Ray Icaza

Probably because that would seem to make the most sense.

The few times we have squeezed out victories against your talented Naughts have come mostly at home. I can only recall winning at your place one time so I am also hopeful that home field will give us a different outcome than this year.

Appreciate the optimism from Lakeland Gator as the pieces are in place to have another strong showing in the upcoming season. We will not be able to replace Walker, Jackson or Mascoe as they are some of the most talented players we have ever had. The sophomore class had 4 young DL that got alot of valuable experience especially thru the playoffs as LeBlanc and Palermo both missed games due to dislocated elbows and they seemed to perform pretty well. LB crew pretty much intact and they are extremely talented with the secondary being the biggest question mark. Offensively virtually everyone returns so expect even better production on that side of the ball. Time will tell.

Must not hurt anybody's feelings in the current climate.

I have been consistent in not being a fan of this idea with you clearly identifying the problem although I would take it a step further. Outside only the top "2" tiers it would be just that "A PARTICIPATION CONTEST"!! Call it that and I would be okay with not embellishing the achievement with a state title designation. However I am a big proponent of KISS so let's keep it simple just have one state champion and cut to the chase.

Thanks for sharing the attendance figures that are a little eye opening particularly since the numbers for most years are disappointing compared to 2007. Also interesting that this years totals were the most since then (15 years ago). Folks can draw their own conclusions of why this year was the best in your sample.

Wow Jambun, I never imagined I would be impressed with you asking Mr. Atlantic that all important question. Would you prefer mediocre teams to play for a State Championship? This does nail why he supports his relegation/promotion system, so mediocre and POOR teams can win a state championship. Great Call for a REF.

I am not on Twitter, IG, FB or other social media listening to whatever chatter may have been coming out of Venice. My prediction for this game was strictly based on what my own eyes were telling me. With regard to the defacto championship game I will say Osceola is the only team Lakeland faced all year that could matchup talent wise. Naughts had more depth overall but you can only put 11 on the field at a time and in that scenario we matched up. I will admit bias, but in my humble opinion John Walker (#55) is the best defensive tackle in the entire state and we won't easily replace him or a bunch of other seniors on the defensive side of the ball so that will be a challenge for next year. We do have three excellent LB's returning plus some young DL talent but they won't be the dominant force this group has been for the past 3 years. On offense we will be blessed returning the entire OL but for 1 four year starter so the running game will be even better as the entire RB group returns plus Gunner at QB. As always, time will tell but the expectations do not change.

Peacock put together the plan that gave them their best chance for success, but simply didn't have the horses to control the run. The Venice 5* edge guy is a terrific player, great at attacking the pocket on passing downs but not a disruptive force against the run. Just turn on the game film and watch the difference vs the run comparing him against our 4* John Walker; difference is night and day. Stats are posted and Lakeland gained a total of 157 yards on the ground against our front with over 60 coming on 1 play. This despite losing our senior 3 year starter at DT next to Walker for both the Vero game and the Lakeland game where we were using a 3rd string sophomore due to the 2nd string tackle also having suffered an elbow injury. Venice's secondary has a great kid in Elliott but doesn't have the total secondary we do as we only gave up 38 passing yards in the same semi's. As it usually comes down to you can scheme all you want but if you don't have the Jimmies and the Joes it makes it tough sledding. Thought Venice played as well as they hoped just couldn't make up the talent gap.

Congrats to Columbus Explorers as being from Central FL was obviously pulling for APK. The winning play was executed to perfection which has many elements that can go wrong but tough to defend if everything is done correctly. It is called the "Philly Special" and is the exact same thing we tried vs Lakeland on 4th down with the game on the line in the semi's but mishandled the lateral on the reverse portion so came up empty. Both teams played lights out defense and for that reason the outcome was a coin flip.

Congrats to Polk County with 2 Championships. Must be that black and orange in the water.

Much as I predicted, Venice defense just not good enough to control Lakeland running game and if not for the 3 TO's and numerous penalties they lose by 3 scores. They could of easily punched in another score at the end to win by double digits but Castle showed class and just took a knee. On the flipside the supposed high powered offense of Venice was made to look feeble against the Lakeland "D". No question who was the better team.

