Counting down to the real start of college football

Well there were a handful of games this past weekend, with Hawaii’s victory over Colorado State the most meaningful. Speaking of Hawaii, they won the Little League World Series yesterday. Little League makes me remember why I love sports and as long as the parents are out of the picture (and broadcast), it is still innocent, or at least less tainted. I will have to spew some college football predictions in this post, but first let me recap what was a cool weekend of prep football. Crestview beat Bay 68-0. It was 55-0 at the half. I didn’t watch much of it and don’t care to watch any game that is so one sided. Also think some mercy needs to be shown and call the Dawgs off when it is out of hand, and maybe they did play the 9th graders in the 2nd half, I don’t know. Better save some of those points for the trip over to Mississippi, where Ocean Springs St Martin is waiting. A 2-0 team who was a playoff team last year, I expect they will not get rolled 68-0. Even with my distaste for massacre games, CHS did look like the talented team that we have been expecting. Stay humble boys and go win a big out of state match up for Florida.

Niceville fell to Lincoln. St Thomas Aquinas whacked DeMatha. Mater Dei wacked Bishop Gorman. Hoover whacked Pinson Valley. Maybe the best game I saw was the comeback Warren Central pulled to beat Louisville Trinity. Gutsy. Dr Phillips got spanked by a good Georgia team. This weekend, including the Crestview game, here are some others I will be keeping an eye on: St Johns from Washington DC area will go down to Birmingham to take on Hoover. Hoover does not lose very often, in state or out of state. Last week they SPANKED Pinson Valley with Auburn QB commit, who seemed to try to do it all by himself – a very bad idea. Bergan Catholic New Jersey will play Grayson Georgia and it should be a dandy! Deerfield Beach FL, will take on Georgia power Buford (smaller classification, but Georgia’s top team can PLAY). Another FL GA game is Wekiva vs N Gwinett. There are also a couple FL vs AL games with Dayton Mainland and Chaminade playing Huntsville schools Bob Jones and Muscle Shoals. Couple of big match ups in Ohio. Colrian and St Xavier in the Cinci area and St Ignatious vs Mentor up near Cleveland.

College time and the first thing is here is a great site to bookmark: http://www.gameviewingguide.com/ OK, the best programs in college football are: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin and Georgia. Penn State is there and Auburn is close. Miami is close. Texas is coming. USC is talented, Notre Dame is talented. UCLA under Kelly will get good. Nebraska under Frost will get good quick. Mich State should be good this year, and I think South Carolina is close…kind of. Florida has good football players, but the first year under a coach is iffy most of the time and the SEC is not nice. The Tennessee game is huge for the Gators, as I expect the Vols to be much improved. Maybe not improved enough to beat West Virginia on Saturday, but still.

Florida State also has a 1st year coach, so again, I don’t feel as sure of what to expect. Like UF, FSU has plenty of good football players. Do not expect them to be good enough to beat Clemson, but for the Noles, the Miami game is key. As it has been so many times over the years. There are hundreds of media predictions out there, so I don’t get points for having special insights, but here are my picks: Miami and Clemson to play in the ACC Championship Georgia and Alabama in the SEC Texas and Oklahoma in a rematch for Big 12 Wisconsin and Ohio State in the big10 Washington and Utah in the Pac. The Playoff will have Clemson, Alabama, Ohio State and Georgia, as much as I hate including the Urban Liar’s team. Clemson is my pick to win it all, and it will be the long hair true freshman who is the QB when it counts. Last night, Northwestern and Purdue was worth watching. UCF demolished UCONN and look to be a force again this year even with Scott Frost gone on to Nebraska. Tonight, Duke vs Army will be watchable only because I like Duke and not too many other good games on. Western Kentucky at Wisconsin will be close for about 59 seconds, not because Western is bad, but the Badgers are huge and legit. Will just out physical the smaller team. Colorado and Colorado State has some value just because in state rivalries are “throw out the record books” sometimes. Don’t think Bobo has a long future with the Rams, but I remember him as a high school QB in Thomasville GA! Then on Saturday it is a FEAST of football! The best early games are Ole Miss v Texas Tech and FAU vs Oklahoma. Oklahoma should win, but Lame Kiffin’s Owls will make them work for it. The early afternoon slot has Tennessee and West Virginia playing in Charlotte. Hope the Vols can get Will Grier to throw it to the Orange team a few times, and establish power running game. The Marquee game is Auburn vs Washington! Hot diggity dog! Gators play Charleston and I hope our QB from Wakula has improved a bunch! SEC play will get here fast.

North Carolina plays Cal in an ACC vs Pac whatever match up. Heels are declining… Then the night time slate has MTSU v Vandy in a local game. Alabama will over power Louisville. Michigan vs Notre Dame should be a good one to watch! LATE late we have BYU Arizona and Navy at Hawaii. I hope to watch some of those games before passing out. Don’t stay up as late as I used too, and I had BOTH knees operated on Thursday, so I’m gobbling pain pills for a few days. Then on Sunday night, LSU and Miami go at it.

