SXSW

There will never be a thread to beat the Akers' thread! 😂😂😂 Fun times! 

This will be the thread that gets us through till next football season!

Round one is in the books and the pickins as they say are slim! No region one teams survived in 1A, 3A, 5A and with exception of Jefferson County in 6A. 
The 9-2 Hampton Bulldogs host the Warriors of Bledsoe County (9-2) (Pikeville, TN.)  in Hampton Friday night and the winner gets to host the quarterfinal round next week against the Fighting Alvin Yorks of York Institute and Oneida! 2A is probably the most wide open of all the classes in Tennessee. 
In 4A: Gibbs (9-2) makes the trip to Burley Stadium In Greeneville to play the 9-0 Greene Devils. Gibbs won an overtime thriller verses Northview Academy (Kodak, TN.) 28-27 and Greeneville won 48-14 over Fulton, the other side of the bracket has one of the most anticipated games of the week ,in any class, as Elizabethton a 38-0 winner over Knox Carter playing in Clinton against the Mavericks of Anderson County a 49-0 winner over Sullivan East!  The winners meet in the quarterfinal round in week 3 of the playoffs. 
I will include Jefferson County in the post because they are technically in Region 1. The Patriots have has a massive turn around thanks to Spencer Riley who played guard at Tennessee in the late 90's and was a member of the 1998 National Championship team. Riley is a O-Line and TE guru and his team just lines up and mauls you! Jefferson County (10-1) hosts Bearden (8-3) and the winner gets the Maryville (7-4) versus Bradley Central (11-0) ...good luck stopping Boo Carter in that game! 
Get out and go to a game, the kids need your support and the TSSAA needs your money!

Well the regular season is over and what an odd regular season it was, with multiple teams missing games due to weather. The Big 3, in 4A all are legitimate state title contenders ( Greeneville, Elizabethton and Anderson County) and will eliminate each other by the semi-final round. I will focus on the local teams and will update it weekly until the "locals" are gone!
In 1A. Cloudland (6-4) hosts Greenback (4-6) on Roan Mountain the other side of the bracket has the Huskies of North Greene (4-6) travels to Oliver Springs (7-3) and the other 1A team Unaka (2-8) plays it's last game of the year at Coalfield.
In 2A. Polk County (4-6) makes the 3 1/2 hour bus trip to Hampton (8-2), the winner plays the winner of South Greene (8-2) @ Bledsoe County (8-2) and the other Region 1 team Happy Valley (7-3) hosts Oneida (7-3). 
In 3A: Johnson County (6-4) takes the long trip to Kingston (7-3), Austin East (3-7) makes the drive to beautiful Erwin to take on Unicoi County (7-3) and Chuckey-Doak (6-4) make the ill-fated drive to Alcoa (9-1)! Maybe the team could just Blacksburg Alcoa and take the Alligent Flight to Sanford, FL for the weekend!
In 4A: The Bareknuckle Cage Fight is about to throw down! Greeneville (8-0) takes on Fulton (2-8), Elizabethton (8-1) takes on Carter (6-4), and Sullivan East (6-4) travels to Anderson County (6-4). If Betsy' and AC win then the Cyclones travel to AC next week.
In 5A: Tennessee High (7-3) hosts Powell (7-3) and Boone becomes the Sacrificial Lamb for Knox West (9-1) 
In 6A: Dobyns Bennett (5-4) makes their first road exit at Bearden (7-3) and Science Hill (7-3) hosts Maryville (6-4) at Kermit Tipton Stadium in Johnson City and finally in 6A West Ridge (5-4) gets the long ride to Bradley Central (10-0 to visit Tennessee Commit Boo Carter!
  

Abingdon is a PHYSICAL football team, they will beat you up! The QB is sneaky good and like to possess the ball and hold it. In the GC game GC had the ball exactly 3 times in the first half for a total of less than 5 minutes. They play like the old Appy teams, size and ball control! I think Union athletically is far superior but Abingdon will be more physical. I like Union to score late and win just too many athletes to stop! 

Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it and take it from a long suffering Blue Devil fan good coaching can't take the place of not having enough talent! It's amazing when the talent increases the coaching does too.

Guilty as charged. I can’t stand Central, and it has nothing to do with the kids that go there. I can’t think of one positive experience I or anyone I know have had with anything involving them. 

I’m just telling you what I’ve heard, in person, more than once over the last few years. I don’t give a shit if you believe me or not but it’s the truth. 
 
