Lakeland's final challenge @ Bloomingdale

[Legion37]

Lakeland which did not have Bowman or two other starters playing, only put 27 on Durant, of course they were fighting the Hillsborough refs as they always have to do.

So its at Bloomingdale this week. The final "challenge" before the playoffs. Kathleen isn't as good as last year.

Bowman is expected to play as are the two walking wounded.

Always have to factor in the refs when going to the Plant City area schools.

Any thoughts, other than recruiting of course.

[DarterBlue2]

Lakeland goes into the playoffs undefeated and does not get tested till Armwood. From the Armwood game on the path gets harder, but they have as good a chance of repeating as any other team in the state. 

[FL_HS_football]

2 hours ago, Legion37 said:

Lakeland which did not have Bowman or two other starters playing, only put 27 on Durant, of course they were fighting the Hillsborough refs as they always have to do.

So its at Bloomingdale this week. The final "challenge" before the playoffs. Kathleen isn't as good as last year.

Bowman is expected to play as are the two walking wounded.

Always have to factor in the refs when going to the Plant City area schools.

Any thoughts, other than recruiting of course.

I always hated going to Plant City in the 80's when they were in Manatee's District, for the very same reason.....the home cooking was terrible..............particularly if the score was close.

[skyway]

Lakeland's offense has taken a couple steps backwards with Garnett at QB. Shades of Kevaris Thomas two years ago: highly recruited QB and the passing game has no rhythm. I realize his upside this season is greater than Mason Martin, but, at the moment, they aren't as good with him in there. If they don't play with more intensity, precision and guys like Bowman, Lampkin, Glinton and Shawn Smith, Bloomingdale can beat them.

[nolebull813]

Bloomingdale is to Lakeland what Plantation is to STA.

no contest. Game will be a rout. Blooming Onion High won’t know what hit em. 

[skyway]

30 minutes ago, nolebull813 said:

Bloomingdale is to Lakeland what Plantation is to STA.

no contest. Game will be a rout. Blooming Onion High won’t know what hit em. 

Only if Lakeland gets their act together. They didn't look very good last night.

[DarterBlue2]

2 hours ago, skyway said:

Only if Lakeland gets their act together. They didn't look very good last night.

Probably an outlier. But we will see. 

[Nulli Secundus]

5 hours ago, FL_HS_football said:

I always hated going to Plant City in the 80's when they were in Manatee's District, for the very same reason.....the home cooking was terrible..............particularly if the score was close.

It was no better in the 90’s for those that remember bricks being thrown at the busses.

[nolebull813]

Bloomingdale hasn’t beat anyone good. 

They got destroyed by Armwood, will get destroyed by Lakeland and then get ripped out of the playoffs 

finish like 9-3 with no good wins. Which means they are average at best 

[Legion37]

Lakeland had 2 TDs called back last night, by penalties, and Bowman didn't play.

FWIW

[skyway]

21 hours ago, DarterBlue2 said:

Probably an outlier. But we will see. 

Good chance of that, yes.

But, the pessimistic perspective is that this is looking more and more like the 2017 team. Highly regarded QB and the team wowed early in the season. And the passing game lost all rhythm, the QB held the ball way too much, and Plant knocked them out in a 13-10 game.

IMO, this Armwood team will be the best playoff team Lakeland has EVER faced in a non-state title game. Edgewater may also be worthy of such a claim.

[DarterBlue2]

39 minutes ago, skyway said:

IMO, this Armwood team will be the best playoff team Lakeland has EVER faced in a non-state title game. Edgewater may also be worthy of such a claim.

Time will tell. What I do know is that Lakeland has the talent to win again. I can't speak too much for Armwood, but regarding Edgewater, the team they have this year has many of the same faces as last year. They were juniors and sophomores then, this year they are seniors and juniors. Their QB is not as good an athlete as the kid they had last year, but he is a true QB unlike 2018 when they had an athlete at the position.

If this year's Lakeland team gets past Armwood and is playing as well as last year's did, then I believe they would beat Edgewater again. But if they are a little bit behind last year's team, Edgewater has a decent chance. 

[Jambun82]

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 8:30 AM, Legion37 said:

Lakeland which did not have Bowman or two other starters playing, only put 27 on Durant, of course they were fighting the Hillsborough refs as they always have to do.

So its at Bloomingdale this week. The final "challenge" before the playoffs. Kathleen isn't as good as last year.

Bowman is expected to play as are the two walking wounded.

Always have to factor in the refs when going to the Plant City area schools.

Any thoughts, other than recruiting of course.

Legion37, what have been some of the issues with the officials when Lakeland has to play in the Plant City area?

[Jambun82]

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 11:24 AM, FL_HS_football said:

I always hated going to Plant City in the 80's when they were in Manatee's District, for the very same reason.....the home cooking was terrible..............particularly if the score was close.

FL-HS_football, could you provide some examples of the "home cooking" that Manatee experienced in the 1980's in Plant City?

[FL_HS_football]

Jambun82 = SGT Friday (in this video substitute COP for referee )

 

[Legion37]

Even back in the day, 1980s you knew you were going to get a lot of penalties, far more than your average, at Plant City especially and Hillsborough County in general. Frankly one game I went to was the worst officiated game ever. And I will say it, those refs cheated. Mis-spots, phantom calls, and so forth.

