Columbia vs Fletcher

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[DisabledAccount]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y1VF4r3Tgl3MoLqYRk3NeGsF6hUg3Phnl3zNdJRe4hE/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Series history for columbia vs Fletcher

 

Last win in series for Fletcher came in 1986 which outside of 2008 was the only losing season in that stretch for Columbia 

 

Columbia looks to extend winning in series on Friday and win first district championship since 2015 as well as officially clinch another winning season and another trip to the playoffs 

[DisabledAccount]

That would be Columbia's 72nd winning season and 34th playoff appearance 

[DisabledAccount]

One of the worst games I've seen Columbia play in a long time and somehow find a way to win

 

Very sloppy, hope they get this game out of their system quick because it was pretty bad to see 

 

At least 5 turnovers and some goofy weird ones at that,  like once we had a ball tipped like 3 times and go right into Fletcher for a pick, then at least twice that i counted we coughed ball up running for a first down 

 

If that wasn't bad enough we had to have around 200-300 yards of penalties in that game 

 

This Columbia team is so damn talented but if they play like they did tonight during the playoffs it will be a ugly end 

 

Fletcher was a solid but not elite team, a elite team would have running clocked us with how we played last night. Definitely back to drawing board on a short week against first coast

 

But on plus side they did clinch the district championships and set some great "Fireworks" off

 

 

I also got to meet up with @DarterBlue2 at the game,  pretty cool guy and I'm glad he also liked the Italian place i recommended and I may have to go back myself since it been a while since i went and it was a honor to give you some VIP treatment in a trip to Columbia 

 

Even though I thought we would win convincingly you got a wild finish and hope to meet up again 

 

Maybe now I'll need to eventually work towards a trip to a Apopka game sometime when Columbia isn't playing them 

[DisabledAccount]

 

 

[DisabledAccount]

I wasn't kidding with the fireworks either

 

Thank you Atlantic Coast, apparently from what i heard they got the idea after seeing Atlantic Coast shoot off fireworks before the game against us last week, only we did it before and after the game while Atlantic Coast only did it before the game 

[DisabledAccount]

 

 

[DarterBlue2]

11 hours ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

One of the worst games I've seen Columbia play in a long time and somehow find a way to win

 

Very sloppy, hope they get this game out of their system quick because it was pretty bad to see 

 

At least 5 turnovers and some goofy weird ones at that,  like once we had a ball tipped like 3 times and go right into Fletcher for a pick, then at least twice that i counted we coughed ball up running for a first down 

 

If that wasn't bad enough we had to have around 200-300 yards of penalties in that game 

 

This Columbia team is so damn talented but if they play like they did tonight during the playoffs it will be a ugly end 

 

Fletcher was a solid but not elite team, a elite team would have running clocked us with how we played last night. Definitely back to drawing board on a short week against first coast

 

But on plus side they did clinch the district championships and set some great "Fireworks" off

 

 

I also got to meet up with @DarterBlue2 at the game,  pretty cool guy and I'm glad he also liked the Italian place i recommended and I may have to go back myself since it been a while since i went and it was a honor to give you some VIP treatment in a trip to Columbia 

 

Even though I thought we would win convincingly you got a wild finish and hope to meet up again 

 

Maybe now I'll need to eventually work towards a trip to a Apopka game sometime when Columbia isn't playing them 

I have several comments.

First, Columbia High Fan was an exceptional host. He is passionate about his Alma Mater's football program and gave me some neat memorabilia to take home. 

Second, this Columbia team is very talented. It has at least three very good wide receivers, a solid tailback and a QB that is an exceptional runner with a strong arm. At times he overthrew his receivers, but I believe he is a junior, so that can be worked on. The defense is solid (sort of the bend but don't break variety), but I was more impressed with the talent on offense.

Third, while Columbia is right in that his team did look sloppy, at least some of this was due to great coaching on the part of Fetcher. Their staff had obviously looked at CHS's film very carefully and identified weakness that they exploited. Several of the fumbles were actual strips of the football and I believe this may have to do with properly securing the football after the catch.

Fourth, having seen Columbia and Lakeland live and St. Thomas on film, my thoughts are as follows. If we go on raw talent alone, Columbia will beat Lakeland. However, Bill Castle, Lakeland's legendary coach, will exploit any weakness that show up on film. So, Columbia needs to work on its weaknesses. A repeat of last night, would probably result in a Columbia loss to the Dreadnaughts. Columbia playing its best game would have a shot at beating this year's St. Thomas, which is very good, but not one of the great Aquinas teams I have seen in the past. 

