Gryphon Grit

Yes it was Halloween night and Southern Nash opening kickoff was a pop up to the pitcher but the Gryphon front blockers admiring how high the kick was and Southern started on the Gryphon 48 after the Firebirds recovered the rolling free football. Less than three minutes Dion Lavendar one yard sneak gave Southern a 7-0 lead. Richard Hall carried for the Firebirds from one yard out gave the Birds a 14-0 lead in the second quarter and at this point Rocky Mount still does not have a first down. Two things changed the momentum of the game. Jason Battle went to Josh Carter at quarterback and Broderick Caudle intercepted a Lavendar pass on the Southern 29 yard line and took it to the house to get the Gryphons on the board and everything is now pointing to Rocky Mount.Josh Carter connected with Rashawn Harris for a 33 yard pass tied the game at 14 with 4:29 in the half. A Gryphon field goal attempt on the last play of the half was wide left and a 14-14 halftime score. The Gryphon D stopped Southern on their opening second half drive and the Gryphon duo of Josh Carter connected with Broderick Caudle on a touchdown pass but once again the ep was wide left and the Gryphon lead for the first time. By the end of the quarter Micah Varnell connects on a 29 yard field goal and the Gryphons and the Gryphons lead by more than one score. Starting the fourth quarter the Gryphons D stymies Southern and Rocky Mount offense converts two fourth down plays the second a 12 yard Carter to Harris pass to give the Gryphon a 30-14 win. As of this minute the Gryphons own 3rd place in the Big East after Fike beat Northern Nash 29-12. Hunt shutout Nash Central so Fike and Hunt play for the Big East crown next Friday. The loser can finish no worse than second. If the Gryphons win at Northern they collect third but should Northern win there could be a three way tie for third between Northern,Southern and Rocky Mount. Tarboro took care of business and clinched first beating Northampton 50-7.

Positioning Time

Glad I do my high school picks on Thursday because I think as tonight progresses toward us many teams will move Friday games to Thursday because of the weather forecast is miserable for Friday night. Last week I went 6-1 and that gives me an overall 63-11 on the season. Southern Nash at Rocky Mount. Major questions for both. The Firebirds are looking for available players in the backfield and Rocky Mount is looking for it's defense after the last two weeks. This will be a game of Southern offensive and defensive lines matching up again the smaller but quicker Rocky Mount line. Rocky Mount needs to find it's game again in the next two weeks Southern Nash 23- Rocky Mount 17 Fike at Northern Nash: The Big East for years has been a pound the ball conference and when the playoff start they have been able to out muscle most teams. Here comes the run and gun of Fike I suspect Northern who just maybe has the best defense in the league will have to cover all over the field. This game will be a question of Northern's speed in the secondary. Fike 35- Northern 14 It is conference championship time for Tarboro. Northampton County is the last team standing that can take the title away from the Vikings. Riverside Martin and Northampton seem very close to the same and Tarboro beat Riverside 48-0 last week. Maybe a little closer this week 40-0 Tarboro. SouthWest Edgecombe at North Johnston. It is all about playoff positioning for the Cougars. North Johnston is winless and the Cougars need to growl in this one. SWE35- NJ 6 North Edgecombe at South Creek: Tarboro is on the horizon next week so the Warriors have got to take care of business this week. NE 35 South Creek 13 Rocky Mount Prep has their first conference win under their and now hold on to two home victories. Riverside is a decent team but come into the week's game with Prep bleedy after the beating Tarboro gave them last week. Riverside 48 Prep 16 Nash Central travels to Hunt and the Bulldogs have to hope Hunt is already thinking about next week's championship game with Fike. If they are that's good for Nash Central they will only lose 35-6. If Hunt is ready it could be worse. RMA opens their state private school playoffs tonight against the team they just beat last Friday Cary Christian. The Eagle will advance to the Final Four 44-6.

Gryphon/Firebird Varsity Football Moved To Thursday

The varsity football game between Southern Nash and Rocky Mount scheduled for Friday night at Rocky Mount High has been moved to Thursday night. The weather forecast for Friday has possible rain all day Friday into Friday night so school official from both schools have agreed to move the game forward to Thursday. I thought the NCHSAA had gotten rid of the POD system but some where along the way the soccer playoffs didn't get the memo. I am assuming that this new system is based on the team with the best overall record is seated first and every team in the playoffs is seated by record. Why do I assume this? Rocky Mount the number four team from the Big East is seated lower that Northern Nash who finished fifth in the conference race but has a better overall record that the Gryphons. What has this done for the five teams representing the Big East in the playoffs. Rocky Mount as a number 27 seed will draw tonight a Hunt team that is seeded sixth but had to to beat Rocky Mount twice in overtime. Northern Nash who gets in under the best of the rest category will draw Southern Nash in round one. The only Big East team not playing another Big East team is Fike who as the conference regular season champs draws West Carteret. I honestly don't understand with ranking all conference champions one through six in the east, then all the second place and so fourth. Any team in the tournament invited as a best of the rest can't be seated higher they anyone in their own conference who finished ahead of them in standings. Rocky Mount beat Northern twice during the regular season but Northern's overall record is 10-8 while Rocky Mount was 10-10, go figure. Since the game Friday night has moved to Thursday you will find me Thursday night along the sideline joining Bobby English 's chain crew. A couple from the regular crew can't make it Thursday so I will serve as a fill in. I have not been on the Gryphon chain crew since I think it was 2001. The 2002 season was my first when Gryphon football returned to the air on the radio. It just might be the truth when anyone makes this statement but the Duke Blue Devils just might be the best football team in North Carolina. The Devils are 6-2 and have four games left to play. N C Stae and Miami are the next two at home. I would favor Duke in the State game and after Miami's game this week they might get beat just as bad as every body else has against Florida State. They may visit durham with their feelings hurt and loss of confidence and who knows what might happen. I would at this time make Duke the favorite against both Wake and Carolina. If they win three of four that is nine wins for the Blue Devils. Holy Moly!

More Clarity Than Normal

There surely seems to be a first division and a second division in Big East Football this year. Fike and Hunt with two weeks to go have clinched championship game quarantees against each other two weeks from now even though both have one game to play between the final game of the year. That has not been the case for the past five years or so. It has come down the last game we must win in order to win championship but a loss might knock us completely out of the playoffs. it has been that tight. Fike has shown to be the best offense in the league. Their wide open spread the field offense is hard to practice since they are the only team to run that offense entirely. It's like playing Georgia Tech and the wishbone. It is the only time you see it all year and hard to defense in one week. It's hard especially as well as Fike runs it. Hunt despite losing three times in non-conference is right where they always are playing for the conference crown. No they are not as good as the past but right now who other than Fike is better? Southern Nash loses their quarterback and that means they have lost the entire backfield to injuries this year. Yet, they are in every game right down to the end. They have the best offensive and defensive lines in the league and that is keeping them in games. Rocky Mount has given up 85 point the last two games to the two big dogs of the conference. Where has the running game gone? Where has the defense gone? Just maybe against great teams the Gryphons are limited. Now that Northern has finally gotten over the hump and stopped a conference losing streak let's see if it turns into more wins. They just might have the best defense going against the best offense in Fike. This game will really tell us a lot about Northern for the remainder of the year. As far as Nash Central is concerned basketball practice starts Thursday so Bulldog fans can turn their attention to that. Yesterday ended the tennis season for the Big East as Rocky Mount lost their third round duel match at Terry Sanford 5-1.

