Panhandlecola
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Posts posted by Panhandlecola
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You make some good points. I've been saying all year that the officials in the area have been worse than normal. And normal ain't good.
Regarding the playoff situation posting the current point numbers are a bit misleading. Ive crunched the numbers and Gulf Breeze and Tate will most likely get in. In fact a Gulf Breeze win vs Gadsden will put them as the number 6 seed. After that Tate would be next provided Niceville beats Navarre.. If Niceville loses to Navarre and Pine Forest beats Milton then Pine Forest woud be #7 and Tate #8. Neases' outside chance relys on one of their opponents (White) beating Lee which is not likely. Now upsets throw monkey wrenches into the whole deal but that covers what's most likely to happen.
GB - just needs to win and they get #6 seed.
Tate - should easily win vs Smiths Station. Then they need Lee to beat White which is likely.
Pine Forest - needs to beat Milton which might not be easy since Milton has been playing well of late. Pine Forest will also benefit if Niceville beats Navarre.
Nease - will lose their final game vs Bartram Trail. They desperately need White to beat Lee and one of the above teams losing would also put them in.
It would take too long for me to explain how the numbers work regarding these teams but the points the FHSAA put out is a bit misleading. For instance they consider Navarre a Cat 1 team right now but if they lose to Niceville they'll drop to a Cat 2 team. That affects the point total for all the teams that have played Navarre. That's just one example.
Hope this helps
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Just now, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:
Hmm is Crestview supposed to be top panhandle team this year?
They have a ton of talent. Even though they graduated their QB and a really good WR, I still see them getting better. They beat Niceville last year and they return more production then Niceville. They'll add a few from last years stellar Freshman team. They're O-line are giants. The three Voison brothers are good. Last year they had a freshman running back rush for over 400 yards. That total will go way up. They just have more quality returning then Niceville. Niceville has a LB transfer from Hoover but that isn't enough as they lost 11 of their top 15 tacklers from last years team. My only hesitation with Crestview is the head coach.
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Here's my prediction for bigger schools in the western panhandle. Pensacola eastward to Crestview.
1. Crestview
2. Gulf Breeze
3. Escambia
4. West Florida
5. Niceville
6. Navarre.
7. Pace
8. Tate.
9. Choctaw
10. Catholic (P'cola)
11. Pensacola
12. Pine Forest
13. Washington
14. Ft. Walton Beach
15. Milton
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Great matchup! I give the edge to Bama but wouldn't be surprised if FSU wins. Two of the best teams on paper. FSU defense was #22 in total D and #44 in scoring D. Total D is impressive, not so much scoring D. Didn't lose a lot. Have been recruiting well so talent should be there. FSU O-line seems to be the only suspect unit on either team. Cam Akers may be great but will he be able to pick up a Bama blitz in his first collegiate game? That's a tall task for a freshman. Love the matchup and the loser has a real chance to still make the playoffs.
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14 hours ago, WhoopWhoop!! said:
I definitely agree with Smiley, McGhee, and Bivins. Smiley is a good RB from Catholic who was injured early against Gulf Breeze and missed most of the season. If you're talking about the WR from Washington (McGhee), he seemed to score multiple TD's for a team who wasn't very good. Bivins will make the change from QB to RB at Pace. He's a big, strong runner. Two others I would include would be Wright from Navarre. He played WR for them last year and I believe he scored 3 TD's in the spring game. The other is Walter Yates from Gulf Breeze. Big safety who had 8 int's for Gulf Breeze. He's pretty physical at the line of scrimmage as well.
I agree that your additions are good players. I filled out my list with the word "underrated " in mind. Wright and Yates seem to get a lot of pub so they are rated pretty highly already.
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Pensacola area:
Catholic - #17 Richardson, #8? Smiley.
Escambia - #15 McGhee, #8 Dosunmu.
Gulf Breeze - #35 Tisdale, #66 Hawkins.
Milton - #3 McCroy, #8 Williams.
Navarre - #78 Hixson, #15 Chambers.
Pace - #2 Bivins, #5 Pendergrass.
Pensacola - #2 Albritton, #72 Medley.
Pine Forest - #25 Lewis, #75 Gill.
Tate - #73 Dorsett, #4 Paige.
W. Florida Tech - #16 Abrams, #6 Helton.
Washington - #11 McGhee, #14 Ward.