Finally, the Monday Night Football – college style is Virginia Tech in Tally to tangle with the Seminoles. Like the Hokies young coach, but sure hope FSU can hold serve at home and get Willie Taggert’s legacy started off right. Deondre should find some open receivers and Cam Akers should be able to get some nice stats against a young Foster defense. LIFE IS GREAT! Go Crestview, Go Gators, Go Vols and Go Noles.

Well, it was a fun start to the football season, the prep level anyway.

I watched Crestview on Facebook, and am so thankful for the broadcast on this vehicle! I cannot abide the “local” announcers, so I usually have the audio muted, at least until the band take the field. Crestview looked very good offensively against Madison. They scored 42 points in this scrimmage with some different format with possessions, at different yard lines. The left handed QB made some good throws and the starting tailback is a good one. The back up QB came in several times and looked shaky with the ball, but boy is he quick! Line is huge and skill position players are legit and abundant. The defense was good but not great. I think this era of Bulldog football is so offense minded, that the defense will probably be good by not great. Will have to out score the better teams. Madison brought some excellent athletes and while they are a 1A school (less than 500 students, which is about how big Crestview’s band is) they field a team that can line up with 95% of the teams in the country. At least 3 D1 kids on the Cowboys this season, with FSU going after 2 of them. The real season starts this week with the Bay High tornados out of Panama City. They won big in their classic, so Dawgs better take them seriously. I noticed an update to the Crestview schedule. The Tampa Catholic game has been replaced by International School of Broward. That absolutely helps Crestview! BTW, ISB plays here in Nashville against Noah Josey and Brentwood Academy the week before they play Crestview.

After the Crestview/Madison “scrimmage”, I watched one of the best teams in Arizona play a very strong team from California. Just like last year, Centennial (Corona, Ca) beat Chandler Az. The numbers usually win out. California, like Texas and Florida have so many schools/teams, that the best from those states typically are stronger than the best from smaller states – not always, but generally speaking. At the same time I was watching Folsom Ca, try to end De La Salle’s NoCal win streak, on my phone. DLS won 14 – 0 to keep their streak going and the national reputation high.

This coming weekend, many other states get their prep season going and ESPN is having a big splash of inter-state match ups and a couple of key in state showdowns. Probably the biggest as far as national rankings go, is Mater Dai vs Bishop Gorman. Warren Indiana matches up with Louisville Trinity, Our Lady of Good Counsel (Maryland) plays Marietta, Ga. IMG semi pro team plays Pine Richland out of Pennsylvania. Colquitt Ga, takes on Trinity Catholic St Louis. Cedar Grove GA bumps heads with Hewett Trussell AL. Also in Alabama, to top 5 teams Hoover and Pinson Valley play at lunch time on Saturday on ESPN. Grayson GA is touted as the top team in the peach state, and they get tested by Tucker. Out west, Centennial CA, fresh off a whipping of Chandler AZ, gets Orange Lutheran. Finally, the state of Ohio has a big one, when Hoban (Akron) plays St Ignatious. The late game Saturday night is St Thomas Aquinas vs DeMatha – should be a good one. BTW, IMG the semi pro team out of Bradenton, get pushed around by Lake City Columbia in a preseason game. Not sure if that is more about how good Columbia is, or how unimpressive IMG was…

theOhioState proved that they are just as greedy and that football rules, as all the other power schools, even the ones I pull for in Florida...sad but true

Football season 2018 I probably will not keep up with the 1FootIn blog this year, at least I think that is where my head/heart is right now. I do want to capture some thoughts as the season approaches, but then just take it a week at a time. The most excitement for me for 2018 is my high school – the Crestview Bulldogs. Yes I am a 50 something year old guy and it may be questionable at some level that I am still such a staunch supporter of my high school, I’m okay with any crap that may get thrown my way. My dad played for Crestview, uncles, cousins, friends and now that I’m 40 years gone, I certainly don’t feel that “must get out of this little hick town” that I felt constantly at 16 and 17 years old.

