SwvaOG

That’s four starting positions plus I’m sure they play special teams. That’s huge in 1A ball.

So….I’ll reiterate my original hot take. Riverheads finishes 3rd or 4th in 2D last year.

Holston 27, Montgomery 0

Yeah, they lost alot. I should have mentioned it as a hypothetical matchup against a team like last year's Grundy team.

IMHO, Honaker is that good. Looks like they have embraced and practiced some Air Raid concepts in the passing game. If you go in on that it can be hard to stop, especially in an area that isn't known for high caliber DBs. If I were 1D, I'd spend some extra time watching film and adding some wrinkles to my defensive coverages. Now, it will be interesting to see what happens when the Tigers go up against a ball-control grind-it-down-your throat offense like a Grundy or Patrick Henry. I don't think Lebanon is that good. They were always a bottom two team in the SWD.

Absolutely. Now, let me caveat this by saying the RV coaching may not have coached it correctly and their staff is not at Riverheads level. But RV, if directed to, could throw all over the field on Riverheads last season.....if they unleashed their athletes and exploited matchups ruthlessly and stopped wasting downs. Their three WR’s started this season on college rosters (WR, TE and SS) and the QB will at least be D-2. The heights were between 6’1” and 6’3”and one was the fastest kid in 2D. If they are putting up almost 40 on Graham they are putting up at least that much on RH. They don't see a passing offense like that in 1A. Next, and I’ll hear it from the Graham fans, but Graham was an aberration in terms of RV’s rushing defense. No one else ran like that on RV all year. If those two teams played again the following week they would not approach that total. I’m not saying they wouldn’t win, their coaching advantage would get them wins 80% of the time. The RV DC utterly refused to make proper adjustments to the Wildcat and was thoroughly unprepared for that look. Additionally they refused to play one of their best athletes on defense because he was the QB and they had kids out of position. With ANY decent adjustments that doesn’t happen. Bottom line is that the biggest difference between those two teams last year was coaching. Now, throw in that RV had an excellent field goal kicker in case of a close game, an All-Region punter and punt returner. I like RV in that matchup and, if they had better coaching, I’d like them even better. Now, Union did the best in terms of stopping Graham’s rushing attack. That alone would have kept them close with Riverheads.

Honaker by a couple scores. They have a loaded offense and athletes all over.

Watching their game against Tazewell and watching Graham and RV’s vs Tazewell (common opponent), watching Riverheads on film and seeing Graham, RV and Union live multiple times.

Unpopular opinion and a hot take here. Riverheads finishes 3rd or 4th in Region 2D last year. Graham and Ridgeview beats them and Union is a toss up.

I’ll eat a lemon if Battle finishes first.

Honestly, I’m not sure about the order. I think the M7 is going to be entertaining to watch and track this year….much more so than the SWD. Any year where Union is looking to throw more while RV is looking to run more, Central has the biggest wildcard at QB, Abingdon has a chip on its shoulder and GC is trying to reclaim its place on the top should be a great year.

Yes. Good people for sure. If RV had his physical running the last two years it would have added a great counter to the passing game. I know he had some injuries but they just didn't give the kid the chance. Ironically, to have a good year, the staff is going to have to depend on him.

RV wins by 30+. Will rush for 250+ yards with RB scoring 2-3 times. Starting RB should have been starting last several years. I’ll be curious to see if they have a legitimate backup QB. They rolled the dice last two years and didn’t have a legit #2. It was the Hill kid moving to QB and running wildcat. A complete waste of potential development for another kid. This won’t be a close game. I really think the M7 will be a lot of fun this year.

Last year I was puzzled as to why their offense was so limited. In the RV game they simply ran the QB 70% of the time. Now, they had a powerful offensive line so they could get by with that. However, I was amazed they had little diversity in the run game and basically no pass offense. Honestly, it is inexcusable for a solid 3A program to not have a better offensive playbook.

They have a couple of good athletes on that offense. I don't know their names but a couple of kids stood out as problems for opposing defenses. Additionally, they are fit and in shape...no "sloppy bodies".....a testament to their weight training program.

Grundy lost quite a bit and should fall back a bit. If I get a chance, I'm gonna take a peak at Patrick Henry and Holston and see how they are looking. I feel like Holston is always overlooked and seldom talked about yet have played in several Region championships the last few years.

