Just for Devil's Advocate Gfan, who or what in the absolute he"" gives you the right to attack the coaches with your statement? Hey, how many practices did you attend last week or how many drills have you watched them run for God's sakes to qualify you about whether Meadows on D? What the heck qualifies you................(no longer Devil's Advocate now)..to give your own harmless opinion about a topic and subject you love which is Graham football on a message board about football in SWVA? How dare you man!
Gfan, seriously, I hear you but here is my take on it. Not saying it's right or wrong. I think that Meadows is so absolutely valuable right now, on the OL, that the thought may be, "we need this guy 100 percent every snap on the OL." Our interior OL from center to center is going to get better and better and they are first time guys, and they have struggled some. Keep in mind Bluefield and Union aren't exactly slouches. But my guess is that Meadows is so valuable they just don't want the risk of injury or having him not tired and ready to go with every snap on O. Time on D would be increased chance of being tired and increased chance of injury, and they can't afford that right now on the OL.
The above is my take. Graham is very solid, but doesn't have the depth as you stated a while back. I do hope and think that Graham will gamble some with that. What I'm getting at is, let's say Graham gets in round 2 of the playoffs. You know you only have so many quarters left in the season and you don't and can't worry about 5-7 weeks down the road for injuries. This is where I think we may see Meadows playing both ways, and as I eluded to earlier, I hope Booker, Edwards, and Kastner get the looks at the guard positions to shore up the interior part of the OL.
I also think Graham is still good enough, even with the slight weak spot of interior OL and maybe the down front of the DL, that if we don't turnover and make stupid mistakes, we can still possible get by and beat a Union or whoever in the playoffs. With the deficiencies noted, I think those teams like Union, Ridgrview, and Richland's STILL are dependent on Graham having lots of penalties and costly turnovers to beat us. The concern is, the margin of error is far less than what it was last year.
Lol how do you know that I did not seek prior approval from the coaches to attack them before posting this. Jk
Now in all seriousness, I think we are saying the same thing. I am not advocating to totally switch the defense. I just think, a plan for when they run into this situation would help. That was a big game last week and we seemed slow to adapt to Unions game plan. If I am every team Graham plays, I am going to attempt to attack their D the same way. It probably won’t matter until the playoffs, but it would be nice to get a few snaps with a bigger line before then. So they are prepared.
I don't know the history on Meadows, but even if he has no clue on defense, I would think that big body would take up quite a bit of space on the D line if he were used on short yardage situations or against a run heavy team like Union. I was looking for him to go in at some point Friday night, but he never did.
Exactly. The kid has the size and is a decent athlete. They would be better off using him in a 4 or 5 man front against a team like union. clog the middle and keep your linebackers clean to make tackles. I don’t know if you need to run that type of defense all the time but if someone is going to run straight up the middle on you, then it seems like the best option.
Talked with the OL coach yesterday. My statement was this. Move Booker permanently to a guard spot and have Edwards and Kastner play the other guard spot with those two alternating series so both are fresh at linebacker on D. Have a combo of Bradshaw and Ray at the RB position with the other playing WR when not playing RB, and when Blevins comes in at QB for a series here and there, have Lester at RB.
Graham is already 4 games into the season like other schools. The season goes by quick. There are three senior studs that are athletes and they are strong. Edwards and Kastner around 215 to 220ish. Both are strong and quick as well as Booker. I hope these changes are implemented. If they are, you will see a different Graham run game and a team that could repeat as Region Champions and state champions. Without those changes, I don't think Graham gets past the second round. The interior portion of Graham's OL and the level of play/success and outcomes can be fixed with adjusting player personnel, and I think the changes would show instantly. Waiting until the playoffs to make this switch would likely be to late. Those 3 guys need the reps now to get the technique down. They have the athletic ability and strength to make it happen and make Graham's interior part of the OL not just improved, but actually very good.
Only my thoughts
I would be more worried about the defensive front. They couldn’t get off the field against union. Union seemed to uncover a weakness in having a big back run up the middle. They need a to develop some size at DT to use when teams try this strategy.
Back to the topic of Graham vs. Tazewell. I was wondering what some of the fellow Tazewell supporters thought of the game plan against Graham. I watched Bluefield have success against Graham by having the QB in the shotgun and getting rid of the ball very fast. Tazewell's plays developed too slow and the QB was in trouble from the time he touched the ball. I didn't see any adjustments and it didn't seem that Tazewell had prepared for that fast defense at all. Bluefield, on the other hand had a game plan for Graham's aggressive Defense and got rid of the ball quickly. Also, Davis was able to get to the edge when the defense of Graham over-pursued and break a couple of long runs.
Watching both games, Graham will played Bluefield’s receivers 10 yards off, they pressed Tazewell. I think they were afraid of Bluefield beating them deep. Johnson burned then bad the previous year. They did not seem as concerned about Tazewell’s
I would say 8-2. 7-3 at worst and 9-1 at best. I think the two games in question would be Richlands and Union. There were nothing I saw Friday night, that would lead to believe that Tazewell would have a shot with or without Lester.
