SwvaOG

@Gridiron60 Pretty keen insight from a distance and pretty accurate. The RV coaches were contented to use Beavers as a decoy and really struggled to game plan him to get the ball. Hell, they never really tried. They didn’t use Counts enough either but they at least seemed to have a roll for him. Ask Graham and Union’s DC’s who they game planned to stop. There was no football based reason to not try to get the fastest kid on the field the ball more than 4 times a game. Your analysis hits close to home.

I also think Lee’s coach could have taken the RV team and done big things as well. At least on the offensive side.

I agree with this. One coach achieved what he should have or even slightly less than expected and one achieved significantly more. Which coaching performance had the most impact on his team’s performance? We over value the wins too often. Tough call on this one.

Yep, the Rimington was introduced later. He was a finalist for the Lombardi, IIRC. I would still argue he has the greatest resume of any SWVA football player.

The fact more people don’t mention Mike Compton is amazing. He won the Rimington trophy at WVU, blocked for Barry Sanders during his 2000 yard season and then won a couple of Super Bowls blocking for Tom Brady. If Meadows has half of that success Graham fans will talk about him for generations. 😂

Did you watch the game closely? How did RV get it back to 21-21? What did they do once it got to 21-21? It’s right there on the film and why we were so damn frustrated all year. Too much credit is given to Graham’s defensive adjustments (which were always good and appropriate) and not enough blame is given to RV’s complete lack of adjustments or refusal to properly use their athletes.

In the first quarter he had 2 touches for 102 yards, helped tie the game at 21-21. Wasn’t targeted the next 7 possessions and RV was out scored by 21. I had him at 4 total targets the whole game.

Actually RV plays zero team man, frustratingly so. They will match #7 up on the other teams WR1 if possible and this is why Bluefield busted deep. They were smart enough to run WR1 in to draw #7 enough to flare a WR down the sideline. The S didn’t cover (not sure he could have or should have) and the scheme should have never been ran. Good thing Bluefield exposed it. I haven’t seen it since, thankfully so.

I think that PH and Grundy game will be fantastic.

This is spot on. It’s not that we discounted Graham at all. We kind of felt that we were discounted greatly once “the threat” died down. Kickoff return stands and you’re looking at 21-7. Not a lot of RV fans think that that turns into a solid RV win. But it makes things a lot closer and I doubt it ends up 49-21.

A rematch of an Patrick Henry win earlier this season. Grundy has improved and both are on a roll. This is going to be a slug fest. Who wins??

. There was a whole half where your fans weren’t near as sure as you were. I was there. It was awful quiet. There was a big cheer when that kickoff was called back. And I’ll review the pick again. That was a very wide out so I’m not sure if it was tipped. It looked fairly tight spiral to me…a 25 yard throw to get a three yard out against a D-1 commit isn’t a smart play. All risk, little reward as the WR was no threat to outrun Bradshaw.

The self implosion would be be having Beavers’ kickoff return down to the 1 yard line called back for a questionable block in the back. That probably puts RV up 21-7. The pick six should have never been thrown and the RV QB stares that down, that’s a 7 pt mistake. The two deep shots to Bradshaw that everyone saw coming a mile away was not handled by the secondary as the S and CB deferred coverage to each other both times. That is 28 points folks…that’s a self implosion and none of those were due to the pass rush….not even the pick six as it was a quick out and just should have never been called. By saying the RV had a self implosion, it doesn’t belittle Graham in anyway. There definitely was an implosion and the moment and momentum was too much for a Fr QB and a green coaching staff.

As for my thoughts on this game. Can RV win? Yes. Will they be afraid or intimidated by Graham (a game Graham likes to play going back to Palmer’s playing days)? No. The problem with RV is that more has to go right to be successful for RV than Graham. Weather isn’t a factor for Graham’s offense but it is for RV. There in lies the only true problem with a passing offense in SWVA. It doesn’t matter how good you are, weather can neutralize you. For RV to have a chance to win O’Quinn has to be very very good and he has had two of his worst games in Mitchell stadium. Everyone thinks Bluefield just manhandled RV but if you rewatch that game, the RV QB missed Beavers behind the secondary four times. They didn’t score on those four possessions. He also threw two bad picks and fumbled. Plus the RV secondary was mixed up all night long….which, give them credit, seems like they’ve fixed that. Same last year. RV came out and shocked Graham and then proceeded to have no adjustment to Graham’s half time adjustment. As O’Quinn goes, so goes RV. It is that simple. If I were RV coaching I’d prepare a backup game plan to implement after halftime…try to stay ahead of Dennis Palmer.

Central would. Union would be split.