I can share our experiences with this subject since we dealt with it as players and as parents. My brother and I grew up as the "last house in Bandy" a coal mining camp that was zoned for Richlands. Literally, the next house (2 miles away) was in the Amanote mining camp and zoned for Tazewell. My dad remodeled houses and did a lot of work around Tazewell and he was approached frequently about getting his boys to play for Tazewell. Jokes about "getting his boys some spending money" were mentioned and I'm sure some were serious. But, nothing serious came of it and I think that was because of my brother's burning hatred for the Bulldogs. Lol. Ironically, he told me recently that he wished he went to Tazewell because they would have utilized him better. To be honest, they probably would have utilized me better as well. Now, with my son, we were approached by five separate programs the summer before his senior year once RV ran off the head coach and was in turmoil again. I personally fielded calls from four different coaches gauging our interest. Housing was mentioned but never money...but I never pressed that issue so who's to say if it wouldn't have happened. So, it happens and is still happening; however, each coach stated that a parent/parents would have to relocate....which, makes it perfectly legal in my eyes. I work remotely so "getting you a job" never came up. Ironically, since we are spilling tea, we reached out to my alma mater as soon as we moved back to the area in 2018 asking about having my boys play at Ernie Hicks. Coach Mance never returned my texts/calls nor anyone else. I had some of my former teammates ask me after the RIchlands/Ridgeview playoff game in 2021 why my kid always balled out so hard against RIchlands and if that was weird for me. I told them not at all and that for three years I fed the chip on his shoulder that Richlands didn't want him and didn't think he was good enough to play for them and they thought he wasn't as good as Sage Webb. Once he found out that Richlands was on the schedule his junior year and he would be playing at Ernie Hicks....he was over the moon excited, so I watched that game and the playoff game in the visitor's section for the first time ever. Life is weird, man. I will say that if we had it to do over, we would have definitely left for a better opportunity. I didn't used to be, but I'm now firmly in the camp of "you have to do what is best for your kid." However, you HAVE to be realistic about their abilities and talent...which about 80% of parents simply aren't. You also need to have legit reasons and not enough playing time isn't one of them. For us, it was a lack of competitive professionalism/passion with the football program, constant turn-over and chaos, extreme nepotism and no effort to promote kids in the recruiting process (with the exception of a couple of positional coaches). To be perfectly blunt, loyalty to the program and team absolutely cost us next level/recruiting opportunities.

So, it would seem that this would point to no consolidation plans for the near/mid term future.

I think they will be okay and they need the experience of lining up and stopping the run. Offensively, they weren't able to run too much against Letcher; however, they just aren't going to run the QB too much in pre-season. I think if they are in a pinch they will still throw the ball...they still have some capable WR's....just inexperienced and the big play threats have moved on. I actually think they could still have the second best group of WRs in the M7 behind Union....and they may actually challenge for best.

Well, they are replacing all 5 OL and it shows. They want to run more this year and should still be able to throw some but not to the level they did the last two years. Although, I think they really need to rep their passing game because teams are going to line up to stop the run. They lost an outstanding WR core but have a couple of capable replacements. I think the starting RB this year should have been starting the last two years….but, hey, I don’t pretend to fully understand the coaching decisions z On defense they are really gonna miss the Counts kid at SS more than anyone else, IMHO. He was a rangy aggressive kid that was willing to hit and covered sideline to sideline. I watched a lot of football and didn’t see a better SS last year in 2D. Their whole secondary has a combined zero starts….that will show its head sooner or later. I think 6-4 to 8-2. I feel like the M7 is wide open and that across the board the region is not quite as good as last year.

It is a stark difference just in our family. My brother and I were very defensive minded although he was a very good RB. Both of my boys have never seen a tackle they wanted to make but will sacrifice life and limb to catch a pass or score a TD. Breaks my old crusty defensive heart....but waddya do? 🤷‍♂️

Hayes is good and I really like the work Tanner Cook does. They do a great job of writing articles about individual players. Here are two examples that I would have personally wrote about if I was a young writer covering the area. However, I think they miss opportunities to write collective and compelling articles about the football area overall. This year, or last year, they should have written about the current junior class of quarterbacks in the 2D with O'Quinn, Pendergraft and Creasey. I'm not sure this area has ever had young QBs throwing for that much yardage. You could throw in the Lebanon QB and some others as well. Additionally, I thought they would cover the outstanding WR core from two years ago with Cassius Harris, Brandon Beavers, Sage Webb and Haynes Carter all having between 900-1100 yards and being All-State WRs. Three of those are playing D1 or D2 football now. This area just doesn't see that much WR and QB talent at one time.

I wonder if Giles has an issue scheduling scrimmages. I'm not sure I would schedule them unless they were in my region. I mean, how much are you going to teach your defense, early in the season, about stopping that wretched offense? Lol.

Union: "Why are you looking at me???"

Hopefully you won't fall into RV-itis and run the ball on 1st down 87% of the time and %65 of the time up the middle. And that was with a good passing attack!!! 🤷‍♂️ Those are legit stats from last year, BTW. Lol. If your coaches are worth their salt they would incorporate a mean set of play action fakes because everyone expects you to run. I'd rather see that than the spread.....I just think if you are going to go spread it has to be a wholesale commitment and no a package.