DarterBlue2

Final score was deceptively wide. BM has a good QB and a decent offense. Their defense, average at best. BM will make the playoffs comfortably and win one possibly two games but the season will end before Thanksgiving.

That's smart.

Innovation has a decent shot at going 2-0. They are the underdog, but have a chance to beat a relatively weak Oak Ridge team.

You are spot on. BT is who he is. He is a very good marketer though. I'll give him credit for that.

Here we go: Niceville/Escambia Booker T Washington/Palmetto (thurs) Bolles/Trinity Christian Buchholz/Vero Beach First Academy/Edgewater Lake Mary/Osceola+ Pensacola Catholic/Pace Rockledge/Eau Gallie Sebring/CCC Venice/Northwestern Bold underscored picks. Another tough week ahead. Venice at home is tempting given the number of points they put on TBT. But they also gave up a lot. I think the Bulls pulls off a high scoring win in a shootout.

I hear what @Julliansaid about Cardinal Gibbons being down and I don't have any reason to doubt it. But if Grubbs had a bad night and they put up 49 I believe, after seeing Jones demolish Seminole live, they, Lake Mary, should have that one in the bag. As for Lakeland, I don't know. If they were to take the Dreadnaughts down that would be a statement. I will say one thing. I have good reason to believe that Lake Mary's head ball coach would not take an optional game if he didn't think he could win it. And, I also believe that he's a rational man, so I believe he did his homework and feels that they have a shot. As always, time will tell. On another note, I am guessing Isiah Thomas had a great night running the ball. He's very underrecruited and some college coach is going to get a gamer. He's also very good at catching the ball as Grubbs sometimes throws the ball his way when they line up with an empty backfield.

I have every reason to believe you will both bounce back. I didn't do that well myself, but I am not unhappy with how it all played out. @Jullian will be tough to catch and will make an effort to go wire to wire!

For the casual fan who doesn't have access to or take the time to hunt down game film: a look at Noah Grubbs. It's in an interview format, but there's plenty of highlights in it. The most impressive thing he brings to the table is a quick, strong, accurate release. He's not a runner, but if the pocket collapses he can take off, and while not especially fast, he has enough strength to be difficult to bring down. https://www.wogx.com/video/1505132

On offense they have a great QB and a very underrecruited Running Back who's also a fourth or fifth receiver. I wasn't sure about the quality of their Offensive Line, but it seems on the surface to be good. Their weakness, at least against elite schools, is their defense. It's given up 20 points in each of its games in August. Now giving up 20 to Gibbons may not be bad, but to Oviedo, that stands out a bit in a negative way.

Ray, I am not sure about the quality of his receivers this year, but Grubbs is the truth. In 26 seasons he's far and away the best QB prospect I've seen come out of the Orlando area. Barring injury, I believe he will be a first round draft pick in 2028 or 2029. If he has a good Offensive Line and decent Receivers he can put up 7 TDs on any team on any given night.

Lakeland vs Lake Mary will be an intriguing game: classic matchup of great defense vs great offense. It's a game that all true fans of the game at the high school level in Orlando should come out to see.

Lakeland and Lake Mary both made statement wins in South Florida tonight. Lakeland pulled off a defensive struggle vs Miami Central while Lake Mary beat Cardinal Gibbons as badly as Armwood beat Norland last week. Glad to see the I-4 corridor competing with the state powers for a change. The Lake Mary vs Lakeland game at LM is shaping up to be a must see game for Orlando area fans.

First Academy wins by the skin of its teeth. They had a 28-3 lead with about 4 minutes left in the third and ended up winning 28-23. After scoring with a little less than 3 and a half minutes left in the 4th, the home team went for the onside kick, recovered the ball but it was ruled that they were a yard short. FA took over but went a three and out. The punt was stopped at the one yard line by FA's special teams unit. The home team picked up a nice first down to take the ball to about the middle of their side of the half. The QB went deep but got picked off on third down. FA took two knees to end the game and preserve the game. FA looked better until Lipscomb got cracking late in the game. With FA tiring and the home team gaining in momentum, it looked like they were going to pull off an improbably win. Hats off to the officials for giving TFA the ball back on the onside. TBH, it was not clear to me that the ball hadn't gone 10 yards and I am sure some other crews in a similar situation would have ruled for the home team.

TFA up 28-10 with a minute left in the third.

First Academy, looking like a team with 30+ recruits. I don't know how good the Lipscomb team is, but MaxPreps, for what it's worth, ranks them third preseason. If they are really the third ranked team in the state, TFA may make their deepest playoff run ever.

