Sleepin nuts

I do a similar worksheet for 3A West. It is amazing to see how many teams will be affected in 2A and 3A by Heritage, Appomattox and Gretna.

I stand corrected. Was told in a meeting a few years ago that the call would no longer be made due to changes in the rulebook but it appears to still be there. Thanks for posting

"Face guarding" is NOT a rule. It is often mis-applied as a rule under the PI umbrella but it is not a rule in any rulebook.

EHC87, I am not trying to slight Abingdon in anyway. My comment about if they could beat Salem was in response to a poster that suggested it was unfair that Abingdon was behind teams that had lost 2 games.....Salem is the type of team that is giving these teams a loss. Abingdon doesn't exactly have a Salem type of team on their schedule. Abingdon can only do what they can do with whats put in front of them. So far they have done all they can do by going 7-0. For what it's worth I believe they have the best QB in all of 3A. This gives them a shot at anybody they play. I was comparing them with Blacksburg because it was their closest game and the rest of 3A has a pretty good grip on who Blacksburg is. Abingdon is still a bit of an unknown quanity compared to the rest of 3A but the playoffs will remove any questions about who they are and where they should be ranked.

The problem for Abingdon in not due entirely to just playing 2A schools. It's due to playing 2A schools with very bad records. John Battle, Gate City and Lebanon are not providing many points for winning games. I understand the argument for being lower in the points than teams that have lost 2 games but you need to ask yourself if Abingdon played a similar schedule would they still be undefeated? Could Abingdon beat Salem? Some could argue that Abingdon is placed higher in the points than they should DUE to their schedule. For instance Abingdon barely squeaked past Blacksburg. Blacksburg plays a typically tough 3A West shedule and will likely finish 5-5 and slide into the playoffs with a lower road seed. I think it's fair to say that if Blacksburg played the same schedule as Abingdon they would be undefeated headed to Richlands also. Abingdon will have a chance to prove they belong as a higher seed when the playoffs start. Based on seeding they should win one game......then lose the 2nd. If they win the 2nd round game you have an excellent argument for being mis-seeded......If they lose in the 2nd round then they were seeded where they belonged to be.

Up to the minute 3A points 1.Brookville 26.87500 2.Magna Vista 26.57143 3.W. Albemarle 26.14286 4.Northside 24.87500 5.L.Botetourt 23.71429 6.Monticello 23.57143 7.Abingdon 23.57143 8.S.River 23.12500 9. Rustburg 21.50000 Abingdon will likely stay in the top 8 and earn 1 home playoff game. 2 home playoff games would be very unlikely at this point. The top 4 teams appear set to finish in the top 4 and earn 2 home games. LB and S. River play each other so the loser of that game is likely to fall. LB also has a tough game vs William Byrd remaining. There is a remote possibility that Abingdon could fall to #9 and need to travel to the #8 seed with a loss to Richlands and a Rustburg win at Amherst. Monticello has tough games remaining against Louisa, Albemarle and Powhatan. The reality of 3A football is that you must win your district games and you must have your defeated opponents win most of their games to have a chance at the premium seeds.

I would expect a good game. If Abingdon can keep the QB upright they should win. Christiansburg is an average to a little above average 3A team. (The type of team that should win a playoff game but likely not 2) Christiansburg has the advantage of being historically more battle tested playing the likes of Pulaski, Salem and Patrick Henry every year but I like the fact that this is a benchmark game for Abingdon. I'll take the Falcons 28-21

I was once a regular poster on VaPreps but I finally ditched it for 2 reasons. First of all there is a small group of know it all posters from Fredricksburg that won't stand for anyone to say anything positive about a team or player from west of Richmond. I believe they somehow feel superior to us dummies west of Richmond. Problem #2 was when they switched to the 1A, 2A, 3A..... boards. That format killed the 3A board. There were no longer any posters with anything in common on the 3A board. I made the suggestion that they should go to 1A-2A West, 1A-2A East, 3A-4A West...... but clearly they missed the mark. I feel like the latest format forces the readers to click on several boards to find info.....No longer can your relevant info be found in one spot. I quit being a poster a while ago but will likely quit being a reader with the new format. I like this board much better. I find you guys to be much more fun.

