Best Team To Not Win A State Championship

[cityofRaven]

Snowed in and bored.

What are your thoughts on the best teams around that have not won a state championship?

From my Richlands perspective, I'll start with the 1994 Richlands team. They were good in all 3 phases of the game and were just a play or two away from winning the region. 

[Hokiebird7]

Good topic

[1inStripes]

1996 Gate City.  Had given up 60 points through 12 games.  Was loaded up front and in skill positions.  Got upset in the rain at Brookville in the state semis 13-12. 

[Sixcat Adjacent]

Galax from 2019 to 2021. I still contend, 2019 was the best football team Galax ever fielded. 

[redtiger]

'93 Haysi was very good, fell to eventual state champ Giles in the Semis in arguably the worst field conditions a SWVA game has ever been played in. 

Early 2000s Clintwood had some very good teams that got beat in the finals.

The Eastern Montgomery team that lost to Riverheads was as talented a 1A team as you will ever see and came up short. 

95 Appalachia was VERY talented.

00 Honaker: Heath Miller, good RBs, big strong line, capable receivers, strong defense 

[CPF]

2001 Graham

[Hokiebird7]

19 minutes ago, redtiger said:

'93 Haysi was very good, fell to eventual state champ Giles in the Semis in arguably the worst field conditions a SWVA game has ever been played in. 

Early 2000s Clintwood had some very good teams that got beat in the finals.

The Eastern Montgomery team that lost to Riverheads was as talented a 1A team as you will ever see and came up short. 

95 Appalachia was VERY talented.

00 Honaker: Heath Miller, good RBs, big strong line, capable receivers, strong defense 

Agree the conditions in 93 at haysi were as bad as I've ever seen...but im sure it was fun for the players

The East Mont team was as good as anyone offensively but were as bad as anyone defensively 

[Fairlawncat]

Radford 1989 and Salem 1989.

Salem beat Graham. Graham beat Radford twice in close contests. Salem beat Blacksburg and Jerome Trussell, a great RB in regular season only for an incredible Salem team having All World QB Steve Meghanbauer get hurt and be done for basically his football career. Kid was major D1. They would have beat Blacksburg (who went on to win the D4 state title) with a healthy Meghanbauer. Radford in 89 was very solid. Just lost 2 nailbiters to a once in every 25 year type Graham team that garnered national attention for its 1989 defense. All 4 teams in 1989 (Salem, Graham, Radford, and Blacksburg) were incredible, but in the end, Div 3 and Div 4 stste champs were Graham and Blacksburg. Radford and Salem were very easily state title worthy on 9 out 10 years for that season, just ran into injuries (for Salem) or an out of this world Graham team.

Graham 2000 or 2001, cant remember exact year. Lost to a 7 and 3 regular season team in Harrisonburg coached by former Bluefield High star Tim Sarver. Graham dominated teams, was explosive, and way more talented than Harrisonburg. Had a sophomore named Ahmad Bradshaw that touched the ball 4 times. Only time I ever saw Glynn Carlock get clearly out coached. Play of the game was when Sarvers Harrisonburg team fooled Graham on a fake punt play. That same play Harrisonbirg ran......is the same one Pete Sarver performed and executed as a player at Bluefield which beat Graham decades earlier.

 

[rvtne216]

I think the 2010 Richlands team is at the top of this list.

[tornado99]

2010 Richlands that lost to Poquoson.

2001 Graham that lost to Harrisonburg.

2005 Richlands that lost to Turner Ashby.

[BBHoops_18]

1 hour ago, rvtne216 said:

I think the 2010 Richlands team is at the top of this list.

Came here to say this one 

[Mountain Football]

1 hour ago, Fairlawncat said:

Radford 1989 and Salem 1989.

Salem beat Graham. Graham beat Radford twice in close contests. Salem beat Blacksburg and Jerome Trussell, a great RB in regular season only for an incredible Salem team having All World QB Steve Meghanbauer get hurt and be done for basically his football career. Kid was major D1. They would have beat Blacksburg (who went on to win the D4 state title) with a healthy Meghanbauer. Radford in 89 was very solid. Just lost 2 nailbiters to a once in every 25 year type Graham team that garnered national attention for its 1989 defense. All 4 teams in 1989 (Salem, Graham, Radford, and Blacksburg) were incredible, but in the end, Div 3 and Div 4 stste champs were Graham and Blacksburg. Radford and Salem were very easily state title worthy on 9 out 10 years for that season, just ran into injuries (for Salem) or an out of this world Graham team.

