Take some time today to reflect on who and what is truly important to you.
Happy Thanksgiving,
Steve
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Saturday, November 01, 2008
28-6 and We're In the Playoffs
After 2 consecutive losses filled with turnovers (10 in 2 games) and penalties, we got back some of our Mojo with a 28-6 win against Region rival Karns. The win gives us traveler status in the playoffs. I don't know for sure but this may be the first time in school history where the football team has made it to post-season play in back-to-back years.
But on to the specifics... or at least as many as I care to share while we are alive in the playoffs. I doubt any of our opponents know about veersite, but you never know. I recall George C. Scott in "Patton" saying, "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!"
We saw a 5-2 cov 4 with rolling safties but decided it would be best to "formation" them out of it for much of the night. They seemed very intent on tackling our fullback every play (11 carries for 79 yards). However, the QB managed the keep and, more importantly last night, the pitch to the tune of 386 rushing yards. One wing had 189 yard on 8 (!) carries on ISV pitch or Rocket Toss and the other around 80. I still am not happy with our inability to master the play action phase of the attack, but we work on it hard daily and have shown much improvement on the practice field. I hope when the time comes it will prove to be effective... providing the final piece of the puzzle.
The defense has also improved to the point that our opponent, while having larger athletes, had difficulty executing their shotgun option offense. While they completed some long passes with some very nicely thrown balls and superb catches, they found little yardage that they failed to earn the hard way.
I don't know what the future holds for our undersized team, but it I think as long as we execute and don't make a ton of mistakes, we're going to make it interesting for anyone we face.
Coach Smith
But on to the specifics... or at least as many as I care to share while we are alive in the playoffs. I doubt any of our opponents know about veersite, but you never know. I recall George C. Scott in "Patton" saying, "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!"
We saw a 5-2 cov 4 with rolling safties but decided it would be best to "formation" them out of it for much of the night. They seemed very intent on tackling our fullback every play (11 carries for 79 yards). However, the QB managed the keep and, more importantly last night, the pitch to the tune of 386 rushing yards. One wing had 189 yard on 8 (!) carries on ISV pitch or Rocket Toss and the other around 80. I still am not happy with our inability to master the play action phase of the attack, but we work on it hard daily and have shown much improvement on the practice field. I hope when the time comes it will prove to be effective... providing the final piece of the puzzle.
The defense has also improved to the point that our opponent, while having larger athletes, had difficulty executing their shotgun option offense. While they completed some long passes with some very nicely thrown balls and superb catches, they found little yardage that they failed to earn the hard way.
I don't know what the future holds for our undersized team, but it I think as long as we execute and don't make a ton of mistakes, we're going to make it interesting for anyone we face.
Coach Smith
Monday, October 13, 2008
We Came Up Short : 14- 21
Whew. Ever feel like a vein was going to pop out of your forehead? I had that feeling a lot Friday night.
Turnovers, a hot, humid evening, failure to score in the Red Zone, and a very athletic and well-coached defense combined to help defeat us Friday to the tune of 14 to 21. A 4-4 cover 3 and sometimes a 4-3 man cover 0 was the defense de jour Friday. It was obvious from the first series that they were determined NOT to let our fullback have another 198 yard night (he finished with just over 100.) Our QB picked up the slack with a 100 yard rushing night himself and also threw for just over 100. In fact we rushed for over 260 yards and our total was around 370. But we didn't look as sharp as the week before... either on the line or at the skill position. Having a few skill guys sit out most of the week due to injuries didn't help. Our play-action passing didn't look "ready for prime-time." Our halftime adjustment to running Belly Dive lead to 38 yards on two carries... but we fumbled the drive away and there it was. We had 5 fumbles and lost 2 - but all served to either stop or complicate drives. I will say that one happened on a slant where 3 DB's held up our split end for almost four seconds (yes, I timed it on film.) The ball came out at four. I guess forward progress wasn't a priority Friday. Oh, well...
One thing is for sure, we might not know how to handle a big win, but we have shown in the past that we do know how to get ready after a close, disappointing loss.
Coach Smith
Turnovers, a hot, humid evening, failure to score in the Red Zone, and a very athletic and well-coached defense combined to help defeat us Friday to the tune of 14 to 21. A 4-4 cover 3 and sometimes a 4-3 man cover 0 was the defense de jour Friday. It was obvious from the first series that they were determined NOT to let our fullback have another 198 yard night (he finished with just over 100.) Our QB picked up the slack with a 100 yard rushing night himself and also threw for just over 100. In fact we rushed for over 260 yards and our total was around 370. But we didn't look as sharp as the week before... either on the line or at the skill position. Having a few skill guys sit out most of the week due to injuries didn't help. Our play-action passing didn't look "ready for prime-time." Our halftime adjustment to running Belly Dive lead to 38 yards on two carries... but we fumbled the drive away and there it was. We had 5 fumbles and lost 2 - but all served to either stop or complicate drives. I will say that one happened on a slant where 3 DB's held up our split end for almost four seconds (yes, I timed it on film.) The ball came out at four. I guess forward progress wasn't a priority Friday. Oh, well...
One thing is for sure, we might not know how to handle a big win, but we have shown in the past that we do know how to get ready after a close, disappointing loss.
Coach Smith
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Week 7 (Or Week 6 if you start with week 0... I'm very confused!))
Well, we managed to do it right Friday night to the tune of 48-28 versus Sevier County. Our fullback was a marked man and still racked up 198 yards. All our running backs had a great night with our rushing offense coming in at around 430 yards. We threw twice for 16 yards. Each week we have installed a new component of the offense and continued to fine-tune what already is installed. Self-scouting is a continuing process and it's nice to find what should be an advantage for the defense and instead turn it into a liability.
I'm purposely being a little vague as all the teams in our remaining schedule are quality opponents... and it's amazing just how much a Google search can turn up! I'll get into X's and O's once the season is over.
I hope that is a long time coming! :-)
Coach Smith
I'm purposely being a little vague as all the teams in our remaining schedule are quality opponents... and it's amazing just how much a Google search can turn up! I'll get into X's and O's once the season is over.
I hope that is a long time coming! :-)
Coach Smith
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Week 6 : 47-18 Win and We're Now 3-2
Well, we had a pretty good outing. After 2 weeks to stew over a 3 point loss, we started out a little rusty but came alive after our opponent's first drive. We went 80 yards for a score on our first play on offense (off of ISV - pitch) and never really looked back after halftime. Our FB had 184 yards Friday night and one of our Wings had just over 100. The QB and other WB combined for over 100 and we were 2 of 2 passing for 11 yards (in all fairness, they counted a big gain on a swing pass as a lateral, so go figure.) I think we totaled just over 400 yards of offense and held them to 12 points until putting the little guys in. The mercy rule was in effect before the 3rd quarter was finished or our stats would be undoubtedly higher. The HC said today that we are averaging over 380 yards of offense to date... and our 2 losses were by a total of 5 points.
I think we are ready to head into Region play this week. We face a good opponent, but the HC said that he's noticed something offensively. He feels that we've stopped having to come up with things in order to move the ball and the burden has shifted to defenses to have to come up with ways to stop us.
I think he's right.
Coach Smith
I think we are ready to head into Region play this week. We face a good opponent, but the HC said that he's noticed something offensively. He feels that we've stopped having to come up with things in order to move the ball and the burden has shifted to defenses to have to come up with ways to stop us.
I think he's right.
Coach Smith
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