Leaderboard

Yeah, but look how many guys they have with 247 profiles. Automatically makes them elite

We have very little control over our schedule in Hillsborough. We are allowed to request a game that we see as a must have for our schedule. We chose Gaither as they are 2 miles from our school and our rival in nearly every sport. The county for whatever reason didn't make this happen. It would have been a fun environment with a big crowd and lots of good friends on both sides who grew up playing together. Heck their starting qb was at our school for 2 years. So, we play the schedule we are given. Not on the coach here.

I would be shocked if Armwood did not give them a fight.

Last week the bucks only scored 7 vs atlantic today they are getting goose egged and from what i seen again looking extremly over rated with no discipline.

Glad to see them doing this. Always surprised that this doesn't happen more often. I stand by the fact that I think Week 1, the local pro sports teams should offer up their stadiums for free for the experience. https://www.news4jax.com/sports/inaugural-bold-city-showcase-features-3-football-games-to-open-season

On the other side of your post... I have to believe the officials didn't see any reason to risk injuries in a game that was already won, starting in the 3rd quarter or not. If points is all Lakeland was after in the last quarter, seems a running clock should satisfy all but those with a bad sportsmanship mentality...

I know the organizers of this personally and it exceeded the numbers they had projected. I think it is called getting the right mix of schools, the right types of rivalries and keeping it focused on the metro area teams. If you try to invite an out of area team to something like this, it might not draw as well. The model for successful multiple games at a single site is sitting with this I feel. Airstream Ventures did a fantastic job.

Short answer: Armwood's good, but not quite as good as the score indicates, and Plant's not as good as they have been, but they're not as bad as that score indicates. Plant got the ball first. Second play from scrimmage, RB tries to do too much and coughs up the ball. Armwood scoops and scores. Next series leads to a Plant punt. Armwood offense goes backwards, leaving the Hawks with a 3rd down and half an acre. QB (Ransom) scrambles and heaves the ball downfield about 50-60 yards. Plant DB actually has good position and should have intercepted the ball. Instead, the ball bounces off him and right into the hands of Armwood's receiver who walks it in for a TD. 14-0 Hawks just that fast, and the score stays that way through the end of the first quarter. Second quarter was even worse for the Panthers. Armwood killed Plant with their speed and ability to get play-makers into open space, including a couple of big plays from Bloomingdale transfer, Charles Montgomery (#10). Ransom picked up a short running TD, but Wiregrass transfer QB (Helton) got some playing time in the first half as well (but didn't impress that much). Armwood's defense was what it usually is . . . fast in the backfield and on the edges and stout inside, led by a couple of 300-pound DLs (Watson #21 and Pinder #99). And these guys aren't those "listed at 300 pounds in the roster, but really more like 270;" they're every bit of 300 pounds). Not all that fleet of foot (what 300 pounds are?), but very difficult to move out of the way. Offensively, it wouldn't surprise me if Armwood's negative plays exceeded their positive plays, especially if you include penalties. But when they hit big plays, they tend to be a really big plays. Ransom's a big dude with a strong arm, but throws up a lot of 50-50 balls that work out well for him because Armwood's receivers are so athletic. In back-to-back weeks, Plant's defense may very well have played against the two best receivers in the state (Armwood's Agiye Hall and Venice's Wideman). And Plant just doesn't have the DB's they've had in the past. So, shifting focus, this could be a tough year for Plant. They're got a lot of work in front of them and they don't seem to have some of the athletes or depth they've had over the past decade, which is a shame, because they've got a stud QB (Gleason, GA Tech commit). I jokingly told a couple of the Plant coaches that when they were playing in 7 on 7 tournaments over the summer, they should ask the refs to only give Plant's QB three seconds, instead of the customary four, so he'd get used to getting rid of the ball quickly. I should have suggested two seconds. Plant started out with two tough games (Venice and Armwood), but it really doesn't get much easier over the next month or so. Plant plays at a tough Gaither team this week, home against Tampa Bay Tech and Bloomingdale, an OOS road trip to D.C. to face the number 18 team in the country (Gonzaga), before returning home to play a much improved Steinbrenner team. Plant has historically been somewhat of a slow starter, but they're always been able to improve over the course of the season and make a playoff run. Only time will tell whether they'll be able to stay true to form this year. As for Armwood, I'm going to withhold judgment right now. Their next game is at North Gwinnett, who lost to Colquitt 17-6 Friday night. (Is there anyone on this board that knows anything about Colquitt? ). I'll be interested to see how Armwood does. Their Hillsborough County-mandated schedule doesn't pose too many obstacles, which is par for the course for the Hawks, or, as some are now calling them, the East Hillsborough County All-Star Team. Whether they'll have enough talent to upend the Polk County All-Star Team in the playoffs remains to be seen. I know Friday was the first regular season game of the season, but Armwood lacked discipline. Part of the problem for Armwood is that they really won't be tested much over the course of the season (again, I don't know about next week), so the lack of discipline won't keep them from winning all their games . . . but it could very well keep them from winning a big game in November or December. Hope this helps.

