redtiger

Where is the game at? Thats a long trip from EM to Hurley. The way I understand it some EM fans were talking pretty bad about all the hicks and rednecks in Clintwood, they havent seen Rednecks until they go to Hurley and I mean that in the best way! Give 'em hell Rebels

Rye Cove was solid in 2000 but that was the last descent Cumberland team. I think that was the last Cumberland team to beat Haysi until this past season. Why did RC host the Reg C champ at GC and not at RC? I think we were pretty much talking football, the Cumberland is a very good basketball district and baseball is ok for this area (the area as a whole is pretty weak in Baseball) You Abingdon guys talk alot of crap but ive said it before, the last 4 times the mighty falcons played Honaker they got beat! Not much room to brag there! And no Honaker is in the BDD not the Cumberland

The past 5 or so years have been really hard. Befor that the team that won the Cumberland was at least pretty good, as of late the whole district has been terrible.

I understand the point of people got in WAY over their heads, I blame them for biting off more than they could chew and the banks for loaning them huge ammounts of money knowing that they probably would have to default later(bank makes money off of the payments and gets the home back later). But I know alot of people who plan on keeping their homes for the rest of their lives and are stressing because their homes value went down, I dont understant that?

I know nothing about the MED but the Cumberland is pretty bad. Dont get me wrong the district has some very talented players but only 2-3 spread across 7 teams and not much else

This is WAY off topic but I dont understand the whole mortage thing? I mean I understand paying 150k for a home and now if you tried to resale it its only worth 125k but if you liked a house enough to buy it then who cares what it is worth on the market? If you bought it to sell in a few years or if you lost your job and are having a hard time making payments then yeah you are screwed. I just dont get it!

Hacker, dont baffle him with common knowledge. And did he call you baby?

Teachers salaries in WC are near the highest in the region, not to mention the possibilities if a coach were to get either Abingdon meating their potential(they did this past season) or PH turned around. Big enrollments to draw from and WC is a nice place to live.

Do you think GC will have the talent to be pretty varied in their attack like this year(2 main ball carriers w/ 2 others contributiting) or more of a 1-2 back oriented offense? Seems like when they can pack it in tight and use 2-3 backs they are hard to stop, I cant imagine trying to stop a offense that regularly uses 4 backs!

I was thinking they lose Clark and Vaughn, as well as maybe the FB

I think GC will lose their 2 main RBs, but im sure they will have a couple of kids to fill in. Their QB is back, he was ok last season so they may open it up a little more on offense next season. I think they lose several defensive players but again im sure they have some more good players to fill in

Exactly those are the defenses keys, a good offensive coordinator will show those keys to the defense and then run a play they arent expecting like a pass off of a run fake, T teams or wing-T teams do the same thing but with 1 run play setting up another. When I think Power-I I think Blast, which doesent offer alot of deception and like the name says relies on power

Appy generally has 1 quick HB and 1 power HB in addition to the FB, the power back does the majority of the blocking for the other HB and the FB. Appys basic play series is a FB dive in A gap followed by a fake HB Buck in C gap w/ the power HB blocking for him or a fake FB Dive followed by the HB Buck play. The smaller HB generally doesent lead block, thus the "strond side" would be whatever side the power HB is on. Appy also ran alot of FB Lead w/ the power HB blocking. Its like this do you want your ball carrier running behind a 150lb lead blocker or a 200lb lead blocker? Like I said Appy would smack people in the mouth but they did it w/ alot of deceptive play calling, thats what made Appy great, not simply a power attack Every team has tendencies, in most offenses its the offensive coordinators job to show those and take advantage of how the defense reacts to them. Offensive football is a chess match of sorts, its about showing your opponent something that isint there, smoke and mirrors. Now if you have big, powerful athletes (Gate City) then you can run whatever you want! In alot of cases Gate Citys opponent could be in the offensive huddle and still couldnt stop them from running the ball wherever they wanted. Haysi doesent often have a strong side, but does have tendencies related to what formation they are running. Haysi runs alot of formations and personell groupings but only a handfull of plays, again showing the defense something that they think they have seen before and giving them something different .

I never said VT did, although most of the D1 level players from this area do get the attention of VT and get some kind of offer. There just isint alot of D1 talent in this area(not enough population to produce alot of talent) I wouldnt have nearly the ammount of respect for the VT program that I do or the pride I do in being a VT fan if they recruited from all over the country. VT is gonna start broadening their recruiting base (they will have to if they want to take the next step) but the program is build on Virginia players. 7 TN kids is alot for 1 class but I would bet UT's average is well below that I have 0 respect for the UVA-W program(and I attend UVA-W) because they offer schlolarships to kids from all over the place but few to kids from SWVA. I refuse to believe that if they were to get the kids from GC, Richlands, Clintwood, J.I.B., etc that they wouldnt be more competitive. Im more proud of E&H because they recruit alot of local kids

