skyway

Atlantic probably needs scores from their defense or special teams to win. Very stout defense, but challenged on offense.

I think Lakeland is a bit more talented this year compared to last year. Defense is a little better thanks to an upgraded secondary and bigger more physical DL. he jury is out on the offense. Which is surprising to say given the firepower on hand. The OL is about as good as last year, maybe only a very slight drop off. But, huge dropoff from the blocking at the TE position, so overall the offensive front is a little down. Arian Smith is better than any WR they had last year, though his hands are still a work in progress as he's dropped a couple of balls on what would have been big plays. At QB, Mason Martin is/was better than McWilliams was last year. But, Garnett-a 3* Auburn commit- has actually not looked much differently/better than McWilliams. He does have a better arm and is likely even a tad faster. But, he hasn't impressed with his accuracy or decision making yet. That may come around though as he has shown flashes. The rest of the WR core outside of Smith (again including TE here) is not as good as what they had last year. The optimistic view is that the first team defense has basically been unchallenged all year. Plant City's 19 points were due in large part to some really weak roughing the passer and roughing the punter penalties. Five different Dreadnaughts had interceptions that game. And, offensively, Castle has always been a second half coach. With the defense unchallenged and games mostly out of reach with running clocks, we haven't really seen them apply the second half adjustments that a closer game would call for.

Good chance of that, yes. But, the pessimistic perspective is that this is looking more and more like the 2017 team. Highly regarded QB and the team wowed early in the season. And the passing game lost all rhythm, the QB held the ball way too much, and Plant knocked them out in a 13-10 game. IMO, this Armwood team will be the best playoff team Lakeland has EVER faced in a non-state title game. Edgewater may also be worthy of such a claim.

Only if Lakeland gets their act together. They didn't look very good last night.

Lakeland's offense has taken a couple steps backwards with Garnett at QB. Shades of Kevaris Thomas two years ago: highly recruited QB and the passing game has no rhythm. I realize his upside this season is greater than Mason Martin, but, at the moment, they aren't as good with him in there. If they don't play with more intensity, precision and guys like Bowman, Lampkin, Glinton and Shawn Smith, Bloomingdale can beat them.

Centennial's coaches pulled the team out of the line it was forming to shake hands with Lakeland following the game. This can be seen at the 2:45:00 mark. This stunt occurred a couple of hours after one of Centennial's coaches had to be restrained extensively in charging a game official. This can be seen at 0:49:45. The Eagles got a late score during the running clock to close to a 42-6 drubbing. Embarrassing.

Maybe not great, but probably top 5 and for sure top 10. But, we must factor in a significant home field advantage for one of Georgia's top 5 teams.

It's not Lakeland. Had a few seasons where they had to play really good teams in the early rounds, and some years where they might have choked a little.

What makes Lakeland tough is they have a handful of guys who can create big plays when there really isn't anything there. Centennial may play great defense and Bowman or Arian Smith can still break off a big play. And their ability to score on special teams and defense is significant. They can score 35 points to force the running clock just off punt and kick returns and turnovers. If Centennial is as challenged offensively as it seems, Lakeland will likely have a lot of short fields to work with. I suppose on the flip side, we could say Garnett has been a rather huge disappointment since coming back from injury. To date, Mason Martin is clearly the better QB of the two. I'm quite concerned that Garnett will end up being like Kevaris Thomas, who seemed to have loads of potential but played very hesitantly and without rhythm.

What quarter do we estimate Lakeland will inflict a running clock on Centennial? 1st, 2nd or 3rd?

I figure he hasn't seen them. But, I figured I'd give him a chance to enlighten us! But, Edgewater isn't a trendy team on the national board, so he's unlikely to give them any credit

You've apparently completely missed that I shifted the discussion entirely to highlight how f*cked up your state's voucher and school rating system is. By and large, kids aren't getting a better education or better teachers by going to some Christian or charter school over their home school. Allowing-encouraging, even-this movement has the same effect on school's ability to produce a lot of high scores on state tests as it affects a football team's ability to produce a lot of wins or college prospects. I intended to make this a purely academic, school quality, discussion. Figuring most here are fully tribal in their support of all right-wing talking points, it seems unlikely anyone will change their views on the vouchers/charters discussion. So, as a consolation, you should all STFU about a program like Lakeland doing in the sport of football the exact same thing that a school like, say, Stanton College prep does in academics.