Fifth, I really hope Apopka and Columbia can work out a home and home. I know Apopka will have at least three slots to fill and I think this game would be good for both programs. 

Sixth, Columbia's QB is an exceptional athlete. In the right program he could excel as a dual threat QB. Other programs may want to convert him to a wide receiver or slot receiver. Still others may fancy him on the defensive side of the ball if he has mean streak. Regardless, he will make some college program very happy. 

Seventh, Lake City is bigger than I thought. Passing it on I-75, you would think you were passing a real small town. But it actually has quite a bit of bustle to it, and several chain restaurants, as well as at least one great, local Italian restaurant, are located there. The food at the Italian place was copious and for $18 I had Baked Ziti, a huge salad and a double portion of Garlic Bread. In the Orlando area I would have paid at least mid twenties for the meal I had there. 

Eighth, CHS has a large stadium that rivals DP, Cypress Creek and University in size. There was a large home crowd on hand as it was Homecoming. Fletcher also traveled pretty well considering the length of the trip.

Ninth, this may be the best Fletcher team since the one that lost to Apopka in the third round in 2012. It would be a shame if it does not make the playoffs. 

Tenth, if Columbia makes it to Orlando for the state title game I would be happy to introduce Columbia Fan to the bunch of old geezers that usually meet up for the finals.  The youngest of them is actually mid thirties but to a recent high school grad, even that age may seem pretty old. Would be happy to treat to dinner before the game (the 7A title is usually the night game).

[Guest]

Columbia, games like this are great in the long run. As a coach you hate to lose but sometimes it is good because it brings an awareness of complacency. Better to have games like this now rather than the playoffs. Coaches and players can now reevaluate priorities. There have been so many teams that have exploded in the playoffs due to the learning of close wins and losses in the regular season. I remember back a few years ago when Apopka was 6-4 n the regular season and came alive in the post season to win another state title. 

[DisabledAccount]

44 minutes ago, DarterBlue2 said:

I have several comments.

First, Columbia High Fan was an exceptional host. He is passionate about his Alma Mater's football program and gave me some neat memorabilia to take home. 

Second, this Columbia team is very talented. It has at least three very good wide receivers, a solid tailback and a QB that is an exceptional runner with a strong arm. At times he overthrew his receivers, but I believe he is a junior, so that can be worked on. The defense is solid (sort of the bend but don't break variety), but I was more impressed with the talent on offense.

Third, while Columbia is right in that his team did look sloppy, at least some of this was due to great coaching on the part of Fetcher. Their staff had obviously looked at CHS's film very carefully and identified weakness that they exploited. Several of the fumbles were actual strips of the football and I believe this may have to do with properly securing the football after the catch.

Fourth, having seen Columbia and Lakeland live and St. Thomas on film, my thoughts are as follows. If we go on raw talent alone, Columbia will beat Lakeland. However, Bill Castle, Lakeland's legendary coach, will exploit any weakness that show up on film. So, Columbia needs to work on its weaknesses. A repeat of last night, would probably result in a Columbia loss to the Dreadnaughts. Columbia playing its best game would have a shot at beating this year's St. Thomas, which is very good, but not one of the great Aquinas teams I have seen in the past. 

Fifth, I really hope Apopka and Columbia can work out a home and home. I know Apopka will have at least three slots to fill and I think this game would be good for both programs. 

Sixth, Columbia's QB is an exceptional athlete. In the right program he could excel as a dual threat QB. Other programs may want to convert him to a wide receiver or slot receiver. Still others may fancy him on the defensive side of the ball if he has mean streak. Regardless, he will make some college program very happy. 

Seventh, Lake City is bigger than I thought. Passing it on I-75, you would think you were passing a real small town. But it actually has quite a bit of bustle to it, and several chain restaurants, as well as at least one great, local Italian restaurant, are located there. The food at the Italian place was copious and for $18 I had Baked Ziti, a huge salad and a double portion of Garlic Bread. In the Orlando area I would have paid at least mid twenties for the meal I had there. 

Eighth, CHS has a large stadium that rivals DP, Cypress Creek and University in size. There was a large home crowd on hand as it was Homecoming. Fletcher also traveled pretty well considering the length of the trip.

Ninth, this may be the best Fletcher team since the one that lost to Apopka in the third round in 2012. It would be a shame if it does not make the playoffs. 

Tenth, if Columbia makes it to Orlando for the state title game I would be happy to introduce Columbia Fan to the bunch of old geezers that usually meet up for the finals.  The youngest of them is actually mid thirties but to a recent high school grad, even that age may seem pretty old. Would be happy to treat to dinner before the game (the 7A title is usually the night game).