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Navarre 17? Maybe if they get to bring back #7, #68, #56, #25, #77, #71, #72, #62, #5, #18, #8, #1, #2, #6, #49 from last year's team.
- KeemD321 and DisabledAccount
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On 7/2/2017 at 11:49 AM, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:
6A
1 Miami Northwestern
2 Miami Central
3 Miami Carol City
4 Lake Gibson
5 Mainland
6 Armwood
7 Miami Norland
8 Vanguard
9 Niceville
10 NavarreAlso side note 6A has 23 teams ranked in my top 100 nearly 1/4th of the field
Navarre lost waaay too much to be this high IMO. They'll still be a solid team but won't duplicate last year's success.
I would probably rank Escambia, Crestview, Niceville, Gulf Breeze, and Pace ahead of Navarre.
Pace and Navarre tied in the spring game but it looked to me that Pace was concerned more about getting players playing time rather than winning the game. Pace might have been without some starters. They're QB is going to be very good. And they return just about they're whole O-Line (Big). They need some players to step up at skill positions and secondary. Pace is my sleeper team from the area. Remember Gulf Breeze was my sleeper team from last year, so I'm on a hot streak of one year.
Side note from last season. Man I wish Navarre would have had better luck with injuries. Specifically Brahms (Auburn signee) and they're QB's. They were right there with Lake Gibson until the QB went down with injury. Offense was inept from that point on and it seemed to deflate the whole team. Not saying they would've won the game but I sure would've liked to have seen it.
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3 minutes ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:
Who's supposed to be top teams in panhandle this year
I'm curious of gulf breeze and West Florida
I've been forming a list in my mind. I'll take a closer look at it and provide an Outlook in a week or so. Gotta find out about transfers.
Gulf Breeze lost a lot but has a nice group of young players. The new coach last year has made a difference and will continue IMO. They'll be more run oriented with the loss of QB Phelps (Davidson signee) and 3 big time receivers. They have two very good rb's and a good O-line. A QB transferred in from Navarre that did well in the spring game. Defense will be better if they can find another corner. They got a LB transfer in from Pine Forest that's good.
West Florida long time head coach Lees is now coaching Milton. WF lost a healthy amount of talent but they still should be one of the better area teams. Helton brothers and a couple good big'us come to mind.
Off the top of my head I'd say watch out for Escambia. New head coach this year is the un-retired state championship coach from Pensacola High. They also got a 4 star nearly 5 star transfer from Pine Forest (Copeland ). Copeland will be playing with a chip on his shoulder from getting snubbed by "The Opening". I think they've added a few other transfers as well. Good crop of young players.
I need to find out Crestview's QB situation. If they have a good one to replace last year's, they might be very good. They have some giant lineman returning. Also had one or two freshman that might be big time. Crestview will be high on my list.
We need someone from the Tallahassee area to provide an update. I know just a little about those teams.
More later
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The panhandle should become it's own state. Or join Georgia or Alabama.
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Gulf Breeze QB Tyler Phelps is finally starting to get more interest from college recruiters. I believe Davidson was the only offer he had prior to the first game. Recently some ivy league schools have shown interest and now word that The Tar Heels are interested. Tyler is a great student so The Ivy league schools may have the best shot. I'm thinking I heard his coach mention Yale as a strong possibility. He's a left handed Greg McElroy(former BAMA QB) clone.
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Somebody is on record trying to convince the forum about Gulf Breeze. But did anyone take the new guy seriously? It's okay, I tried to tell the previous GBHS coach he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't believe me, then he got fired. I watched things on film under his regime that blew my mind.
For instance, they had a kid on kick return that I noticed in the pre-season kickoff game. For anonymity we'll call the kid Mary. Well, the very first kickoff I happened to notice Mary not block anyone. Nor did Mary look like he wanted to block anyone. So I watched Mary each kickoff and saw basically the same thing. So I told my wife "you watch, Mary won't be on kick return the next game". Because I remembered how my coaches watched film, I knew he'd be replaced. Didn't happen. First regular season game he's still there. Same result. OK surely they'll notice this time. Didn't happen. Mary played kick return every single game of the year. The guy made intentional contact with the other team maybe a handful of times all year. And by contact I mean the most timid run up to the defender and stop, brace, close eyes and lean one shoulder toward the oncoming beast you can imagine. Simply put, Mary gave no effort to block all year. Zero effort! How can you defend that? It's on film. The big eye in the sky don't lie. I watched him every play.