It is sad to see that this has not changed.  Lakeland got penalty after penalty, especially if they got near the PC red zone this year.

Despite this, Lakeland still couldn't be touched by PC or Durant. Those teams just weren't good enough to do much even with help.

But it is notoriously well known that non Hillsborough teams have to fight both the refs and the opposing team.

Unfortunate that it has never been fixed.

But current officiating is terrible at almost every level, even at flag football.

 

[Perspective]

Interestingly, but perhaps not all that surprisingly, I've talked with several Hillsborough folks (including coaches) who feel the exact same way about the refs at the Lakeland games.     I guess hometown cooking goes both ways.   Or maybe it just feels that way because of our own inherent biases. 

[Legion37]

3 hours ago, Perspective said:

Interestingly, but perhaps not all that surprisingly, I've talked with several Hillsborough folks (including coaches) who feel the exact same way about the refs at the Lakeland games.     I guess hometown cooking goes both ways.   Or maybe it just feels that way because of our own inherent biases. 

That's utter nonsense.

In Polk they let them play and perhaps Hillsborough coaches don't like that.

Utter nonesense. 

[FL_HS_football]

During the 80's and early 90's Manatee and Lakeland met on a fairly regular basis, and I cant recall one game where I felt the officiating was corrupt..............now if your talking about Lakeland having to later forfeit games, on multiple occasions.....that would be a subject that would have some merit to the charge...............

[Legion37]

9 minutes ago, FL_HS_football said:

During the 80's and early 90's Manatee and Lakeland met on a fairly regular basis, and I cant recall one game where I felt the officiating was corrupt..............now if your talking about Lakeland having to later forfeit games, on multiple occasions.....that would be a subject that would have some merit to the charge...............

Agreed, Manatee and Polk county had decent referees, Plant City, not so much.

[skyway]

On 10/13/2019 at 12:52 PM, DarterBlue2 said:

Time will tell. What I do know is that Lakeland has the talent to win again. I can't speak too much for Armwood, but regarding Edgewater, the team they have this year has many of the same faces as last year. They were juniors and sophomores then, this year they are seniors and juniors. Their QB is not as good an athlete as the kid they had last year, but he is a true QB unlike 2018 when they had an athlete at the position.

If this year's Lakeland team gets past Armwood and is playing as well as last year's did, then I believe they would beat Edgewater again. But if they are a little bit behind last year's team, Edgewater has a decent chance. 

I think Lakeland is a bit more talented this year compared to last year. Defense is a little better thanks to an upgraded secondary and bigger more physical DL. he jury is out on the offense. Which is surprising to say given the firepower on hand. The OL is about as good as last year, maybe only a very slight drop off. But, huge dropoff from the blocking at the TE position, so overall the offensive front is a little down. Arian Smith is better than any WR they had last year, though his hands are still a work in progress as he's dropped a couple of balls on what would have been big plays. At QB, Mason Martin is/was better than McWilliams was last year. But, Garnett-a 3* Auburn commit- has actually not looked much differently/better than McWilliams. He does have a better arm and is likely even a tad faster. But, he hasn't impressed with his accuracy or decision making yet. That may come around though as he has shown flashes. The rest of the WR core outside of Smith (again including TE here) is not as good as what they had last year.

The optimistic view is that the first team defense has basically been unchallenged all year. Plant City's 19 points were due in large part to some really weak roughing the passer and roughing the punter penalties. Five different Dreadnaughts  had interceptions that game. And, offensively, Castle has always been a second half coach. With the defense unchallenged and games mostly out of reach with running clocks, we haven't really seen them apply the second half adjustments that a closer game would call for.

[Guest]

Lakeland is far more talented than anyone on their schedule. They might be in a little bit of a mid season sleep walk right now. But trust me, they will wake up come playoffs. 

[Legion37]

6 hours ago, skyway said:

Plant City's 19 points were due in large part to some really weak roughing the passer and roughing the punter penalties. Five different Dreadnaughts  had interceptions that game. And, offensively, Castle has always been a second half coach. With the defense unchallenged and games mostly out of reach with running clocks, we haven't really seen them apply the second half adjustments that a closer game would call for.

What I mean about the officiating and it was even worse at Durant. And the running clocks certainly don't aid the Dreadnaughts Offense, which is what the running clock is supposed to do.     

[Legion37]

7 hours ago, skyway said:

At QB, Mason Martin is/was better than McWilliams was last year. But, Garnett-a 3* Auburn commit- has actually not looked much differently/better than McWilliams. He does have a better arm and is likely even a tad faster.

!!!!! This   Martin in many ways moved the team slightly better but it didn't help Garnett that they kept Bowman out of Strawberry Crest and he had to sit out Durant nor that he missed almost 3 weeks with an injury after being named the starter. But he isn't making critical mistakes and that is good.

[fishspinners]

On 10/12/2019 at 9:34 PM, nolebull813 said:

Bloomingdale hasn’t beat anyone good. 

They got destroyed by Armwood, will get destroyed by Lakeland and then get ripped out of the playoffs 

finish like 9-3 with no good wins. Which means they are average at best 

That's an interesting take about Bloomingdale not beating anyone good. I don't think they have much of a shot at beating Lakeland but they're certainly a solid team.