Again, a bit of sarcasm as well as driving home a point? Don't know how the weather will affect either team, but in looking at their only common opponent (Clearwater Academy) Venice loss 26-20 whereas Lakeland seemed to steamroll them 44-6 as they have everyone else. Venice has been prone to give up more points against good opponents like Buchholz (35), Northwestern (32) while I leave out a national power like SFA. So when talking about defenses it appears to me that Lakeland does have a clear edge and have to agree with Nulli that only bunches of penalties, turnovers, etc.. will keep the game close. Not big on predictions but if Naughts are dialed in it the margin will be double digits. Good luck to both squads and do hope it is a great game.

Well professor, thanks for the quick education on offensive nomenclature as I plead ignorance. However, it does seem to appear that you do agree that whatever formation running the ball 92-93% of time could use some balance. That is the only point I was trying to make as when I pulled the stats that are available under Coach Nick this is exactly what we did and against the very best defenses you're chances of success diminish. That all changed three years ago as during his final year we did increase our passing to about 35% and we have continued that trend the last 2 years which I wholeheartedly support. In addition, your implication of turnovers as the cause of our losses is a bit simplistic. The only team that was true was our loss to Jones who I felt we were definitely better than. Early in the season Seminole was a better team than us and we lost due to poor blocking on a game winning PAT, which led to the loss in OT. Turnovers had zero impact on that outcome. As for Lakeland, they were higher ranked all year and no poll had us ahead of them or favored in either game. The first game the TO's were even 4 vs 4 but definitely affected the outcome in the semi's. If however we would have tried to run the ball against them 92-93% of the time in my humble opinion their margin of victory would have been more lopsided. The passing kept them off balance and I feel for the young man that wishes he had those 3 throws back.

Nulli, just saw a nice article in our local paper emphasizing the great football rivalry between the two schools and was thrilled to learn that Lakeland is reciprocating with a regular season game at our place next year. Will definitely be different squads but expect another great game where I hope we can gain ground on the overall record. Again, good luck in the finals as I think the Naughts ground game will be the difference.

Robin, Our Lone State Championship was in 1998 under Coach Scible and it featured Willie Green out of the I-formation. With an athletic, big QB (Bobby Sippio) available to run and throw that was hard to defend. I love Coach Nick but his brilliant Single-Wing has zero championships in 4 attempts. But I guess you must be right to continue doing the things you have always done and expect a different outcome. Think they have a name for that but at my advanced age I forget. Just Saying.

I concurred with the importance of that second score, especially coming out of half-time so no disagreement there. Taevion Swint (our lead and top producing back) according to our local paper gained 108 yards on 25 carries; that is a tough and grind it out 4 yards per carry against one of the best defenses in the state. At least in my view that doesn't qualify for "gashing them almost every run". Secondly, if the QB is likely to do what he did why would you throw the ball on any down? I like you was in those stands sitting directly on the 50 yard line about 6 rows up, but unlike you I not only played for Osceola but been a close observer of our team for 50 plus years. Before Coach EP and company started mixing in more passing (past 2 years) we have basically been a RUN ONLY offense which led to our demise in state championship games against great defensive teams. Sometimes in lopsided fashion. The only couple of years in recent memory that the offense opened was under Coach Rolson, a defensive minded coach which we didn't really need as we have always been stout in that category. What he did do was hire an excellent OC in Ty Ensor who's playing calling was brilliant and who wasn't afraid to throw the ball when we not only had one of our best RB's ever in Bubba Brown but also had T' Bell pulling the strings at QB. Those years we even beat Lakeland and probably would have had a good shot at beating STA in the championship had T' Bell not got injured vs Bartram Trail in the semi's the week before. For whatever reason we seem to have good RB's but God Bless EP and company for opening it up more.

