Best Defenses of last 20 years

[Gridiron60 2,555]

Many on this board played high school football, have sons who did, or are just students of the game or avid fans. Since we had offensive thread, I thought why not defensive. Best defensive teams over the years? Best defensive coaches? Best defensive players? Etc. All things defense thread! You know what they say, “Offense wins games! Defense wins championships “! 

[BigWinners 1,643]

Graham was very good with those elite LBs in 2018 or 2019 I confuse the years. 

 

Union was almost impossible to score on in 2017. Averaged 12 PPG allowed, and letting the backups score in the Battle and Letcher games skewed the numbers a bit. 

The 2016 Appomattox defense was as good as a defense as you'll see. 

[SWVAgridiron 1,469]

2016 Appomattox was the best defense and overall team that I’ve seen in a long time. As far as coverage area, I’m going with Graham in 2018.

[Gridiron60 2,555]

Cam Allen of the 2018 team was an elite defensive player and offensive for that matter. He had a great performance on defense against Minnesota with   4 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 pass break-up for Purdue on Saturday. 

He is just an all around athlete with an abundance of God given talent mixed with hard work, very coachable. 

[BigWinners 1,643]

11 minutes ago, Gridiron60 said:

Cam Allen of the 2018 team was an elite defensive player and offensive for that matter. He had a great performance on defense against Minnesota with   4 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 pass break-up for Purdue on Saturday. 

He is just an all around athlete with an abundance of God given talent mixed with hard work, very coachable. 

What year did Vineyard (I believe was his name) start at LB? With him and Cam Allen, that defense was nasty.

17 minutes ago, SWVAgridiron said:

2016 Appomattox was the best defense and overall team that I’ve seen in a long time. As far as coverage area, I’m going with Graham in 2018.

Agreed. Insanely talented HS team that executed at a very high level always. They were a mid 90s PV type team, just juggernaut.

[Mountain Football 1,532]

10 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

What year did Vineyard (I believe was his name) start at LB? With him and Cam Allen, that defense was nasty.

Agreed. Insanely talented HS team that executed at a very high level always. They were a mid 90s PV type team, just juggernaut.

Edwards and Kastner played on the 2018 team with Cam. 

[Gridiron60 2,555]

8 minutes ago, Mountain Football said:

Edwards and Kastner played on the 2018 team with Cam. 

For any in the M7 that don’t realize it, Chris Edwards on the current Graham team is the younger brother of Aaron Edwards from the 2018 team. 

[FootballFan67 62]

If you're considering great defensive coaches, you would have to include Dennis "Snake" Palmer on that list.  He coached at Richlands for several years as defensive coordinator and has coached at Graham since 2018.  I know the 2018 Graham defense was pretty nasty and I'm sure there were several Richlands' teams during his tenure that were tough on defense also. There may be some former players from Richlands that can share their thoughts on which years had the best defenses. I do know for the longest time Richlands was known much more their defensive capabilities than offense.  

[Real Sasquatch 1,865]

The 2017 Union Defense was impressive to me.  Granted, I only got to see them in the playoffs, but I was very impressed.

[BigWinners 1,643]

12 minutes ago, Real Sasquatch said:

The 2017 Union Defense was impressive to me.  Granted, I only got to see them in the playoffs, but I was very impressed.

You got to see their masterpiece. The best defensive performance in Union history IMO. It was maybe the best defensive game I've seen a team play in a long time. 

 

I was confused on years, Kastner and Edwards were the LBs in 2018, but wasn't there a Vineyard or something similar that was an absolute stud at LB for Graham recently?

[BBHoops_18 206]

4 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

You got to see their masterpiece. The best defensive performance in Union history IMO. It was maybe the best defensive game I've seen a team play in a long time. 

 

I was confused on years, Kastner and Edwards were the LBs in 2018, but wasn't there a Vineyard or something similar that was an absolute stud at LB for Graham recently?

He was on the 2017 team. 

[Liam McPoyle 1,863]

9 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

You got to see their masterpiece. The best defensive performance in Union history IMO. It was maybe the best defensive game I've seen a team play in a long time. 

 

I was confused on years, Kastner and Edwards were the LBs in 2018, but wasn't there a Vineyard or something similar that was an absolute stud at LB for Graham recently?

Dante' Vineyard https://www.gowasps.com/sports/fball/2019-20/bios/vineyard_dante-_jnp3

 

[Ryan4VT 4,554]

The 05 Richlands defense gave up 12 points in the regular season when the 1st string was on the field. Lebanon ended up with 14 points in garbage time in the final game of the season on the JV players. 
Gave up 92 points total the entire season for 6.5 ppg (5.5 ppg if you take out the 14 Lebanon scored) And 27 of those were Turner Ashby in the state title game. 

[sixcat 2,919]

I’m not exactly playing by the rules here but it deserves mentioning. The 1998 West Monroe (LA) Rebels pitched 6 shutouts and had a defensive scoring average of 6.4 points per game going 15-0 and winning the 5A state championship. I went to several games that season. I believe they had 4 future NFL players on that team. 
 

In Virginia, the 2014 Altavista team with Juan Thornhill. Eight shutouts while allowing 92 points (6.13 points per game) through 15 games. 

