Before moving to Gainesville in 1992 I had been a football coach for 28 seasons, four seasons in high school, one season at a Junior College, 3 seasons at William and Mary, with Marv Levy and Lou Holtz and five seasons at Ohio State with Woody Hayes. While working for Woody I was the national recruiter and watched film on high school players from all over the
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Summary Week 3 – I am going to make a couple of coaching observations that I have been thinking about for a while. In the football I see at the high school level, We basically two and half offenses (the ½ is the option football we see from either formation). The Spread ( including the spread option), the winged T and some option off of the winged T. Defensive players learned to read keys from their position, which should immediately alert them what and where a play is coming and what their responsibility is in defending that play. Linebackers are primarily involved in helping stop almost all running plays and over one half of the pass plays. Linebackers learn play recognition, the see through the blockers in front of them and see the backfield as the play first starts to develop. Linebackers and other player who spend most to training camp playing against their own offense are at a significant disadvantage when they play another offensive system from the one they played against everyday in practice. They get maybe 60 snaps in practice against their scout team who are running plays drawn on cards. I thought of this as I watched Flowery Branch play Apalachee last Friday night. Apalachee in addition to have some excellent runners run out of the winged T (Slot on one side and wing on the tight end side) . The Flowery Branch defenders who had pitched 8 quarters of shot out football, were a step slow recognizing the winged T plays and where the football was going to cross the line of scrimmage. The Apalachee defensive players had the same problem being an instant slow recognizing the spread option plays coming at them. Both of these teams are highly skilled, Apalachee had a record 560 yards rushing and the Falcons had 255 yards rushing and 316 yards passing, both are talented enough to be region champs and should be competitive with the finest 4 A teams in Georgia.
1. Flowery Branch (3-0-0) Power Rating 2.89 – Points Scored 101 – Points allowed 35 - Let’s look at the good first, the Flowery Branch had great offense numbers, they averaged 7.3 yards per rush on 33 rushing attempts and 8.5 per attempt throwing the football. They are played like a great offensive team last Friday night and it’s good thing they did, because that what it took. Apalachee had the most effective running game I have seen in the last 20 years, a winged T team, their sweep plays and counters plays were almost unstoppable. They averaged 13.02 yards per rush on 43 running plays and if it had not been for the fact they had a couple of TD runs called back Apalachee may of won the ball game. The thing I like about the Falcon spread offense, it is pretty balance and they are good at both running the football and passing the football. They have knack for running the ball, when you are lined up on defense to defend the pass and passing the football when you are aligned to defend the run. I am going to say this, but I don’t believe I have seen a Flowery Branch QB throw into double coverage in the last four of five years. (I don’t see them every week) . Because of the option running game, on defense to be sound you need to have players assigned to the dive, the keep and the pitch, you don’t have enough players left over to double cover a wide receiver. You might get away with it on 3rd and long, however the option, dive, Keep or pitch will get you long yardage if not defended. Austin Brown, who had pretty average numbers in the first two games, put up great numbers passing the football. 316 yards passing and 8.5 per pass attempt will score a lot of points at any level of football. With single coverage on the wide receivers Flowery Branch threw deep a lot and it had the effect of the Aplachee corners playing pretty soft on intermediate routes. Tomorrow night the Falcons travel to Cedar Shoals team which has one win and two losses and a power rating .64
2. Chestatee (1-1-0) Power Rating 1.68 - Points Scored 62 –Points Allowed 37 – Chestatee offense put on a show last Friday night at Johnson High School, led by QB Scott Chewning. A veer option team, the QB is the big “on the field” decision maker, a big run from either the dive, the keep or the pitch, means the QB found the defensive weakness on the move and allowed his team to pit strength against weakness. No Quarterback bats a thousand, but when you average 8.24 yards per rush and 17.38 yards per pass, it’s a batting average you can win with. The War Eagle defense had a pretty good night even though they allowed 5.84 yards per rush. Johnson has an excellent run offense and if your offense is controlling the football you can win with that number. The War Eagle pass defense was fine allowing 6 yards per pass attempt, a winning number. Tomorrow night Chestatee travels to Dawsonville to play a Dawson County a team which is 0-2 and has a power rating of .23.
