GC HOKE

You can go ahead and ban me too, and I won't even mention the high school on Prices Fork Rd. It seems to me all but one of those posts were sincere. It's mostly probable that the sincere ones didn't know that the forbidden named school wasn't in the SWVA.com area. I know rules are necessary for any successful entity, and I respect that, but "the hammer," and "try me," I can get at work, and are the opposite of why I participate in this site...to talk about and read about something fun, sports, with others who share the same interest. Good day sir.

I agree cuz.

4 I think. One was an interception on a hail mary at the end of the half. The other three were fumbles and very costly.

I was at the game. Abingdon was stronger and faster in all facets of the game. Yes, GC hurt themselves with fumbles inside the redzone twice, but to be fair, Abingdon also dropped an easy TD pass on their first possession after their opening kick return score. So, it still would have been a two touchdown game. Abingdon looked to have a solid club, but nowhere near the teams they had the last couple of years. They have good, tough running backs. QB play was solid, but I don't think they will hurt teams with the pass. They were definitely the better team tonight though. GC just has no depth or team speed at all. They did play hard and didn't give up, which I like to see.

You are absolutely correct. Gate City fans are spoiled. In all sports. I am one of them. The expectations are very high each season. Regarding football, Coach Fry set the bar very high. You either stay up there, or go down. The athletes are there, it's just that many of the premier ones choose to play other sports and not football. Kids play the sports that are most appealing to them. Instead of playing 2 or 3 sports, many kids are just playing 1 or 2, with football being the sport not played. I am not declaring that football is no longer king at Gate City, but it's not as lopsided as it used to be. It does run in cycles though, and most likely it will cycle back up in the future.

I don't know. My wording of Calhoun being out was not the best in that I hope I didn't give the impression that he will be back against Abingdon. I was just saying that whenever he comes back, that would help the wishbone offense alot.

Regarding GC's offense, I don't think they have enough speed to run the spread effectively. I have seen them scrimmage Volunteer and Graham. They ran the ball fine in those scrimmages. But I agree, i bet Richlands is in a different category strength and size wise. Although I didn't see the Richlands game. I can't imagine Abingdon would blow us out this year at home. Beat us, yes, I could see that, but blowout, I don't think so. If that happened, it would be a case of us getting down early, not showing any heart, and just giving up. Question: I think I read or heard we only had about 40 yds. rushing against Richlands. Does that include the negative yds. from sacks on the QB, or is that strictly from designed runs? I think the wishbone suits our personnel fairly well, and getting Calhoun back will help alot. I would like to see some quick passes over the middle mixed in. Did we try those Friday? Finally, TTown, I don't think Mack is as old as you think he is. He's only a sophomore.

I agree with 99% of your post, but did you not believe me when I said I was not trying to solicit compliments? That was not the purpose of my post at all. I agree Richlands has been dominant the last 4 years or so. Their program is amazing. But I just feel that fans can show some objectivity by giving an acknowledgement that the other team did some goods things too, not simply that my team screwed up in some instances. Richlands fans, I'm not picking on you, and I meant no disrespect. We are the same way. I do know what "fan" is short for.

Along similar lines, i would like to make a comment about nearly all of the Richlands' fans' comments on the Richlands/GC game last week. It seems the consensus amongst the Blues faithful is that they played pretty badly, the secondary was not good, and they kept their offense vanilla so as not to show anything to Union. I wasn't at the game, so I can't comment whether any of that is true or not (all 3 could very well be true). Having said that, wouldn't it be proper as a fan to give your opponent just a little bit of credit? I'm not soliciting for compliments by no means. But don't you know that some GC fans are lamenting the fact of how badly we played, with the INTs in the red zone and all?

Don't forget Yuma and Hiltons.

I've seen them mostly run their offense out of the wishbone. It will be an interesting matchup. Regarding "that damned horn," are you old enough to remember the cannonball back in the '70's? It was a genuine train steam whistle, powered by hand fed coal. It put the horns they use now to shame. It was so loud that I could hear it on the other side of Clinch Mtn. where I lived.

So do I. I think it's a tossup.

Go to VHSL.org and look under the Parents & Students tab at top, then under Eligibility. It lists all 13 individual eligibility regulations, including the transfer rule.

You just described to a T last year's game. You are probably correct, but that's why they play the game, to find out who won. Of course I would like to see a win, but a close or respectable loss would give GC alot of confidence against a program of Richlands' caliber. And I agree with GC1, if GC has some key injuries early, it will be tough to earn wins.

There's really no point in debating it. We will find out in 11 weeks how many games GC won. I do know one thing, though. They moved the ball against Graham at will. Either Graham's run defense is not good, which I don't believe, or GC is pretty good at running the ball. If GC can get some steady QB play, I see them winning 6 games.