Gryphon Tennis Heads South

Today Lady Gryphon tennis heads to Fayetteville to take on Terry Sanford in the third round of the 3-A duel championship. The sister team of Chandler and Tanner Brice lost in the semi finals on Saturday in the state doubles. The 3-A regional cross country run Saturday both the boys and girls teams from West Carteret won their regional. The Northern Nash boys and Rocky Mount girls ran well enough to qualify for Saturday's state championship. Today Allie Martin is in Pinehurst where she will take part in the 3-A girls golf championship. October 30th starts the first day for all winter sports to begin practice. As basketball season begins I would like to remind everyone that this is an even year by the end of basketball season and Rocky Mount has won the last two state titles on even years 2010 and 2012. I have not heard or seen any preseason rankings but I suspect the Gryphons will be the preseason number one in 3-A. They have most of their scoring coming back from a team that made it to the regional finals last year. Here is an update on the two Rocky Mount Gryphons playing pro baseball. Brian Goodwin is again in Arizona playing in the Arizona Fall league. According to the Washington Nationals website plans are to start Brian out in the spring on the AAA roster. Hobbs Johnson is not in Arizona as after the college baseball season and his performance in the rookie league and even once he moved up the Milwaukee Brewers are totally happy with his performance and told him to rest this winter. Hobbs is back at Caroilna trying to take more college classes. Good for you Hobbs.

You Never Know Who You Might Run Into

This past Tuesday night we headed to Buies Creek to watch Campbell and South Carolina State play Volleyball which Campbell won. While the introductions were going on I noticed a man enter from a side door and walk up to the first row of seats where one of Campbell's players dad Dwight Tart was sitting. Dwight is a former coach at Triton and this man walks up to Dwight and shakes hands and as I sit on the fourth row I'm staring at this man because he looks awful familiar. This man sits with Dwight an I am thinking about who this guys is more than I am focused on the team introductions. Halfway through the first game I notice this lady comes through the same door that the gentleman had. As soon as I saw her I said to my wife Pat that's Jane Burke. Jane is the former principal of Hertford County High school and Superintendant of both Hertford County and Roanoke Rapids City schools. She goes and sits right down beside that gentleman who I am trying to figure out who he is. I look at Pat and say I know that's Jane Burke but I'm trying to figure why she would be at a Campbell Volleyball game. The more I thought then it struck me. She was sitting beside her Husband Bob who was the basketball coach at Chowan during their Junior College Heyday. Bob who now is totally gray not that pitch black hair of twenty years ago. From three rows behind them I say out loud Jane Burke and she turned around an saw both Pat an myself. Bob turns to see who is talking with his wife and lord it is old home week for the rest of the volleyball game. Don't you just hate to go to a ball game and people near you never watch the game because they are talking about something else the whole game. I know Dwight was annoyed as he is trying to watch his daughter play and by now I have hugged Jane and now sitting beside Bob who is beside Dwight and Bob has a million stories to tell Dwight about me being his radio play by play man at Chowan. Jane and Pat have moved down on the front row and they are having their own old home week while Bob and I talk about the past. All I know about the game is Campbell won. I didn't see any of it. Bob Burke is the winningest basketball coach in Chowan History. He left Chowan to be an assistant coach at Hawaii. They then moved to Portland to scout for the Portland Trail Blazers and while a scout there one of his former players Nate McMillan of Chowan College and N C State becomes the head coach and hires Bob as an assistant. After Portland it is retirement to Wilson where Jane's mother and sister live. Coming home from the game all Pat and I talked the whole way about how odd it was that we would run into people at Campbell that we have never run into living 20 miles a part. You bet we made plans to go to dinner and and resume friendships long lost. By the way Both Jane and Bob both graduated from Campbell. They went to Campbell as they have a granddaughter who is a junior in high school that plays volleyball and they came to scout whether to try to convince her to come to Campbell. Bob told Dwight the story last night of the first time he met the late great John Wooten. Wooten way back in the fifties and sixties had a basketball camp at Campbell in Carter gym and Bob as a player was helping with the camp. Bob was told when to be there and he would be helping Johnny Wooten. Bob is from Queens New York and back in the sixies for a New Yorker the NIT was a bigger basketball tournament than the NCAA. Bob has no idea who Wooten is so on the first day of the camp here is this Campbell basketball player walking in the gym and he walks up to this man mopping the floor and say do you know where Johnnie Wooten is. The man looks at Burke and says thats me. I can't tell you in mixed company what Bob said but he says to Dwight that the man who won 10 national Championships was in Buies Creek mopping the floor. If I have one disappointment in my life is the fact that over the years and this includes high school that there are so many people important to you and yet we lose contact with them and we only have the memories. Like the Bible says you have 99 sheep and lose one. When the sheep returns you rejoice. Today the Doughtie household is rejoicing with the return of old friends.

Brice Sister Make Final Four In Tennis

The Rocky Mount High sister team of Chandler (Sophomore) and Tanner (Senior) have advanced to the semi finals of the state doubles tennis championships in Burlington. They beat a team from East Gaston 6-4-6-3 to advance to the quarter finals beating a team from Terry Sanford 7-1 retired. They start in the semi's at 10am this morning having to play a team from Cardinal Gibbons who you know from the past I am against Gibbons being allowed to play in public school championships. The Gryphon team of Fike/Thompson lost in the opening match of the doubles competition. Kaley Price of Nash Central was knocked out of the fray in her opening singles match while Hunt's Taylor Love won her opening match but did not survive the afternoon match. This morning ar Red Oak Middle school the Regional 3-A Cross Country championships will be held with several local teams and indivuals hoping for spots at next week's state championship. Fike and Hunt have seperated themselves from the pack with big wins last night in Big East football and by doing so in two weeks the winner of the Hunt-Fike game will win the Big East title. Fike clubbed Rocky Mount 37-13 while Hunt took care of business against Southern Nash 23-13. Fike and Hunt are the only unbeaten teams in the conference while Northern, Southern and Rocky Mount all have two conference losses and can't catch both by the end of the season. Rocky Mount found themselves down 14-0 in the first quarter and 24-0 at the half and never recovered against the Golden Demons. Since Halftime of the Hunt game last week in six quarters Rocky Mount has given up 71 points. Hunt found themselves trailing early but played Hunt football and pulled away from Southern Nash. In order for Hunt and Fike to head into the final game of the season unbeaten in conference they have Northern Nash and Nash Central to contend with next week. Northern Nash dominated Nash Central in picking up their first conference win of the season 21-0 at Nash Central. Nothing seems to be working for the Bulldogs but Northern sits in a position to grab third by seasons end but they have Fike and Rocky Mount to end the regular season. Tarboro got probably their toughest conference test of the season last night and the final was 48-0 Vikings. North Edgecombe was plastered by Northampton County 52-14 while SouthWest Edgecombe knew going into last night's game that they were playing a resurgent Farmville Central team. Farmville took the Cougars hope of winning the conference title away beating the Cougars 21-7. Rocky Mount Academy ended their regular season last night pounding Cary Academy 52-6. Seedings for the private school playoffs could be known today.

