Lakeland vs STA Title game part VI

[Nulli Secundus]

What can I say?  This will be the 6th time the Naughts and Raiders have met in the finals in two different classes and 8th overall dating back to 1996.  Combined, both teams have appeared in the finals 24 times with 16 state titles and 2 national titles a piece.

Forget the history between these two programs.  

Who takes it?

[Legion37]

Lakeland certainly tightened up on the issues of last week. 49-14 going to the 4th. LHS Defense is awfully good but for 4 plays against Plant. I will be rooting for Lakeland obviously, should be a heck of a game.

[Nulli Secundus]

I might have to fly down for this one.  Another TD!  Are you kidding me?  Wow

[Legion37]

56-21Final with a running clock.

[954gator]

So we meet again...

[skyway]

Fact #1: This Lakeland team is the best possible team that has been or can be assembled by any public school north of Broward. 

Fact #2: STA may still roll to a victory.

I only hope Lakeland has a sharp week of practice (word is they did not this week) and plays a stupid mistake-free game. They had a couple stupid mistakes again tonight. Can't happen next week.

[DisabledAccount]

1 minute ago, skyway said:

Fact #1: This Lakeland team is the best possible team that has been or can be assembled by any public school north of Broward. 

Fact #2: STA may still roll to a victory.

I only hope Lakeland has a sharp week of practice (word is they did not this week) and plays a stupid mistake-free game. They had a couple stupid mistakes again tonight. Can't happen next week.

I would hold that off until after you all beat STA 

[badbird]

If Lakeland has to pass they will not win.  If this STA team is like teams of recent years Lakeland will have to pass to win.  I haven’t seen STA to answer that.  It should be a great game.  I will take STA by 3 but pulling for Lakeland

[DisabledAccount]

1 minute ago, badbird said:

If Lakeland has to pass they will not win.  If this STA team is like teams of recent years Lakeland will have to pass to win.  I haven’t seen STA to answer that.  It should be a great game.  I will take STA by 3 but pulling for Lakeland

If what @Jambun82 is pointing out is indeed the case then STA won't have their head coach next week

 

If that is case give me Lakeland by 7-10 

[Jambun82]

9 minutes ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

If what @Jambun82 is pointing out is indeed the case then STA won't have their head coach next week

 

If that is case give me Lakeland by 7-10 

ColumbiaHighFan2017, I don't know for sure that the Head Coach would be disqualified for the State Title game, but there have been incidents in the past in regular season, and possibly playoff games. The FHSAA reserves the right to deal with the punishment the way that it sees fit.

[Terrapin]

As DJ Khaled said, "Anutha 1"

Hope Lakeland wins it all. 

[skyway]

26 minutes ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

I would hold that off until after you all beat STA 

No, I really believe it to be true. Even if STA "running clocks" Lakeland. This is the closest thing possible to a Polk County all-star team. There's nowhere else with a couple hundred thousand residents in the area that a public school can end up with such a monopoly on the local talent.  I'm not wild about how teams like this come to be. All of the transferring is bad for sports in general. But, those dynamics I describe combined with a legendary coach/program just don't exist anywhere else. I don't think we'll ever see a better public than this Lakeland team in November. It serves no purpose for me to say this team is better than Lakeland '99, '05 etc. I'm just certain it is true. And they may still get running clocked by STA.  Because this STA team is also better than any of those teams Lakeland faced back in the day.

[skyway]

26 minutes ago, badbird said:

If Lakeland has to pass they will not win.  If this STA team is like teams of recent years Lakeland will have to pass to win.  I haven’t seen STA to answer that.  It should be a great game.  I will take STA by 3 but pulling for Lakeland

No doubt. The OL + TEs along with Bowman had better be able to run the ball. Not a wild night, but they need to be able to get some things done on the ground. To do that, they'll also have to be able to successfully mix in some quick passes and some PA. They'll have to grind out a couple of drives. And they can't do that if they end up with 2nd and 19 after committing unsportsmanlike conduct penalties for trash talk after setting up 2nd and 4, as happened once tonight. 

Both Lakeland and STA have a TON of "secondary" (defense and special teams) scores this season. If it's not a draw in this area, Lakeland had better end up on the winning side of that stat. Otherwise it will not be a close game.

[skyway]

29 minutes ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

If what @Jambun82 is pointing out is indeed the case then STA won't have their head coach next week

 

If that is case give me Lakeland by 7-10 

I'd lean the other way there. If they don't have him, it will be a rallying cry for them. Sure hope he gets to coach.

[181pl]

1 hour ago, skyway said:

Fact #1: This Lakeland team is the best possible team that has been or can be assembled by any public school north of Broward. 

Fact #2: STA may still roll to a victory.

I only hope Lakeland has a sharp week of practice (word is they did not this week) and plays a stupid mistake-free game. They had a couple stupid mistakes again tonight. Can't happen next week.

No. to #1. It's a good team, but passing game could be way better. Your 04-06 teams were better. Also I'd take 09 Plant and 2011 Manatee over this team if we're talking about powerful public school teams from north of Broward County. Technically Dwyer is North of Broward County and they also had one hell of a team in 2009.