The kick returner was actually very good but would sometimes get crushed because he had so many unblocked scud missiles coming at him. He should have called Mary and others out on it. I'm gonna get blown up repeatedly and your not even TRYING to block? We'd have a come to Jesus meeting if it were me.
Meanwhile you've got kids blowing Mary up in practice that don't play. One kid(we'll call him John Lynch) told me how they were running a play they liked but it wasn't working because the kid(John) Mary was supposed to block kept blowing up the play. The position coach finally says "who keeps blowing up the play?". Of course it's John.
The coach calls Mary out on it but John does it again the next play. John was thinking "this guy can't block me all year in practice and he starts over me?". Those coaches have no idea how close John came to giving them a piece of his mind and walking off that field. And Mary kept his starting position. BTW, John is a very good player. That's just one example of the way things were done under the previous coach.
Lastly, the previous coach got another head coaching job at a middle school that feeds players into Choctaw. Well GB played Choctaw the first game this season. And who comes walking up to the press box with a Choctaw coaches shirt on? Yep, Choctaw hired him to help coach against his former team. As he walked past, one GB fan said "damn, that poor guy is going to lose this game again". And he did. He'd lost the game on the GB side for years then the very next season after his departure he loses on the Choctaw side. Nice/good guy that worked hard and he knows his X's and O's but it takes more than that to win. He knew "coach speak" but didn't "walk the walk". Softest practices I've ever seen in my life. And that includes peewee football.
I will admit that I was wrong about Pine Forest. I've heard chatter about why they didn't play well. Key injuries and discipline problems seem reasonable. More chatter was no heart and selfishness. Less chatter was coach is over the hill and should retire.
Anyway my 6a playoff take is;
Navarre over Escambia - but after watching the first game in which Navarre came from behind to barely win, I won't be surprised at all if Escambia wins. Regarding the first game, did Escambia relax after they easily drove down the field early in the game for two scores and think "we got this"? Or did Navarre figure out how to defend their triple option offense? I lean towards the latter.
Gulf Breeze vs Tate - GB should win but Tate is capable and they've been there before. This is uncharted territory for GB. First home playoff game EVER. Let that sink in. They've been playing football since like 1970 give or take. Lost both starting inside linebackers for Tate game due to injuries vs Crestview last week. Still gotta go with GB.
Niceville vs St. Augustine - haven't seen Augustine play but based on record it should be a close game. A lot depends on if Niceville's star receiver (Thomas?) is playing/healthy. That guy is really good. And I believe they were without him vs Crestview and Navarre. I do believe the winner of this game will beat the Crestview game winner.
Still believe a GB vs Navarre rematch would be a toss-up.
Should Escambia or Tate win a couple, I don't see either getting past the Niceville/Augustine winner.
So my 6a R1 winner possibility ranking is.
1. Gulf Breeze
2. Navarre
3a.Niceville
3b.St. Augustine
5. Crestview
6. Escambia (no chance @ R1 champ)
7. Tate. ( " " )
8. Middleburg ( " " )
We'll see...
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Agreed, Navarre has a tough road to hoe.
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Teams I can see beating armwood
Vanguard
Lake Gibson
Gulf breeze
Crestview
Niceville
Any of those 5 have the ability to beat Armwood
Outside looking in
Navarre
St Augustine
Those 2 have punchers chance but I don't see them making it far enough
Can't see Navarre losing to Niceville or Crestview. Navarre vs Gulf Breeze rematch would be a toss-up. But Navarre has a tough first round game with escambia. Escambia is playing much better now than earlier in season.
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Tyler Phelps - Gulf Breeze.
W 9 - L 1.
Thru 9 games passing.
224 attempts, 142 Completions,
2436 yards. TD passes 22, INT's 4.
Rushing.
152 yards and 9 TD's.
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Gulf Breeze 6a-R1-D2 went 2-9 last year,. Currently 7-1 this year.
Playing tonight for first district title since the 1980's.
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Navarre and Tate ahead of pine Forest tells me all I need to know about how seriously to take this ranking. And I believe maxpreps has Choctaw ahead of pine forest which would shock me if that plays out.
My preseason rankings of Pensacola area teams. Apologies if I left someone out. Didn't do PCB area. Went over far as Crestview.
