More thoughts and predictions

Blog #3 from this reporter takes you on a quick sweep across the nation as we head into Week 5 of the prep football season ...

Out East, I can't wait to see No. 8 St. Joseph's Prep (Philadelphia) beat yet another ranked team by the score of 28-14. After all, coach Gil Brooks' Hawks beat Neshaminy and Cleveland St. Ignatius -- each ranked No. 9 in the nation at the time -- by that very score. This week, Prep will get a crack at a tough and physical Gilman (Baltimore) coached by Biff Poggi. But let me tell you this, it won't be easy again for Prep. "This is exactly the kind of team I like to coach," Poggi told me last spring. The Greyhounds are fresh of a 22-19 win over rival DeMatha, a game that demonstrated Gilman's ability to play great defense and control the football with an efficient, pounding rushing attack. Gilman's bell cow is 6-1, 205-pound running back/linebacker Sean Price. "Collisions are his thing," Poggi said. SJ Prep has already risen to the occassion to defeat two teams I felt would be too physical for them -- let's see if they can do it again. At this point, I have no reason to believe they cannot. NPP correspondent Norman Gross covered the SJP-St. Ignatius game for us last week, and he was more than impressed with the Hawks' advanced level of execution. That's what wins ball games at the high school level, folks. Prediction: SJ Prep 27, Gilman 13.

In the South, ESPNU will televise the matchup between No. 13 Jenks (Okla.) and No. 10 Springdale (Ark.) on Friday night. I simply love this matchup -- the seven-time and national poll regular Jenks challenging the home turf of national-poll newcomer Springdale with its recent abundance of Division I prospects (led by QB Mitch Mustain). Before I break down the game, let me say this about ESPNU and ESPN in general. I am thrilled they are bringing top HS games to our televisions each week, but I wish they had someone other than a recruiting expert on hand to break down the game. I realize that fan interest in recruiting carries the mail in getting games like this on TV in the first place, but I personally find the analysis from ESPN in the studio and the booth clumsy at best. Nobody seems to have done any real homework on the teams we're about to watch other than breaking down the individual players who are being pursued by top college coaches. That said, again, I appreciate the games being on TV. Now, for my clumsy analysis on this one: Jenks couldn't be feeling better after its come-from-behind 48-44 win over archrival (and then No. 6) Tulsa Union. The momentum and big-game experience factors seem to favor Jenks ... But, Springdale has big-game experience too. The Bulldogs have beaten a heavily touted Evangel Christian (Shreveport, La.) program the last two seasons, and they beat Jenks a couple of years ago. Jenks coach Allan Trimble loves the athleticism and experience of his interior linemen, but his linebackers and secondary corps were a bit of a question mark entering the season. That could spell trouble against a Springdale team that thrives on Mustain directing the short and intermediate passing game. Springdale has proven it can handle the pressure of a big game versus an out-of-state power. Mix in a homefield and all factors point to Springdale holding court and moving into the national Top 10. Prediction: Springdale 37, Jenks 20.

Out West, the BIG game is No. 17 Bellevue (Wash.) hosting No. 3 Long Beach Poly (Calif.) -- actually, Bellevue isn' t technically hosting the game. It will be played at Qwest Stadium. As I wrote earlier this week, I like Poly to win the game by about 10-14 points because the Jackrabbits have too much depth and too much overall team speed -- two things De La Salle did not possess in great amounts when Bellevue ended "The Streak" a year ago. That said, I LOVE the program built in suburban Seattle by Bellevue coach Butch Goncharoff. They run the Wing-T with the best of them at Bellevue, but have added a passing wrinkle to the offense this fall. Senior Brad Bissell is the Wolverines' designated thrower (2 TDs in Bellevue's opening win over Mount Rainier), but last year's starter junior Eric Block can throw it too. However, I don't think Poly's speedy d-backs and athletic linebackers and edge players are quakeing in their Nikes. After all, the 'Rabbits have faced prolific passing teams like Mission Viejo, Los Alamitos and the spread attack of Corona Centennial in recent games. Look for Poly to play big on the big stage. The ghosts of opportunities lost versus DLS and Mission Viejo in recent years won't haunt Poly this time around. Prediction: Poly 38, Bellevue 24.

More thoughts ...

