How about take only 6 & 1 and 2 get bye round 1 or if you take 8 reseed bracket after each round. For example, if only 1,2, 4 & 6 make it. Reseed so 1 plays 6 & 2 plays 4 if that makes sense. I don’t really know if that works or helps. I really don’t think Graham or Union care to play each other next week. Neither shy away from tough competition. As a fan, yeah, I’d rather play Virginia High again as opposed to a Union, lol. No disrespect intended, lol. I just hope neither team has players injured when we play. It’s a hard row to hoe when key players get injured in the playoffs. I want whomever wins D to take out C whether it’s Graham, Union, etc.
I would rather see a 6 team playoff over reshuffling the seeds that just too much IMO. If a 6 knocks for a 3 they shouldnt be punished by having to play the 1. I dont like the 8 team playoff personally I think its more helpful to play games and stay in a groove than take a bye unless you a super beat up and if the talent is that much of a difference then your 2s are playing in the second half against the best competition they have seen all year because most teams lets their 1s finish out the garbage time in the last game. With Lebanon coming back to the southwest that gives both districts 6 class 2 teams. I would like to see a cross bracket region play like they do in every other sport so you dont have a Union Gate City type match up in the first round
I know this has already been stated that the 1st round games would be the same in class 2 the second round games are far more interesting
Graham still awaits the winner of Gate City/Union which I thought would be different but ended up not changing
If chalk holds though Ridgeview would match up with Glenvar
Martinsville gets Appo instead of Glenvar admittedly I know very little about 2C but with Appos recent success I think I would rather play Glenvar
And the best match up of the group would be the Bobcats vs the Bearcats. Crist vs his old stomping grounds. That would settle once and for all some of the talk of if he should have left or not
I am sure you are just as Union doesn't back away ( playing Science Hill next 2 yrs I hear), but it's the principle of the thing. The #1 seed should have some reward,
In the old east west model the #1 seed got a lot more of a reward than what we are seeing now
Okay, lol! I feel like the coaches have the team focused on the task at hand. Marion may be better than their record indicates but in my opinion Graham will come out ready to make a statement. I could be wrong, GMen could put on a lackluster performance. I just highly doubt it. I'll guess we'll see. I'm just glad there's not going to be a deluge. Last game, was a mud bath there. You couldn't even tell the teams apart much less read numbers of jerseys.
And played out much closer than everyone thought at well. 26-14 or something like that. That was 2018 Carrolls last game at Marion. I can see this game being close up until the second half. If Marion holds on to the ball and limits Grahams TOP that is. Marions defense has held its own against spread formation this season with the exception of Grayson which was mostly due to crappy field position. When Grahams decides they are just going to run the ball in that tackle over look like they did against VA high thats when it will get ugly. As a fan I am hoping they work on their passing game before that happens and Marion is able to hang in there on defense a little. Hopefully Marion can build some confidence going into the offseason with a lot of talent returning and year 2 in a system.
IF Jones connects on the deep shots that he missed last week to Poku then this one can get ugly quick. Brown has the ability to keep it close but he will need a ton of help for Richlands to pull this off. I can see both QB's accounting for 300 yards of total offense but I will take the Bearcats in this one.
The only truly impressive win Gate City has had in that stretch is the Union game (which was at home, FWIW). Gate City just last week played Central, a 3-7 team that is going to miss the playoffs, to a 21-14 game. One of those games was a 35-28 win over a Marion team that is lucky to be 1-9. I think Houseright has come the closest by far of any coach in SWVA to maxing out the results of his team given the talent level they possess. That's not a criticism at all, and in fact should be taken as a pretty high compliment. SWVA football is better when GC is competitive like this. But that's not the profile of a team that makes a lot of noise in November.
I know you've been high on Virginia High this year, but I continue to disagree with the value you put on Brody Jones. I've seen Virginia High play. They got punched in the mouth and folded like a cheap tent. They've played just 2 other reasonably good teams the entire season. A short-handed Graham more than doubled them up, but they did pretty well against an OK-ish Patrick Henry team. Again, that's not the kind of team I'm putting much faith in come November.
Gate City does not have a hang 40 on you offense they win but running the ball and passing just enough to keep you honest and they are good enough to make it hurt when they do put it in the air. That means that the Margin of victory is not going to be a big as other teams in the region. Abingdon was also in pretty good shape when they played and Gate City put it on them. A win is a win it doesnt matter if its by 1 or 50 and getting high school boys to focus in and not make mistakes when the game is on the line says a lot about that coaching staff and the kids. I would still take GC over Tazewell regaurdless of what happens against Ridgeview
As far as VA high I am assuming the game you saw was the first game of the season and that was a LONG time ago. Jones isnt the passer that Creasy or O'Quinn but the kid is huge and can run like a deer. He is also a force of Defense so all around what he brings to that team is more than any player on Tazewells roster does. (not throwing shade on the kids just stating what I see) In the Graham game graham was better up front period. They put 6 lineman on the field and ran it all night long I do not think their is a roster in the region outside of Union that can stand up to what Graham has up front.
Saying Marion is lucky to be 1-9 just means you have not watched the last few games. If they do a better job of scoring in the redzone the past few weeks they make both VA high and Tazewell sweat a lot more than they all ready were. They arnt the put your J's after one drive the the 3rd quarter team anymore. That could very well happen on Friday because I believe Graham is that good but they are not as far behind as they have been in the past.
The way Gate City is playing right now they are going to be a tough out in the playoff now if they pull off the win against Ridgeview they wouldnt play Tazewell but for arguments sake lets say they do match up. I think Tazewell would have a tough time with the blue devils on the road.
