BeaverHokie

I was surprised. I know how physical Graham was last year, and I saw on the football website the lifting numbers, and expected them to push Bluefield around some. To Bluefield's credit, they seem to have found some linemen that are fast like Simon wants, and also are big. No more 180 pound offensive tackles. It was to our side of the field a few times, but it was something to see Edwards on a jet sweep, encounter a Graham defender, him stiff-arm the guy and send him backwards. He seems to really be in his element as a RB instead of a QB. Bourne has stepped up pretty well. When I see a game like this, I never know what the real take-away is. Is Bluefield that good? Is Graham that bad? Is it somewhere in between? I guess we'll have a better idea next week.

Bluefield-Graham game thoughts, just back from the game. 1. Bluefield uniforms. Really like them! Bigger, taller numbers, they look whiter than the old ones. Very clean look. Hat tip to Graham, similar numbers to the ones Graham rolled out last year. 2. Bluefield could be scary good. They did that well with quite a few mistakes. All kinds of penalties. But really, the penalties just delayed the punishment, Bluefield didnt punt until the third quarter, and only punted once. 3. My opinion, but Bluefield called off the dogs, and Graham kept a lot more starters in. That really resulted in a final score (60-38) that did not represent what total domination it really was. Bluefield could have scored 80. 4. Got in the car with less than 2 minutes left, and turned on the radio. OMG JIM NELSON!!! Seriously, he's the lead on the Bluefield broadcasts with Joe Jarvis. Maybe Joe will learn a few things. Been hearing Jim doing some kind of "This date in Bluefield" radio minute lately, should have figured he was back with a contract with the Bluefield stations. Tied to the ownership change, maybe? In the brief time I heard Jim, he sounded good. I know he may not be the taste of a lot of the younger folks (I'm in my 40s), but he is clear, concise, good tone, and describes it so well. Happy to have him back. 5. Bluefield's band is so small, about 25 playing members. But they are GOOD to be so small. I wish more kids were interested in the band. My daughter is a freshman in Georgia, she's in her band. They have about 100, but then again, their school is probably 4 times the size of Bluefield (about 2750 kids in grades 9-12). 6. Game atmosphere. I really think this is the best high school game out there, bar none. The atmosphere is electric, the crowd is HUGE. With the population loss, it sure is good to see there is still a good crowd. 7. Princeton was a scoring machine tonight. Not sure if it's apples to apples, but they sound pretty potent. Should be a great game next week. Hope to be there on the visitor's side for it.

Per the article: http://bdtonline.com/localsports/x250202935/Bluefield-excited-to-renew-rivalry-with-G-Men Bluefield starting offense:: 12 QB/DB RJ Bourne 11 6'2" 193 1 RB/DB DJ Stewart 11 5'7" 160 5 OW/DB DJ Edwards 12 6'1" 200 45 RB/DL Corey Coppola 11 6'4" 233 9 TE/DL Brandon Lilly 12 6"3" 203 74 OL/DL Jordan George 10 6'3" 303 52 OL/DL DJ Sims 12 6'0" 230 73 OL/DL Matthew Belcher 10 6'0" 270 64 OL/DL Cody Gore 12 5'11" 245 50 OL/DL Justin Lightfoot 12 6'1" 213 3 WR/DB Justin Carter 12 6'1" 183 Starting defense: 45 RB/DL Corey Coppola 11 6'4" 233 64 OL/DL Cody Gore 12 5'11" 245 52 OL/DL DJ Sims 12 6'0" 230 9 TE/DL Brandon Lilly 12 6"3" 203 15 RB/LB Brennan Wheeler 12 6'1" 197 21 RB/LB Jordan Masterson 11 5'11" 189 44 WR/DB Daniel Barker 12 5'10" 165 3 WR/DB Justin Carter 12 6'1" 183 ??? 5 OW/DB DJ Edwards 12 6'1" 200 1 RB/DB DJ Stewart 11 5'7" 160