State Tennis Titles up For Grabs

This morning at 9am at the Burlington Tennis Center local Big East players get their shot at state tennis titles. In the singles Kaley Price of Nash Central who has been in the semi's before with her sister tries it on her own in singles as she will meet Adrienne Hayes of Asheville in the quarter finals. Hunt's Taylor Love tangles with Forestview's Kaelan Forbes. The doubles team from Rocky Mount will send their top two teams as the sister act of Chandler and Tanner Price get going in their top 8 match against a team from East Gaston. The doubles team of Eliza Fike and Mary Blair Thompson open their chance against a team from Weddington. Winners will play semi final matches Friday afternoon and if they win that round they have two more rounds Saturday to be State Champions. Yesterday in the second round of the State Volleyball playoffs Northern Nash made the three hour and ten minute bus ride to Topsail and lost a tough five set match losing the last game 25-20. We are over the hump in college football and most teams begin this weekend with the back side of their football schedule. Some still have a shot at conference crowns and a few still looking to go Bowling but for most North Carolina football teams the end of the regular season will end football for 2013. I was 8-0 on the college picks last weekend jumping my record to 46-16. Hope I am that good this week. Wake Forest at Miami: Wake is playing better football but with the news that Miami didn't get the death penalty from the NCAA and can play in a bowl game this year I think that will spur the U on. Miami 35 Wake 24. N C State at Florida State: The Pack gets their starting quarterback back who looked great in the one quarter he has played this year. The Pack needs to hope for a major letdown if they have any chance. This could be awful or entertaining FSU 46 Pack 26 Boston College at North Carolina: This is a match up of the two surprise teams in the league. BC is better than anyone could imagine and Carolina is worse than anyone could figure. I think Carolina gets this one but barely. Tar Heels 28 BC 23 Pitt travels to Navy where Duke was recently. Pitt wins 35-20 Virginia Tech at Duke: Now here is the interesting game of the week. VT defense is outstanding but Duke's offense isn't bad. If Duke could find enough defense to hold the Gobblers to under 20 they might have a shot. VT 31 Duke 24 Georgia Tech at Virginia: If The Rambling Wreck fumbles a lot it is close one but if they don't cruise control on a convertible. GT 35 Virginia 13 Clemson at Maryland: Ok both of these teams were exposed by FSU. I think this one will be either Clemson bubble bleeds for another Saturday or they act like a grown up and pop Maryland. Clemson will be mad 46 Maryland 21. Finally NC Wesylean at Huntingdon: The Battling Bishops need a win badly as they travel to Montgomery Ala to meet the Hawks. Looks to me in the matchups it Huntington 35-16.

Put Up Or Shut Up Time

Last week during the high school pick I missed only one and that was the Hunt Rocky Mount game. Somewhere along the way I left off my pick of North Edgecombe and Riverside-Martin but if I had of picked it I would have missed it after the Warriors got scalped. Heading into this week I am now 57-10 on the year. There are two unbeaten teams in the Big East and both will be playing the only two teams with one conference loss. Fike host Rocky Mount and Hunt host Southern Nash. As for Rocky Mount and Southern Nash you might as well call this their championship games because if they lose there in no chance of winning the conference championship. If either or both win then there is a mad scramble with two weeks to go. Rocky Mount at Fike: This will be an interesting week to see the come back ability of the Gryphons after a poor second half against Hunt. I am still not quite sold that Fike is the cream of the crop in the Big East. Fike with their spread offense seems to catch everyone off guard with their attack early but have to hold on in the second half. The speed of Fike's offense against the speed of Rocky Mount's defense. I'm picking Fike in a close one 28-24. Southern Nash goes to Hunt and you can see that Hunt is each week getting better all along. Southern is still hampered with running back injuries. The Firebirds have given Hunt the best games of everyone in the Big East since the Warriors joined the the league. I think the Birds injury list is too long to make a difference this year. Hunt 21 Southern Nash 16. Northern Nash at Nash Central. Northern is right there on the cusp. One itty bitty hill to climb over. Nash Central is no where near any cusp, yet the Bulldog defense can give the Knights plenty of trouble. The question in this one is can the Bulldogs score enough to win. I say no Northern Nash 14 Nash Central 7. Tarboro just might get the best test Friday that they are going to get during the rest of the regular season. Riverside Martin the team that slapped North Edgecombe rather hard last week. I think Riverside will find it hard to slap a team they can't catch. Tarboro 38 Riverside 7. North Edgecombe travels to Northampton County to play a decent team. If you match up the teams that both had played it would indicate to me that Northampton wins 26-14 SouthWest Edgecombe travels to Farmville Central and this could be a really tricky game for the Cougars. Farmville is as good as they have been in several years and the Cougars coming off a defeat to Washington who looks to be maybe the cream of the crop in that conference. I know Beddingfield still has a say. The Cougars can't afford to lose this one but it is close. SWE 26 Farmville 21.

Gryphon Tennis Cruises

Rocky Mount High school tennis team traveled to Triton on Tuesday for the second round of the Tennis Playoff duels and the Lady Gryphons blast the previously unbeaten Hawks 6-0. That of course means each Lady Gryphon won their singles match and due to the fact that Rocky Mount has already clinched victory there was no need for the three doubles matches. The Lady Gryphons 18-2 will travel in the third round to Terry Sanford 12-0 next week. What did you expect, the NCAA investiagation into the corruption of Miami University was halted when evidence was presented that in order to find out what was going on at the U the NCAA did improper actions in order to dig up the dirt they found on Miami The U will lose 3 scholarships a year for three years which is a tap on the wrist at best. Former basketball coach Frank Haith will be suspended for five games as he is now the basketball coach at Missouri. Basketball will also lose one scholarship per year for three years. Somewhere along the way the NCAA has lost perspective on how to deal out punishment. Teams five years after the infraction are punished for what others ahead of them created. The NCAA has to suspend coaches or any person in a program who knowingly violates the rules must be suspended for at least a year for their first violation and for life if it happens again. Haith getting punished now at Missouri punishes Missouri more than Haith. The NCAA must find a way to move faster whenever violations are reported. It should not take three years to report whether a booster gave money to an athlete or not. When the findings comes out that a booster gave money he should be banned from all college facilities for life.Until the NCAA sticks some power in the action people will continue to cheat when they know not much is going to happen to me. If coaches or University officials are involved they must be put out of business for a year and any other violation banned for life. After the way the NCAA screwed up the orginal Miami investigation and since Miami already served a self imposed ban on bowl games the NCAA needed to do something but as we all say when fussing with referees about calls they make. For the NCAA this was a make-up call. Not that long ago we were digging the grave of Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe. One of the great things that coaches love is to see players and teams mature right in front of their eyes.Guess it is life watching your child grow up. We all have a good feeling when we see what we have been trying to create in a child or a team finally starts showing. Wake Forest has the right coach for the program what they want to have. They are not going to get five star recruits to play for them but they get plenty of intelligent three stars players who know how to play as a team. We were all putting Grobe to pasture in early September and right now Wake might be the best team in North Carolina. Duke is one win away from going to their second Bowl Game in a row. I know that the last 40 years Duke football has been on skid row but back in their heyday they never went to a bowl game back to back. Coach Cut has changed the culture in Durham.

Northern Wins Conference Cross Country Title

Saturday Northern Nash dominated the boys cross country run as they have all year winning the Big East Cross Country Championship. Is there any question after Saturday night that Florida State is playing like Florida State use to play when they first joined the ACC. They are 3rd in BCS and quite frankly now that Clemson is out of the way who can beat them rest of the way, probably nobody? As you all Know my favorite player in the NFL is Philip Rivers who according to the NFL know it alls has had two terrible years the last two year. In fact his qb rating those two years was 89 which is the level that qb's are considered average. This year he is having his best year ever as a pro. He still has the 6th best QB rating in NFL history. If the NFL picked their MVP right now Peyton Manning would win hands down but looking at the numbers PR is on his heels. Manning QB rating is down to 123 which is out of sight. Rivers is 111 which if this was the end of season 111 would be the 2nd best in the history of football. Yesterday Rivers became the 5th youngest player to pass for 30,000 yards in his career. He is the 37th quarterback to reach that plateau. Here is some stats from those 30,000 yards. Antonio Gates has caught 6,375 of those yards. 43 players have caught a pass from River during his career. Nick Hardwick who has been the center for Rivers his entire career has snapped the ball either with Rivers under center or from the shot gun 24,500. Rivers and company are off this week but Sunday week they are in Washington which is about as close as he can get to us. Sure would like to be there. We are almost at the halfway point and who do you think will win the Super Bowl. I don't think Denver is as good as their record. Kansas city is still a mystery to me but they sure do have a good defense. New England will win their division but not much else. If I had to pick a winner right now I would take New Orleans. They not only have a great quarterback but a defense that can stop most folks. Well that's my predictions for this week probably somebody else next week.