Crestview’s football program was a power back in my dad’s day mid to late 50’s. Not so much in the 60’s and 70’s, but when I was a kid, going to a Crestview game (or Choctaw) was EPIC. I was never a star during my playing time, heck I wasn’t even a starTER, but again, my love for the game and school is deep into my DNA/soul. When cuz Larry Josey played, I think Crestview had the 2nd best team in their classification, but had to play Suwanee Live Oak, before the championship game. It was a thriller and the wrong Bulldogs prevailed and then smoked their opponent in the title game. In 2002, Crestview made it to the championship game against Rockledge. Duane and I tailgated before the game at Doak Campbell, on a hot sunny December day. It was so much fun! Matt Brunson was the coach and seemed to get a lot out of the kids, especially on defense. His offenses often were conservative, but perhaps that was due to the caliber of players he had (cousin Mark and I often grumbled ). Enough of the nostalgia. Last season was Crestview’s best in at least 15 years. Coach Hatton had a wide open offense that simply rolled up yardage and points. They ran the table in the regular season and won a couple of play off games before St Augustine ended the run for “us”. In addition to undefeated regular season, beating Navarre and Escambia, beating Niceville for the 2nd year in a row was great. For 2018 most of those kids are back, so there is reason for excitement and optimism. A HUGE veteran offensive line, some of the best receivers we have ever hand and college running back are some of the reasons for the anticipation. I don’t know about QB and that is no small question to have lingering and the schedule is MONSTER’S ROW! WOW! We open this Friday night with the Madison Cowboys, the defending state champs in one of the smaller classification. Madison is a power every year and will play anybody – Valdosta, Lincoln, Apopka, you name it. It is the kick off classic, the preseason game that in Florida does not count as a regular season game, unless you are playing in Alabama or Georgia (OOS) where their season has already started – then it counts. The regular season gets started against Panama City BAY on 8/24. My Sr year, Bay was the 3A champs in Florida.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Week 2 has Crestview traveling out of state to play in Mississippi, against St Martin, a playoff team last year. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Week 3 we travel to Navarre, who along with Niceville has been “the” power in the panhandle over the 10 years. There was no Navarre HS in my day, but now cousin Frank Oatman is a teacher there. The Raiders again will be one of the top team in the north part of Florida and this is a huge showdown. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Week 4 Crestview plays Tampa Catholic. A private school power way down the peninsula. They churn D1 and NFL guys out like a machine and are always deep into the playoff run. The hurricane wiped out this match up last season, which might have helped us run the regular season table. I covered a TC game for the Orlando Sentinel back in 2008 (give or take a season). They had a half a dozen D1 kids and at least 2 that year that went on to the NFL. OH BOY! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Week 5 The West Florida Jaguars. They own Pensacola, along with Escambia. Fantastic program year in and year out now. Crestview beat them last season and somehow the pundits had WF ranked higher than the Dawgs in the “all class” rankings. Boo hiss… ############################################################################################## Week 6 Choctaw – the big green Indians are well coached and a force to be reckoned with. A county rival that I have wonderful memories of watching as a very young boy. Their band is spectacular with the long native American feather head dresses (BTW, the bands in Okaloosa County are tremendous. Even when Crestview’s football team is not good, our band is ALWAYS fantastic). &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Week 7 Milton – the Panthers were a big rival in the 70s and 80s. I don’t know how tough they will be this season, but it will be homecoming and “Lord willing” I will be home for this one. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Week 8 Fort Walton Beach – In elementary school I lived a few blocks away when this school was built. It is also the alma mater of my wife and her siblings. Bro in Law John was quite the player for the Vikings back in the day. They have been over shadowed for a few years by Niceville, Choctaw, Navarre and lately Crestview. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Week 9 is a BYE week to get ready for the rival game and likely the district showdown $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Week 10 is the Fishheads – Niceville Eagles. Long the bitter rivals who have a fantastic athletic program, not just football. Two of the most exciting games I ever witnessed were Crestview – Niceville games with championships on the line, and Cam Sanders at QB for us. Two years ago, I took my dad to his last Bulldog game, and Crestview upset Niceville to win the district and really jump start the momentum that we are enjoying going into 2018. Win or lose, Crestview “should” get a playoff berth, but that is speculation in August. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Week 11 is a week of rest for many teams, as they try to heal up for a playoff run. Not this year for Crestview. Nope. Week 11 Crestview will host Thompson High out of Alabaster (Bham) for their 2nd OOS foe of the season. Thompson is just one of the top 2-3 teams in the entire state of Alabama, a strong high school football state. They are ranked in the top 50 NATIONALLY (ahead of Brentwood Academy – maybe the top team in Tennessee and where Noah Josey will be making his mark) and will battle Hoover for the bull of the ring in Alabama. Their QB is none other than Taulia Tagoailoa, the younger brother of “Tua” who saved the national championship game for the Crimson Tide. Little brother broke all kinds of records in Alabama last year as a junior and had committed to Nick Satan () and the Tide. No resting up for the playoffs, instead a home game against one of the best teams to ever play in Crestview. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Week 12? Playoffs. As far as other big prep games this weekend - in August (why play football games in the hottest month of the year?) there are some good ones. Out in NorCal, where my sons live now, nationally renowned De La Salle plays rising power Folsom (yep, that Folsom that Johnny Cash sang about the prison). One of the top teams in Arizona – Chandler, plays Centennial California. Navarre’s KO classic is against a Mississippi team that I don’t know much about – Louisville.

I have to give some more thoughts to the college season. It is the first time in memory that both “my” Noles and Gators will have new coaches.