IF they where to get past Gate City and have a rematch with VA high. Honestly those rematches usually dont work out for the winning team of the first game. I have also seen both VA high and Tazewell play the last 2 weeks. I think VA high is the more complete team with the best player on the field in Brody Jones. Not saying I think Jones is that much better than Harris but he is in a better position to take over a game.
I can see a path for Union beating Graham even though I havnt seen Union all year and I have seen Graham but crazy things happen with those two teams in the playoffs
So IF Tazewell Union is the Region Championship then that might be the best case out of any of the games I have talked about before. Tazewells passing strength matches up really well with Unions lack of passing defense. BUT play off games are won by running that rock in the cold and Union does that better than anyone.
It is good to dream Mr Jackson and thanks for the post should spark a lot of good reading over the next few days
The athletic programs in general are all pretty bad at Marion and has been for a while now I just think the football program has bottomed out more than the others but I agree with you about changes needing to be made.
Negative Nancy over here.. Athletic at Marion are not all bad. Both basketball squads saw post season success and baseball and softball where far from bottom of the barrel last year and with the talent coming up there that will not be changing anytime soon. Changing a culture take time. Some of these kids playing for Marion have not been apart of a winning football program in a while BUT this group plays harder than any group over they last few years. I have not seen an ounce of quit in them which is very promising for the future of the program.
As for the game on Friday If Marion can play ball control and keep that offense off the field they have a chance. If not Tazewell has the advantage
Whatever happened to simple cover 1, 2, 3? Very seldom do you see communication between db's and lb's and rotating within a zone just to give qb a different look between man and zone schemes. I don't believe anyone in the viewing area has the manpower to straight man up against a good team that airs it out.
Most teams around here run some sort of cover 4 or match quarters. Cover 3 and Cover 2 have almost become a thing of the past because every team has 4 verts in the playbook and that eats up those 2 coverages. 3-3 stack teams will play some cover 3 but you better have a dang good FS that can cover some ground
A Odd front is a Odd front, doesn't matter if its a 5-3 or a 3-5, 5-2 or 3-4, its the same thing. The only difference is who the defense uses as adjusters the L/R or the Es.
Edwards ran the exact same defensive look you're advocating for vs RV for a lot of the night, when RV was in their tighter sets(2 Wings and the WRs in close) the Union Defense looked almost exactly like the diagram you posted, when they were 4 wide it looked like a 3-3 because the Es (overhang stand-up LBs) flexed out with the slot WRs.
Alignments doesn't force the Offense to double team defenders, player ability does.
Yes, a 7 man box would have helped to stop O'Quinn from getting those key 3rd down runs on scrambles, but he was scrambling because Union dropped 5 into coverage and no one was open. Play RV 1 on 1 and see what happens, they've got the best WR corp in 2D imo, maybe in the 2D and 2C. I wouldn't single cover those guys.
Took the words right out of my mouth. I have seen serval teams play a "5-2" or just a straight up bear front against spread teams in the past. (Tazewell and Lebanon come to mind) That is all fine and dandy IF you have the athletes in the back in to out cover in man coverage all game. Tazewell got away with it some because they could match up with most team but Lebanon not so much.
Im sure there are a few DCs that think "we can man them up and put 7 in the box and win" while that is true if you are better but when you run up against a team that has the ability to throw the ball you just wasted 48 minutes that you kids could have got better at getting run pass reads and working on a zone drop.
If you are playing run heavy teams like Union of Central than sure load that sucker up and play to win. But the selling out 7 guys to stop the run against weaker opponents usually leads to early playoff exits.
And Chilhowie’s JV is undefeated but their Varsity is winless. JV and Varsity is totally different teams. I’m picking the Blues in this one.
Well duh I know they are different teams. Marion beat Chillhowie convincingly on Friday then had the doors blown off on Monday. One of the reasons Chilhowie always does so well on JV and middle school is that they play to win the game not get their players ready to Friday nights. In the past Richlands JV is not very good at all and the varsity rolls. The main reason for that is Richlands (and now Marion) dont really care what to score is in a JV game they are running their offense and defense to prepare those guys for when they get to varsity. All I am saying is the thing that has killed Marion this season is that the flexbone hasnt been clicking running the ball but the JV guys got it rolling on Monday. I am hoping that carries over to Friday. Playing one way has watered down the talent level on JV because their are probably 5 to 6 guys playing on Friday that if they went one way would be studs on JV. But the fact that the offense started to click with some guys that would normally not be on the field at any point makes me feel like Marion may be close to turning the corner.
I can see this one turning into a shoot out really quick. Both QB's as talented and both teams should be coming in with a lot of confidence. Lee has played the lesser schedule but that doesnt mean they have the lesser team. GC is battled tested and has played pretty good competition and is very much battle tested but they played some bad games at start of the season. I think which ever team can make the other team pass the ball because they have to not because they want to wins the game. Which team that is I have no idea.
If Tazewell plays like a team and sells out to stop Brown then they should be able to win. However I have seen one kid take over a football game in this area and Brown is more than capable of doing that just go back and watch the Gate City game. Tazewell has a player or two that can put the team on their back and will Tazewell to victory as well. I am not buying into Richlands team chemistry at the moment with players transferring and what not but if Tazewell plays me ball instead of we ball then it could be a shoot out. On paper this should be an easy win for the Dawgs but thats why you play the game.
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2022 Round 1 Regional Playoffs Score Updates!
in SWVA Football
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Bearcats onside kick scores on the old halfback pass extra point no good. Rough night for PATs for VA high
24-7 6 mins in the 3rd