Time For a Change

It has always seemed that the Big East gets slaughtered in the first round of the volleyball playoffs because they were always paired up with Eastern Plains teams of Conley, South Central and the likes. I have spoken many times of why they grow tall girls there and we don't. Most of those teams have moved up to 4-A and with it a switch for the Big East that at least they get a shot to try somebody else in the opening round. Saturday the three teams from the Big East began play in the state playoffs and two out of three have advanced to the second round. The only Nash County team who made the playoffs Northern Nash traveled to C B Aycock and the Lady Knights come back to Nash County knowing they will play again this week as they win in five sets 3-2 over Aycock. Northern 13-8 will travel to Topsail the 16-6 the number one team from the Mideastern. I don't know what is going on on Topsoil Island but for years Topsail has been a 1-A school and they have made the jump to 3-A. Must be a lot of people moving to the beach. The number two team from the Big East Hunt who just last week won the conference tournament lost 3-0 to Chapel Hill to end their season. Fike the Big East #1 beat West Brunswick 3-0 to advance to play Union Pines 17-7 the #3 team from the Cape fear Valley. Rocky Mount is the only Big East tennis team alive but only two made the playoffs to begin with. I like it a lot when the first game of the playoffs is against a quality team and wish the football playoffs would eliminate one round instead of theses slaughters we get in the first round of the football playoffs. Rocky Mount 17-2 travels to Triton 13-0 in the second round. There has been a change made by the NCHSAA which I like a lot. They are no longer going by conference seedings year by year. In the past each conference had a priority and when the top teams met the team with the priority was the home team. This year when ever number one seeds meet another number one seed the team with the best overall record is the home team. That is why Rocky Mount at 17-2 travel to Triton who is undefeated.

Big East Football Tighter Than Ever

Fike and Hunt both of the Wilson County schools have the early lead in Big East football as next Friday night is Hump day in the conference season. Fike I think over the past few years has been down somewhat so still being undefeated from where they were last year is a surprise. I know the Fike folks thought they were going to be good this year as maybe thisseason sa far isn't as surprising to them as it is to the rest of us. Hunt after going undefeated two straight seasons during the reglar season and that puts them at not losing a conference game that long as well. They stand 5-3 but their 2-0 conference starts have both come on the road. Southern Nash 1-1 has somewhat struggled all year in the non-conference part of their schedule and are finding the defense of the Big East teams with all thier injuries are not scoring many points. Don't care who you are if you only score 14 points in every game then you keep the other team in the game as well. Rocky Mount 1-1. If you look at the points Rocky Mount scored against Hunt the defense and specials teams played a huge part. Rocky Mount's offense has fell on hard times against the quality teams and looking at the rest of their schedule there are only quality defenses left to play. Like Southern, Northern Nash's inability to score not only keeps them from pulling away from anybody but thank goodness their defense is keeping them in games. The inability to score puts pressure for the defense to keep the other team off the score board all night. Nash Central's year to forget has found them in their two conference games in both at least in the first half. Last week they were in it till the end against The Gryphons and they were competitive with league leader Fike until the third quarter. They have scored 18 points in two conference games that that simply isn't enough to beat anybody.

Fike - Hunt Sits On Top

Nash Central has it's biggest offensive output of the year but they come up short to The Golden Demons of Fike who remain undefeated after two weeks of conference and beat Nash Central 33 to 15. Fike lead 20-15 in the third quarter before they motored away. If I told you both Hunt and Rocky Mount would have six each you would have thought that that might be the score late in the game but it was actually turnovers as neither team acted like a championship team but Hunt busted the Gryphons bubble in the third quarter scoring almost at will and race off to a 48-31 victory to grab their share of first place after two weeks. Northern Nash once again plays great and this time it is almost all the way to the end but Southern Nash scores with less than a minute to play to break the hearts of Northern Nash 15-14. Northern has given up 29 points in two conference losses while Hunt gives up 31 in one game,yet Hunt is 2-0 and Northern is 0-2. As expected Tarboro wipes Rocky Mount Prep away winning 78-14. North Edgecombe gets wallopped by Riverside of Williamston 56-14 and a vital 2-A conference game Washington hands SouthWest Edgecombe their first conference loss 27-14. Eight man football I think when the good teams play each other you can tell the better teams from the other because those really good teams can keep the other team from scoring. Rocky Mount Academy gives up only 34 points which is outstanding in Private school football but Southampton Academy holds the Eagles to just 8 and the game of the year in Private school football in this area goes to the team from Virginia 34-8. Tonight starts the North Carolina State playoffs in volleyball as the three teams from the Big East are all in action. Number three Northern Nash 11-8 on the year travels to the Eastern Plains number two C B Aycock 5-12. Hunt 12-8 the Big East number two host Chapel Hill 18-8 the Big Eight number two and the Big East regular season champs Fike 18-4 host West Brunswick 8-12 the Waccamaw number three seed. All games start at 7pm.

Great Effort Still A L

After a so-so week of 5-3 my overall guesstamation in college picks now stands at 38-16. Saturday games line up this week include. North Carolina played by far their best game of the year but in the end didn't do the things to win in the clutch and lose at home 27-23 to Miami. The game was closer than expected but I start the week on college picks 1-0. Greensboro College 1-5 travels to North Carolina Wesleyan for a 1pm kickoff at the Sports Complex. There is only one common foe so far and that is LaGrange where Greensboro lost by 14 on the road and Wesleyan lost by 24 at home. This is at NCW so this could be a nip and tuck affair. Greensboro 24 NCW 21 Duke at Virginia: Duke is on a roll offensivly but road games for every team is what they are. I think Duke has too much offense for the Wahoos. Duke 31 Virginia 21 Southern Mississippi at ECU: The Pirates will be spitting nails to get back out on the field after losing a game I won't say they lost but they had every chance to win. ECU 42 S Miss 20 Syracuse At Georgia Tech: After seeing the Cuse for the first time last week I will say they have the worse quarterback in the conference but yet they whipped State to death in 4th quarter with the run. This Georgia Tech that practices against the run every day with their offense. Tech 26 Syracuse 20 Maryland at Wake Forest: Can the B B&T magic continue? Maryland got killed by FSU and struggled at Virginia. The magic will last another week Wake 27 Maryland 24. ODU at Pitt: First year D-1 school ODU is better than your average first year team. Pitt had better be ready. Pitt 45 ODU 38 Just maybe the football game of all time in the ACC. FSU at Clemson 8pm on National TV. When has there ever been an ACC game as late as October 19th draw this much attention. You have to go back to the Mack Brown teams at Carolina meeting FSU. If this game was played at Tallahassee I'd take FSU by three touchdowns but this is in Death Valley. I will take NOLEs 30-27. Yesterday Hunt girls volleyball team beat Fike in the championship game of the Big East Tournament. Fike the #1 seed had beat Hunt twice during the regular season and this championship game went to a dramatic 5th set. Northern Nash Beat Nash Central for third in the tournament.