Roster from WVSSAC site. No Pos Name Gr Ht Wt Devon Blankenship 9 1 RB/DB DJ Stewart 11 5'7" 160 2 WR/DB Dakoda Smalls 12 5'9" 173 3 WR/DB Justin Carter 12 6'1" 183 5 OW/DB DJ Edwards 12 6'1" 200 7 TE/DL Matthew Woodrum 11 6"5" 215 8 TE/LB Jack Burress 12 6'1" 168 9 TE/DL Brandon Lilly 12 6"3" 203 10 QB/DB Jordan Smith 9 5'8" 168 11 RB/DB Charles Ross 12 5'11" 191 12 QB/DB RJ Bourne 11 6'2" 193 14 WR/DB Marcus Santoro 11 5'8" 160 15 RB/LB Brennan Wheeler 12 6'1" 197 19 WR/DB Remington Dyson 9 5'7" 107 20 RB/LB Marcus Mitchell 10 5'9" 178 21 RB/LB Jordan Masterson 11 5'11" 189 22 WR/DB John Neece 9 5'7" 130 23 RB/DB Christian Oster 12 6'0" 151 25 RB/DB Carlos Reed 9 5'9" 160 28 WR/DB Bryan Morris 12 5'11" 177 30 WR/DB Robert Castillo 9 5'8" 128 31 WR/DB Brandon Epperson 10 5'5" 146 33 TE/DL Anthony Mooney 10 6'3" 178 34 OL/DL Brandon Hurt 11 5'9" 184 35 WR/DB Gage Pennngton 10 5'11" 143 40 WR/DB Jachai Thomas 9 5'8" 136 42 K Francesco Desiderio 11 5'11" 155 44 WR/DB Daniel Barker 12 5'10" 165 45 RB/DL Corey Coppola 11 6'4" 233 50 OL/DL Justin Lightfoot 12 6'1" 213 52 OL/DL DJ Sims 12 6'0" 230 53 OL/DL Seth Silcox 10 6'0" 213 54 OL/DL Cole Honaker 10 5'10" 223 55 OL/DL Christian Russo 12 5'11" 247 56 OL/DL Timothy Herndon 11 5'9" 198 57 OL/DL Jake Smith 10 5'6" 176 59 OL/DL Ashton Shaw 10 6'1" 181 60 OL/DL Andrew King 10 5'9" 179 61 OL/DL Hunter Miller 12 6'2" 225 62 OL/DL Malik Craighead 11 6'3" 239 62 OL/DL Isaac Carter 11 6'1" 185 63 OL/DL Edward Cox 10 5'9" 201 64 OL/DL Cody Gore 12 5'11" 245 65 OL/DL Seth Siers 9 5'11" 168 66 OL/DL Skylor Lafon 9 5'3" 200 67 OL/DL Tyler Copley 9 5'8" 177 70 OL/DL Chris Taylor 10 6'3" 325 71 OL/DL Caleb Maitland 10 6'4" 189 72 OL/DL David Underwood 10 5'8" 246 73 OL/DL Matthew Belcher 10 6'0" 270 74 OL/DL Jordan George 10 6'3" 303 75 OL/DL Randall Maxey 10 6'1" 190 76 OL/DL Skyler Dillow 11 6'3" 260 78 OL/DL William Brooks 12 6'0" 360 79 OL/DL Wayne Walker 11 6'2" 240

Interesting, D.J. Edwards moved to RB to fill an empty slot that should be obvious, and Bourne at QB. Thought Bourne looked okay last year, but a little out of his element. Sounds like he's better, but got caught out several times (3 interceptions). Coppolo has put on a lot of weight (6'3", 212 to 6'4", 233), should be interesting to see how he does. Not sure how to judge against C-Burg, with the comment that they were 6-4 last year. Anybody see the scrimmage and have any thoughts? Just awfully quiet about this team...

Did Bluefield scrimmage yesterday (Saturday)? I heard they were going to, but have not seen anything about it. It's just painfully quiet on the Bluefield front, which either means they're incredibly loaded (which I don't think), or things are a little rough. I know they only have one returning OL starter, and possibly missing a playmaker due to legal issues, and I wonder if they have what it takes this year.

Article in the BDT about Bluefield, specifically the OL. Sounds like they're starting mostly fresh, with Cody Gore (5'10" 245) penciled in at one guard. Lots of young guys listed for the other slots, but most of them are pretty big, at least going by last year's weights. Reference is http://www.bdtblitz.com/teams/?id=2 T: Christian Russo (5'11 225), Justin Lightfoot (6'0" 195), Jordan George (6'4" 300) G: Cody Gore (5'10" 245), D.J. Sims (5'11" 225) C: Matthew Belcher (6'0" 285), Skylar Dillow (6'2' 260) http://bdtonline.com/localsports/x125816979/Whats-my-line

Not mine. Don't know the guy, but like it. It acknowledges that last year was rough.

