Scrimage notes..

If you have been to any scrimages, post any thoughts that you have here.

 

Crest/West Charlotte

About what I expected, the offense was green for Crest, but that defense is going to be lights out. Evan Bostic (6'3" 220) and Mike Edwards (6'2" 200) are beast coming off of the end spots. They were waiting on the handoff many times in the backfield. Brandon "Tiny" Petterson looked to be in great shape. When the season ended last year he was weighing in at about 360 pounds, now he is down to a lean, trim 290. The kid worked his tail off during the offseason and it showed. He was all con. last year from his nose spot, but this year should be even better. Big Spikes was doing exactly waht you would expect. The great thing here are the other 2 LB'ers. Chavis Poole has moved in from VA, and this kid is unreal. He stands around 6'2". They were changing a good bit at the other LB'er spot, but those kids looked good too, including Dwayne Maddox. Dwayne is a soph, and looks like he might be the next great Crest LBer. Josh McDowell, Skip Allen, Tosh Toms, and Jeffery Thompson were in the secondary. Tosh had back to back INT's during the 10 play and out segments.

West Charlotte outscored Crest 1-0 in TD's during that time even though there was some dispute if Crest got a rushing TD during that time. One ref said no, one said yes, but since it was Crest last play they just moved on.

The Crest offense struggled during the 10 and outs, but looked to get there timing down better when they went to game situations with the chains. Crest outscored West Charlotte 14-0 during this. Both scores for Crest came off of TD passes to Bruce Smith from Jordan Robinson. West Charlotte was shut down during this time.

Crest was playing without 2 starters on the o-line (their best 2). Adam Giles, the lone returning starter, and Tyrice Williams (6'5" 340) were both on the sidelines. Neither injury is to serious, but the coaches didn't want to take any chances.

West Charlotte will be much improved from last year.

Was able to talk to some of the West Charlotte coaches and they said that if Crest plays D like that and is able to run the ball, they will be hard to beat.

One last thing, I was able to help give out sandwiches that the Horse Shoe Club had purchased for both teams after the scrim. I was working the West Charlotte area and everyone of those kids were very polite and said thank you. Kids today catch a lot of grief so I thought I would share some good.

 

Thanks again...

for that great report smash!!

Looking forward to seeing The Chargers again this year and see how we stack up in 4A.
at last football is here!!

 

ACR went to Burns for a scrimmage with Burns, Olympic, and Monroe. I must say that I came back pleased. It look like our guys have really worked hard to put last year behind them. Playing all three teams (12 min. on offense and 12 min. on defense) ACR defeated each one (Burns 2-1, Olympic 3-2, and Monroe 2-0). Then in the 2-8 minute quarter sessions (game conditions) ACR defeated Monroe 15-14. I will say that the final session (game conditions) was not pretty for either team as both teams were exahusted from the heat, having played three sessions of 24 minutes already. Either way ACR looks like they have improved from last year, Saturday Burns comes to ACR for another scrimmage along with Erwin as well. Check out the link below (scroll down the home page) for scrimmage stats as well as a photo gallery.

www.biggreencountry.com

 

No Toney Baker



dang but Ragsdale missed him tonight. They scrimmaged Cummings in Burlington. Ragsdale had little offense or defense to speak of. You could tell they were putting in a new offense because the QB looked confused when the play calls came in. He seemed to look at his wrist plays about five times before the snap. Then the plays developed so slowly they didn't move the ball very well.

Their best offensive set was still the two tightends with a Power I. But instead of Baker for 80 and a TD it was five yards and a cloud of dust. And lots of fumbles.

Passing attack didn't look too good. Mullins didn't have much time. O Line needs work - although Cummings was blitzing alot. Ragsdale did score once - CJ Brinson Bakers replacement scored on a 7-8 yard run. That was the only time Ragsdale got near the end zone. Too many penalties and turnovers.

The D wasn't too hot either. No size on the line, no pass rush to speak of. Cummings had two big, smooth , fast receivers. They scored twice. Had a few long completions. Ragsdale DBS got burned alot - if the Cummings QB had a better arm they couldf have crushed Ragsdale.

oh well - they never do look good in scrimmages. But for the last four years there was no reason to worry wioth Superman in the backfield. I'm just glad they don't play for two weeks.