Week Two Of Conference Play

I was 6-1 last week on the high school picks running my over all standings for the year to 52-9. Heading into week two of conference play for teams in the Big East have a 6 or 7 by their name. If it is on the W side of the won-loss column this time of year that is really good but if it comes on the L side it is not. Going to Start off with the game of the year in Private school football. Rocky Mount Academy traveling to Courtland Va to take on the defending State Champs Southampton Raiders. Those of you unfamilar with Courtland it is a bedroom community of the greater Tidewater area. I would compare it to Spring Hope being a bedroom community of Raleigh. Many people commute everyday all over the Tidewater area from Courtland. This will be a monster game. Don't be surprised if the loser scores fifty. As well as RMA is playing I hate picking against them but Southampton 64 RMA 52 We will drop down to the easy pick of the week Tarboro comes to Rocky Mount to play Rocky Mount Prep. All six losses for Prep they have given up 36 points or more. Make that seven after this week. Another week for Tarboro to take their foot off the gas which in the long run is not helping them get ready for the playoffs. Yes they are getting plenty of playing time for back ups which is good for next year. Tarboro 52-Rocky Mount Prep 0. In a game that nobody can afford to lose Northern Nash travels to Southern Nash. The Firebirds and the Hunt Warriors are almost a carbon copy. Northern did a good job defensively against Hunt but needed better execution from the offense. Don't think the Firebird defense is as good as Hunt so this could be interesting game. SN 19 Northern 14 Fike right now seems to be the cream of the crop in the Big East. Fike at this point has a better all round offensive game that what Rocky Mount was able to produce with Nash Central. Fike had better not pull a Clemson at look toward another week. The Bulldog defense just can't do it alone. Fike 26 Nash Central 6. Oh boy, the real toughie of the week. Don't know where Rocky Mount's running game has gone. I think what you saw at Northern is about the offense Hunt has and they will be in low scoring games all the way. A field goal could be the difference in this one and I like what Rocky Mount has done this year in field goals with Micah Varnell. Rocky Mount 16 Hunt 14. Bet that you didn't even know that Washington is now a member of the Eastern Plains 2-A and own a victory over Tarboro and two close losses to Havelock and West Craven. As far as SouthWest Edgecombe is concerned this is the championship game to get to the championship game. If the Cougars win this one then it should set up the last game of the season finale with Beddingfield. This one should be a dog fight. Washington 26 SWE 22. We have a college football game tonight at North Carolina host the resurgent Hurricans of Miami. Thursday night football seems to always pose an upset and I suspect there will be a QB change for Carolina which may help score more points. Their problem defense and not being able to stop anybody. The Hurricanes are better than any one thought this year and I can't pick Carolina with their defense Miami 38 NC 24

Our Sports Hero's Arn't Made Of Steel

News on Monday that UNC basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell has Leukemia has rocked the Triangle area and basketball world. Don't care which side of the fence you sit on sports has absolutely no meaning when a life is on the line. Hatchell who has become the 2nd winningest women's basketball coach in history will step aside from game day coaching and try to keep her hands in the day to day operations of UNC women's basketball as much as her health will allow. One national championship in her back pocket Hatchell still took a back seat to Kay Yow who is credited with creating women's college basketball in North Carolina. Like Yow Hatchell is in the basketball Hall of Fame. Like Yow has cancer. 61 years old there is no telling how long Hatchell could coach if healthy but our prayers go to her recovery. The largest crowd to ever see a college baseball game in North Carolina happened last year during the ACC baseball tournament when State and Carolina met. AlL these new teams being added to the ACC baseball teams will not play every team every year in conference play and State-Carolina will not play a three game series next year. They will play a single game on a Tuesday in April at the DBAP in Durham. I have to ask the question if baseball can figure out how to play at least once a year why can't State and Duke Play every year in football. Football is set up that you play everyone in your division and State and Duke are in opposite divisions and haven't played in several years. You know the year State plays at Duke most of the time it is the largest crowd Duke has that year because so many State fans go to the game. My grand mother told me years ago when I was a boy that only believe 3/4's of what you see and only half of what you hear. Our world is made up these days of people looking to find a way to bring anybody down any way they can. This picture of the Duke Basketball team holding guns at first glance you would say "what in the world are they doing". Then you find out the picture was taken at a shooting range on the Campus of the United State Military Academy when Coach K took his team there to see what our soldiers do to prepare to be officers. As far as I am concern that is a great teaching experience to his team about life. We have way too many people ready to jump and accuse without knowing the facts. Tuesday Rocky Mount Girls Tennis team won their opening round match in the 3-A playoffs beating Burlington Williams 6-0. Luckily there was no need to play the doubles but darkness would have been an issue it the doubles had to take place. Nash County spent 54 million dollars to buid a super great school. What is another $500,000 to put lights on a soccer field or tennis court when not having lights requires students to miss class time because events can't be play at 7pm because of no lights? If I understand the playoffs seedings now Rocky Mount will travel to Triton nex t Tuesday in the second round of the Duel tennis play offs. As expected Cardinal Gibbons beat Hunt 7-1

TV And Radio Commercials

Having spent many a day back in the stone age spinning records and playing commercials I thought it would be a good idea to have a training session on what you hear or see when you watch TV or listen to the radio. TV and radio stations are required to do so many minutes per week of public service. Sometimes they do it in the form of National Cancer Society ads or any public service group asking you to give money. In order to let you know what is up and coming they also do promos pushing up and coming shows or events on that station. When ever as they are called PSA's play(Public Service Announcements) the broadcast station donates that time and creates no imcome from it. The same for promos there is nobody paying them to run a promo and sometimes you get both promo's and PSA's in the same cluster of advertisments. When you see that you can think boy they must not be selling too much advertising to be playing all these promos. Yesterday I heard UNC running on the radio a package deal for the three remaining home games they have left and one of those games is the Duke game. Let me tell you right now, here we are in the middle of the football season and Carolina is still trying to sell out the Duke game. If you are a regular TV or Radio listener you will catch in April and May all the schools pitching their season ticket packages trying to sell out all of the games. Here it is October and any school still trying to fill the seats for any game now is in a lot of trouble. Guess What? It's not just Carolina but everyone is having trouble filling seats up every Saturday. The first sign of why people aren't going to the games would be how good the team has become as the season has unfolded. State, Carolina and you can now throw ECU into the disapointing department. Three weeks later you can see now that ECU beating Carolina wasn't all that much and the way things are now the State game could be the same. The next reason why people are not buying tickets is the cost of a per game ticket and the price of season tickets to any college team. I went to the grocery store over the weekend and when I came out I had $99 dollars worth in my arms. I had more money in my pocket when I made $1.65 an hour than I do now. There is a third reason why people don't go and this surely could be a Carolina problem. I hear it from many Carolina fans that they are still ticked at the Butch Davis fiasco and they way they got folks to buy the new enzone seats. The only way to make those folks forget is to have a winning team which will not be this year so the same problem will exist next year for them when it is time to buy season tickets. What all of this is saying is everybody is struggling to get by from the major TV stations to college athletics to you and me. This is the most unusual of times. Make pleny of money each week but don't have any two days after pay day. Sure can't buy a ticket to a ball game that way.

Interesting First Night

Getting to the top of the mountain and in this case a conference football championship for those standing at the bottom of the hill it is a high climb. Those who have been there and in this case Hunt they are not all that willing to let someone else join the perch at the top. Hunt may not be nearly as good as in the past but they still have players that have seen the mountain top and are still going to be a tough out for anyone wanting to knock them from the perch. Rocky Mount has struggled the last couple of games getting the running game going. This week they have to find it to help give them balance for the passing game. There is nothing better in high school for a team that can throw to have a running game that the safeties are trying to stop the run. Hunt and Rocky Mount could be locked up in a game just like Northern and Hunt just had. A balance attack could be the key this week. Fike travels to Nash Central and the Bulldogs have as good a defense as any in the league. It is hard to notice when you have the worse offense. There has been a promise made to shake up offensive personnel at Central. That might have needed to be done five weeks ago. Fike had better not sleep walk in this one or every thing they have made all season could come tumbling down. Northern and Southern square off and the loser of this game will have a tough time making play offs. This is do or die for both. Every teams life revolves around luck and injuries are a part of that. There is no telling how good Southern could be with their starting back field. If this were next year for Northern a year farther in the Randy Raper regime you can just see the trend is upwards in Death Valley. Big East semi finals in volleyball has 3 seed Northern at Hunt Tuesday the 5 seed Southern at Fike. Tennis first round playoffs start Tuesday weather willing. Seems to be a trend in Big East tennis that the only way to win the doubles title is with sisters. The Brice sisters at Rocky Mount senior Tanner and sophomore Chandler have continued what the Price sisters had at Nash Central. How many years is it now that the doubles champions four or five years have been sisters?

