old_school_blue

Only one 2A champ this season. And that is Appomattox. Not Richlands, Union, Clarke Co. or anyone else. I honestly thought the game would be closer today. Kudos to the Raiders (Appomattox not Oakland.)

Conversion no good............Congrats Galax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going for two........

Can't turn it over.

This is where, having the will to smash the defense and run the football, allows you to win in December.

Defense held, Galax football!!!!!!!!!

White is the toughest kid at RB that Richlands has had in a while, he will be fine. He is built like a brick wall.

So you are saying that Appomattox is 7 touchdowns better than Union? Clarke beat Union by 4 touchdowns and Appomattox will beat Clarke by 3 touchdowns? I think you are a little off base.

I'll get off of my soapbox for a while. I am very passionate about this game and am entrenched in my value and belief system.

It is more than backs in motion or diversity. It is about mentality. When the offense lines up and says to themselves....I am going to whip the ass of the man in front of me....do it for four quarters....and love the hell out of it. Football is not brain surgery. It comes down to mentality. Schemes beat talent...Talent beats schemes....In my opinion, mentality kicks schemes in the teeth and takes talents' girl to the dance. Not trying to be offensive or sarcastic to you Tornado....just my view. Also, it doesn't have to be an old school offense to have this type of mentality. The Spread offense is designed to run the football. Just ask Urban Meyer, Rich Rodriguez or Dan Mullen.

I respect your opinion. However agreement is not completely met. The Appomattox secondary looked able to start in Blacksburg. They held the best passing team in the state to their lowest totals of the year. I feel their secondary is their strength, not their run defense. Against Richlands, their run defense was not tested. CC is not a spread team and does not look for large chunks of real estate through the air. The commitment to run the ball and control the clock is present. If they are successful in this, they will win. No disrespect to Appomattox, they are a great team and there is no dishonor in losing to them. Richlands had the players to defeat them, by the Union score, I assume that CC has as well. Mentality may prove to be the deciding factor.

Ryan, I know you are one of the most passionate Richlands fans and I really commend you on it. The support our kids receive is one of the reasons that playing football at Richlands is special. The great thing about this site is that everyone has a different perspective and is able to voice that perspective. I remember when Richlands was not the perceived juggernaut that it is considered to be now. I was a sophomore in high school when the mighty, undefeated Salem Spartans rolled into town and expected to roll out of town with an easy win and a slot in the AA Division 4 state title game. Most people outside of Richlands had the same expectations. The rest is now history. One should never discount any team still playing in December, nor their chance of winning. Both teams playing in the finals have earned their stripes. To completely disregard a team that thrashed a stout Union team defies logic to me. I can understand most Richlands fans would like to see Appomattox win, and win convincingly, to somehow maintain a claim on a state title that did not come to fruition. In hopes to lesson the sting of defeat. I am not saying that is your perspective, only that some may wield that sentiment. If the Appomattox defense has a weakness, it is against the run. As you said, and I do agree that Union was weak against the run. A sentiment echoed by Union fans after the Richlands game. Blankenship running the football made them nervous. I feel strongly about Clarke County's ability to win this game and will explain such. Clarke County (CC) runs their version of the Single Wing, and that can be difficult to defend as we both know. The Appomattox offense is serviceable, but not dominant. Against Richlands, most would see the defense as the reason that Appomattox was able to rally. That is not so in reality. The following is my perspective, it doesn't necessarily make it right, but it makes in mine. The achilles heel at Richlands is not the inability to run the football, it is the lack of commitment to the running game. It is a philosophical weakness. Not a talent issue, we have the best kids and talent in the state, in my opinion. The bulk to that talent is homegrown. The Appomattox offense was held scoreless for three and a half quarters.....good enough to win. However, Richlands lack of ability to control the clock and move that chains slowly wore on our defense. That led to the rally in the fourth and the end of our season. If CC can control the clock, move the chains and score, they will win. The Appomattox offense is not good enough, in my opinion, to score points and carry the day against a defense that only gave up 15 points against a very capable Union offense. In 1992, Brannon Breeding had 46 carries for 221 yards (may not be exact on the yards, but close) in the upset win that sent the Spartans back to Salem empty handed. At that time, Richlands had a complete commitment to the running game and a very different mentality than now. It is a difficult task to win against quality opponents deep in a playoff run when the running game and ball control are not prominent pieces of the strategy. A smash mouth mentality is a must for our offense as our defense has never lost it. In summary Ryan, you are a great fan for the Blues and I respect that. You are one of the pillars of support on this board and on gameday. I wish more of our fans had our passion. But, this late in the playoffs, teams that forge their will in the run game win championships. Teams that don't, fall like Goliath or the Salem Spartans.