Will start by saying I truly respect Coach Beek's opinion, but I have to disagree that our Kowboys should have won that game EASY. Lakeland is an extremely talented team that in my opinion should be favored in a couple of weeks vs Venice. They do need better discipline as a team and if anything that could be their downfall. If Coach meant we could have won or should have won that game and outplayed Lakeland, I would agree with that assessment. The other disagreement I would have is his questioning the play calling as opposed to the execution. The example he gives on our opening drive of the 3rd quarter where another TD would have definitely put the foot on Lakeland's neck when down on about the 15 yard line was not a bad play call. Yes, we were pretty successful moving the ball on the ground on that drive to get to that second and 1 or 2. Going for the jugular thru the air on that second down knowing if it failed you still have 2 more DOWNS to pick up a first on the ground in my humble opinion was a good call. What possessed our QB to not just throw it away when the primary target was covered rather than lofting a lazy pass into the middle of the end zone where the only player in the area was a defender was a bad decision on his part, not a bad play call. Not taking anything away from Lakeland's all world secondary, but all 3 of their INT's were on similar bad decisions by our QB rather than great defensive prowess. As I stated in the beginning, we ran the ball well this game opposed to the first game but I think that was due to us mixing it up with a good amount of passing. The double reverse at the end I could see someone questioning as that was asking alot in a pressure situation to execute. Since stats for Osceola have not been posted for this game I can only give you an opinion that I believe we probably had roughly 125-150 yards on the ground and about the same thru the air (good balance). So to say our success was the ground game is inaccurate. Lakeland has posted their stats and these are their numbers: 38 yards passing and 157 rushing for a total of 195 with 65 or so coming on 1 play on the ground. These numbers as opposed to their usual offensive output against all 11 of their other opponents reflects the sentiment of who should have won.

Sorry, I have been out of pocket a few days helping my brother-in-law with medical issues in So. FL so have not kept up with any post that may have been directed at me. In response to this, I think there are many knowledgeable people on this board and the list you provided definitely singles out 5 that I highly regard as well. Just wondering why now the MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE fell off the list??

It definitely is, you have any inside info if they are returning the favor and traveling to Kissimmee next year?

Guess I just am confused as how the MOST KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSON on this board could have erred so badly in a game involving his own team. Again, a loss is a loss but forecasting a victory and then losing that badly. HMMMM.

If you wanted to watch 2 tremendous defensive teams you needed to be in Lakeland tonight. Not sure what their mindset was as maybe they thought the first game was a fluke and they would just blow us out as they had the other 11 teams on their schedule but nothing could be further from the truth. They continually hurt themselves (trash talking, etc.) drawing 5 Unsportsmanlike Penalties during the game. We actually ran the ball against them better than I thought we would and though I don't know the stats may have outgained them overall. Final score was 14-7 with them mounting one drive the entire game which was an impressive 16-17 play 89 yard drive for their first TD in the 3rd quarter tying the game. Their second score was a 60 yard TD run by Tyler Williams which ended up being the margin of victory. Outside that, we kept their running attack in check all night. I believe we had 3 or 4 time consuming drives of our own getting into the red zone twice and coming up empty on interceptions. Each of those picks it appeared that our QB and WR weren't on the same page as both times it was thrown directly to the defender with the WR nowhere in the area. We just shot ourselves in the foot on a couple of plays which could have changed the outcome. My hats off to our tremendous group of seniors that have given us 3 years of outstanding teams with hopes of a state title, but it just wasn't to be. Good luck to Lakeland in the finals.

Bottom line is all this video has been investigated by the FHSAA and you can update the thread topic to read "Game Will be Played at Hawthorne Friday" as it appears they found no evidence to move it. End of story.

These are all facts and not disputing them. But "Should Have" is elusive as we only beat Deland by 2 not 20, we should have beat Treasure Coast by double digits but won by 3, we should have beat Treasure Coast at home in 2016 by double digits but lost, we should have beat Steinbrenner at home in 2019 by double digits and lost. All in the playoffs.

As I had previously mentioned, the 4S region bracket we were in had the Kowboys playing competitive teams right out of the gate and every game has been entertaining. Haven't missed any of them and don't plan to for any remaining. We Are OSCEOLA!!