Volley Ball Playoffs Begin

The regular season of Big East volleyball ended Thursday and Rocky Mount who has suffered through probably their worse season ever since volley ball has been played on the high school level for girls. Northern Nash beat Rocky Mount 3-0 to wrap up the #3 seed in the Big East. The season Rocky Mount has had they had secured the 6th seed and 3 and 6 become foes in the opening round of the Big East Tournament which sent Rocky Mount right back to Northern again on Saturday. The Knights as expected dumped Rocky Mount ending their 1-21 season and Northern advances on to the semi finals of the Big East tournament. Tabita Wilcox the Gryphon coach in the past couple of weeks has taken a job in Franklin County and is now teaching there. Yesterday was her final game as the Gryphon's volleyball coach. She has been the Gryphon VB coach for five years and even before that was at Edwards as the middle school coach. It was during her Junior High days that Morgan Doughtie tried to make the VB team and one of the requirements Tab made all players do is they had to be able to serve over the net over handed instead of bumping it across. This is not easy for any girl in Junior high to do and Morgan found that in order to be part of the volleyball team she asked to be the manager. It worked out that as Morgan went to high school so did Tabita as the head varsity coach after Debbie Webb's retirement. There were a couple of championships during her high school years but her passion for being a part of VB spread as now a sophomore at Campbell. We know every day as young people that new ideas pop up about life but as I write this Morgan's future goal as we speak is to become an athletic trainer. Teachers have trememdous impact on our children every day. I can only say great things about Tab Wilcox and her influence on our daughter since the 7th grade of her life right on through now as a sophomore in college. Morgan barely five feet tall who has her dad's desire to compete even when it means standing on the sidelines cheering for someone else. Tab gave Morgan that chance to continue in sports way back when she physically could not play the game. In our household Morgan went to games and cheered for the Pack and Gryphons. Somewhere along the way two of my children have chosen sports as their livelyhood. Brooks as a Triathlon coach and somewhere down the road whether it is in a high school or at a college Morgan will have a life of sports. In this house GOD comes first but sports is near the top of the list. Tab Wilcox opened Morgan's door in sports and this family will fore ever be greatful. Thank You Tab!.

The Race Is Off And Running

Tonight Big East Football began the process of selecting their represetatives for the up coming playoffs and after the first ballot Fike, Rocky Mount and Hunt are leading the ballot. The second ballot will be next Friday night and in this race you get to keep your votes as the ballots head toward five rounds. The battle of the unbeatens Fike has proven this year to be a quick starting team and they did that again tonight as they jumped to a 19-0 and 26-7 before the Firebirds of Southern Nash made a run but came up short in Wilson 33-27. Fike is now 7-0 while the Firebirds lose for the first time this year and drop to 6-1. I don't know whether this game was a game that Rocky Mount 6-1 played down to the level of Nash Central 0-7 or the defenses were just so good or what. Between both teams Rocky Mount got one first down in the second half and then got a second on an off sides penalty late in the game while running the clock out. Nash Central never had a series in the second half that took more than three plays before a punt. Rocky Mount scored in the first on a Micah Varnell field goal which was matched early in the fourth quarter at 3-3. A nice kick off return and a long pass play on their first play after the kickoff would score the only touchdown of the game. If you are really into official stats any scoring play of more than 11 yards is credited with a first down so for the second half Rocky Mount had three first downs to 0 for the Bulldogs. Hard to watch for those that were there. Northern Nash did everything they could to get ready for Hunt but in the end the team that knows how to win managed two second half scores while Northern Nash could not and Hunt wins at Death Valley 14-7. Randy Raper loses his first conference game in three years while Northern has still not won a conference game working on two years plus. What can you say. RMA 64- Arendell Parrott 0. Looks like RMA really does want to go far in this years state private school playoffs. In other action SWE 36 North Pitt 22. Nice win for the Cougars on the road. Tarboro 51- South Creek 8. I 'm sure the Vikings put the breaks on in this one. next week Big East games have Hunt at Rocky Mount, a battle for first place..... Northern Nash at Southern Nash and this will be a battle that neither team can afford to lose. Fike and Nash Central. Fike will be watching the Hunt/Rocky Mount game.

College Football Another Week Game Day

So far this college football season I have been able to pick three out of every four college games on our weekly pick-em. 33-11 heading into another week of interesting games. UNC,FSU,Miami and Wake forest are all off so will not have a chance to miss these games. We start with Georgia Tech at BYU. Interesting game in Provo Utah. Both teams comes into the game 3-2. Just due to the travel I'll take BYU. 31-28. Boston College At Clemson. BC is not a bad club but this game is in Death Valley. I would hope Dabo has the Tigers understanding that if they even want to be in the National Championship talk they can't slip up anywhere. Clemson 42 BC 22 Duke host Navy. This game the loser may have 40 points by the games end. The wishbone or what ever kind of option offense you want to call the USNA offense Duke has struggled to stop anybody this year but they have had two weeks to prepare. Navy 45 Duke 38. ECU at Tulane. Like Clemson for the Pirates this is a game they can not let slip by them if they want to be Conference USA Champs. The Super Dome is a place just in it's size can make you a gawker instead of paying attention to the game. ECU 31 Tulane 20. Pitt at Virginia Tech. Pitt can score and the Gobblers can't. This game will be a matter of how good is the Tech defense. When it is over and Pitt has 20 or less then Va Tech can count on their defense for rest of season. If Pitt rumbles for 40 Tech won't be around in the conference championship games. At this point nobody has shown me the Tech defense is not for real. VAT 24 Pitt 17 Virginia at Maryland. Boy didn't that 63-0 shellacking Florida St laid on Maryland feel good for the whole conference but this is another week and Virginia is in town. Maryland 35 Virginia 17 Syracuse at N C State. State's already 0-2 in conference and I bet Mitchell plays a couple of series this week. Pack needs this one badly. Pack 28 Cuse 24. North Carolina Wesleyan at Christopher Newport. NCW 1-4 and Chris Newport 3-1. Seems as if CN is always near ther top in conference play and this is a tough draw for the Battling Bishops. Newport 31 NCW 13

The Football Playoffs Begin

We  get down to the real football in the NEW area as all football conferences in the area begin the shuffle to determine  who will qualify for the state playoffs in the Twin Rivers 1-A, Eastern Plains  2-A and the Big East 3-A all begin the persuit of playoff glory.  Yes they would all love to be  called conference champs but those that don't win the championship will all have one thing to sell. We can all win the state championship even without a conference crown. So what we all have to do is get in the playoffs.  If we get in we got a chance.

Tarboro a two time loser to rather good  3-A teams opens it new conference play hosting South Creek a team that stands 1-5 and has given up at least 40 in all five of their losses. Look why would we not expect the Vikings to have forty by the half? I would suspect coach Craddock will be a sportsman like as possible. Tarboro 52 South Creek 0.

North Edgecombe host Rocky Mount Prep and the Warriors have scored at least 14 in every game or more while RMP has only beaten a team that they had to shutout to beat.  Can't see a Jags shutout and I can't see Prep scoring enough to win this one.  NE 26 Prep 6.

RMA takes on Arendell Parrott Academy from Kinston. The thick part of the Eagle's schedule begins.
If I am not mistaken APA won his game last season.  So far this year RMA has done well in the games from last year that they lost.  I know absolutely  nothing  about APA.  RMA 44 APA 34.

