The AGONY of DEFEAT(S)

The AGONY of Defeats Well, it was quite a weekend for “my teams”, one that I sat through painfully. Painfully because both my knees still hurt as I recover from the surgeries. Painfully, because it was as dreadful a set of performances and outcomes as I can remember in a single weekend. Now, the pain is higher because the teams I am a fanatic for, are usually pretty good, - it is not like I am a Kansas Jayhawk football fan. The Seminoles, Gators and Crestview are usually above average, so that elevates my expectations, which in turn leads to more emotional let downs when they play so poorly.

Friday night was epic, as I looked forward to the showdown at Navarre all day, heck all week. I thought I could get the broadcast on JockJive and listen to the Navarre radio announcers, instead of the Crestview crew. The Crestview crew are most likely fantastic human beings, but I do not appreciate their “approach” to football coverage. Since I don’t like all the mean spirited and negative attacks that I see on social media and the internet, I will not say any more. JockJive was problematic, but I did hit a homerun by finding the TV coverage on a Pensacola station. Excellent broadcast and coverage! Crestview looked like Alabama playing Arkansas State in the first half. Four touchdowns of over 50 yards, and most of the “drives” were less than 5 plays. A 75+ yard run by Stanton and then 3 amazing pass plays for TD’s. On the other side, the Defense bent a little, but did not allow Navarre a single point in the 1st half. 28 – 0! We fans cannot help but get excited with a half like this, even when it is (hindsight) likely fools gold. Navarre gave up big plays, but there were not being pushed around on either side of the ball and that # 5 they have, wow. In the 2nd half, the Raiders played far more physical and hungry. They slowly but surely took over the game at the line of scrimmage, while CHS just hoped the clock would run out. It did not. With about 2 minutes to go in the game, Navarre had scored THIRTY FIVE unanswered points, to lead 35-28…Then, the team that had dozed for the 2nd half zipped down the field to score and pull within 1 point with less than a minute. GO FOR TWO I am saying through clenched teeth. No way you want to give them a shot in OT, as they were picking up 8 – 15 yards per play in the 2nd half! But nope, the Dawgs kicked the PAT to tie the game and send it to overtime. On the 2nd play in OT, Navarre intercepts for a pick 6, that was “nullified” because FHSAA rules don’t let defenses return interceptions for TDs, in the Kansas tie breaker OT format. Didn’t matter, their offence scored in 1 or 2 plays, game over Raiders 41, Bulldogs 35. I can’t help but be torqued at CHS, but I have to say that Navarre earned all my respect. They were so impressive and so determined and play a physical brand of football that is NEVER fools gold. Hats off to them. Crestview has more of the “3 and 4 star” kids, but with all the skill position fire power and a college size line, they are IMO, a finesse team. Many finesse teams are just that out of necessity, as they don’t have the big strong line to have a power running game, so they toss the ball around in an attempt to get into open space and let the athletes do their thing. The thing is, Crestview DOES have a huge and experience line. As with most high school teams, several key player are used on offense and defense, but dang. It looks like we are wasting the best roster we may have ever had, because maybe “we” have read all the press clippings, posted all thy hype tweets and have not been ready to play down and dirty smash mouth football. That is the hard part about this…I don’t have much confidence that this “intangible” will be corrected well enough to make a deep run. I do think Crestview will win most of the rest of the games on the schedule. West Florida Tech, Niceville and Thompson, AL are games that we can certainly lose, and I expect the Thompson game to be an ugly rout. They are just on a different level of talent, depth and everything else. They did lose to Hoover by 10 on Friday, so they will not come to Crestview that first Thursday in November undefeated. Crestview gets a lay up this week with the International School of Broward. Those poor kids. They go around the country every week playing top teams in every state, getting pummeled.

Noah Josey and Brentwood Academy showed some humanity on Friday night be keeping it under 60…OH, and this is potentially very exciting. In the NWFlorida Daily News today, coach Hatten was quoted as saying that Crestview is trying to set up to play Brentwood Academy next year! BA is the best team in Tennessee and according to cousin Bryan are very young, so they will likely be even better next season. My Bulldogs are a good prep team and this year’s squad may be one of our best in decades, but they ARE NOT IN THE BA league! Still, it would be a blast. I have documented that one of my first memories of high school football was when my Uncle Harold played for Crestview. It would be awesome for his grandson Noah, on a great team in Nashville to play Crestview! I will go, whether it is back home or here in Tennessee!

