SOC 2 2010

[Mikenmike]

Minford loses 3 OL not 4. The D wont miss a beat and should be pretty solid next year. The O should look like this
qb-Butcher
FB-Slone
RB-Gaines
RB-Piquet
TE-Taylor
Wr-Lloyd
Not sure on the OL who will play where but they have Miller(most likely at guard) and Conkey?(sp) (played at RT last year).

[marshallman]

^^^^^^^^^



None that saw varsity action. They always have good runners. Schank should be ok, if not then of course it wont look as good. Luster is a great FB and will be a nice addition to the offense. I think Whitley will move to QB, he took b-ball off to focus on f-ball. Soph Hood and Obrien are pretty good, not as good as Lang and Craigmiles but will do fine behind the returning line. Hopefully Massie will come out and add some speed.

Burg will be more conservative than last year if that is possible because their team speed will not be there. If they can slow down the game I see burg repeating last year's win total. This team will be more team oriented than last year's team which I believe hurt them than helped them.

Burg also loses alot of depth which may hurt them if they are in a battle.

TE will prolly be Parsley, SE will be Stegman, Bendolph(if he plays), and Shears

The question I have about Stegman and Bendolph is that basketball is their ticket to college, not football. Being seniors next year will they risk injury in football, like Bendolph this year, and not being able to play their senior year of basketball that could cost them some offers from colleges?

[classof1985]

Minford loses 3 OL not 4. The D wont miss a beat and should be pretty solid next year. The O should look like this
qb-Butcher
FB-Slone
RB-Gaines
RB-Piquet
TE-Taylor
Wr-Lloyd
Not sure on the OL who will play where but they have Miller(most likely at guard) and Conkey?(sp) (played at RT last year).

i belive the falcons will have the missing spots on the line filled in with good players...what is nice to see is the skilled players coming back next year..Gaines and Slone at at linebacker.Gaines was all distict defence player of the year which is very impressive for a soph. then piqet and butcher at corner. flip over to the other side of the ball you have Slone at Rb who rushed for over 1,ooo yards last season being the first minford back since Eli Parks to go over 1,ooo in one season.piget and gaines are also very good runners.and butcher filling in at Qb who i think is going to be very good for the falcons this year

[sider]

I agree West will have to step it up a lot, but they have the talent...I would like to see Valley beat Burg, but with a Burg having a senior line coming back and Valley's history against Burg, I don't know if Valley will do it, because teams with senior lines win a lot of football games...but Valley will have Senior line as well...as will West, It will be close next year

[falconater]

Minford O Line Lost

Alley
Kimble
Gilliam
Price (TE)

All at least two year starters.

[sider]

Post 2010 Schedules here

Minford replaces Coal Grove, River Valley and Huntington Ross with Meigs, South Point and Piketon. Not sure of the weeks though.

We open with South Point 8/22 (H)
Megs 9/17 (H)
I believe Piketon replaces Huntington Ross (A)

That will be good for Minford, all of those teams are tougher than the ones they had scheduled...

[classof1985]

West will be one of the favorites if they can find a line for trevon pendelton to run behind. They will have some skilled sophs. playing right away.

Minford will have to replace a good QB and RB. Gaines will prolly take the majority of the carries but will have to be careful of injury since he plays LB.

Valley will bring back most of the experience but I am still not convinced they work hard in weight room.

Waverly will either struggle or be a surprise

Northwest continues to struggle with coaching change

Burg offense will be as good as last year and will put up points, they have their line back, except their center, and plenty of runners, although the speed is gone. They lost all the Defense and the quick d line they have had for the past two years is gone. Burg's coaching will have to rely on bringing more to the box to stop the run and take chances against the pass.

Until Minford can upset Burg at home and Valley get over mentally against the Burg. Look for West and Burg to battle it out for the SOC week 10.

gaines?? was slone a senior?

[Mikenmike]

Minford O Line Lost

Alley
Kimble
Gilliam
Price (TE)

All at least two year starters.

Taylor played alot at TE this year and will be an upgrade imo. Price was a better blocker but Taylor is a better receiving threat and will improve at blocking with another year of lifting. All of them guys will be missed but there is some young talent coming up on the OL.

[Mikenmike]

West will be one of the favorites if they can find a line for trevon pendelton to run behind. They will have some skilled sophs. playing right away.