I will say this,  Fletcher did prove me wrong 

 

they were much better than I thought before the game, columbia playing sloppy or not Fletcher definitely is one of best 8 in 7a region 1 and honestly with way Lee played against Atlantic Coast and First Coast I wouldn't be entirely stunned if Fletcher pulls that win out 

 

If we didn't play so sloppy i would think Columbia would have won by about 20 compared to my prediction before the game but Fletcher is better than I've seen them being in this 4 year stretch 

 

You mentioned that you were going to drive up to panhandle (or try to if it isn't blocked up) 

 

What did you see when you were up there? 

[DisabledAccount]

35 minutes ago, Just A Coach said:

Columbia, games like this are great in the long run. As a coach you hate to lose but sometimes it is good because it brings an awareness of complacency. Better to have games like this now rather than the playoffs. Coaches and players can now reevaluate priorities. There have been so many teams that have exploded in the playoffs due to the learning of close wins and losses in the regular season. I remember back a few years ago when Apopka was 6-4 n the regular season and came alive in the post season to win another state title. 

I think it gave this team a clear warning of what can happen if we get sloppy in playoffs,  I hope the coaches get these players understanding of the fact that what we did last night will have grave consequences if we do that in postseason against a elite team

[DarterBlue2]

6 hours ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

I will say this,  Fletcher did prove me wrong 

 

they were much better than I thought before the game, columbia playing sloppy or not Fletcher definitely is one of best 8 in 7a region 1 and honestly with way Lee played against Atlantic Coast and First Coast I wouldn't be entirely stunned if Fletcher pulls that win out 

 

If we didn't play so sloppy i would think Columbia would have won by about 20 compared to my prediction before the game but Fletcher is better than I've seen them being in this 4 year stretch 

 

You mentioned that you were going to drive up to panhandle (or try to if it isn't blocked up) 

 

What did you see when you were up there? 

1. In terms of raw talent, athlete to athlete, I think Columbia is two to three touchdowns better than Fletcher. However, on any given night, as Fletcher demonstrated, they could pull the upset, as they are a well coached team.

2. Regarding making it to the Panhandle a strange thing happened. I got to Tallahassee at approximately noon. Between the first and second exit there, a Tire Maintenance warning came on (I had used a rental car, as I got a decent weekend deal, and did not want to put that many miles on my vehicle). So I got off at the second exit found a gas station and proceeded to check the air pressure level in the tires. It was fine. However, not wanting to run the risk I called the rental car company. It turns out the local number I had did not help as they had closed at noon. So I had to search the Internet for a national number. As I had not taken out the roadside assistance option, I was told to take it to the nearest Firestone or Goodyear service branch, as they were no Tallahassee offices of the rental car company open past twelve on Saturday (they have arrangements with both Firestone and Goodyear). Well the nearest one was fifteen minutes away. When I got there, I had to wait over an hour and a half due to the number of customers ahead of me. Well when they finally checked the car out, the verdict was that some idiot had set the tire rotation and balance schedule for every 250 miles which is totally ridiculous. The mechanic reset it to 2,500 miles and told me everything else seemed okay. As neither the owners manual or any other service record had been left in the vehicle, he could not vouch that anything else needed to be done, but said the diagnostics on the vehicle did not identify any pressing issues and I should be fine driving the rest of the weekend. 

3. The above debacle took three and a half hours from start to finish. So when I got out of the Firestone it was 3:30 pm. After thinking about it carefully, I decided to return to Orlando as Tally is still over an hour away from the hurricane damage, and I reasoned that if I continued the trip and stayed in Bay County for any length of time  I would have to spend the night in either Tally or Lake City on the way back, as I would be returning to Central Florida too late. I decided not to incur another hotel charge. I plan on letting the rental car company know that they partially destroyed my weekend with their incompetence and hopefully get a partial rebate. 

I can say this, though. The roads into Bay County have been opened and there was quite a lot of traffic going up that way. I still plan of doing my small part to help out. Need to identify a charity I can trust to make a donation to them.   