Well, they might happen to think their chance of success in their pathway of interest in football (whether it is an ideal or appropriate pathway or not) is better at the other school. You don't know shit about me. That you think I live in Florida, or work in high school athletics, is laughable.

My comments were based on a general feeling after observing Florida vs. OOS teams, especially road games against Georgia teams. I don't actually know anything about either team, other than Marietta is loaded with FBS players, one of whom is a beast TE. Have you seen Edgewater this year? What aspects of their team do you see as being their weakest links?

I'm certainly very worried about Edgewater as far as Lakeland is concerened. It's just that the record of Florida's teams traveling up to Georgia seems quite poor. I'm not sure how much is attributable to the quality of the teams and how much can be blamed on refs, travel etc. Really, really hope Edgewater goes up there and battles Marietta for 4 quarters.

I have this bad feeling Edgewater is going to get running-clocked at Marietta. Really hope I'm wrong!

Aaanndd...so what? That's life. You want participation trophies? Such a snowflake idea. The kid's HS experience had better not hinge on getting a starting position on his sports team. If it does, something is TERRIBLY wrong.

They should stop pretending their ratings of schools are actually ratings of the quality of the teachers and administration. Lots of folks, like yourself it seems, actually think the ratings are actually indicative of the quality of instruction available. The only effect of the rating system is the richer schools whose parents are more educated and involved get richer, while the poorer schools get poorer. On balance, your comment is ridiculous and appears to be a concession you don't have much more to offer to the discussion.

Meh. Point is, there are literally millions of HS players across the country who work their tails off, but simply aren't able to beat out some other player with more talent. Sometimes, the player shifted to 2nd string is really good. And, sometimes, they can STILL get noticed and get opportunities. The current starting QB of the University of Florida was a backup in HS...

I think this is an opportunity to enlighten some folks on the school evaluation process. There is actually only ONE metric being used to rate schools: The major state test held once in the spring and the scores of the students on that test. That.Is.It. There is no in-depth evaluation of the quality of the instruction or the quality of the administration. If the kids score highly, the school gets a good rating; if the kids score much lower, the school gets a poor rating. This is akin to evaluating the quality of a coaching staff EXCLUSIVELY on the W-L record of the team. Yes, good coaches can win more games than their talent may project, and lesser coaches can lose more than their talent would project. And good teachers can guide kids to do better on the state test than they otherwise might score, and lesser teachers can get lesser results. But, suggesting, automatically, that a school with high test scores has better teachers and administrators based SOLELY off of the scores of one test is asinine. It is no different than someone evaluating, say, Kathleen's coaching staff and saying all of the coaches suck while all of Lakeland's coaches are great...solely because Lakeland finishes 10-0 and Kathleen goes 3-7. Lakeland ended up with a gross disproportionate edge in the talent and motivation level of football players compared to Kathleen. And "A" and "B" rated schools end up with a gross disproportionate edge in the talent and motivation level of students.