Good Luck Union!!! GO BEARS!!!

What time do the gates open tomorrow?

Yes, people still run the jet sweep and you just made my point. If the jet sweep is executed correctly, as with any play, the chances of a fumble are greatly diminished. Deception is also key, as there are a multitude of counter plays off of the jet sweep. The key to this play is execution. In order to effectively run this play, coaches must be committed to practicing and perfecting it. This is not a play that you run three or four times a day in practice, it takes an entire session in practice to make this a viable part of the offense.

Kind of lost me here. I agree that is what GT runs....gotta love it. With the terms "Rocket Sweep" and "Jet Sweep", these are terms that are specific to that type of offense. A rocket sweep is a the equivalent to the toss sweep of the I formation. In order to run this play, the running back will initiate "rocket" motion (rapid motion coming around the tail of the fullback.) The difference is that the ball will not be snapped until that running back has reached the play side tackle. The quarterback then has an extended "toss" on the play. With the "Jet" sweep, the running back initiates "Jet" motion, a straight line motion and receives the football as he approached the quarter back. Two keys to this play, the ball has to be snapped as the running back arrives at the back side guard and he has to be at full speed. These plays basically set up multitudes of counters, options, traps, sprint draws....etc. Actually, today's spread offenses have borrowed a ton from the slot and wing offenses. The rocket motion has been utilized and adapted into what is actually called orbit motion (some may call it something else.) The Jet motion and Jet sweep is often utilized in the spread, some also call it speed sweep or other names. Which actually brings me to another peeve. I can't stand when a team runs a jet sweep and the ball carrier fails to get to full speed or the timing of the snap is off slowing the play down. That tells me that the coaches have thrown it in the play book just to have it there. I don't care if you only run five plays, you should be able to run them damn near perfect. In seeing the above, it tells me that coaching staff does not know what they are doing.

I agree in the fact that the word "spread" is overused. However, that particular offense is not 2 x 2. It is basically a full house backfield with two split receivers. The slots are running backs. I can see your point if your are saying that people automatically think that they are receivers. That was really my beef, most people can't talk about the fundamentals of the game and really couldn't buy a clue. About commentators, if they don't know that much about the sport, they should not be in the position.

My peeve is when ESPN commentators refer to Georgia Tech's offense as the "option spread." It is commonly (or uncommonly) known as the flex bone. It employs one fullback, two slot backs (not wings, wings are to the TE side), and two split ends or wide receivers covering the tackles on the LOS. It directly evolved from the wish bone, it gave the offense the capability to get up to four vertical routes downfield. It is not a spread formation.......period. Not even close. It is an old school option based (run heavy) offense, and I love it. Every time I hear it, I wish Paul Johnson would climb into the booth and smack the piss out of the person that said it.

Richlands @ Appomattox on Saturday @ 3 p.m.

I was told a story by a former player at Garden High School who played in a playoff game against Tom Turner's Appalachia. Long story short.....Appalachia won by about sixty points. At the end of the game, Turner says something like the following to Garden's Coach Roger Rife: Sorry about running the score up a little, but your fans were barking at us when we got here. No disrespect meant to Appalachia or Coach Turner, I thought the story was funny as hell. But it does seem to reinforce your "Give respect to get respect" strategy. Also another story from I think the same game. The person that told me these stories was also the punter for Garden, per him. He said that Appalachia had them bottled up on 4th down and they were having very little success moving the football. He was back to punt, received a bad snap and made the instant decision to run.......and made a first down. He said that Coach Rife came trotting out to the huddle and said something like: Good job men, run the same play.

They didn't panic, they got winded. Knowing that they only had about 30 players, I assume most of the starters play iron man. The goal line stand before half-time flipped the momentum and I felt changed the game. Once Buckingham got behind, they vacated their comfort zone and started trying to weave some passes and different formations in the game. The coaching staff also made some tremendous coaching adjustments. Kudos to them. I am glad that Richlands won by more than one point. I thought (as did all around me) that the extra point by Buckingham was good. I think the officials fell asleep. I thought the officials did not do a good job of stream lining the game. It was not a smoothly officiated game.

The game is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Saturday @ Appomattox. That was per Mance on the radio, while I was driving home.

Congratulations Falcons........great show of might from the Southwest District tonight.

I was in the camo and Oakland Raiders beanie...the respect is mutual.

I sat near a couple of guys from Gate City, very top of stadium on the scoreboard end. They really supported Richlands tonight, great show of support from GC Nation and a ton of class...Thanks.