I watched about half of Orange and High Point Central. Orange only had about 25 players dressed out. But they played pretty tough. Central had a couple of turnovers. Scored once. Moved the ball well. Good QB. Good receviers and backs. Over a game they would have won easy.

Central comes to Jamestown on the 26th for Ragsdale's newest non-conference big rivalry game. Should be a good one but Ragsdale has some work to do.

 

Indy, Shelby, Myers Park, Waddell

Was able to go to Myers Park last night and see some action. I must say that it was neat having Jerry Richardson in line behind me at the consession stand.

Indy's defense looked good. They were fast and swarmed to the football. The got toasted a couple times off of the long ball, but the other teams were having a hard time running on them. The offense seemed to be off a tick from what I have seen of them in scrims from past seasons, but of course that is to be expected when you loose so much. They had some WR's drop a few and McFadden would miss some, but other times he was right on the money. As the offense matures Indy will be a force once again.

Taking on Byrnes SC at GWU should be interesting.

Shelby was Shelby. Jolley looked good at TB, and Arsenio Parks at FB is going to make ath Bone that Shelby runs very dangerous. Montgomery may be the best passing QB i have seen at Shelby. Shelbys front seven looked solid on D, but they have some questions in the secondary. I was surprised to see Montgomery playing back there. He seems to valuable to me to be playing both ways, esp. once I saw the back-up.

Myers Park fans should be very excited about the up coming year. This looks like the most talented Myers Park team I have seen. The QB can put on the money, and they have some WR's that can go up and get it. Good size on the line and the defense was good. I would say that Myers Park has the potential to be the second best team out of Charlotte behind Indy.

Waddell struggled. I had heard that his may be a down year for them, and it looks like it could be. When Waddell was on D, the other teams were able to move it on them. Offensively, they would get a big run or pass, but then they go 5 or 6 plays of nothing or looses.

Of the 4 teams, Indy looked the best, I would say Shelby and Myers Park were close, and Waddell had the most troubles.

 

from Thursday - S. Iredell @ Mooresville

Mooresville enters the 2005 season with 10 new faces on offense and 5 on defense. The Blue Devils had little trouble with the Vikings from S. Iredell under new head coach JK Adkins. Adkins was a former assistant under retired Mike Carter (formerly at Mooresville) and spent the last two seasons as Defensive Coordinator with Joe Pinyan at Salisbury (who was also former Def. Coord. under Carter at Mooresville) so he comes from good stock. There is no question in my mind that S. Iredell will be able to compete very soon under Adkins. He's that good.

Mooresville, under third year head coach Barclay Marsh, trotted out a completely new cast of backs, linemen (except for Sr. Colby Benfield, 6' 5" 320) and a new QB in Zack Franklin. As with any new group running the triple option with a real defense on the field, things looked a bit out of time during parts of the scrimmage. But Mooresville managed to march down the field and score both times during the full field portion of the scrimmage. Alot of unanswered questions still reamain for this offense but they should do well provided they hold onto the ball, avoid the flags, and stay healthy. New HB, Jr. Sam Allen and FB, Jr. Braxton Brannon are both physical, punishing runners.....a nice change from the smallish scatback types of the past few seasons. HB, Sr. Cody Recchion will perform the duties as the Power Back in the Power I formation. He appears to be versatile as a blocker, runner and reciever out of the backfield. QB, SR. Zack Franklin has some speed and his passes look crisp, with a few games under his belt, he should be just fine. His grasp of the triple option appears to be sufficient enough to pose real concerns for defenses who'll tryto play it safe against an option attack. The Offensive will take some time to fully gel but it will come. This young group has the potential and only time will tell. You wont see many 80 yd. touchdown runs but you may get a good dose of time consuming, ball control offense. And as any coach will tell you, that type of team is their biggest nightmare. They burn off precious game time and finish with scores, all the while wearing down your defense and keeping your own offensive units squirming on the sidelines.