Graham 2000 or 2001, cant remember exact year. Lost to a 7 and 3 regular season team in Harrisonburg coached by former Bluefield High star Tim Sarver. Graham dominated teams, was explosive, and way more talented than Harrisonburg. Had a sophomore named Ahmad Bradshaw that touched the ball 4 times. Only time I ever saw Glynn Carlock get clearly out coached. Play of the game was when Sarvers Harrisonburg team fooled Graham on a fake punt play. That same play Harrisonbirg ran......is the same one Pete Sarver performed and executed as a player at Bluefield which beat Graham decades earlier.

 

Speaking of Sarver. I think he just passed away recently.

[Beaverdad16]

2 hours ago, CPF said:

2001 Graham

First one I thought of as well 

[RichlandsAlum]

7 hours ago, 1inStripes said:

1996 Gate City.  Had given up 60 points through 12 games.  Was loaded up front and in skill positions.  Got upset in the rain at Brookville in the state semis 13-12. 

Brookville probably watered the field.

Hey we can all play that game, can't we?  (Kidding, of course.  Stinger Stadium is a poor excuse for a goat path 30 years later.  So there would have been no need to enhance Brookville's pre-existing home field advantage.)

[gwloyal]

3 hours ago, Fairlawncat said:

Radford 1989 and Salem 1989.

Salem beat Graham. Graham beat Radford twice in close contests. Salem beat Blacksburg and Jerome Trussell, a great RB in regular season only for an incredible Salem team having All World QB Steve Meghanbauer get hurt and be done for basically his football career. Kid was major D1. They would have beat Blacksburg (who went on to win the D4 state title) with a healthy Meghanbauer. Radford in 89 was very solid. Just lost 2 nailbiters to a once in every 25 year type Graham team that garnered national attention for its 1989 defense. All 4 teams in 1989 (Salem, Graham, Radford, and Blacksburg) were incredible, but in the end, Div 3 and Div 4 stste champs were Graham and Blacksburg. Radford and Salem were very easily state title worthy on 9 out 10 years for that season, just ran into injuries (for Salem) or an out of this world Graham team.

Graham 2000 or 2001, cant remember exact year. Lost to a 7 and 3 regular season team in Harrisonburg coached by former Bluefield High star Tim Sarver. Graham dominated teams, was explosive, and way more talented than Harrisonburg. Had a sophomore named Ahmad Bradshaw that touched the ball 4 times. Only time I ever saw Glynn Carlock get clearly out coached. Play of the game was when Sarvers Harrisonburg team fooled Graham on a fake punt play. That same play Harrisonbirg ran......is the same one Pete Sarver performed and executed as a player at Bluefield which beat Graham decades earlier.

 

I recall those Radford and Blacksburg teams fairly well. 

Blacksburg had just came off of their 4th or 5th loss when GW went over there to play and won out the rest of the way. Turnovers hurt us in the second quarter and Blacksburg scored 16 in the quarter to win 19-0. Trussell lit up the second half of the season and playoffs that year. They were very good up front and was anchored by Jared Hamlin who went on to play at VT and start fairly early. 

Radford just hammered us here in Wytheville. The score escapes me but it was bad haha! Snowy night that night. Lewis Ramsey, Maceo Dickenson, and Ritchie Delany come to mind. I'm sure I could recall a few others of each team if I sat and thought about it. 

Radford was the better of those two....And I personally don't think it's close. 

 

The NRD was really good that season. Giles had Eaves. Christiansburg had Stanley. 

[RichlandsAlum]

My opinion is that Richlands underperformed in the three straight title games that they played from 2005 to 2007.  Even the one they won (2006) was closer than it should have been.  The Blues were far superior to the 4-loss Rockbridge County team they beat -- even accounting for Marcus Mayo's personal brilliance.  Had the same impression when they lost to Poquoson in 2010. 

Maybe it had something to do with LU/Lynchburg.  But I always found it perplexing.

[Fairlawncat]

1 hour ago, RichlandsAlum said:

My opinion is that Richlands underperformed in the three straight title games that they played from 2005 to 2007.  Even the one they won (2006) was closer than it should have been.  The Blues were far superior to the 4-loss Rockbridge County team they beat -- even accounting for Marcus Mayo's personal brilliance.  Had the same impression when they lost to Poquoson in 2010. 