First, I do, in fact, dislike all of the transferring. I just happen to think that we need to make an effort to change the mentality of athletes wanting to jump ship if things don't go their way right away. Trying to subpoena cell phone records of teenagers who you think may have encouraged a kid to transfer seems like a dumb idea. Second, as I mentioned, a handful of athletes transferring doesn't figure to have any meaningful effect on a school's enrollment and associated funding from the state. On the other hand, rating schools exclusively based on test scores-scores we KNOW are heavily tied to socioeconomic status- and then offering vouchers or limitless transfer to schools with winning records, err ratings above "D" or "F", does have a significant impact on a school's funding. And it stacks the decks of some schools while depleting others, making it increasingly difficult for the lower rated school to ever crawl back from behind. What is happening here is, literally, the same thing as the state telling Kathleen High's football program-who's lost several key players to Lakeland this year- to either shape up and beat Lakeland or they can simply crumble out of existence. We know you all think that would be a b.s. thing to do to Kathleen's football program, as do I. But, when it happens to schools in the high stakes academic testing world, it's all fine and dandy. Third, "school choice" is a dishonest description. It's a phrase used to disguise the fact that the plan is to shift taxpayer dollars to Christian schools. Not Muslim schools. Not charter schools. Christian schools only. They just can't come out and say that, because this annoying thing called the First Amendment keeps public, government agencies from overtly endorsing one particular religion. Most of you hate this, I know. So, the code for "advancing God's kingdom" is to support "school choice". And some additional people who aren't as moved by the religious aspect of it can be persuaded because they can be convinced that a "free market" approach to public, K-12 education is somehow a good idea. So, to be clear, if it was suggested we move towards diversified student bodies, where students of all kinds of different backgrounds (race, socioeconomic status, athletic ability) were educated together, and this meant that kids couldn't hop around from school to school for football, I'd be 100% behind it. The current world where kids are free to go wherever they want, and gross imbalances and segregated student bodies are the norm, is not ideal. But, it is what it is. To back all of that, and yet then come back and decry the inequities in football, is really effing ridiculous.

They were players on an AAU team I played for many years. One is named Tracy.

But, unlike athletics, schools face the very real possibility of continued mass exodus of students through voucher programs etc, which DIRECTLY impacts the $ they receive from the state and, ultimately, their ability to function and remain open. In case it's not clear, I HATE the philosophy employed by Florida's education department and the philosophy for which Besty DeVos is the (very ugly) face. I'm also in favor of things being "reasonably competitive" in both academics and athletics. But, I can't stand this rank hypocrisy I see with folks who are happy to see public schools bankrupted through a voucher system or free transfers from "D" or "F" rated schools, resulting in the best students never showing up or leaving, resulting in a stacked deck of students with academic strengths. The EXACT same set of circumstances that allow a Lakeland to continuously end up with a stacked football roster exist to allow the "elite" academic schools to play with a stacked deck of the best and most motivated students that are certain to produce high test scores. Either you oppose both, support both, or are utterly blind and/or hypocritical.

You mean special programs like a nationally rated football program who's coach is respected by college coaches nationwide? Or just some other special programs? How do you determine which special programs are OK for kids to seek out and which ones are bayud? What if I told you that, by far, the strongest push towards transfers and super teams was being led by players and their families? What if I told you that Kathleen's kids felt their coaching staff wasn't looking out for their best interests and saw much better results across town and that THAT is why they transferred. Not because some slick coach offered them a cookie. I find it infuriating that people like you will demand that schools who's students' academic test scores are low simply "man up" and do better as they watch many of the best, most motivated kids leave/never come to go to a charter or other school. Those schools end up with, on balance, less motivated and less capable students to work with, while the charter or other schools end up with a stacked deck. And then they get all the praise for the impeding success, while the schools who's student bodies are depleted struggle even more. You're happy to see them continue to have their funding cut and shifted to the other schools, even though they've been put at a significant disadvantage. But, take the EXACT same set of circumstances and apply them to football or basketball and you'll lose your fucking mind telling us all how it's unfair. This, even though a school having a good or bad football team has no bearing on the $ it will receive from the state. Which one is it? Do schools need a more level playing field in regards to having more equal access to motivated and talented students? Or should it all be a free market system where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer or get put out of business?

I tell them I put in a lot of hard work in my time as well. I couldn't beat out players (two of whom went on to play in the NBA) despite my best efforts. Such is life. Everyone can't get a trophy, a starting spot, etc. And I'd also tell them that if not being able to beat out the other players bothers them that much, the transfer door swings the other way, too. Pretty sure at least one kid who was on the spring roster transfered out to a private school...