Not surprised by Abingdon at all. We wouldn't have driven a 5 hour roundtrip to play a patsy. I thought both teams did some things very well and both did some things very poorly. The purpose of a scrimmage is to work on your base plays and focus on the things you don't do very well. I think both teams did this. What Abingdon did well was throw the ball. The QB is very good. One of the best passers I have seen in the last few years. What Northside did very well was run defense. My concerns for Abingdon is that if the QB goes down what else can they do? I believe #7 was the only QB that played. The run game was non factor. My concern for Northside is finding a Safety that can cover 3 wide. (Although we never see that formation in the regular season) We had several blown assignments but film study will fix those. First big frustrations on the night was concerning the no contact with the QB plan. Our guys would beat their blocks then avoid contact with the QB. This allowed for more time and more confidence for the QB to hang in pocket without getting hit.....real game would be a different story. Second frustration...We allowed Abingdon to run their no huddle unabated. Our coaches didn't enter our huddle or slow the pace of the offense ..Abingdon waited for our offense to get in formation before the coach gave the his defense their assignments while still in their huddle. In a real game we would have snapped the ball whether they were ready or not. That told me that the coach wasn't very confident in his players ability to identify their alignments. Third frustration was that the officials were as clueless as I have ever seen. All in all it was not a perfect scrimmage but I think both teams found alot to work on in the next few weeks. I'll stick by my prediction that Abingdon will be a top 10 3A team by midseason. I'll also predict that they will get a home playoff game and maybe even 2 postseason games at home. (Provided that the QB stays healthy)

In regards to Abingdon, I understand why they want to be in the no huddle. It can be effective against teams that are not used to the pace. The down side is that you give the ball back to the other team so quickly that they get plenty of chances to score. At Northside we are a defensive team. We prefer our offense to take it's time moving down the field. We are known for burning an entire quarter in one possesion. It's hard for the other team to score if we keep the ball away from them.

At practice today I hear that Abingdon is working no-huddle up tempo so if I understand correctly they will go 6 minutes of offense to Northside's 10 minutes in order to get a similar number of plays.

Big O, Sounds like we are working on the same things. Our entire Dline are returning starters but our entire Oline from last year graduated. We return our qb, top rb and 2 best receivers from last year. Our entire secondary on D is new with the exception of one LB. (That's why we need to see a passing team this year) We will be traveling with around 80 players. 40 on each team. We have more than our share of scat back types. I think we will see 16-18 players get carries out of the backfield and 20 or so line up at the receiver spots. If only we had that many linemen. Lol. We have no starters that play both side of the ball but we will work some on both sides in a scrimmage. Both coaches have known each other since college so I am sure they have given each other a heads up about what they want to see from the other in this scrimmage. I'm sure we will work on getting pressure on the qb but in the past we haven't tried to take them to the ground when passing. We have no interest in seeing a qb get injured in a scrimmage. I'll be there fairly early and will have the truck loaded down with gear so I typically park inside or very close to the stadium. I'll be working at the game so I won't make it to the stands. Same to you on the well wishes for the season and I hope we see you guys in a real game in November or December.....at Northside or Lynchburg with any luck.

Big O, Abingdon is the home school so they should have control of the format. In the past Northside has traded a 10 play series of offense and defense with the ones and twos then do a 10 play series with the twos and threes. They typically finish up a with a down and distance timed quarter with no special teams returns. Northside will generally not play returning starters in the first scrimmage for more than a play or two. We like to play new starters and the bench players in order to better evaluate them. Northside is happy to play a real passing team in this scrimmage. We don't see many passing teams in the regular season so the players don't get a lot of experience vs a team than can actually pass the ball.

I'm actually looking forward to coming to Abingdon friday. Always nice to go to venues we haven't been to before and cool to see teams we haven't played before even if it is a scrimmage.

Me and about 12,000 other people won't miss Salem vs Northside....All the other big games for me will be TBD come playoff time.