SouthWest Edgecombe 3-3 travels to North Pitt 5-1. The Cougars have played a tough schedule but NP schedule hasn't been bad.This could really be a ball game.  This is the first test to see if any teams non-conference was a quality schedule or not.  I think SWE will prove that a 3-3 record has made them ready for the future. SWE 26 North Pitt 21

If records 6-0 for both teams means anything the the Big East game of  the week is Southern Nash at Fike.  Fike has been impressive in the first part of the season while SN is coming off one of the big wins in any season.  Fike was off runs a wide  open offense and Southern has had trouble against spread offenses.  Southern can not afford to let down before the conference gets going.  They also can't afford putting the ball on the ground. They will need every trip to count.  I'm taking Fike, they are home, had a week off and have an offense that gives trouble? Golden Demons33 SN 28 .

Nash Central at Rocky Mount Don 't expect this one to be a runaway but I do think that Rocky Mount
will handle the Bulldogs.  Central's defense could keep the game close if the offense doesn't help out Rocky Mount with field position all night? The Gryphons defense is equal to the Bulldogs but surly their offenses better.  Gryphons 26 Bulldogs 6

It may feature two 3-3 teams but the most intriguing game of the night happens at Northern Nash .  The Knights winners of three in a row and also the owners of last year's Warriors coach. Because Randy raper wants Northern to play the Randy Raper way and Hunt still playing the Stevie Hinnant way which is a continuation of the Randy Raper  way.  Both of these teams could switch uniforms  and they would still look the same.  I'll take the team on the rise Northern.  Since both teams will want to run the clock this one could've over by 9pm.  Northern 14 Hunt 12 .

We Are All BCS Experts

There is a big brew-ha going on right now because the name of Condoleezza Rice has been mentioned to serve on the BCS playoff committee.  There are those that say she is a woman and knows nothing about sports.  There are plenty of reason  but except for being a women every reason could apply to any one.

She doesn't know about all the teams and my answer to that is who does?  Who can possibly know everything about every team.  Let's just use local high school football as an example. I know a lot about the teams in the Edgecombe, Nash and Wilson counties, but I know nothing about say Franklin
high or Newton Conover.  Just look at the Heisman voting.  The winner always dominates the voting in his section of the country and gets little from other areas.  The winners most of the time had just enough votes from the other areas to win.  The reason for that is we have no idea who the best player California is so we are not going to vote for someone we don't know anything about.  If you rely on TV experts to tell you, you might as well  draw out of a hat for what TV knows. They are going to promote what they  are pushing for what they want to show on TV.

Remember that the BCS will only have four teams and that in itself is a fallacy  of the system.  There are six BCS conferences and five other D-1leagues being left out in the cold.  Why worry who's on the committee because nobody knows all the teams.  Let's have a 16 team playoff with all 11 conferences champions in and let the computer tell us who are the best five teams not a conference champion.  Those that don 't make the BCS can go play in all the other bowl games

We are a people who wants instant gratification. The Bible says because of the sins of Adam and Eve all the rest of us that have been born since have been punished with sin. The pursuit of power is  one of those sins.  Why is the BCS such a mess and it hasn't even been put in place as of yet.  The reason just look at the power seekers who will do what ever they need to do to get what they want.  Sounds a lot like our federal government doesn't it?  The president right on down the line there is the power seekers willing to destroy their own country to get what they want, more power.

What A Difference Three Weeks Make

Three weeks ago Jim Grobe had one foot in grave of fired football coaches and today he has hung another first year coach up to dry.  NC State who yes has injuries but who doesn't expected to go Winston Salem and beat Wake Forest and put and end to the ten year drought but what happened they played as if B B&T was haunted.

What does Jim Grobe do to his players that when another in State school comes to their house Wake plays as well as they have played all year and each in state school plays as poorly as they will play all year.  You know we are all creatures of happen and most teams keep  their players in a hotel even during home games.  I wonder if the bus ride over the day of the game is some of the problem or shoud every in state team stay in Winston the night before.   What ever the answer Jim Grobe knows  something that nobody else knows.

Looking at the offensive leaders in the new NFL there is not one of the new so called run/pass quarterbacks in the tops of the league. Peyton Manning a drop back, Drew Bree's a drop back, Tony Romo a drop back, Aaron Rogers a drop back and Philip Rivers a drop back QB are on record setting paces to break for scoring, points, touchdown passes and who knows what other records that might fall before this year is done.  Anybody notice that all those drop back QB's play every week while those new breed QB's stay on the sidelines more than they play.

The plight of the Carolina Panthers and Cam Newton.  Is his issue the coach is holding him back or is Cam Newton another Vince Young?  The world of professional sports when it comes down to who is the problem is it the coach or player the coach will go first.  The looming issue is this is the last year of Newton's rookie contract so somebody in Charlotte needs to decide do they need a new coach or do they need a new  quarterback?  the answer just might mean they need both.

Arena Football On Sundays

Tony Romo showed the world how bad Denver defense is.  San Diego shut out Dallas in the second half last week but Romo torched the Broncs for over 300 yards in the second half.  Denver had no pass rush what so ever and we found out yesterday Peyton can still throw an int once in a while.  In the end Romo acted like Romo does and threw and int in the mist of his greatest game ever.


Sunday in Maryland the Club Tri Athlon was held and the NC State Tri Club finished third in the region and by doing so qualified  for the National's. Next April.  It is the highest finish ever as both the men's and women's teams finished third in their division. Must be that coaching by former Rocky Mount Gryphon Brooks Doughtie.

Brooks little sister could not pull out Campbell's volleyball team  in their 7th fifth set match of the year.  Morgan Doughtie from her team manager position saw Campbell lose their first conference game Saturday at Coastal Carolina.  Campbell is in a four way tie for fifth at 2-1.  The Big South season ending tournament only has the top eight teams and since they didn't even win one conference game last year this is a great start with all three games on the road.

I like having San Diego Chargers on TVSunday night but not at 11:30pm.  I taped the game and will watch it tonight.  The NFL is down to three unbeatens Denver, KC and New Orleans.  Denver and New Orleans can score at will while KC relies on defense.  We will see if any of them make the Super Bowl.

Went 3-0 on the high schools picks running my record for the year to 46-8. Was 7-1 in the college games making my record 33-11 .

Streaks Are Made To Be Broken

Friday night Southern Nash ended the Tarboro Vikings 43 game home winning streak. Jeff Craddock has preached not in our house you don't come and beat us.  Our lives whether you believe it or not is all about how we feel about  ourselves.  Winners walk around with the attitude that they are better than you and know that they are going to win.  People or teams that are average or less never quite believe that they can do it all the time.  There is doubt during crunch time as to really thinking you can get the job done.  When a team that knows they are going to play a team that is not quite sure they will win every time the winners will make the play to win and the other team will do something to help lose the game.  Friday night was a case of two very good teams going head to head and the clock ran out and the game was over.

Yesterday attended a wedding in Kitty Hawk and didn't see any football at all.  I recorded both Carolina and State and whenI got home never made it to the end of either.  I wanted to see if Whit Barnes was the starting line up but due to the over run of the Virginia game didn't get to see the lineups.

College coaches are probably the most overpaid people in the world.  every type of offense ever devised was done to take advantage of your team.   The rage of the 70's were the wishbone and the veer.  Both were designed to take advantage of small lineman where you didn't have to knock the man down across the line from you but just screen him off long enough for your backs to scoot through a hole.

These offenses expecting the quarterback to be the main runner and passer you must have a quarterback that can do both.  Neither State or Carolina have that type QB but both coaches continue to run offense not suited to their quarterbacks.  Injuries can cause issues and State 's and even maybe in Chapel Hill. Please coaches show me you know a little about football offense.  Run plays that suit your quarterback you have on the field.  Neither coach has shown me that they know much about the game only they known one type system.

Game Lived Up To The Billing

Tonight in Tarboro two giants in their respective divisions one a perennial state championship. Contender the other team  close but not quite to state championship quality.  Both teams were able to score on two of their three processions and the Vikings took a 15-14 halftime over Southern Nash.  A third quarter field goal gave the Firebirds the lead at 17-14 heading in  the fourth quarter.

