BandanaVTDavis4321

Gate City by 2 scores. Haven't seen em this year, but I know that Gate City is still the King of that corner of Virginia as far as I am concerned. If Gate City can get healthy and stay healthy, they have once again, another quality typical Gate City team that can go deep in the playoffs or perhaps all the way to the big show. They've done it before on years in which I didn't see it coming like them beating Gretna a while back. I think Giles is still the team to beat around here and that includes all of SWVA in 1A or 2Aball, but the Gate is still right up there along with an improved Richlands. As for next year....watch out for the Fort baby (at least in 1A)!!!!

LOL, LOL, and you have the nerve to write "everybody"<---suggesting poor emotional control thinks I write crazy or weird comments? LOL, you do realize you lost me when you wrote about Coach Simons allowing Graham to score in order to score more points. I think you made that post soon after your comment to my post about Graham and Giles (of which Graham took the state champions pretty deep in the game last year). LOL, and incredibly, you strike again with a jest that basically claims...Coach Mance is less strict or less of a disciplinarian than Coach Simons? LOL. Oh yea, you "keep me around"? Dude, I don't take your site serious enough to "beg for inclusion." I have posted perhaps how many times? 20-30? That's not posting enough to be "kept around." The fact is...you are the entertainment G-Men. In conclusion, I think somebody is threatened and that is...someone is worried that yet another team in the mighty Fort surpasses the G-Men like Richlands did 10 years ago and that bothers you. It's why you hate Richlands and you truly hate the Fort.

Going to go out on a limb and make a prediction. This game will be within 10 points. I will go 35-31 in favor of Giles. Graham has a head coaching problem in my opinion only, not a talent problem. When you have issues with the culture of a program (influenced and greatly effected for better or worse by the head coach of any program) then a team can use this positive culture-coaching to overcome some lack of talent issues, or a team can use this to undercut some solid talent issues. But, every so often, great talent can rear its ugly head for one given game and overcome a cultural problem like the one for the G-men. The Pioneers felt this all to well last year again the G-men.

I really don't think some of you realize just how good the two teams Gate City has played. 1 of them is ranked 4th in Tennessee in AAAA ball and the other is ranked 1st in West Virginia in AA ball. Gate City didn't just play two good or pretty solid teams, they just played two potential state champions. That's how good the two teams Gate City has played are. Gate City 27, Union, 24

It just seems like he can't get over the hump and it doesn't look like VT is going to do anything special like they did in the earlier years. I was curious as to the thoughts of Hokie fans about this. I think he should retire at seasons end. I love the idea of allowing him to wait as long as he wants or for him to go out on his own, but his staying actually appears to be possibly hurting the program at this point.

So much for 1 and 9 after the loss of "all the players" from last year's team. Heck, I think the Fort might just be going playoffing and might just go ahead and win the district.

One could argue Mance was the reason it was that close to start with.

Punting and the Salem coach. Has Graham forced a punt this season through 2 games? Also, I asked this earlier and did not get an answer from Graham fans and the question is ...did the new d coach at graham coach as the DC under Willis White in the 90s or was hw the dc for only a few recent years at Salem?

With that shared and the father of Miles not being the defensive coordinator at Salem, is the current new coach at Graham the former defensive coordinator at Salem in the 90's under Willis White with the string of 3 or 4 state titles? Is it the same person? If not, what are his years at Salem?

GMAN, in response to your comment about Graham's win over FC, kudos to Graham by winning a hard-hitting contest on the road in a game I certainly did not think Graham would win. I think most Graham fans probably felt the same going into that game. Either way, Graham won it fair and square and had a great performance. FutbolKing, I am not blaming your coach or assigning responsibility regarding the 52 points per game average over the last 4 years. I am just giving you that statistic. I also have a tough time believing the Bluefield offense this year is better than all previous Bluefield offenses when considering the AAA state title teams of the 60's and 70's that garnered national attention and recognition. It does not matter if it's 1970-something: if a team rushes for 350 yards or so a game in that time given the state of the offensive systems in place, that offense could and should receive discussion as one of Bluefield's best. The 2014 Bluefield offense may indeed be the best, but again when you consider the history of Bluefield and dominance at the AAA level in which they were basically screwed out of perhaps 3 or 4 state title chances under Gainer in addition to winning the others when Charleston chose to invite them on a given year, we can at least agree the 2014 offense as the best in Bluefield history is arguable. I also would ask you check the new former Salem defensive coach at Graham High. I do not know anything about him, but I thought the former defensive coordinator at Salem under Willis White during the 90's in which they won like 3 or 4 state titles in a row was the father of former Salem standout and Virginia Tech player, Shane Miles. Salem has certainly been great and is still right up there among the best in Div 4, but their hay-days were the 90's.

