Perspective

No disrespect to any of the other teams on Lakeland's schedule, but this early-season stretch of games could either propel the 'Naughts to another state championship or completely demoralize them: Aug. 29: at De La Salle (California) Sep. 5: vs. Lake Mary Sep. 19: at Miami Booker T. Washington

So, a team schedules an inferior opponent (one that it should be able to beat fairly easily) at the beginning of the season and pays them some amount of money to come play the game and take the loss . . . . Hmmm, sounds like almost every top tier D-1 college football program in the country (and every mid-to-low level team trying to bolster their athletic budget).

I don't know . . . I seem to recall that Florida teams have done pretty well against Alabama teams -- especially Auburn teams -- this year. Then, again, I may be confusing high school football with college basketball.

With officials from the STA Officials Association, no doubt.

Where will the game be played?

This is the post: "Grant Thompson has resigned as Niceville's head football coach. No scandal. No drama. After going 64-10 the last six seasons with two Final 4 appearances, it was simply the right move for him at this time." What is Thompson doing? What makes this "the right move for him at this time?"

Longtime Observer/Nolebull: So, if I put on my Vegas hat and set the line right now at 22.5 points (SJB being favored), who are you taking? Is that a fair line?

Weeks 2, 3 & 5 will make for a tough run.

So, since things appear to be a little slow right now, I'll bite. A lot depends on what you mean by "buy players." As I suspect most of us know, there are high schools in Florida that have provided compensation or some other form of benefits to athletes and/or their families to "convince" the athlete to attend their school instead of staying put and playing for their neighborhood public school. Now that the state legislature has torn down the boundary line fences and allows school choice, and now that the FHSAA has jumped on the NIL bandwagon, the things that happened in the shadows is now taking place in bright sunlight. Clearly, I could start naming schools that have participated in the process in the past and who appear to be participating in the process presently. Many of those schools have posters on this site (based on posts and screen names). Private schools provide "scholarships" to kids who, candidly, would not be able to afford the tuition at the school they attend, but, if we're being honest, would not otherwise have a realistic chance of gaining admission to these schools (or any interest in doing so). Other schools (and let's be clear, when I say "schools," I'm casting a broad net and including coaches, athletic directors, schools administrators, alums and boosters) find/provide housing for coveted athletes -- although this practice seemingly is not as important now that kids can go to whatever school they choose, assuming there is adequate capacity. Car dealerships owned by fervent boosters provide overpaid jobs to the parents of the kids so that the kid and one of his parents can live in the new city for less than a year. Yeah, I know it sounds like an episode from Friday Night Lights, but it doesn't just happen in Southwest Texas . . . it happens in Southwest Florida, too. Look, I understand the desire of families to put their kids in the best possible position to excel, develop and ultimately, earn a scholarship so that they can attend college -- especially when circumstances might otherwise prevent that were it not for the free ride. That said, with almost all sports, but certainly for football, colleges can find the talent and there are multiple ways for standout players to be seen and recognized (including camps). So, in answer to your question, there are plenty of people out there -- coaches, administrators, and boosters -- who care enough about winning a state championship to put their jobs on the line or share a small token of their wealth to encourage the proverbial missing piece of the puzzle to play for "their" team. It's the world we live in.

Interesting (and by "interesting," I mean I'm not the least bit surprised), Venice opens with a pair of road games and finishes their season with a road game. In between, they play seven consecutive home games. Seven straight home games.

I'm still waiting for a time when a kid goes into to the locker room at halftime and comes out wearing the other team's uniform and plays the second half with that team. Or better yet, perhaps a kid could switch back and forth with every possession and be like an old-school all-time QB.

Based on my reading of the new rule, it appears that they're trying to prevent someone from gaining a competitive advantage from wearing a particular type or brand of sleeve. To make the point, imagine a sleeve with a built-in tacky or sticky texture (think Jack Tatum-like Stickum). In theory, that would give one receiver a competitive advantage over another. In a way, it's kind of like not allowing certain baseball bats because they "overperform."

Where will they play?

What could be better evidence of recruiting than a text message from a coach of one team to a kid currently playing for another team suggesting that the kid should transfer to the school where the coach is coaching?!?! I'd like to think I'm pretty good at coming up with plausible explanations to justify what might otherwise be perceived as wrongful conduct, but I can't for the life of me come up with anything in this case. Unless there was some relationship between a coach and a kid that existed before the kid started high school (highly unlikely), what possible explanation might exist that would explain how a coach at one school could send a text message -- any text message about any subject -- to kid at another school? By the way, thanks for responding back.

Coach, I'm going to put you on the spot here, not so much to make you uncomfortable, but more to prove a point I've tried to make before. When your star players got a text, did you report it to the FHSAA? Did you get a screenshot of the text and send that to the FHSAA? If not, why not? Same questions for when the smaller schools came after your players. I've long taken the position that the high school football coaches in Florida share an 'honor among thieves' philosophy. In other words, not only do they 'know it's going on,' but they see it first hand and have uncontradicted evidence that their kids are being recruited by coaches at other schools. But, most coaches are reluctant to turn anyone in for fear that someone might start throwing stones at the glass houses they're living in. Again, not trying to put you on the spot, but I truly wonder why coaches see the problem with their own eyes, fail to take any action, but then complain about the problem. Perhaps someone who has made the decision to move and coach elsewhere would be willing to fire a few parting shots as they cross the state line.