2. West Hall (2-1-0) Power Rating .94 – Points Scored 60 – Points Allowed 64 - You might asked why is West Hall tied for second when they beat Chestatee? Good question, I put them tied since Chestatee has a much better power rating and I saw the game when the two played. If everything is pretty equal at the end of the season, West Hall will be rated ahead of Chestatee. West Hall was manhandled last Friday night by a very good White County team . White County, which had serious problem running the ball against the Red Elephants (1.7 per rush) averaged 5.48 yards per rush against the Spartan defense. The Spartan averaged only 1.2 yards per rush against the Warrior defense. The Spartan played pretty impressive pass defense against a fine Warrior pass offense holding them to 5.4 yards per pass attempt. Tomorrow night the Spartans travel to Toccoa to play a solid Stephans County football team, the Indians have one win and one loss against two strong football teams and have a power rating of .88.
4. Gainesville (1-1-0) Power Rating 0.81 – Points Scored 50 – Points Allowed 62 – Coming off an open date the Red Elephants will have had two weeks prepare for what has become one of Hall County best rivalry games. Gainesville is one and one having played two real strong football teams. They lost the opener against AA power Buford and then beat a real good White County and now it’s trip up to the Brickyards. The place will be packed, everybody likes to be there when two heavyweights collide.
5. East Hall (1-2-0) Power Rating 0.54 – Points Scored 47 – Points Allowed 87 – Turnovers and special teams breakdown cost the Vikings a chance to be competitive against a very good Elbert County team last Friday night. The Vikings averaged over 7 yards per carry, this is a very good number. So far East Hall hasn’t shown much of a passing game, they averaged only 2.9 per pass attempt on 10 pass attempts. The Vikings running game should set up so good play pass opportunities. East Hall players have always been tough and aggressive clean up the turnovers and special teams breakdown and this is going to be one tough team to beat. Tomorrow night the Vikings host Adairsville a team which has won 1 and lost two and has a power rating of 1.16
6. North Hall (1-1-0) Power Rating 0.46 –Points Scored 32 – Points Allowed 69 Any former athlete remembers his great rivalry games they played in high school. I remember moving to Albuquerque and going to a Highland High School when I was 15 and as soon as they found out I planned to play football I was told those people from Albuquerque High School were evil. It wasn’t until some of those guys became college teammates did I realize what great guys from evil Albuquerque High School turned out to be. First of all when the Trojans and Red Elephants face off I don’t have a dog in the fight, but I love the tradition and the intensity both teams bring to the field. North Hall has opened up with the toughest first three games of any team I can remember since I have been watching Hall County Football. Two seasons undefeated Jefferson, than perennial State Power St. Pius and now last year’s state runner up Gainesville. If you have developed a high expectation program like they have at North Hall, you are asking your players to be the best and if you are going to be the best you have to play the best. Frankly I think it’s great. Last Friday night playing without some of their top veterans North Hall ran into one of the state’s best teams at their very best. Using the winged T offense, very similar to North Hall, St. Pius dominated the line of scrimmage and averaged 8.43 yards per rush. For all practical purposes Pius had no passing game, but with one of the states best running game they don’t need one or a least they didn’t need one against the Trojans. St. Pius had 472 yard total offense and held North Hall to 195 yards. Tomorrow night the Red Elephants come to the Brickyard, these are almost always great games.
7. Johnson (0-3-0) Power Rating 0.46 – Points Scored 42 – Points Allowed 91 - Last Friday night Johnson hosted Chestatee. Chestatee veteran QB consistency ran and passed into the weakness of the Knights defense. The Johnson Defense allowed 8.24 yards per rush and 17.38 yards per pass attempt. Both teams have had turnover problems this year, however the War Eagle won the takeaway battle 4-2. Chestatee got all 4 of their fumble recoveries in the first half when both team are trying to establish superiority. The Knight have tomorrow night off and the following week a very strong Lumpkin County team comes to Johnson. Right now Lumpkin County has a 5.1 power rating and the Knights can use the extra week of preparations.