Over 21,000 there. Awesome experience. The stands were full and it was rowdy. Mandarin brought the best crowd followed by BT. BT looked good but Lee will be a different team come October. They had to replace all 11 on offense. Both will be playoff teams. Mandarin’s defense looked stout. Beck can certainly make all of the throws. That WR Bryant from AC was the best player I saw all day. UC beat Bolles for the first time ever. That was the worst Bolles team I’ve seen. That QB for UC will be a dang good player in 2 years. BT was the best team there, then Mandarin. Everyone else was at least a step behind those two. We need this to continue every year. And we need it to be at a high school until we outgrow that. And we need more HS games on TV in Jax.

IMG exists because there is a need for players at the elite college programs to be ready to play the day they step on campus. It's hard for me to believe there is a deranged wizard behind the curtain at IMG with visions of hs football world domination. Rather, I think it's Business 101..supply and demand. Our society's insatiable desire for continuous improvement has taken us from 200-pound linemen to 300-pounders in relatively short order because WE expect it and WE want it...not the Wizard of IMG. If high schools were doing a better job of conditioning the kids and preparing them to play at an elite NCAA level, the demand for an IMG would not be as great. People love to demonize Walmart, but why do people shop there? Walmart is not the problem. It's our expectation and insistence for value that drives their existence. Instead of looking for the "problem" externally, we need to look ourselves in the mirror and better understand how ultimately our expectations as a society are the problem. Nobody likes IMG, but how many of the same people who bitch about them would tolerate it if we went back to 150 pound, "slow" kids playing hs football?

I give IMG a lot of credit for admitting what they are; an all-star team, full of recruits, playing a national schedule, and not beating up on traditional high school football teams that are trying to make FHSAA playoffs. There are too many schools doing very much the same thing that IMG does with the exception that those teams are recruiting away other teams best players, beating up on those teams they poached, and still playing in FHSAA playoffs. Recruiting and transfers have destroyed the competitive balance in Florida high school football, and I don't think that is for the betterment of the sport or for the preservation of traditional rivalries.

You make some good points as you were with IMG for awhile and I am sure know them better than most. However, I would bet that schools like Bolles, STA, Jax TC, Chaminade, AHD, and possibly a few others put the same effort in as does IMG. All of them have dedicated coaching staffs, recruit on a regular basis (yes it is recruiting although it's called something else), and have the funds to build and maintain top notch facilities. Yet IMG is the school that takes all of the criticism and mostly from the football community. When Chaminade routinely puts running clocks on their opponents they are praised instead of criticized. IMG is criticized for just defeating their opponents although most of IMG opponents are national powerhouses. I am neither an advocate for or against IMG. I just believe in fair treatment for all HS football teams in Florida no matter what their status.

I like your post. If Lakeland has to play the region final at Armwood, they will be facing a team that is 40-2 in the playoffs at Lyle Flagg and whose 2 losses were both by less than a TD. Statistically speaking, no team in the state is tougher than Armwood in the playoffs at home. Even if Lakeland gets home advantage, the Naughts would be facing one of the greatest playoff teams of the decade-see thread below. "But Lakeland got all of those transfers this year" Fact: Armwood and Chaminade were the kings of transfers last year(based on actual numbers), and without having facts this year, my guess is that Armwood did pretty well in that department this year as well. What's my point of all this? I think it is way too premature to say that Lakeland would be a heavy favorite over Armwood in a region final. Finally, even if the Naughts win the state title and go undefeated, it might be difficult for us to call them one of the best teams in state history(except by the eye test). Their regular season schedule is relatively soft for a team of their caliber. Their first two playoff games could be against "easy" competition. Come year's end, their only big games could be the region final, semi and state final. It would be apples and oranges to compare a team with a schedule like that against certain teams of the past who played a much tougher schedule...even other Lakeland teams ...just some thoughts.

I worked at IMG for 2 years. I am aware of their operations. And I wasn't surprised by the SAT fixing scandal. Nor that they field a great team year in and year out. But their games are boring, more like a small college game than an exciting HS game. No band that cares, no cheerleaders from the school and a student body that mostly doesn't care, they have their own sports to work on. They have way more practice time than regular HS players, they live on campus and coaches can be in their ear and face almost at all times. Some students practice in the morning and go to school later in the day. Others go to school in the morning and practice later in the day. Allows for real individual coaching of units. Some of the coaches live in the dorms with them. So they are not like any other HS in that regard.

IMG isn't anymore professional than some of these other Florida high schools, both public and private, that get tons of high caliber transfers every season. I'm pretty sure that Venice is one of those high schools. They also chose to play IMG so nobody should be making excuses for them or any other Florida team that agrees to play IMG. If you can't play on the same field with IMG then simply don't schedule them. I notice that quite a few folks, consistently year in and year out, state that IMG will not be as good as the previous year and has no chance at the national championship. Then get upset that IMG routinely blows away some of the best Florida teams. I, myself, give IMG all the credit they deserve even though they are a sports academy high school.