1. Pine Forest.
2. Niceville
3. Navarre. (lost 4* OL Brahms for season)
4. West Florida tech.
5. Escambia
6. Gulf Breeze
7. Pensacola
8. Tate
9. Choctaw
10 Crestview
11 Milton
12 Washington
13 Catholic Pensacola
14 Ft. Walton Beach
15 Pace
16 South Walton
17 Northview.
18 Baker.
19 Jay
20 Rocky Bayou
Top two are solid. Would've included Navarre but they lost a KEY player to injury.
3,4,5 are probably a step below.
6 is my sleeper pick.
7 could see them with 3-5 group.
8 & 9 are always gonna be solid. Just think it will be a bit of a down year by their standards.
10 11 12 are on the rise. Question is how soon.
13 has quality but not the quantity they usually have.
14,15 new head coaches. Don't see either being a factor this year.
16-20 small schools. But good.
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District 2 with Pace, Milton, and Navarre.
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Probably because maxpreps ranking right now is preseason and will prove to have numerous mistakes. But it helps promote prep football so I'm glad they do it.
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A lot of these teams mentioned are traditionally very good. From my area I'm going with Gulf Breeze. They could have the best team they've ever had. Granted they haven't had many good teams. They will set team records this year.
GB has never started a season 2-0. That will be broken when they go 3-0.
Most wins in a season (8) is possible.
1st playoff win could happen.
Whether they set team records or not, they will be noticeably better. Not long before they prove me right. Remember they chose to play-up to 6a. Really a 5a team. Previous coach's decisions still costing them.
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FWB lost their coach June 30 and just recently hired Philip Form. Big blow was losing their starting QB who transferred to rival Choctaw. FWB not ready yet IMO.
Tate graduated too many good football players to be a top 5 type team.
Catholic has a few very good players but not enough of them. Depth could be a problem. But maybe they'll get some transfers.
If Gulf Breeze can stay healthy I really believe they will have a very good season. They lost top two QB's early last year to injury. Those QB's will be back this year. Had other key injuries too. Deep talented senior class. No real studs yet but a bunch of div 2 type talent. QB is legit. I could see him getting an FCS offer. They have a good soph RB. It wasn't a fluke when they tied Navarre in spring game. Finally, here's the biggest reason they'll be much improved, they have a new coach. huge upgrade.
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1. Pine Forest
2: Niceville
3: Navarre
4: West Florida
5: Gulf Breeze (sleeper team)
6: Escambia
7: Pensacola
8: Tate
9: Crestview
10: Pensacola Catholic
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I just can't see any team in the panhandle that will be better than Pine Forest. They are loaded and hungry to win. Bent on how they finished last season. Embarrassed by the way they played @Trinity Christian Jacksonville. I think they lost by 10 to trinity. They will get another shot this year @home vs. Trinity.
As for Escambia, they should be good at skill positions. And they'll still run the triple option which is hard to prepare for. But they will mix in more passing with the addition of transfer QB Z.Blocker from Catholic. I think the recent hype with Escambia is because they recently won a 7on7 against many local teams. Nice to win but I would remind them that Gulf Breeze beat Niceville last year in 7on7's so... I question whether Escambia will be good enough in the trenches. So Columbia fan if you guys are strong up front, that could be the difference.
I guess Pine Forest is my sleeper pick. I see people picking other panhandle teams ahead of them and I just don't see it. I'll put together my panhandle top 20 with explanations on each team.
Disclaimer; I don't want to discredit anyone else's picks or opinions. I certainly don't know it all. This is just for fun. But I do follow local high school football, probably a little too much.
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I thought last year Navarre would challenge Armwood but bad luck with injuries. Running back Michael Carter was injured in about the 3rd game. He is special. I believe he's rated a 3 star which to me is too low. He just repped 225 lbs 17 times at UNC camp. If he would've stayed healthy each year everyone who follows HS football would know him.
Linebacker A. Mitchell was also injured early in the season. Wide receiver T. Stevenson moved to Allen TX. And I don't know what happened to Derrick Smith but he didn't play last year. They might have lost someone else but I can't recall at the moment. Love to see how Navarre would have done with those 4 but hey injuries happen to all teams.
Navarre will still be dangerous this year but to beat Armwood I really don't think they have enough.
My Top Large Class Contenders (6A, 7A, 8A)
in The Huddle
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Good list!
6a-1. I see Crestview and Navarre over Niceville. Both teams just have a lot returning from last year. Not sure about move-ins/transfers but I'll see what I can find out. I know Navarre has a QB that moved back to the area after starting varsity as a freshman and sophomore in Virginia.