208 is the number of points Williams has given up to Bluefield in his 4 years. That's 52 points per contest allowed and the most points scored by Bluefield over any 4 year period in the history of the series.

I never wrote that Marrs was a better coach then Williams. Those are your words. What I did write was....Marrs had a football IQ higher than most give him credit for. Football IQ is one of the few components that go into being a good coach. There is leadership, people skills, emotional intelligence, personality and other facts that go with it which set Marrs back from being a good coach. Also, how do you put in your post "my best bud marrs" when I stated he wasn't a good person. He's certainly not "my best bud." Is he yours? I suggest you do a bit of reading of people's posts before responding. As for Williams, one fundamental flaw some fans may be making is deduction of facts by comparison of only two subjects. For example...because Williams is better than Marrs, then Williams must be a good coach. I simply don't buy the logic that Williams is automatically a good coach because he was better than Marrs. The jury is out on Williams. It's hard to say if he's a good coach or not. As for Graham tonight, the G-men will play a good game and may very well play better than most think. The thing is....there are 2 teams on the field and Fort Chiswell is also going to play a game better than most think, and that spells trouble. Check this out...if Marrs would have only won 1 game his last 3 years, and Williams would have won 2 games in the first 3 years, then technically, yes....Williams has more wins than Marrs. Again, neither record is very good though, regardless of whether Williams has more wins.

Graham will get beat by 50 plus points. This Fort Chiswell team and the team 2 years ago were night and day different. Two years ago, Fort Chiswell had a low seeded playoff type team. This year, they have a deep-late run caliber state semi or state title appearing team. Anytime a team finishes 5-5, it's not a huge upset if another team beats them. Granted, it was an upset, but this game tomorrow would be monumental-mammoth in upset status. Fort Chiswell is a different monster and Graham is going to realize that Friday night. It will get ugly quickly, whether it be physical, speed, finesse, or coaching, FC is far better than Graham in all 4 categories this year BY FAR. As for Williams, he is a smart you know what, period. He's sarcastic in person and he's sarcastic to folks trying to get an interview in the media. He has no reason to be a smart you know what, he's a High School Football Coach. He's not a former coach at UVA. He's not a college All-American. He's nothing special, yet he portrays himself as if he is. I know, some will say he's confident, or has "character" or is a straight shooter, or super dedicated and determined, blah, blah, blah.....just call it for what he is....he's a smart you know what, period. There is simply no need to be that way. As for his coaching ability, it's to early to tell. Next year will tell more about him. As for Marrs, again, another smart you know what. A good man? No, not a good man. A good person? No, not a good person either. Actually, Marrs was a better football coach regarding knowledge of the game than he is given credit for, but the problem was, he was such a despicable human that any relations he had with other humans went sour, whether that is the kids he coached or adults; therefore, regardless of his football knowledge, all the other qualities that go along with coaching, he lacked in.

Anyone know if the G=MEN get in the dance? I know, they may not go far in the playoffs or whatever. I'm not asking as to how far they go or how far they don't go in the playoffs, I am simply asking if the make it with what is going to be a 5-5 record, and yes, they will beat Narrows and yes, they will lose to FC, so they will be 5 and 5.

Galax is a solid team, but I have to tell you, they actually did Not give FC a great game. FC completely took it to them and they could not stop FC's offensive line from blowing them 7 yards off the ball. Galax also played FC at home and got throttled. I agree that Galax is solid and they are one heck of a team with losses coming to a close one with Giles and losing to Altavista who ranks 2nd in Virginia in Div 1. The Altavista score was similar to the FC score (very close) regarding margin of victory for Altavista over Galax and Fort Chiswell over Galax, but the Altavista game was much closer than the score indicated and the FC game was actually worse than the score indicated.

Me either, not when Narrows has 172 total yards and only 70 in the first half.

I agree with you. The game against Giles shows Graham's ability to stay on the field with one of the better Single A teams in the state. The G-Men fought them tooth and nail. I think Graham's future is bright and there's going to be many, many wins in Graham's future during the next 2-3 years.