• I'll be out of town watching football this weekend, so the site won't be updated much until Sunday. Thanks in advance for your patience.
• Can fall -- and more importantly, fall weather -- get here fast enough?
• Is anyone else tired of watching cable TV news reporters standing outside during a hurricane wearing the obligatory rain jacket and doing the obligatory "hurricane stagger?" We get the idea -- lots of wind, lots of rain. Things getting wet, waves crashing, debris flying around. Now, go inside.
• I still absolutely hate artificial turf. Even though the newer stuff "looks" more like grass, it still ain't grass. Therefore, I dislike it greatly. Football is meant to get you dirty, not rug-burned. And don't tell me it's not a true test if the field conditions play a factor in the outcome of the game. Both teams play on the same turf, don't they? Seems to fair to me.
• I also hate white football shoes. Don't know why, just do. I wish all teams wore black -- especially those with black in their color schemes. Black socks? Even better. Who's with me here?
• I actually found myself borderline giddy when I saw gas for $2.49 per gallon this afternoon. How sad. I hope the oil companies choke on their record profits while most Americans struggle to make ends meet. Don't get me wrong, I am a capitalist American pig, but price gouging is not supply and demand. It's just gouging.

That's all for now. Big weekend ahead. Better go pack my bags and finish watching TCU-Utah. Both teams are wearing black shoes, and the game's being played on natural grass!

Monday Musings 9/12/2005

As late, great Des Moines Register columnist Maury White used to write: A little bit about a lot of things ...

In preparing our preseason rankings for the NPP and the Sporting News/School Sports 2005 High School Football Preview Magazine, I spoke with three different prep sports writers in the Dallas Metroplex who cautioned against ranking defending Prep Poll champ Southlake Carroll No. 1 to start the season. The consensus was that SLC's offense would still be darn near impossible to stop, but that they just would not be as good as last year's team. With the loss of Chase Daniel (Missouri) and Aaron Luna (Rice baseball), I tended to agree. But now I'm not so sure. We moved the Dragons up from No. 4 to No. 2 in this week's poll, and as I said even back in April making those calls, if SLC runs the table again in Texas, it will be pretty close to impossible for us NOT to crown them Prep Poll champs again. Of course, there's still 13 weeks of football left to be played, and the target on coach Todd Dodge's team back continues to grow larger. We'll see how it plays out. But kudos to SLC for keeping things rolling so far.

Speaking of Texas football, I am already tired of the Texas vs. Ohio wars being waged on prep football message boards across the nation's cyber battle fields. Cincinnati Colerain's convincing 27-12 defeat of Tyler Lee Friday night on ESPNU did NOT show the world that Ohio football is superior to Texas. Far from it. Colerain simply had the more experienced team and, seemingly, was better prepared for the game. This is not the same REL team that won Texas' 5A/I title last season. Only eight starters from that team played Friday night. It's no more accurate to say Ohio prep football is better than Texas than it would be say Big 12 ball is better than the Big Ten following UT's win over tOSU Saturday night. As a University of Iowa alum, I can confidently say that's not true. :-)

Is anyone else sad to see another De La Salle come to an end? The Spartans' 308-game run of not being shut out ended Saturday night at Clovis West in a 7-0 defeat. I have great respect for the De La Salle program, its coaches, players and the community that supports it. I will always be a fan of teams that outwork and outexecute the competition, which DLS has been able to better than nearly everyone throughout the years. But shed no tears for Coach Lad and the gang, redemption could come as early as an October 8 trip to No. 1 Mission Viejo, and if not, I'm told the Spartans have a sophomore and freshman class that might be as talented as any to step foot on campus.

If you haven't yet picked up the Sporting News/School Sports Preseason High School Football magazine, please do so soon. I still see copies on magazine racks in nearly every grocery store I enter, so they are out there. It's a terrific book with a lot of information, photos and features. If you enjoy prep football enough to read this blog, you will probably read the magazine from cover to cover twice before setting it down.

Mailbag. My doing this blog on a regular basis will depend in large part on the kind of response it gets. Please let me know you read it by sending me your comments, suggestions and questions to PrepNation@aol.com. I'd like to answer your questions and comments in this blog on at least a weekly basis.

This week's too early to predict prediction: No. 6 Long Beach Poly 34, No. 17 Bellevue 24. I like what I saw from Bellevue in Week 1 with the addition of some passing elements and personnel to its base Wing-T set and I love that it has an extra week to prepare for the Jackrabbits. But I still think Poly will have too many athletes and too many weapons to lose this game -- athletes and weapons DLS did NOT have when it lost to Bellevue last year. I also think the Poly kids will thrive on the big stage of playing on FOX Sports Net and in the NFL stadium. Look out for a very entertaining game. I can't wait to watch it.