I appreciate you posting this. Thanks!

So, I'll give you a few comments about Lake Mary. You are right, they have not been a football power. They showed signs last year beating both Mainland (badly) and Mandarin in the regular season; and Seminole had to rally from a 14 point deficit midway through the 4th quarter to come back and win by a point. They then lost their starting running back in the first quarter of their playoff game against Boone and though the won the game they struggled. In the second round, Mandarin got its revenge. I don't know what their supporting cast is, but they have a kid that I regard as the best junior quarterback in the state. He's been starting since the third game of his freshman season, and has put up monster passing yardage. He had around 25 offers coming into the summer when he committed to Notre Dame. I know the running back they lost is back and healthy. I know Noah Grubbs (QB) will put up numbers against anyone. I don't know what the rest of their supporting cast looks like. In the KOC they gave up 20 against Oviedo though they won comfortably. That leads me to think they have some defensive issues. But you never know with KOCs some tell you a lot and some don't. Gibbons will be the favorite. Rightly so. They have more of a pedigree. However, I would not at all be surprised if Lake Mary's maiden trip to south Florida ends with a high scoring victory. If they win it will be basketball type numbers by both teams, say like the Edgewater game in England.

Picks are bold and underscored. I am not particularly confident that I'll do well this week. I could see several of the above games going either way including: MC/Lakeland, LM/CG, AHP/Milton, Cham/St John Bosco, Deland/Mad.

In addition to TBT in the KOC, Apopka added Cocoa and Madison County to its schedule. Apopka has an overall tougher schedule than Jones. The Madison County game is on the road and though they are a small school they have had very good playoff success in recent years, albeit against somewhat weaker competition than when they used to run into Chaminade.

The do have a relatively weak schedule. Weaker than APK's which should be in reverse since Apopka is very young. Not sure if it was intentional or they had trouble putting better teams on the schedule. They are in a very weak district which is obviously not their fault. But again, they looked really, really good against Seminole. I expected this game to be a one score game. Seminole can consider itself lucky to not face a running clock.

Tampa Bay Tech is a very solid team. But they have weaknesses. The best team I saw play this week at this stage (mid-August) was Jones. They took care of a solid Seminole High team with relative ease. Given they are in 4A, this is their best chance ever to actually take home a state title. Yes, they will have to beat AHP, but to win states you usually have to take down a south Florida power. At least they don't face a murder's row of teams from Broward/Miami.

Score reminds me of some of the beatdowns Central put on the Hawks in a couple of the state title games.

For the third time since the end of the 2022 season, Apopka got running clocked. Prior to that, the last time this happened was at Madison County in 2004 or 05, I forget which year it was. The score at the end of three quarters was 35-0 TBT. TBT scored just before the end of the third and went for two. With a long drive home, I decided to leave once the running clock was enforced. However, as I cleared the stands there was an altercation on the home side that had fans running followed by the sound of what could have been a gunshot (it turned out not to be). At this stage the TBT fans went into stampede mode as me and Mark hastened to the car. I don't know if the game ever resumed as while we were driving away the fourth quarter had not started. The game was a bit closer than the score as Apopka actually moved the ball against a team that has a shot at going deep in its class though it has its weaknesses. Unfortunately, the youngsters were plagued with turnovers and unnecessary penalties which ended promising drives. The most bothersome thing about our performance, was that for the first time in forever, our defensive line and linebackers gave up tons of rushing yardage. I guess some perspective is necessary as only one starter returned from that group, so there was a lot of inexperience. How Apopka does will depend on the character of the young players. They have been handed a tough schedule. They will either learn a lot very quickly or they will end up going into despair as they will lose at least one more regular season game by a wide margin. As for TBT, they are very talented. However, I would not attend (or for that matter play) another game there unless it was a playoff game and I felt I had to. I have travelled to games all over the state over the past 26 seasons. Usually, I have felt relatively safe even when I have ventured into stadiums most fans would not go to watch a game at. For the first time in several years, I felt unsafe at this game.

Edgewater's offense is okay, but not as good as I have seen them some years. They have issues on defense and on special teams which are usually good to very good. IMHO this Edgewater team is not one of its best. Still, strange things can happen when teenagers travel thousands of miles to play a football game. So, I won't totally write them off just yet.

Friday, Apopka at Tampa Bay Technical, Saturday, Seminole High vs Jones at Camping World (Jones's back yard). Next week maybe Madison County at Deland.