They don’t get better coaching now, just more of it. As the population has dropped, so has the talent level. Years ago the talent was spread a little more evenly. Freddy Simon only beat Mt View 2 times in his first 10 years at Beaver. After 2001 , Mt Views enrollment started to plummet due to the floods. Leon Gravely was able to get a couple wins against Bluefield , the last in 2006. But all that displaced talent landed at Graham and Bluefield. A few went to Princeton. How good would Graham be without their transfers? How good would their opponents be if they still had those kids? If these coaches were so great, why import better players who have been coached elsewhere? When Richlands started raking in transfers after 2006, slowly Graham and Tazewell started to decline then the coal mines started closing. Which dried up the talent well surrounding Richlands. Which allowed Graham to become Grand Central Station once again. And Richlands is a wreck because they can’t get the talent to fit their system. Then there’s Tazewell , who has been picked clean of their talent by their neighbors for 15 years now. I give those coaches credit though, they’ve plowed ahead and kept coaching while they’ve watched the other two load up on talent (some of it their kids) and that’s admirable . If Tazewell finishes 6-4 or better and makes it to Region I consider it a more newsworthy accomplishment than if Graham goes back to back state champs.
Bitter much....I only know of two transfers playing for Graham and I think they live in Graham’s district. Even without those two players Graham is still better than Tazewell and likely still in playoffs. The population has declined everywhere in this area. These teams would still beat the teams of 80’s and 90’s. They have a higher football IQ and are playing using more advanced concepts in middle school than those high school teams ran. Similar to the NFL the 49rs were great in the 80’s but wouldn’t even sniff the playoffs I theirs era.
All the measurables doesn’t mean anything unless he can compete and beat a guy with the same ability. Bluefield Scored 49 points a game just 6 years ago with a line consisting of 5’11 190, 6’2 215, 5’8 220 , 5’8 215, and 5’8 175. 3 made All State. Not one was even approached by a college coach.
They can only play the teams in front of them. I think a lot of people get caught up in the teams of the past but the truth is kids receive better coaching and training at an earlier age now. The likelihood of one of the 80’s or 90’s teams competing against a top team today is not great. The game evolves like everything else. As far as these kids are getting to much hype, so far they are living up to it. Cam Allen is already getting playing time as a freshman and the Powell kid from bluefield is starting guard for central Michigan.
Nope. I didn’t forget. I stand by what I said. What/who gives Bluefield more overall offensive speed?
I know they have a mammoth O-line. I know their RB and QB are really, really good.
I admit that you have more knowledge about Bluefield than I do, and I may be wrong, but Tazewell has a ton of speed. They don’t have the size that Bluefield has, or the long tenured head coach, or the state championship pedigree.
I’m not saying Tazewell is even near the same league, overall, as Bluefield. I’m just saying that Tazewell may be the fastest offense Graham sees, with Harris, Jordan, and the new QB.
Again, this is not a talent comparison on my part. Bluefield is without a doubt, the class of our coverage area. I’m just talking about strictly speed from the starting skills.
I don’t even mean that the speed gives Tazewell an advantage this Friday. Lord Botetourt proved against Bluefield last year, that a speed advantage doesn’t always produce a win.
Johnson is likely faster than anyone on Tazewell’s team. Davis is a D1 running back who torched Graham last week. They also have House at wideout. Tazewell is fast but I don’t think they are faster than Bluefield. It’s debatable if they have better team speed than Graham.
Was a sloppy game by both teams. Graham needs work at D end. They couldn’t keep contain on Bluefield running outside or cover the bubble screen. Bluefield seems to be reluctant to throw the ball down the field. I thought the standout player was Davis from Bluefield. When he went out of the game they had zero offense. Was also impressed with Meadows from Graham. When Martin lined up on him he seemed to get the better of the talented senior.
he is not allowed to play in the game could have serious ramifications.
Highly doubt it even happened. The great American rival series just posted him doing a chin up challenge at school today. So I don’t think there is anything going on with his eligibility to play.
If Lester stays healthy the qb play will be outstanding. The backup is a freshman (and a good one). But it would be a big drop off at that position. The interior of the o-line is young and inexperienced. Rolling the qb out may help with that. Rolling him out away from Martin in that first matchup may be a good plan. Running the ball off-tackle may not be a strength against teams with steong lines. May need to try to spread things out and run from the draw or try to get to the edge when loned up tight. Otherwise, Graham is very solid in all other aspects.
I look for Richlands to slow the game down against Graham. They controlled the first half in the playoffs . They had a go ahead TD erased due to ineligible receiver penalty then threw a pic on the next play. Then Cam Allen had a 90 yard QB sneak a couple plays later. And Richlands just fell apart from there. Sometimes the ball bounces your way, who’s to say it won’t bounce the Blue Tornado’s this year.
It won’t, bet on talent and not luck. Richlands May keeps it close for a half but Graham will be to much for them in the end.
That’s a bold prediction considering Trenton Adkins plays in that region.
The top accolades usually follow the top team. With Lester playing QB on what might be the best team in 2 it would hard to find a more impactful player. Similar to Cam Allen last year. Trenton Adkins is a great player though
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Train Horns
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If I installed a train horn in the visitors section that also plays brown noise, would that be considered poor sportsmanship?