Perspective

Agreed. But the rescheduling of Hillsborough and Gaither should literally be a no-brainer since they share the same bye week.

Hornet, you raise a good point. That said, and using Hillsborough County as an example, I'm guessing that if a team gets in 7 or 8 "regular season games," and then gets one or two playoff games, that's probably going to be all they play. Whether it's because the County won't let them or for other reasons, I don't see too many teams coming back after a playoff loss to play one more "meaningless" game. The only exception might be a rivalry game and/or some sort of make-shift bowl game (let's call it the "We Don't Want to Leave Any Money on the Table Game"), where both teams are out of the playoffs and the two teams were not able to play during the regular season.

Peezy, "postponing" suggests that the game could be re-scheduled. Gaither and Hillsborough both have their "bye" week on 11/6 . . . the week before the playoffs start. So, for this game, it is possible that the teams could agree to play the last week of the regular season. That wouldn't work for Hillsborough vs. Blake. You know enough coaches. Ask them if they'd rather have a tackle version of a 7 on 7 scrimmage before they play their first 'real' game if there's no room on the schedule to fit the game in later in the season. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing most of them would want the work (and the players would want the film).

And, it has started. Players from two Hillsborough County schools -- Hillsborough and Jefferson -- are under a quarantine that likely will run about 14 days because a player tested positive for Covid-19. At Hillsborough, the players on the offensive and defensive lines, as well as their position coaches, must quarantine (according to Tampa Bay Times). Not sure about Jefferson. Hillsborough is scheduled to open next Friday (9/11) against Gaither (one of the two toughest opponents on their schedule, along with Armwood). No decision yet as to the status of that game. Hmmm, no O-Line and no D-line? Sounds like an opportunity to play a little 7 on 7 . . . with pads. That's what I would be asking for if I were coach for either team.

Good luck to your grandson. That's quite a growth spurt!

Lakeland's always pretty good.

Impressive start to the season and perhaps an even more impressive ending. Good luck.

Interesting approach. On the one hand, it probably makes some sense with the limited supply of referees available and knowing that Friday Night Lights are going to be shining on Thursday and Saturday nights for varsity football games, as well. On the other hand, is a kid going to be able to do both? The FHSAA recently dealt with the issue of kids bouncing back and forth between V and JV and voted to essentially allow kids to play in one varsity game and one JV game in the same week so long as they didn't play more than 6 total quarters. Now, it would seem that a coach should keep as many kids as possible on the varsity roster this fall for purposes of practice, red O and red D and getting reps (knowing that he can only dress out 60 for games), and then drop several of them down to JV in the spring to get game reps. Hornet, what's going to keep a coach from dropping all returning players down to JV in the spring? Historically, and with several exceptions, 9th and 10th graders played JV and 11th and 12th graders played varsity. But I don't think there are any rules concerning this. So, why wouldn't a coach drop all his 11th graders down in the spring to get more game experience? Will there be a gentleman's agreement among the coaches not to do this? Last thought: this is starting to look a little like college where athletes are being separated/isolated from the general student population. While I understand the rationale from a 'football standpoint,' I'm not sure that's the best thing for the majority of these kids. Looks like "On-line learning" is being converted into "O-line learning."

Al Bennett ⁦‪@AlBennett22⁩ Pinellas County will allow 25% of the capacity for all HS football games this year. In addition, only electronic tickets will be accepted. No tickets will be sold at the gate. Good news- all games will be streamed live via the NFHS network!! 8/27/20, 2:11 PM

Proset, I feel pretty comfortable telling you how it works in Hillsborough County, but I'm just not sure if all counties are the same. My general understanding is that the transfer-in rules apply equally to kids moving into a school district from another district in the county, another county or from out of state. In Hillsborough County, you have the absolute right to attend the public school that you're zoned for (based on where you reside) or you can attend any other school in the district, so long as they have capacity. Some of the better-rated schools don't have capacity; therefore, you have to live is that school's district to attend. Other schools have plenty of capacity, so it can take as many kids as want to transfer in. (*Note: there are some rules that apply to unique situations, but the above covers most situations). I think this is the way it works throughout the state, but I'm just not sure. And, of course, as I suspect you know, kids can live in Timbuktu and attend any private school that they want to. So the kid that moves to Lake City probably wouldn't be able to play at GHS, but he could play at Oak Hall. Not sure if this helps, but I tried.