In other Prep notes: St Johns out of DC beat Hoover soundly a few weeks ago. This weekend they beat Miami Central in FIVE OVERTIMES! Impressive team out of the national capital and this week they play our semi pro team IMG Academy, so that is a hellavah schedule and a wow match up. Lincoln plays Lowndes and Niceville plays a Mississippi team. I have to hand it to the fishheads, they do play a tough schedule every year. Got crushed in Alabama last week. Maybe that helps my Crestview loss just a little. Now, on to Saturday night misery. Florida had beaten Kentucky 31 years in a row. Every year since 1986. The winning (or losing) streak is over. Kentucky out played the Gators in the swamp. They were the stronger more physical team and would not be denied. The Cats do not have a good passing game, but that QB is greased lightning running the ball. With his fleet feet and Benny Snell, UK simply punched Florida in the mouth and we had no answer. I was disappointed, but not shocked and not even angry. I have a lot of Kentucky fans that are friends and I was glad for them. Florida still has a higher ceiling (I think) in football and I do think Dan Mullen will get them moving in the right direction over the next couple of years. They “should” find the capacity to fight for #2 in the East, along with South Carolina and Tennessee, and maybe Kentucky. Hard to say exactly what Mullen can do short term to make this year’s team competitive and finds ways to improve. Without being too negative, I am not sold on Felipe Franks as the signal caller in Gainesville. Long wind up motion is slow. Decision making is lagging. Big and fast but VERY tentative when he keeps the ball. Most important, he gives me the vibe that his leadership is well….selfish. The balance between competitor and prima dona that all QB’s have, seems unbalanced at this stage and I hope Dan can help him. Or, we give the true freshman a shot.

Misery – my teams part 3 of 3. Florida State had a cupcake to help rebound from the CRUSHING that Va Tech put on them. SAMFORD came down from Birmingham to pick up a big check and get rolled. Uh, no they did not. They came down and beat the crap out of FSU for 3 quarters. Beat them in EVERY facet of the game – in Tallahassee. SAMFORD, not Stanford. It is hard to imagine how inept the FSU offensive line is. All these guys were very good recruits. The elephant in the room question for Noles fans is the coach. Is Willie Taggert this bad? Is he in over his head? How much time will he be allowed before panic creates the pressure to cut losses? I think we have to give him more time, but wow, what an ugly start. Not just the results, but how poorly the team looks in trying execute and do the basics…At Syracuse this Saturday AM… Clemson survived a pumped up Aggies team in College Station. A&M is ~5 or 6 in the SEC pecking order and they gave the top ACC (BY A HUGE MARGIN) team all they could handle. It is one game, but it reminds me that the ACC is NOWHERE the league that the SEC is, and that FSU should be able to fight for the conference crown most years.

The games to look forward to this weekend: Vandy at Notre Dame. Dores will get crushed but I will be rooting for them with all I got. Auburn and LSU should be a slugfest SEC West style. I will pull for TCU against Ohio State, just like I will pull for every team that the buckeyes play. I get how teams have hated on FSU when Jameis was pulling his despicable shenanigans. I do like some OSU fans, but loathe the program now. Boise and OK State should be a good shoot out. Duke at Baylor, with the starting QB done for the season. Man, Cutcliff is a great coach! Washington and Utah should be good. Southern Cal and Texas is blue blood but Horns are limping out of the gate. Bama will roll Ole Miss. Houston and Tex Tech will be like Boise and OK State, first one to 60 points…or 70. Maybe BYU hangs with the Badgers for 3 quarters…

NEXT weekend is going to be an exciting one, but time for that in a few days.

