Beano_31

In the preseason everybody is optimistic. Day 1 in pads exceeded expectations, tackling was very crisp, footwork and hand placement impeccable, underclassmen pushing upperclassmen for playing time, upperclassmen showing great leadership, and it’s the hardest working team the coach has ever had. 
Well we’ve all seen our favorite team play now, so it’s time for Overreaction Saturday! 
Let’s talk about what we’ve seen so far and some unpopular opinions that may or may not be correct. Feel free to disagree. After I kick back a few of these Natty Lights I will probably disagree with myself. 
(1) Graham’s new addition, Marcus Ray, is a great high school football player. But he’s the third best receiver in Tazewell County. Sage Webb and Josiah Jordan are better. Webb is one of the best route runners I’ve seen in sometime.
(2) The drop off at quarterback from Allen to Lester will be greater than the drop off at quarterback from Moir to Cox/Simmons. I know most of you are yelling put the Natty Lights down. But hear me out, Cam was a once in a generation talent. 2A Offensive Player of the year (and defensive POY). Lester can have 3000 yards and 40TDs and Graham still loses 20 touchdowns. Meanwhile, do you think Graham has anybody on their staff who coaches quarterbacks better than Greg Mance? Well do you?
(3) Graham will beat Bluefield on the opening week. Okay, now you are like he’s out of Natty Light and moved on to the Maker’s Mark, but things just don’t seem right for Bluefield right now. Several reasons as to why and all of them are understandable. A lot of I, I, I going around and not enough playing for each other it seems. Graham pulls the upset in week one. Graham 21-17
Feel free to disagree and add your thoughts. 

1.  I keep hearing from folks that Lester will be a big drop off at qb and I have to keep biting my tongue.  Boy will folks be surprsed.  
2.  Talk about your over-reaction: Before you crown somebody the  top receiver in the county, they need to have some stats to back it up. (He has to have a qb to get him the ball and that is debatable at this point).  Not so sure that Ray wont end up on the top of that list. The kid is dynamic and yes, i have seen them all play. 
3. Most Graham fans are picking Bluefield to win in week 1 and saying the key to both teams will be lineplay.  Graham fans are also saying in order to beat Bluefield they will need a near perfect game and win the game at the line of sccrimmage.
Lastly Graham could make it 4 straight against Richlands this year and possibly 5 if they meet in the playoffs.

You need to stay off the Natty Lite, Makers Mark, and whatever it is your smoking. 

In the preseason everybody is optimistic. Day 1 in pads exceeded expectations, tackling was very crisp, footwork and hand placement impeccable, underclassmen pushing upperclassmen for playing time, upperclassmen showing great leadership, and it’s the hardest working team the coach has ever had. 
Well we’ve all seen our favorite team play now, so it’s time for Overreaction Saturday! 
Let’s talk about what we’ve seen so far and some unpopular opinions that may or may not be correct. Feel free to disagree. After I kick back a few of these Natty Lights I will probably disagree with myself. 
(1) Graham’s new addition, Marcus Ray, is a great high school football player. But he’s the third best receiver in Tazewell County. Sage Webb and Josiah Jordan are better. Webb is one of the best route runners I’ve seen in sometime.
(2) The drop off at quarterback from Allen to Lester will be greater than the drop off at quarterback from Moir to Cox/Simmons. I know most of you are yelling put the Natty Lights down. But hear me out, Cam was a once in a generation talent. 2A Offensive Player of the year (and defensive POY). Lester can have 3000 yards and 40TDs and Graham still loses 20 touchdowns. Meanwhile, do you think Graham has anybody on their staff who coaches quarterbacks better than Greg Mance? Well do you?
(3) Graham will beat Bluefield on the opening week. Okay, now you are like he’s out of Natty Light and moved on to the Maker’s Mark, but things just don’t seem right for Bluefield right now. Several reasons as to why and all of them are understandable. A lot of I, I, I going around and not enough playing for each other it seems. Graham pulls the upset in week one. Graham 21-17
Feel free to disagree and add your thoughts. 