Defensively, Mooresville lost some speed in the backfield but returns many kids that got a ton of playing time last season. CB, Sr. Durell Morrison has the potential to be a good one as he started last season and played a key role on special teams as well. LB, Sr. Bruce Bradshaw and Jimmy Holly will shore up the linebacker corps alongside Sr. Hunter Heafner. Matt Verley is a stud and will anchor the Defensive Line alongside DJ Caldwell (i think thats his name). Former LB Brandon Young has been moved to the Spur position. This unit played well against S. Iredell on Thursday allowing no touchdowns and holding SI to minus yardage in their first possession. I'm missing some players for sure and will try to learn as much about this years team as quickly as I can. But questions still remain to be answered as a brutal early season schedule looms ahead with (4A) N. Davidson, (4A West Semi finalsit) Davie Co., (2AA West Semi finalist) Bandys and (4A) S. Rowan are scheduled to test these young Blue Devils.

Mooresville hosts 4A E. Rowan this evening @ 6pm in their final scrimmage before the regular season begins on 8/19.

 

Border Showcase Jamboree

North Henderson vs Landrum

Landrum won this one 21-0. The QB looked good for Landrum and North Henderson had nothing for them.

Polk County vs Broome

Broome won 27-6. Broome showed why they are the defending 2A SC state champs, and picked preseaon number 1 this year. Their defense was big, strong and fast. The Broome kids were bringing the lumber.

Crest vs Gaffney

Gaffney won 14-0. Another showed why they are preseason number 1 in the Gaffney Indians. Big o-line that did a great job of keeping the Crest defenders off of the QB. Crest gave Gaffney the opening Kickoff on the 50 and Gaffney scored. Crest got the ball back and had to punt. The punt went all of about 6 yards, giving Gaffney the ball on the 30. Gaffney scored again and was up 14-0 with 5 minutes to go in the first qtr. The Defense for Crest played better after that. You can't give a good team a short field and expect your D to totally shut them down. Crest offense still has a long way to go, but all of the offensive line was together last night for Crest for the first time.

Indy vs Byrnes

Byrnes won 24-14. Byrnes is fun to watch. They spread out and go five wide even when they get down to the 3 yard line. Will Corn will be the man next year, and I'm not sure he's not the best QB in the country right now, he's only a JR. Byrnes hit the field last night with 107 varsity players. Those kids kept coming out. Indy is just a step behind. It was the same thing that I saw at Myers Park. Indy was able to trade TD's with Byrnes up to 14-14, and then Indy couldn't get in after that. Indy is going to be hard once again to beat this year.

Other notes:
There was around 12,000 at the scrim. The biggest crowd to see football action at GWU. I was in the pressbox around 5:00 and you could see back towards to road and the line of traffic coming into that stadium was hard to believe.

Broome, Gaffney, and Byrnes are all ranked preseason number 1 in the state of SC.

Byrnes tried to show up Indy a little. The teams had to warm-up on different fields so when they came out they would have to go straight to kickoff. Indy hit the field and took their spots on their sideline. Byrnes came out, ran down their sidelines to the other goal post. They then ran back out to the middle of the field, with many of the players jawing with Indy. They got to the middle of the field and spread out like they were going to do warm-ups, which when you have a 107 players looks awesome in it's self. By this point Tommy Knotts is about to stroke out. He's yelling at whoever will listen to get them off the field. Some folks were saying that Byrnes had pissed Tommy off so they better watch out. Byrnes then took the opening kick off and scored in 2 minutes.

GWU did an awesome job in hosting this event. They handled the crowd well, and did a great job of selling GWU to the people that were there.

Hats off to Polk County for pulling this thing off, and willing to move it from their home school when they realized they wouldn't be able to handle the crowd.

I've seen a lot of scrim's in my day, but this thing had the absolute feel of a state championship. There were people all over the place tailgating and having a good time. It certainly was a fun night.

 

Hickory scrimaged South Caldwell last night, Hickory won 21-14.

 

Alexander Central

AC looked very good against Hibriten and Foard. They should contend with Freedom this year!!