Minford will have to replace a good QB and RB. Gaines will prolly take the majority of the carries but will have to be careful of injury since he plays LB.

Valley will bring back most of the experience but I am still not convinced they work hard in weight room.

Waverly will either struggle or be a surprise

Northwest continues to struggle with coaching change

Burg offense will be as good as last year and will put up points, they have their line back, except their center, and plenty of runners, although the speed is gone. They lost all the Defense and the quick d line they have had for the past two years is gone. Burg's coaching will have to rely on bringing more to the box to stop the run and take chances against the pass.

Until Minford can upset Burg at home and Valley get over mentally against the Burg. Look for West and Burg to battle it out for the SOC week 10.

gaines?? was slone a senior?

Slone was a junior and will be the feature back again for minford but Tyler Gaines will get alot of carries for them as well.

[wobycat]

My apologies, I thought Slone was a senior. if Minford can get a line together and get some productive passing, then they will have just as much a shot as anyone.

I believe stegman will play football he rarely gets physical in the wideout spot and I doubt he will play D. Bendolph, well I have no idea what he will do he may pack it in and go some where else to play at the end of the year.

West will be one of the favorites if they can find a line for trevon pendelton to run behind. They will have some skilled sophs. playing right away.

Minford will have to replace a good QB and RB. Gaines will prolly take the majority of the carries but will have to be careful of injury since he plays LB.

Valley will bring back most of the experience but I am still not convinced they work hard in weight room.

Waverly will either struggle or be a surprise

Northwest continues to struggle with coaching change

Burg offense will be as good as last year and will put up points, they have their line back, except their center, and plenty of runners, although the speed is gone. They lost all the Defense and the quick d line they have had for the past two years is gone. Burg's coaching will have to rely on bringing more to the box to stop the run and take chances against the pass.

Until Minford can upset Burg at home and Valley get over mentally against the Burg. Look for West and Burg to battle it out for the SOC week 10.

gaines?? was slone a senior?

Slone was a junior and will be the feature back again for minford but Tyler Gaines will get alot of carries for them as well.

[RedStormRising]

Minford O Line Lost

Alley
Kimble
Gilliam
Price (TE)

All at least two year starters.

Taylor played alot at TE this year and will be an upgrade imo. Price was a better blocker but Taylor is a better receiving threat and will improve at blocking with another year of lifting. All of them guys will be missed but there is some young talent coming up on the OL.

I believe Price was the second leading receiver in 2008 and he caught everything thrown his way this year. He just didnt get half the passes thrown to him this year that he did last year and he was open quite a bit. Taylor had some reps at TE but not alot. Taylor has more speed and will probably be in on spread formations. He needs to add some size and work on blocking as do all the upcoming juniors & seniors. Minford may see improvement at QB next year and may have a better passing game since Butchers arm isnt as strong as Oeschs and Minford will have to throw more higher percentage passes. the short routes were open all year this year not to mention Butcher is faster than Oesch. Pre season work starts now.

[Mikenmike]

I wasn't saying price wasn't a good receiving TE just saying Taylor will be an upgrade. Alot faster, good hands, and with another year of being in the lifting program he will be a beast next year. Taylor did play a good amount this year, price just had the majority of the snaps. The majority of the passes minford had thrown this year were short routes? It's not like they just costantly were going deep, the problem with price maybe not getting as many catches this year was that Mcknight was having a great year so he was the go-to guy for Oesch.

[wobycat]

I wasn't saying price wasn't a good receiving TE just saying Taylor will be an upgrade. Alot faster, good hands, and with another year of being in the lifting program he will be a beast next year. Taylor did play a good amount this year, price just had the majority of the snaps. The majority of the passes minford had thrown this year were short routes? It's not like they just costantly were going deep, the problem with price maybe not getting as many catches this year was that Mcknight was having a great year so he was the go-to guy for Oesch.

We still have to remember how old these guys are. I remember one year a boy form the Burg lost so much weight to impress his girlfriend and had a hard time putting playing weight back on.

[RedStormRising]

I wasn't saying price wasn't a good receiving TE just saying Taylor will be an upgrade. Alot faster, good hands, and with another year of being in the lifting program he will be a beast next year. Taylor did play a good amount this year, price just had the majority of the snaps. The majority of the passes minford had thrown this year were short routes? It's not like they just costantly were going deep, the problem with price maybe not getting as many catches this year was that Mcknight was having a great year so he was the go-to guy for Oesch.

