominique Morris - Vandy - three year starter

Hulsey Smith - SMU

 

Not to mention about 10 other guys that played other Division I sports. People often focus too much on MBA's discipline. Believe it or not, there are actually some players with talent. Outside of Beard and Wesley Homles, that PC team had very few standout athletes.