Maybe it had something to do with LU/Lynchburg.  But I always found it perplexing.

Running the ball when needed inside the 10 yard lines. Almost all state champs at some point, will be required to run the ball inside the 10 yard line to put the game away either in the semis or the finals. You get those 10 yards on the ground when you and the other team know you are running it, and if you get those 10 yards, then you win titles. If you dont get those 10 yards, you lose titles. Richlands OL reps for those years was overwhelmingly pass blocking reps. You could see the "alarm' many times when they got to around the opponents 15 or 10 yard line many times, and running becoming much more important, and their OL just wasn't as used to run blocking reps compared to their opponents. 

80 yards on the field, there is lots of space, but inside the 10 or 15, against state level defenses, you have got to run it at some point deep in the playoffs to win. The back of the end zone becomes another defender against wide open pass first offenses when a team is 10 or 15 yards from the goal line, and it's much more difficult to outscheme an opponent like it was for the first 70 or so yards. Thats why Richlands lost many of those finals in my opinion. 

Its the same reason Oregon hasn't won a national title in modern history (or since they've been really good which is about 25 years). Running the ball in the title game or final four game inside the 15 year yard line WILL be required to win it. They get a way with it in regular season for 25 years, but against the big gun defense late in the year, you can't out scheme that team inside the 10 or 15 yard line, and then becomes a level of discomfort when they have to run it to get 7 points instead of settling for 3 points.

[BigWinners]

If 2015 Richlands had a more efficient run game they likely add another title that season. 
 

For Union, it’s gotta be this year, 2017 and 2015. Union had already beaten Richlands in 2015 but just fell apart in Berryville in a very winnable game. 2017 just spotted Appomattox too many points and rhe furious comeback came up just short. No discussion needed about 2025, even tho im not sure they could have hung with Strasburg. 

[jreed97]

1973 Gate City

9-1, lost to VA High & missed the playoffs. The cats were the worst team in Bristol that year

[1inStripes]

7 hours ago, redtiger said:

'93 Haysi was very good, fell to eventual state champ Giles in the Semis in arguably the worst field conditions a SWVA game has ever been played in. 

I wish there would be a film pop up of the Jonesville/RC Region Championship game in 88 to compare with that Giles/Haysi game.

[JDHoss]

I'll go with...

PV 1983 - Lost to eventual state champ Purry McClure 7-3 in the semis, but dominated the stat sheet, and ran up and down the field all day but couldn't finish drives. Partly due to a great performance by the PM punter who kept them pinned deep all day. 

PV 1984 - Lost 2 of their first three to Pound and Clintwood by a combined 6 points, then got rolling and in the process throttled state semifinalist Pennington Gap 35-14, and blanked a good Appy team 27-0 and knocked the Dawgs out of the playoffs. 

Under today's playoff system, they might have won state titles. 

I'll also add...

Clintwood 1998 - Only two losses were to eventual state champ PV. I thought they were the best team that PV played that year. 

Vero Beach 2025 - The worst game management meltdown that I've ever seen at any level prevented Vero from finishing 15-0 and the Class 7A championship. When you have the football at your own 40 and a 1st down with a little over a minute to go and an 8 point lead, you should win the football game. There's no plausible scenario where you should LOSE the game in regulation under those circumstances, but Vero coach Lenny Jankowski said "hold my beer". 

[Bluefield researcher]

1968 Bluefield 9-0. 

[Hokiebird7]

17 hours ago, 1inStripes said:

I wish there would be a film pop up of the Jonesville/RC Region Championship game in 88 to compare with that Giles/Haysi game.

If it's anywhere close to the giles/haysi game id love to see it also

[1inStripes]

Old black and white photo doesnt do it full justice.  I had a baseball coach in HS who played for Jonesville in the game.  Said at halftime they went into the showers in the visitors locker room at RC to try and wash some of the mud off of them.

 

[vol_husky]

I would say 2006 John I Burton is one. Lost 21-20 and there was a controversial flag on a Burton TD. 
 

There was one Gate City team in 2002? They shut out most of their opponents. The only team to score more than 2 TDs on them actually beat them AND won state. 
 

Of course numerous Greeneville and Elizabethton teams. 
 

01-03 had some TOUGH Cloudland teams, but the level of competition in regular season really hurt them once they played some Knoxville, Chattanooga teams.