I wouldnt say an upgrade. a different look sure. I think Taylor will be a tight end more like Zach White was, not necessarily a big physical tight end but another threat in the spread. Price is a good blocking tight end and has good hands but is more physical. nothing wrong with either just two different types of player. alot will come down to how the balance is between running and passing. No i did not say the majority of the passes were short routes this year but i think they will be Next year with Butcher being the QB. i think Taylor's strong suit is defense. he had a great year this year and i look for him to be even better next year after a good year in the weight room.

No need to focus the discussion on these two players. Minford has a lot of shoes to fill and this off season will be more critical than most. it will be interesting to see who ends up wear. i just wish these kids were lifting instead of playing basketball. they are losing several critical months of lifting. I expect good things out of JP Piguet next year and I think Justin Miller will be the stud lineman next year.

[falconater]

If a tight end doesn't block well in the wing t, he won't play much. I think Taylor can.

[Westfan]

It would be hard to find a more talented group of young kids than West put on the field this year. But expecting to rely on young kids to play like experienced players just isn't realistic. I think we expected too much this year at West and its sounding like Minford is going to make the same mistake. You loose most of your O-line and skill players while returning a couple good running backs. That is almost exactly what West did last year and I would argue that your younger players aren't as talented as ours from what I've seen. It's alot easier to be a complementary player than it is to be a player that is counted on to be a star. You will see the difference.

Sloan got a ton of yards up the gut in single back formations because your line was so good. Those yards will be much tougher this year. Like you said you loose your blocking tight end that helped you get the corner on those sweeps. You loose the QB who scared defenses with his legs while making the safeties play back because he was such a good passer. Add all those things up and your offense is gonna look alot different. That's not even factoring in the losses on defense. If Minford is expecting to just reload, then there is gonna be alot of complaining coming from Minford this year IMO.

[falconater]

I think siderman is wise. I don't think skill players will be an issue, unless there are serious injuries. Finding an O and interior D line will be harder for the Falcons from what I saw at games last year. But, the truth is that the Falcons have lost a ton of Seniors the last 3 years and have regrouped. There are players that have to step up and be coached up. The question is will it happen. From what I have seen, I think so. I'd expect another good play off caliber team. Will the Falcons repeat as SOC Champs? I don't know. Right this minute, I'd predict Valley followed by West but the SOC II Season is 10 to 11 months away. Off season work will tell the tale.

[Mikenmike]

I don't think that minford fans are expecting to much from next years group. We understand what we lost but also know that the talent is there to reload. Next season will depend on how well those young OL mature. The skill players are ready though imo Gaines, Piquet, Butcher all started on D last year and had time on O. The D will be what keeps them in games though I think it could be one of the best groups we have seen from minford. That being said we should expect to be SOC champs every year but dont start wanting the coach's and players head's if it doesn't happen . The similarities in the west situation this year and minford next year is kind of ironic though.

[sider]

You can't teach experience, and old teams and a more importantly old offensive lines win championships...Burg, West, and Valley have old lines...Minford is skilled but will have time catching up...but I think they will be fine

[RogueWarrior1965]

You can't teach experience, and old teams and a more importantly old offensive lines win championships...

That was the major difference for Minford this year. They had a very experienced line and were able to adjust to the defensive stunts they faced. That's what hurt West in the game with Minford as Minford's defense was throwing so many different looks at them that they were not able to adjust. Pair that with a swarming defense and it is pretty clear why Minford was so successful this year.

Another huge advantage Minford had was the strength of their offensive line. All the seniors on that line, including the tight end, were benching well over 300 pounds. Matter of fact, with a couple of exceptions, the entire offense was benching right at 300 pounds or over. That's why Minford owned the line of scrimmage in almost every game this year and the backs ran over people. When you rush for 260-280 yards on average per game, you are controlling the offensive line and the backs are getting the job done.

It will be hard to replace the experience and strength of the offensive line but it needs to start now with time in the weight room. Unfortuntely, at least a couple of the ones I would expect to step up as starters next year aren't lifting now because of basketball. They also need some film time to see the various defenses so they will know how to approach their blocks.

This will be one of Minford's biggest graduation losses in a long time but I think there are kids that can step up.....they just need to do it.