Overreaction to Week 1 of college and the prep recap

Since FSU played last night, the Noles are front of mind. Loved the energy pre game and was super excited. Not crazy about the uniforms, especially the helmets, but I guess that is me getting old. The Seminoles have more – far more – of the 4 and 5 star recruits than Virginia Tech, but no one would have guessed that last night, as the Hokies DEFENSE just dominated the FSU offensive line. It looked like a number One D, playing against their 3rd team offense at practice, but only worse. We have terrific skill position players at RB, TE and WR. Francios has a great arm and if given time, will absolutely pick apart any secondary. Half the time last night, defensive lineman raced him back to his drop back spot and beat him! Unopposed, most college d linemen can hurt a QB! FSU defense was mostly heroic, but could not withstand the offensive ineptitude that kept going 3 and out and losing field position. A couple of horrible calls by the refs hurt too, but FSU was WAY too sloppy to beat a decent team last night. The texting between myself, Roger and cousin Mark reflected our disappointment.

Coach Taggert has a lot of work to do. Even if we get things straight, the ACC belongs to Clemson, much like it did FSU for decades. And give Miami’s performance against LSU, I think VA TECH will be the team to face Clemson in the ACC title game – I know it is just one week!

Tennessee got whipped by a very good West Virginia team. I think that says more about WV than it does the Vols. Coach Pruitt will get UT to improve, the only problem is a MURDEROUS schedule – wow. I did see improvement with Guarrantano, so that is a positive. The biggest upset was Texas losing to Maryland. Bama, Georgia and Ohio State did what the top teams are supposed to do – rout. LSU looked much better than expected. Hawaii beat Navy, one week after routing Colorado State on the road. Safe to say the Rainbow Warriors are pretty dang good this year. Ole Miss looked good beating Texas Tech. UCF rolled UCONN. UCLA fell to Cincinnati and Arizona lost to BYU, so new coaches had struggles all across the country. Penn State SURVIVED App State in OT. Michigan State survived somebody they were expected to rout, so we can back off this “Big 10 East rules the world” stuff. The best big game was Auburn’s win over Washington. Both team brought big time defenses to Atlanta, but the beagles managed to get the W. Auburn did beat both Georgia and Alabama in the regular season last year, so they really are “that” good. Notre Dame beat a good Michigan team for a quality win, dang it. The Gators looked great against Charleston Southern, as well they should. Franks looked good – or improved I should say.

Florida plays Kentucky this week to open SEC play and that leads me into the list of what we can look forward to the rest of the weekend: UCLA and Oklahoma means it doesn’t get easier for Chip Kelly. USC and Stanford in a real meaningful Pac xx game. Clemson goes to A&M and so does GameDay. FSU gets a cupcake. Georgia at South Carolina should be fun and meaningful in the SEC East. Nebraska and Colorado in a throw back to big 8 days. Duke and Northwestern in the academic bowl this week, Navy and Memphis, yikes…So, a good weekend coming up.

As for the high school action, I sat through Crestview’s close win over St Martin, Miss. Bulldogs did not play with the hunger and fire that they should have, and their opponent was pretty good. It was a lucky escape with a W kind of night. This is a team that CHS routed 32-0 last year…Now, the show down with Navarre is on deck. This game, along with Niceville and West Florida, really does help determine the king of the hill for the panhandle (although Escambia already beat WF, so I should include them). We will see. On paper I like Crestview’s chance, but not if they play like they did in Mississippi. The picture of Navarre playing Tate, reminds me to mention - not only was cousin Bryan a star at Tate before Vandy, my mom also went to Tate for a while! Just for balance sake, cousin Frank is a renowned teacher at Navarre these days!

Wekiva, still a fairly new school, beat a good team from Georgia. Deerfield Beach also held up the Sunshine State pride, beating Buford GA. Hoover, fresh off a rout of one of the best team in Alabama, got SPANKED by St John’s of DC. I did not see that coming! Most of the other top team wons, but Bergan Catholic, NJ whipped Grayson Georgia pretty soundly. Two solid wins by easten/yankee teams over southern powers. One game last week that I failed to mention is where Maryville beat Oakland in a very close game. These are considered the top two public school teams in Tennessee. Brentwood Academy keeps rolling and we need a cage match at the end of the year between them and Maryville!