Do you know why everyone hates Central? Every other surrounding school? Because they’ve earned the hatred. It’s for reasons, numerous. Believe what you want I don’t care, I was just telling you that you were 1,000% wrong insinuating it’s only on this forum. 

Every freaking year for the last 5 years!

But, but those underclassmen were suppose to dominate the Mountain 7 for the next 8 years in every sport!

I seen the play from the 45 yard line visitors bleachers and I don't think he ever had possession of it! I don't expect the officiating to  be perfect and I think the call would have been okay either way! They don't have the benefit of replay and have to make a judgement call! I got some funny looks from my hometown fans for GC but I don't think he ever caught the ball!
 

I'll go with The Cove by 2 TD.

Gate City plays quite a few underclassmen also. That being said, I can see Union blowing them out of the water after last years games but then again every time I've ever expected us to get whipped we seem to find a way to be in the game. Luckily I'm not  a betting man.

That is Central's quote for every sport!

Just my $0.02 on the game Gate City is banged up a little and Union is hot and coming off a huge win (Congrats Bears!) talent wins games but last year GC outcoached Union twice! I think Union is the better team but it is a rivalry game and anything can happen..
Union 21-Gate City 20...

I have posted on here many times that Scott County will never consolidate it's schools, the county is just too big! 543 square miles big and 70% of the population lives with in 10 miles of Gate City, you could combine GC/TS or GC/ RC but never all 3!

With Gate City, John Battle and Virginia High being the outliers! Bristol is going to add students because of the casino and GC will stay steady because of the Tennessee kids!

Hubris among high school coaches these days is something to behold. Or at least, that's been my experience in the dealings I've had with them. Almost unanimously, they can't understand why kids, parents, administrators don't have the same burning passion for their sport they do. And should a kid have a "first love" other than the sport that coach wants them to have a burning passion for, that hubris leds the coaches to try to force the issue. Which in turn, drives the kid away from that coach and his hubris. 
I've told this story before but it's worth telling again. The basketball coach at Galax wanted a good friend of mine to talk his son into quitting golf to play travel basketball all summer. This kid is not your dads golfer. He's 6'-3" and weighs close to 200 pounds. He can stand flat-footed under the basket and two-hand dunk a basketball. But his passion since he was in diapers is golf. He is literally at Blue Ridge Country Club until dark every day. He's the #7 ranked junior in Virginia, has won several junior tournaments across North Carolina and Virginia, and is the reigning VHSL Class 1 state champion. This coach began pressuring the kid since the dad wouldn't do his bidding for him. So the kid finally told the coach, "I'm here to stay active when it's too cold to play golf."
Still, the hubris of the coach still wouldn't allow him to understand why anyone would choose golf over basketball so he persisted in harrassing this kid. So the dad ripped the coach a new asshole, in the middle of the gym after a game, in front of the stands full of parents and fans, and told him to never speak to his son again about the subject. 

The season was rolling along nicely until you posted this garbage! Have you not seen the last 8 seasons of GC Football! As a proud GC alumnus you don't stir the pot, the football gods don't like it! And if you are going to be man or woman enough to make a post like this have the balls to come back and face the music! Don't be a hit and run artist! You could combine the last 10 GC teams together and still not have enough talent to beat Graham, let alone a state title!

Knoxville area is good, but Middle Tennessee high school ball is next level good! Mid State is a recruiting hot bed and will be for many more years to come!

Knoxville area is good, but Middle Tennessee high school ball is next level good! Mid State is a recruiting hot bed and will be for many more years to come!

No player at Science Hill has ever played anywhere like Bullitt Park. Science Hill is the 5th biggest high school in Tennessee with around 2400 students and rarely play out of state! I would love to see their faces when they get off the bus and go to that little tiny locker room.
 

I haven't been to the Park in a few years. I am glad they have improved the place. It is a cozy little stadium! wait till you go to Kermit Tipton Stadium where you sit a good 25-30 yards across a track behind the bench, it feels lie the game is a quarter of a mile away!
 

I'll take a 1 point win any day of the week. 
 

Defense is the key for the Devils! With the modern offenses of the day, you have to be able to get off the field at least a few times a game. I look for ball control out of the Devils, their running backs and QB can control most games, as long as the line holds up even half way decent. Gate City has never had a 5 man o-line that averaged 300lbs across the board and have proved you don't need it to be successful, you don't need maulers on the line just ballers doing their jobs! I think the Devils win but it will  be close!