[DisabledAccount]

@DarterBlue2

 

Also i will keep a eye out and hopefully find out what interest is there on Columbia end for playing Apopka 

 

As the athletic director Faulkner said at the game when you spoke to him he leaves the scheduling decisions in the hands of the coaches so it will be up to the coaches at Columbia, I'll try to keep myself in loop on their interest and if Columbia wants to make a game happen I'll give you a heads up and maybe see if you can get Darlington to contact Columbia when they both start building schedules for next year 

 

I don't think Columbia will have any problem having interest in playing Apopka if the schedule can be set up and work well on both sides

 

The annually renewed games he mentioned are likely the Gainesville and Buchholz games

 

Suwannee would also be included but I've also heard that game could be up in the air but it remains to be seen,  i personally think we should take a cycle off from playing Suwannee but no guarantees they will

 

 

Trinity will probably end up staying on there if both teams can work out a time on schedule

 

 

Madison may end up staying but never know 

 

Bolles game likely depends on how the game in 2 weeks goes, if Columbia beats Bolles by 30 it probably gets dropped next year 

 

Plus we still don't know what district we will be in next year 

[badbird]

1 hour ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

As the athletic director Faulkner said at the game when you spoke to him he leaves the scheduling decisions in the hands of the coaches so it will be up to the coaches at Columbia, I'll try to keep myself in loop on their interest and if Columbia wants to make a game happen I'll give you a heads up and maybe see if you can get Darlington to contact Columbia when they both start building schedules for next year 

 

you know your coach can call but if you need me to I'll let him know you are interested.    

[DisabledAccount]

31 minutes ago, badbird said:

you know your coach can call but if you need me to I'll let him know you are interested.    

If i do that then i have to convince the coaches at Columbia to make the call 

 

It's much easier for me to find out if they interested while keeping a distance then let apopka reach out to them

 

And besides if the game works out who cares who calls who lol

[badbird]

1 hour ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

If i do that then i have to convince the coaches at Columbia to make the call 

 

It's much easier for me to find out if they interested while keeping a distance then let apopka reach out to them

 

And besides if the game works out who cares who calls who lol

so it's easier for you to have school's you are not connected to, to call than to get your own school to call.

 

 

[DisabledAccount]

14 minutes ago, badbird said:

so it's easier for you to have school's you are not connected to, to call than to get your own school to call.

 

 

Yes as surprising as it sounds it is

 

I would go into detail but since the coaches at Columbia know my real identity the continuation of this conversation will have to happen in person

[badbird]

lol so your coaches don't want your opinion.  I'll get Coach Darlington to call.  I'll see him Friday .  

[DisabledAccount]

6 minutes ago, badbird said:

lol so your coaches don't want your opinion.  I'll get Coach Darlington to call.  I'll see him Friday .  

Hold off on that 

 

I want to at least find out how much interest Columbia has first 

 

And it's more like the coaches only listen to people who are former players or currently on staff,  I don't apply on either end so my suggestions to the coaches will be ignored and that's all I'll say on that topic on here

 

You want to know the rest then come to a Columbia game and I'll be more than happy to fill in some blanks

 

I'm actually a friendly person when i try to be LMAO 

 

Just ask @DarterBlue2

[Jags904]

I think 7A/8A will be shaken up in the Northeast FL area. May see Nease & BT move up to 8A. Lee is 6A sized 

[DarterBlue2]

11 minutes ago, Jags904 said:

I think 7A/8A will be shaken up in the Northeast FL area. May see Nease & BT move up to 8A. Lee is 6A sized 

That's interesting and may have the effect of strengthening Region 1, 8A, especially if BT's program remain's strong. 

[DisabledAccount]

26 minutes ago, Jags904 said:

I think 7A/8A will be shaken up in the Northeast FL area. May see Nease & BT move up to 8A. Lee is 6A sized 

If Lee and Bartram both change classes then i think they should do this to protect 7a region 1

 

Turn d1 into the panhandle teams that were supposed to be zoned as 7a before (Niceville, Navarre, Crestview, Tate)

 

Put Buchholz, Gainesville and Columbia in Tallahassee district 

 

Then put rest of District 2 and 3 together

 

 

Leave district 4 as it is 

[DisabledAccount]

If bartram has grown enough to get moved up to 8a then i really hope to see them in playoffs this year, that way we can end their final season in 7a with a playoff exit and take the rubber match in our playoff series that started back in 2011

[Jags904]

3 hours ago, DarterBlue2 said:

That's interesting and may have the effect of strengthening Region 1, 8A, especially if BT's program remain's strong. 

Bartram is up over 2600 students. Talked to my buddy who lives over there. Said he thinks they should be on border of going up@ColumbiaHighFan2017class

[DarterBlue2]

9 minutes ago, Jags904 said:

Bartram is up over 2600 students. Talked to my buddy who lives over there. Said he thinks they should be on border of going up@ColumbiaHighFan2017class

At 2,600 students, that's clearly 8A.