Locally, the 2006 Richlands defense was pretty stout and stands out in my mind. 

[goose111874 967]

I'm cheating also but Powell Valley had a defense in either 97 or 98 that was hard to score on to 

[Ryan4VT 4,554]

1 minute ago, sixcat said:

I’m not exactly playing by the rules here but it deserves mentioning. The 1998 West Monroe (LA) Rebels pitched 6 shutouts and had a defensive scoring average of 6.4 points per game going 15-0 and winning the 5A state championship. I went to several games that season. I believe they had 4 future NFL players on that team. 
 

In Virginia, the 2014 Altavista team with Juan Thornhill. Eight shutouts while allowing 92 points (6.13 points per game) through 15 games. 

Locally, the 2006 Richlands defense was pretty stout and stands out in my mind. 

06 was good, 05 was better statistically. 05 started the season with 5 straight shutouts and the starting D gave up 1 touchdown in the regular season to Carroll County in game 9. I’ll never forget Tazewell fans acting like they won the Super Bowl when they kicked a FG on us to be the first points scored on Richlands that season. 

[sixcat 2,919]

10 minutes ago, Ryan4VT said:

06 was good, 05 was better statistically. 05 started the season with 5 straight shutouts and the starting D gave up 1 touchdown in the regular season to Carroll County in game 9. I’ll never forget Tazewell fans acting like they won the Super Bowl when they kicked a FG on us to be the first points scored on Richlands that season. 

I’ll have to take your word for it. I didn’t see the 2005 team play. 

[Mountain Football 1,532]

33 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

You got to see their masterpiece. The best defensive performance in Union history IMO. It was maybe the best defensive game I've seen a team play in a long time. 

 

I was confused on years, Kastner and Edwards were the LBs in 2018, but wasn't there a Vineyard or something similar that was an absolute stud at LB for Graham recently?

Dante Vineyard, yep I had forgotten about him. Dante was an excellent LB. He played some in college if I'm not mistaken.

[tornado99 345]

15 minutes ago, Ryan4VT said:

06 was good, 05 was better statistically. 05 started the season with 5 straight shutouts and the starting D gave up 1 touchdown in the regular season to Carroll County in game 9. I’ll never forget Tazewell fans acting like they won the Super Bowl when they kicked a FG on us to be the first points scored on Richlands that season. 

This was the team I was going to mention. I don’t remember them, but I believe a late 80s Graham team was similar. (1989). I haven’t consulted four seasons football, but also didn’t see them for myself.

[Liam McPoyle 1,863]

Within the 20 year window for SWVA: Gate City 2002 (6 shutouts, 5.77 ppg);  Richlands 2005 (6 shutouts, 6.57 ppg)

Outside the 20 year window for SWVA: Gate City 1970 (7 shutouts, 4.92 ppg); Graham 1989 (9 shutouts, 4.64 ppg)

Source: fourseasonsfootball.com 

 

[tornado99 345]

19 minutes ago, Liam McPoyle said:

Within the 20 year window for SWVA: Gate City 2002 (6 shutouts, 5.77 ppg);  Richlands 2005 (6 shutouts, 6.57 ppg)

Outside the 20 year window for SWVA: Gate City 1970 (7 shutouts, 4.92 ppg); Graham 1989 (9 shutouts, 4.64 ppg)

Source: fourseasonsfootball.com 

 

Good info. My fault for not paying attention to the 20 year window. Was 2002 the state championship team from Gate City that I watched beat Essex in the state championship or the one that lost to GW in the semifinals? Either way, I remember them being powerful offensively, but forgot about the defense, Didn’t that PV defensive coach and his son go to GC during this time? Thanks 

[Gridiron60 2,555]

20 years was just a random time frame! Go back as far as y’all want!!! This thread is fun to read and remember some of these teams & players! 
 

[Liam McPoyle 1,863]

14 minutes ago, tornado99 said:

Good info. My fault for not paying attention to the 20 year window. Was 2002 the state championship team from Gate City that I watched beat Essex in the state championship or the one that lost to GW in the semifinals? Either way, I remember them being powerful offensively, but forgot about the defense, Didn’t that PV defensive coach and his son go to GC during this time? Thanks 

Good memory. 2002 was the team that lost to GW in the semis, who was no slouch themselves on defense. 2003 was the state title team that beat Essex. I hadn't heard about the PV coach, but I'd be interested to know if that happened. As Goose mentioned, those late '90s Powell Valley defenses were pretty special.

[tornado99 345]

4 minutes ago, Liam McPoyle said:

Good memory. 2002 was the team that lost to GW in the semis, who was no slouch themselves on defense. 2003 was the state title team that beat Essex. I hadn't heard about the PV coach, but I'd be interested to know if that happened. As Goose mentioned, those late '90s Powell Valley defenses were pretty special.

Those PV guys would know, but I think his name was Barry Jones? He was a big, bald-headed guy with a red goatee. 

[tornado99 345]

I attended that semifinal game in Wytheville. I remember it was bitter cold, and GC’s linemen didn’t wear sleeves. I can’t remember though if it was a missed extra point or field goal that made the difference. GW’s qb was Throckmorton and RB was Barcliff. Isaiah Spivey played well for GC.