Agree. Grundy doesn't count, they are horrible. Against Bluefield, take away 14 of those points as Bluefield had completely stepped off the gas. The final score was nowhere indicative of how bad the beating was, on BOTH sides of the ball. Against Richlands, a good offensive performance and the best game offensively was against Giles, but outside of this.......I would call Graham a good offense, but not an excellent offense by any stretch. After scoring 7 on Galax, and definitely no more than 14 on Fort Chiswell (unless FC plays the JV after halftime or the 3rd quarter) Graham's offense will not look like an excellent offense by season's end, it will look exactly like it currently is now......pretty good, but not great or excellent.

If Graham's defense were good.......that would make them a "good" team. Most other teams can point to one unit also, be it the O or D.

And this will give Graham fans an idea of just how good Fort Chiswell is. They completely manhandled Galax. The G-Men can come back and make this closer with Galax, but this will definitely give Graham and idea of what lies ahead when playing on the road at Fort Chiswell. The score or beating may equal that of the Bluefield game. It will simply get out of hand early and be over by the end of the first quarter. FC also won on the road at Galax, well they didn't win, they stomped them on the road. Galax did this to Graham in Bluefield. Graham will finish its season at 5-5 with wins coming against Narrows and Bland, and a loss at Fort Chiswell that may exceed 35 or 40 points. If you think Galax is good (and they are) you haven't seen nothing yet. The team over there at the 77/81 juction is a totally different beast.

Disagree with you and actually believe you are 100% wrong and that your way of thinking is one of the reasons our kids are failing across the country when looking at most statistical measures of success and happiness. Drug use, teen pregnancy rates, teen dropout rates, teenage crime, jobless rates among recent graduates, etc.....most measure show a generation that is in serious trouble when comparing this generation to historic generations. One of the reasons for that in my opinion is your attitude. Actually MORE pressure needs to be put on kids, not less. Kids in this generation are in trouble because of the old cliche, "everybody gets a trophy" etc. To truly summarize it....this generation isn't allowed to deal with anxiety, stress, or major challenging issues that require initiative at a young age. In stead, we teach them to take a pill before learning the coping mechanisms of how to deal with stress and what later becomes.......life. Therefore, I respect agree with your concern about these young men and I truly mean that, but I disagree 100% in your approach. There is little to zero pressure. In Africa, many kids have nothing to eat and have 1 parent who dies of AIDS and one of who is about to die. In Afghanistan, one kid lost his brother to a landmine and his father is putting pressure on him to strap a missile to himself and blow himself and others up to get revenge. In parts of Asia, a 12 year old girl is worried about her fathers recent decision to prostitute her. See my point? Worrying about "performing" in a High School Football isn't stress when we compare it to what is true stress and truly concerning.

Graham is a 5-5 or 6-4 team. If they beat Galax, they finish 6 and 4. If they lose to Galax, they finish 5-5. It's as simple as that. They will beat G. County, Narrows, and Bland to get to 5 wins. They will lose to Fort Chiswell to get to 4 losses. Galax is the toss up game. Win that game and they finish 6 and 4. Lose that game and they break even at 5-5 for the regular season.

The most important thing in my opinion.....it's a glimpse of what FC gets late in the playoffs against a possible Essex or Sussex Central with great speed and athleticism. Thomasville was exactly that. My question was...can FC match up against a superfast and athletic team, or will they get exposed to big plays and simply gashed by quick scores to the opponent due to speed. Well, I think that question was put to rest. The reason they can match up is because of their lineplay on both sides of the football. I watched the game against Thomasville and Thomasville simply couldn't tackle them within 3 to 4 yards of the line of scrimmage. FC just manhandled them up front. This team reminds me much of a Gate City team that upset Gretna to win a state title a few years back due to lineplay and controlling the clock.

Revisit this post....Thomasville will win it's 5 remaining regular season games and finish 6 and 5. They will enter the playoffs and win 3 games and advance to the state semifinals. In 2011, they started 2 and 4. They won their 5 remaining regular season games to finish the regular season and 6 and 5. They won 3 straight playoff games and advanced to the state semi's. The team that beat them in the state semi's lost the following week in the state championship game on a field goal as time expired. Trust me on this one.....1 and 5, or 2 and 4 is meaningless to measure how solid this team is for this case which is a unique one and a team that schedules completely out of realm and way, way, above it's level for the first 5 or so games each year. They've done this for years only to advance deep into the 2A playoffs and sometimes, winning the whole thing.