[skyway]

4 minutes ago, 181pl said:

No. to #1. It's a good team, but passing game could be way better. Your 04-06 teams were better. Also I'd take 09 Plant and 2011 Manatee over this team if we're talking about powerful public school teams from north of Broward County. Technically Dwyer is North of Broward County and they also had one hell of a team in 2009.

I respectfully disagree. Perhaps relative to the elite competition of the day, the 2005 team may have been better. But, straight up '05 vs this team, this team wins and it's not particularly close. And I will maintain that position even if STA puts a running clock on Lakeland next week. I'll go back and review '11 Manatee and '09 Plant tomorrow. 

[181pl]

The one thing you're forgetting about the 05 and 06 teams. The Pouncey Brothers on the line. Also John Brown on the defensive line. This Lakeland team has nothing close to those players. This Lakeland team  may have a little more speed on defense, but that's about it. And as good as Bowman is, he's still not Chris Rainey and there's no Jamar Taylor back there with him.

 

Trust me, I want you guys to beat st. Thomas by 50. But I don't favor this Lakeland team over St Thomas because it's not balanced enough.

[skyway]

There's a completely plausible argument that the '72 Dolphins are the best NFL team ever. But I think the 2018 Dolphins would beat that team on the field. Of course, there hasn't been 46 years that have passed since 2005 Lakeland played. But, there has been a fairly dramatic shift towards "super teams", where talent ends up "consolidated" at a few powers. And, mind you, I've not predicted STA will running clock this team. I think we have a good shot to beat them.

[181pl]

2005 to 2018 is not that long of a period of time. Also the conditioning of athletes hasn't changed that much in the last few years. There's a huge difference between 1972 and now. Nutrition, Fitness, and just the general overall size of athletes has changed tremendously. But between 05 and now it's marginal at best. Usain Bolt ran his 9.58 10 years ago and no one's come close to that.

[skyway]

2 minutes ago, 181pl said:

The one thing you're forgetting about the 05 and 06 teams. The Pouncey Brothers on the line. Also John Brown on the defensive line. This Lakeland team has nothing close to those players. This Lakeland team  may have a little more speed on defense, but that's about it. And as good as Bowman is, he's still not Chris Rainey and there's no Jamar Taylor back there with him.

 

Trust me, I want you guys to beat st. Thomas by 50. But I don't favor this Lakeland team over St Thomas because it's not balanced enough.

The overall talent of the OL+TEs-the front blocking for Bowman- may be a bit better than that team. And I'm on the record as saying Bowman is clearly better than Rainey. Not yet as accomplished (though he has broken a couple of his records aleady as a JR), but the better player. No Taylor is a good point.

I've recently watched a couple of the '05 games gwdrum has posted on youtube. Had I not done that, I may feel differently. But, I'm plenty aware that it is not in Lakeland's best interest to have anyone claiming this is their best ever team. Just my opinion...

[DisabledAccount]

10 hours ago, skyway said:

No, I really believe it to be true. Even if STA "running clocks" Lakeland. This is the closest thing possible to a Polk County all-star team. There's nowhere else with a couple hundred thousand residents in the area that a public school can end up with such a monopoly on the local talent.  I'm not wild about how teams like this come to be. All of the transferring is bad for sports in general. But, those dynamics I describe combined with a legendary coach/program just don't exist anywhere else. I don't think we'll ever see a better public than this Lakeland team in November. It serves no purpose for me to say this team is better than Lakeland '99, '05 etc. I'm just certain it is true. And they may still get running clocked by STA.  Because this STA team is also better than any of those teams Lakeland faced back in the day.

Agree to disagree because the statement this is the best public you will ever see north of broward county i call bull on that 

 

Now had you said this is best team STA has played at states since their last loss then i would agree 100% but there have been some damn good teams over the years 

[DarterBlue2]

10 hours ago, 181pl said:

No. to #1. It's a good team, but passing game could be way better. Your 04-06 teams were better. Also I'd take 09 Plant and 2011 Manatee over this team if we're talking about powerful public school teams from north of Broward County. Technically Dwyer is North of Broward County and they also had one hell of a team in 2009.

04 and 05 were better for sure. The lack of a true QB in 06 makes me hesitant to declare 06 better than the current team. 

[skyway]

1 hour ago, ColumbiaHighFan2017class said:

Agree to disagree because the statement this is the best public you will ever see north of broward county i call bull on that 

 

Now had you said this is best team STA has played at states since their last loss then i would agree 100% but there have been some damn good teams over the years 

We'd have to agree upon some criteria from which to judge. Talent on the roster, results on the field, and what else? Then break it down. Just please don't use calpreps computer rankings for anything 

[DisabledAccount]

2 minutes ago, skyway said:

We'd have to agree upon some criteria from which to judge. Talent on the roster, results on the field, and what else? Then break it down. Just please don't use calpreps computer rankings for anything 

I don't need calpreps

 

Talent is subjective but I have seen some seriously talented teams who could likely go toe to toe with Lakeland and there have been some seriously dominate teams over the years who have done enough to convince me they are at least on par with this Lakeland if not better 

[badbird]

Columbiafan hasn’t seen this Lakeland team play