Tarboro retook the lead with 8:26 to place but they could not keep the Firebirds out of the enzone so with 2:06 play in the game Southern Nash was ahead. 24-23.  Tarboro can't recover giving up a touchdown that late.

If you pull for the Vikings then this one point loss to a powerful 3-A school is not the end of the world.  Even though they win this one even a great 1-A school should be no match for a 3-A school looking to go deep in the playoffs. You can do all the analyzing  you want this was a super matchup win or lose.  Southern Nash wins 24-23.

Tonight in Charleston SC the  Campbell volleyball team goes to 2-0 in the Big South as they beat Charleston Southern 3-0 25-23-25-23-25-18.  the Lady Camels are now 11-7 on the season as just two games into conference play they have won 50 per cent more games this year over last  7 to 11.  The Camels head up to Conway where they play Coastal Carolina at 2pm Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning at the Northern Nash baseball field they will be having a old timers baseball game at 10:30 am.  Players from out  of the past will get out the Ben Gay Saturday afternoon will try to prove they still have what it takes.

Ten Years Later It's Still Northern Rocky Mount

It has been almost ten years now since Nash Central set up right in the middle between Northern and Rocky Mount.  Central has had their moments but regardless the top rivalry in this area is Northern/Rocky Mount. I have been reminded that I have not mentioned on this blog that Northern beat Rocky Mount in soccer this week 4-2 and that I had not mentioned that volley ball at Northern won last week 3-0 over the Gryphons.  Since I hadn't spoke on those games I have not also let everyone know Rocky Mount tennis beat Northern.

Carolina needs a win badly and they travel toVirginia Tech a team that so far this year hasn't scored a bunch on anybody.  Their good news is that still play defense in Blacksburg.  If Tech scores a bundle in this one it will be a deadly sign for the Tar Heel Defense.  VAT 23 Carolina 13

N C StateTravels Winston to take on the struggling Demon Deacons.  State has not won there since the days of Philip Rivers.  I think the Pack finally  finds a victory but it may be close.  Pack 26 Wake19

Talk about a true trap game but the Pirates travel to Middle Tennessee St who lost to Carolina in the second week.  If the Pirates are still celebrating they could get thumped.  Don't think it happens.  ECU 38MTS28

Lagrange heads to Rocky Mount to meet the Battling Bishops of NCW.    Wish I could pick Wesleyan I can't.  LaGrange  23 NCW 14.

I guess we can add this game now that the Pentagon says it is ok for Army to travel to Boston College and we think Army should have stayed on the Hudson River.  BC 31 USMA 13 .

The interesting game of the weekend is the deserters Maryland heading south to Florida St.  Leaning hard to pick the Terps but I won' t.  FSU38 Maryland 35

Other games:

Clemson at Syracuse: Clemson had not be looking this game as if there is any chance for any ACC  team that can be in the running for the BCS championship game both Clemson, Miami and Florida State much win the games that are not  the so called glamor games.  Clemson  42 The Cuse 22.

Georgia Tech at Miami :  GT failed to beat VAT home so you would figure they won't in  Miami.  Canes 34 GAT 17 .

Looks like Todd Gurley is out this week after spraining his ankle against LSU

Slim Schedule This Friday

There are only a couple of high school games on the schedule this week but boy is one of them the game of the year or what?

Little bitty Tarboro Vikings 4-1 will play host to Southern Nash 5-0 the preseason Big East 3-A
favorites and they have done nothing to make any one think they can't win the Big East.  Don't feel sorry for the five straight 2-A finalist Vikes.   Already having beaten two Big East teams and with almost every other school in the area off expect an over flow crowd.  This game has all the makings of the best game of the year.  Tarboro in beating Northern and Nash Central had trouble moving the ball.  I would suspect that will prevail again in this one.  Frankly I don't expect Southern to score much either.  SN 20 Tarboro 14 .

SouthWest Edgecombe who took last week off heads to the beach as they take on East Carteret.   SWE has played one of the toughest schdules in the area needs together back on the winning trail.  I think they will. SWE 26 East Carteret 14.

The final game in the area has Rocky Mount Academy heading to Lasker.   Those who don't know the area and if you hear someone from that area say where they are from everyone thinks they said  Alaska.  That part of Northampton County has several big time names like Milwaukee.  Northeast Academy sits right beside Valley Pine Golf Club.  Interesting that Chris Daughtry who's grand parents live just down the road from the school actually did a concert on the baseball field right after he was on American Idle since my step mother lives a half mile down the road the Doughtie's were there for that.  I think Northeast is having their best football season in years but I think RMA is on a mission. RMA 52 NEA 12.

After last week   7-1 my over all guessing runs my record to  43-8 .

Finally The East/West All Star football which is sponsored by the NC Coaches Association will be returning to Grimsley High in Greensboro where the all star game has been played every year since  1949 until last year.  Grimsey had summer construction going on and the game in 2013 was played in High Point.

Gainey Wins NCHSAA Regional Award

Last week during the NCHSAA Regional  3 meetings Rocky Mount High Athletic Director and head basketball coach  Michael Gainey won the regions Distinguished Service Award.  Gainey who as basketball coach has won two state basketball titles during his tenure as head basketball coach has taught and held several coaching positions in his career at Rocky Mount High.  The award was given for his efforts serving the NCHSAA?

Also last week in another regional meeting long time Greenville Rose supporter Marvin Jarman was given a Special Persons award in his support of Rose High School.  Those close to any school that plays Rose knows Jarman sits on the bench, stands  on the sidelines or sits in the dugout of every Rose sporting event in football, basketball and baseball game.  He told me several years ago if a football and basketball game were played the same night he would go to the most important game first. Jarman graduated from Rose in the early 70's and has never missed a football game and not more than ten total misses in basketball and baseball combined.  Surly if there was ever a special person Marvin is it.

College Basketball practice started yesterday and we are about 40 days before the first college basketball games of the year.  I don't understand why basketball needs 40 days of practice while football only gets about 25 days before their first games.  Seems to me that football you have a lot more plays to learn than basketball so should've the practice time be reversed?

The  longest winning streak in NC high school football has ended.  Northern Guilford who had won 31 straight games  had to forfeit their win of their game on September 13th after having play too many JV players on varsity

Have you heard this that the Franchise Harlem Globetrotters has been sold to a Corporation that owns several amusement parks.  No it is not Disney but the company that owns Dollywood and several more.  I bet you thought Dolly Parton Owned Dollywood but not any more .t

Carolina Is In Trouble

Do you get the feeling that Carolina fans are still ticked over being prodded into buying those enzone seats and then upper Carolina management fired Butch Davis after the seats were sold.  Don' t know why but the Carolina faithful just do not seem to have too much patience with thisCarolina team.

Carolina has several things wrong.  First they are slow on defense.  It is hard to tackle when you are an arms length away when you are trying to make a tackle.  On the offensive side they are trying to run the hurry up with a drop back qb.  Those two factors alone lead you to believe Carolina will give up a lot of points a every game and with and average offense they will have a tough time keeping up. Tbe Duke - Carolina  game the loser may score 60.

I wish I could tell all you ECU fans that this win will catapult you on to a super season but I don't think you beat anybody when you put 55 on the Heels.  Like I said one day last week who cares how good Carolina is.  The history books forever will show 55 points in 2013.

State also trying to hurry up with a drop back qb has a much better defense than Carolina an can afford being average on offense because their defense will keep them in the game.

Both Duke and Wake will have a hard time stopping any body but Duke can stay I every game if they can score 50 per.  Wake just doesn't have it this year.

Glad to see that two former Gryphons have such good days in their old stomping grounds Saturday during down east Classic.  Keith Strickland had over 100 yards receiving while Marquavious Alston had almost 70 yards rushing for the Broncos.

You know this game is so successful it might be time to expand visitors side of the stands.