I never understood the fans (especially walking out of the stadium after a victory) who are shouting "[name of other school] sucks!" OK, so if that school sucks, then your team just beating them really wasn't all that big of a deal, now was it?

"Buy in" will be important, too.

Darter, perhaps Florida HS Football needs someone to cover the game for them . . . write up a short article, snap a few pictures, etc. You know, a good, old-fashioned freelance writer. Win-win. FHSF gets much-needed content and you get a front-row seat to watch the game from down on the field. I'm guessing that the credentials to get down on the field to watch the game for free would be payment enough. Just a thought.

So, are you number 42 or number 53? All joking aside, I give the coach credit for making a tough decision. I'm sure he has preached to his team how important family is. With this decision, he showed his players that he is willing to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

Just curious, does Madison have a lightning detection system? Or is that what that big pole in the background is for?

Sumner is Hillsborough County's brand new school (first new school in a decade). In the Riverview area. Just found out the other day that it will start out with grades 9 - 11 this year. Their first class of seniors won't be seen until next year. I would think it would be tough for almost any school in the state to be competitive without a senior class. By the same token, I'm guessing this means that they'll only have a varsity team and no JV team. If you take any JV team in the area and add a full squad of juniors, that team should be pretty successful.

Personally, I'd look towards opting in (or, I guess the better way to say it, is "staying in"), but wait until the last minute before I made my final decision. Some areas may not be able to start in time to get enough games in; for those areas (South Florida?), opting out may be the best choice.

Plant was supposed to open with Robinson (@ Plant) and then play Hillsborough (@ HHS). Those two teams/games got dropped. I agree that either of those two games (or Jefferson) would make more sense for Plant this year, especially when Plant had to play at Armwood last year. At the very least, that could have been a home game for the Panthers. Even Jesuit would be a better game for Plant this year. But, unless there's a Covid issue, I don't see the County dropping the Plant/Armwood game at this point, especially since it appears that Plant still has one slot left to fill.

In other words, STA doesn't have a new QB yet. JK.

Remember, though, that "district games" don't have the same meaning as in a normal year. There will not be any 'recognized' district champions and all schools that have not opted out will make the playoffs (blind-draw format; coin flip determines home team). I was actually a little surprised that Hillsborough County kept the non-County district schools on the schedule for Hillsborough County schools this year; I was expecting the County to drop those games and replace them with other H.C. opponents to keep the revenue that will otherwise be lost when a county team has to go out-of-county to play a "district" game.

Here are the schedules for the Hillsborough County public schools. While there have been many changes, most of the opponents for each team have remained about the same.

Here's the full slate of Hillsborough County games. I'm pretty sure the Gonzaga/Plant game has been canceled, so it appears that Plant may have one more game to fill. Otherwise, they have 7 games on their schedule and every other team in the county has 8 games on their schedule.

Pipe Dreams, I respectfully disagree. I enjoy the questions and usually end up learning something about Florida high school football. To the extent you don't like the trivia questions, I have two suggestions: first, when you see a topic heading that starts out "Who is this . . . ," just skip it; and second, if you want to discuss something else, start a new"non-trivial" topic.

A QB from Miami area moved up to St. Pete and has enrolled/transferred to Lakewood. Big kid, but no offers yet. Said he needed to play in the fall in order to give him a chance at picking up a scholarship.

My garbage collection switched from Mondays and Thursdays to Tuesday and Fridays. Other than that, my schedule is pretty much the same.