They were alot of times. Im kind of arguing in a vaccum, NW for example is not gonna be bigger or stronger than anyone in the near future, Appy was on alot of occasions. NW also doesent have the quality of backs that Appy did. Thats my point if you have the personell then run whatever fits, if you dont then run something that is adaptable. Most good power offense teams have depth that allows them to be varied in the run game, if you only have 1 good RB the power style of attack limits what you can do(ex Power I and run Blast all day or Power T and run FB dive, belly lead, FB lead, quick pitch, QB keeper, HB dive etc) My thoughts on offense are confuse the defense w/ false keys such as play action and deceptive formations, keep them guessing Appy does this but from 1 primary formation, they generally have 1 blocking type HB which leads the D to believe the play is going his way, as soon as the D is focused on the "strong" side Turner would run Quick toss to the "weak" side. Appy would smack you in the mouth but they were deceptive about it, its very hard to line up, tell the D which is your strong side and where you would like to go w/ the ball when you dont have a counter play

I would argue that to an extent. If a player plays at VT its as beneficial as playing w/ any SEC team in terms of nationl spotlight, excluding a defending Natl champ (ex Auburn this upcoming year). Another good reason to leave state IMO is for a specific degree. Im just a VA boy and nothing would have made me prouder than to wear a uniform that represented VA. Much the same way I felt when I put that all red uniform on, no doubt I represented Haysi

Im a homer, I like to see kids go to their schools in their home state. Thats one of the reasons im proud of VT (mostly VA kids) and dislike UT (alot of CA kids and deep south kids). If a in-state school doesent offer and you think you can play at a high level then yeah go out-of-state. JMO

My bad, one of those schools down there lol. Its a great story though. I was hopeing you would chime in as you know much more about the Jonesvile story than I do(in my opnion the best sports story in SWVA history. A team from rural virginia with high emotions in their last year of existence struggles through their final season and it isint a terrible season or a great season its just average. They make the playoffs, are the underdogs and pull off an upset and then roll all the way to the state title! I would watch that movie. To me its a better story than Friday Night Lights(the book is pretty good, better than the movie) I could also could see the Bartee story as a movie, in the Rocky type of story line, a son and his father against the world!

Grundy will do pretty good in A next year, they will be alot more competitive(in terms of overall title) and will fit in alot better. I am really looking forward to them being in the district, I understand why alot of Wave fans dont want to move down but I think its a good move. As far as a movie it would make a good one. If you want a local sports story to make a movie out of then Pennington Gap football '88 or '89. The last year of the school (the next year they were consolidated with several other schools to form Lee High), they finished the regular season 5-5, just making the playoffs, they then went on to win 3 playoff games as big underdogs and win state. Thats a movie waiting to happen! This is a good story too, hard work and determination will get you a long way. Not to mention what a parents dedication to their childrens interests can do for the child

Alot of those Appy teams were very big on the line and had very good backs and GC is loaded year in and year out. I just dont think it is a smart to take a small team w/o a solid weightlifting program and attempt to run a power offense unless it is an offense that takes advantage of blocking angles(like a double wing or wing T). The Power-I is like the name implies about power and I dont see how a team that isint a strong team can run that as their base offense

When playing in state semi finals it isint uncommon to get beat by really good teams running all kinds of different offenses. What kind of offenses did Abingdon play against in their past state semi finals appearances?

They did beat us in the state semis one year, maybe in '91. I was too young to know anything about football then and didnt even live in Haysi. Did Lebanon win state that year? Im just saying the Power-I limits the passing game alot. Im just not really a fan of 4 back offenses, double tight offenses(for falconfan1 the wishbone, Power-T and the Power-I). Now if thats what your talent dictates then so be it but I wouldnt set out saying "were gonna run the Power-I and run people over". Open the offense up a little and become much harder to defend. Lee High also kicked the crap out of Haysi 2 times using the Power-I, they ran Blast about 30 times a game and keeper or dive to mix it up. That approach worker real well against Haysi(a school 1/3 the size of Lee) but didnt work out so well against Lebanon or Gate City. If they were more varied maybe they would have done better against the really good teams? If your approach is to defeat the teams that you are better than then your missing the big picture. From what I have seen Northwood threw the ball alot w/ a split end and ran mostly the straight series from their single wing, thats not exactly a "traditional" single wing approach, like the buck lateral or FB spin series

Like you said the spread maximizes athleticism and speed, doesent make up for a lack of it. Run a formation where you can get good blocking angles, some double teams and have a good play action threat and go from there. Passing the ball is an equalizer but putting 3,4, or 5 recievers on the field when you only have 1 good one just doesent make much sence to me. Didnt Marion make it to the Region IV finals a few years ago running the Wing-T?

Maybe im wrong but I didnt think NW ran a "ture" single wing like Giles does, I thought they were more of a Power Shotgun, Multiple formation offense that was being called the single wing? Maybe im way off. To me that type of offense would make the most out of a situation where a coach is working with little talent and seems like a good move. On a side note I despise the Power I, I have never seen a situation where it was used as the base formation and a team was successful, unless they were a good team that would have been successful using any formation. I just think it restricts the passing game too much and unlike a wishbone or a T it obviously has a strong side making it easier for the defense to key on. So what kind of offense do the fans at Marion want to see brought in?

I knew they made the playoffs a several years back and have really fallen off since then. Didnt know it was that bad. Youre right tho, once the parents are influencing the HC then the program is in trouble. Is Wyatt still at NW?