Go to the 2:05 mark in the video. https://videogg.com/watch?v=ee1Mtk0tLxM Bowman breaks off a 30 yard run deep in Aquinas territory and makes an incredible leap of the defender that was called back. Obviously Lakeland fans didn't like it and even some Aquinas fans I talked with thought it was a ridiculous call. But you are the expert on officiating, what say ye? https://twitter.com/countypolk?lang=en

Stay on topic bruh and for u to say deerfield wont lose to zachary seems to me your still on the bucks bandwagon cuz of your own personal rankings ...its ok to say u were wrong and fell for the hype again!! Deerfield is avg at best and will lose everytime they face a team with a avg to above avg coaching staff. If zachary coaching staff knows how to get the best out of his team and knows how to coach that game will b close and zachary may very well win.

Zachary from Louisiana? They won the state championship in LA's highest classification, not sure why you think DB is gonna roll over them, they have a legit chance to lose. Don't sleep.

BULLSH** the transfer couldnt even lead boca to the playoffs last year stop looking for excuses DF are what they are which is overrated!! No excuses they got stars and transfers up and down their roster no excuses.

That's fair. Even if it was a good comparison on my part, such comparisons are of limited value anyway. But until we get to see Lakeland play stiffer competition from around the state year-in and year-out, such comparisons are all we have. Just as there are no good comparisons to demonstrate Lakeland could not dominate the best of south FL, there is no good data showing they could. Last year, Northwestern played Miramar, Columbus, South Dade, Booker T, IMG Carol City, Central(twice), Mainland, Naples and Armwood. How would Lakeland have fared last year had they played a schedule like that...that is the question we'll never know. That's not to say Lakeland did not beat some good teams along the way.

Yeah, that score is rough...but IMG is more like a jr. College team. Losing to IMG is nothing to panic over. Just move on to the next game and take it for what it was. Taking on a professional high school.

I and I think most Lakeland supporters were OK with the first half scores from last season. In none of those games did it really feel like those teams were hanging around. It felt like the tsunami had not fully churned on them...but inevitably it engulfed them all. On to whoever Superior Collegiate is.

Not the word I would use SFL was truly awful today on a national stage. https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

You are being too gracious with Viera. Commentator said over 100 yards in penalties in first half and not sure if all were accepted by Cocoa. Most were execution penalties, just not ready to play the game. What, 4-5 penalties on first drive of game. They had 2-3 first downs, moved the ball and ended up punting from where they started. Commentator said Viera scored on the back of the endzone catch that was called incomplete( feed didn't show viewers endzone), that plus terrible time management at end of half-Viera could have been up 17-10. Thought Viera and Norton would miss USF Atkins and it showed. Norton, scrambling till he could find Atkins last year, was too much of their offense. Cocoa is Cocoa again and should fight for state, Viera defense improved from last year but offense has a lot to clean up not sure if season is long enough to do it.

I don't draw conclusions without substantial data. We don't even know who Dade's best is at this point. Knowing its history, betting against Dade is not a good bet. Ask Armwood and Mainland. Just as some folks might not like an "outsider" questioning Lakeland's greatness at this point, there are probably some folks from south FL about now saying "what do you know?" to folks from outside the area. I am not a big one for comparative scoring, but here goes. Last year, Lakeland beat ST Thomas by 13(far from domination) and STA was utterly dominated by Central, who arguably was not even the best in Dade County last year. Is Lakeland great? Sure looks like it! Are they 10 or more points better than Dade's best? I doubt there is anyone out there with enough intimate knowledge of Lakeland AND Dade's teams to say with any level of confidence. Maybe if Lakeland scheduled a Dade power last year instead of South Broward or Coooer City...or Hialeah this year... we might know. Sorry, I could not resist. LOL

Every year is different OS and you're smart enough to know this. 2019 Lakeland is 14-17 pts better than Dade's best this year, whomever that may be. 2018 Lakeland was at least 10-14 pts better than Dade's best, and I will assume that was MNW. The 2016 team that was smacked by CC had plenty D1 talent, but a highly overrated QB and no leadership. No excuses however because CC came out the lockerroom ready to play. They hit Lakeland in the mouth and got no pushback. Great job by Carol City. Sidenote: By the end of '16 Lakeland was better and tougher, but still had no leadership https://twitter.com/CountyPolk

May not be as dominant but I still see them beating whoever they play from Miami Dade week in and week out.

Vero must have a bunch of lucky horseshoes buried in the ground around the stadium!

Perhaps East Ridge?

Penalties and turnovers killed Winter Park. Wekiva is better than I thought they would be. With that said I still think Winter Park is better. Two turnovers returned for TD's and another TD set up by a turnover. Wekiva has a really good coach. His kids play hard for him and it works for them. He reminds me of a younger Bill Gierke when he was at Edgewater.