I noted in another thread (the one about the new Gmen football website) that Graham was posting the weight room records. They seemed impressive, I wondered then how it compared to Bluefield, for example. Bluefield never seems to be lacking in speed, but it does appear that they get pushed around some on the line. Any idea how strong these kids are? Last year had a decent size offensive line, but each year, there seem to be some 170-180 pound kids in starting positions. Hard to question it, but I do wonder why there's a lack of size on the OL.

BDT article about the first day. (warning, stupid auto-video playing and pop-unders) http://bdtonline.com/localsports/x1664878603/Day-1-arrives-for-prep-football-teams From the article, Bluefield has 57 players out. No mention of the prominent player who is apparently not there.

That's a nice website. I was a little surprised to see the weighlifting info posted right for all to see, sort of tipping their hand a little. :) I don't keep up with the high school weightlifting, but to my untrained eye, those are some solid numbers. Whole lot of 160-185 pound guys benching 275 pounds and up. Quick look at bench numbers... Weight/Max Bench 209/305 168/290 181/285 167/285 173/280 177/275 That looks pretty solid to me. Are those pretty good numbers for high school kids these days? I can imagine, from what I saw last year, there is a real focus on strength training as opposed to before. Anybody have any good, realistic comparisons to other schools. Any Bluefield guys know what kind of weights are being pushed around up at BHS?

FINAL RC Byrd 34 Bluefield 20 Byrd headed to play (get slaughtered by) Wayne. Season over for Bluefield. Bluefield ends at 9-3

RCB 34 Bluefield 20 1:34 left in the game. They FINALLY said how long was left.

RCB 34 Bluefield 20 (same score as before) I'd tell you how much time is left, but the clowns won't give the time. (edit) the clowns keep talking about how everyone has been nice to them, except one person. Maybe they're talking about me...LOL

RCB 34 Bluefield 20 (no idea how much left in the 3rd quarter, probably halfway?)

When I heard they were going to do games, I was happy. They have good radio voices, easy to understand. But they are chatty goofballs, talk about what player's mom they talked to today, how they're at a weird angle, about Joe Jarvis' pee wee team, all kinds of nonsense. They need to be put in a room and forced to listen to tapes of Jim Nelson.

RCB 27 Bluefield 20 Blocked field goal, David Woodrum returned the blocked FG 74 yards for the score. RCB just stood there after the block, but it's a LIVE BALL.

Still 27-13 RCB. Just started the second half. Trying to bear through the clowns on the radio broadcast.

RCB 27 Bluefield 13 0:31 until halftime Screamin' Brock and Chuckles holdin' down the radio broadcast...LOL

RCB 20 Bluefield 13 2:40 left in the half

I also wanted to congratulate the Graham team on a heck of a season. I am proud of those guys for getting back to what is traditional G-Men football, in the playoffs. The future is up from here, guys...this looks so much like the Carlock days, impresses me. Hard to believe how awful it got under that last unnamed coach, who really made a mess of things. What a total turnaround. Y'all have a great coach, and the kids are back to battling to win.

Since I was the one who mentioned it, I'll also mention the reason I mentioned it. It was merely to give an accurate assessment of the score for anybody who wasn't listening to the radio. If it was reserves vs. reserves, or starters vs. starters, that score may concern the Bluefield faithful a little, to see someone put up 27 points. So...only reason was to say that the 27 points was the Roane starters versus the Bluefield 9th and 10th graders. That's all.

Those guys are unbearable. They lack football knowledge, Brock screams any time anybody runs for more than 5 yards, they can't seem to keep track of anything, including the math errors you mention. I missed it...but in the first quarter, they talked about how this has been a tough week, that they had caught a LOT of criticism, that they'd talk about later. Did anybody hear that? I know I called and left a message that their behavior up at Wayne was horrible. I think I shall call them Screaming Brock and Chuckles the Clown.

Bluefield 63, Roane County 27 FINAL SCORE. Not even that close. Sure wish these clown radio guys would go away. They make so many errors, lose track of what is going on, cannot see the player numbers, cannot keep the yardlines straight. Plus, they talk about so much nonsense...

Bluefield 63 Roane County 27 3:46 left in the game. Roane County starters playing against the Bluefield 2nd and 3rd teamers. Bluefield could have won this 77-14 if they really wanted to, but they've kept the reserves in while Roane plays the starters. You'd think Roane would play their reserves getting thumped so badly.