VTTW Board Index

Upper East Tennessee any good? Tennessee High, Dobyns-Bennett, Science Hill?

Among the big schools (5A/6A) in ET, you've got the usual suspects doing well- Oak Ridge, DB, SH, Ooltewah, etc., as well as a few surprises: Reah County and South Doyle to name a couple.  But I think that once the playoffs start, only Maryville will be left standing after the 2nd or 3rd round.  5A and 6A just aren't that strong on this side of the state, and most of these teams are feasting on weak competition.  I'd love to be wrong, and see a couple of these teams kick the midstate's ass in the postseason, but it's probably not happening.

Here's the top 10 in each classification this week:

http://www.thedailytimes.com/news/state_region/tennessee-football-prep-polls/article_06c5acb7-b295-5ec6-af66-5bc44fd0a5e5.html

Two more weeks to go, then the playoffs start.  The top 10s are pretty much accurate. 

Best bets to win their respective classifications, in my opinion, are Maryville (6A), Fulton (4A), and Alcoa (3A).  Otherwise there are proabably a half dozen teams that could end up winning a gold ball. 

Hey Herb, what does Maryville do or have going for it that they are always a threat to win a title?  Are they on the upper-side of enrollment numbers and just have more athletes to choose from?

Maryville has one of the best coaching staffs in America. Never seen a coaching staff that gets the most out of kids. I saw Maryville win titles with 170lbs linemen.i saw Maryville win with 3 starting linebackers 5'7 and 150lbs. Every now and then Maryville will have a Aaron Douglas,PattonRobinette or Dylan Jackson but The Program is built on hard working overachieving kids who take to coaching.

An MSU grad told me that those are the kids Mullen recruits at MSU.  Hard working 3 stars with a good attitude.  He realizes he can't get too many 5 stars to Starkvegas.  Has paid off for him, I guess.

I was coaching on a staff that beat Maryville in the state championship game in 1979. Heck, I don't think they've lost a championship game they've played in since?

Unreal program.

I was on that Maryville team that lost to Humboldt 13-10. Humboldt kicked a field goal that just barely got through to win that game.


Maryville lost in the state title games in 1977'1979'1997'2008'2009 and 2012.

Yep....That was Alan Welch our fullback, linebacker and kicker. He scored all 13 points that night. I was on the staff at Humboldt for many years.

Being from Bristol, I compare all the teams to the '72 Tennessee High team. In my opinion there will never be another team that has the talent of that team. Ever. I don't know the exact number, but that team was loaded with Div1 talent. The whole backfield was All State.David Bibee(QB) went to UT.George Heath(FB/LB) went to VaTech. Gill Kyle(RB) went to GaTech. Oh yeah, Greg Jones(TE/LB) went to UT. He was a monster at UT at linebacker. Anyone remember him and Craig Puki as UT linebackers?

There is a guy whose son played on my nephews travel baseball team in Franklin TN. This guy was on that staff at Humboldt. This guy was the Franklin head coach. Can't remember his name.

The one sure thing is no one in 4A will come close to beating Fulton. Fulton may be the best team in Tennessee.  Maryville has another great team but they will have to get through Blackman or Oakland. Alcoa isn't quite as good as they have been but they will probably play CPA in the championship. If CPA is wanting to beat Alcoa they better do it this year. Alcoa has a young team and their younger classes are loaded forbear.

Danny Nowell.......he was our defensive cord. He became the head coach at Humboldt after Jack Cain retired in 1983 (who was the head coach when we played Maryville)....Danny was the HC at Humboldt for about 4 years and then left and took the DC job at Franklin then he became the head coach there. Hell of a football coach.

He retired in Tennesse and went down around Biloxi Ms. and has coached there for the past 5-6 years.