In the preseason everybody is optimistic. Day 1 in pads exceeded expectations, tackling was very crisp, footwork and hand placement impeccable, underclassmen pushing upperclassmen for playing time, upperclassmen showing great leadership, and it’s the hardest working team the coach has ever had. 
Well we’ve all seen our favorite team play now, so it’s time for Overreaction Saturday! 
Let’s talk about what we’ve seen so far and some unpopular opinions that may or may not be correct. Feel free to disagree. After I kick back a few of these Natty Lights I will probably disagree with myself. 
(1) Graham’s new addition, Marcus Ray, is a great high school football player. But he’s the third best receiver in Tazewell County. Sage Webb and Josiah Jordan are better. Webb is one of the best route runners I’ve seen in sometime.
(2) The drop off at quarterback from Allen to Lester will be greater than the drop off at quarterback from Moir to Cox/Simmons. I know most of you are yelling put the Natty Lights down. But hear me out, Cam was a once in a generation talent. 2A Offensive Player of the year (and defensive POY). Lester can have 3000 yards and 40TDs and Graham still loses 20 touchdowns. Meanwhile, do you think Graham has anybody on their staff who coaches quarterbacks better than Greg Mance? Well do you?
(3) Graham will beat Bluefield on the opening week. Okay, now you are like he’s out of Natty Light and moved on to the Maker’s Mark, but things just don’t seem right for Bluefield right now. Several reasons as to why and all of them are understandable. A lot of I, I, I going around and not enough playing for each other it seems. Graham pulls the upset in week one. Graham 21-17
Feel free to disagree and add your thoughts. 

All of the Div players Bluefield has are just that, Div 1 future players. But, because they have some Div 1 players doesn't automatically mean their Offensive Line is full of them. It's not. Their question mark is exactly what Graham's is, and that's the offensive line. This is why I think and have had the opinion that Graham and Bluefield will be tight and Graham may win. Graham's D will present some problems for Bluefield OL and that game likely is coming down to turnovers. 

On point one, the best receiver in Tazewell County plays QB for Graham. 
On point two, the drop-off at Graham at QB will be little to any, if any by game three or four. Cam was a super talent and player, but actually not a once in a generation player. He's a Div 1 player and solid, but he's not out of this world or something Tazewell County sees every 30 years. Cam was a Div 1 Defense Recruit, not a QB recruit.
The biggest difference for Graham will be exactly what was discussed on this board in December last year, and that's the question mark from guard to guard on the OL. Those three spots are the question early on.
You mentioned Richlands and Moir and want to hear an unpopular opinion? Moir wasn't a great passer and Richlands and Mance have left 1 to 2 more state titles on the field because of the lack of focus on running the football with some of those incredible offensive lines over the last 2 decades.  I remember when the discussion among fans was how good or not good Richlands OL was blowing train width size holes in the opponents DL and early on, the question was who looks best at RB and whether he can get 1000 or 1200+ yds this year. That schema, thought, paradigm is gone and the question has been for a long time how well the Blues can throw it and how they completed passes in the 7 on 7s. That's a problem. It's one of the huge reasons Richlands has left one or two more titles on the field.  Richlands, your not going to be explosively fast and your not the 1980s wide open 49ers or Oregon. Run the ball first and consider the past second. Only my opinion.....and since you asked for controversial ones, there ya go.
 

Trenton Adkins, Devon Lester, and Levi Forrest are easily the top 3 players in the area
In my opinion, next on that list will be Virginia High sophomore Stevie Thomas. 

1-9  They will beat Mount View

Hurley takes down Honaker week 6 it is I believe you heard it here first

When was the last time a local team with that much D1 talent started the season 0-1?

WVVASPORTS Retweeted
 Nick Dugan‏ @NSDugan
Some familiar faces returning to @TAZHIGHSCHOOL athletics.
Whitney Saunders will take over as Athletic Director, (as stated above) Omar Reed will be the Boy's Head Basketball Coach in 2019-20.   great state

Whitney Saunders has been named the new A.D. at Tazewell High School.  Great Hire!! Wish her the best.