That Pressure Job COACHING

Jim Grobe on Monday resigned as the football coach at Wake Forest. WF as one of the smallest division one football programs has over the years accepted that winning more than half of their games was probably not possible. Along comes Jim Grobe and the Deacs win the ACC football championship and play in the Orange Bowl game. Every school in the country came calling on Grobe to be their coach. Grobe said I like it here and here is where I will stay. Grobe made the Demon Deacons into a competitive football team but the last couple of years the Deacs haven fallen into that 4-7 type season and Deacon fans no longer want that to be the common. How easy it is to forget that this man changed Wake Football. I don't care who you are if you have expectations in your life the disappointment of not reaching your personal goals weight heavy on any person. Then when you throw in a fan base that wants more wins the burden can be too heavy for any man to want to endure so yesterday Grobe resigned stating at this point he had no plans for the future. To me that sounds like those burdens needed to be lift off his shoulders and so Wake has loss the greatest coach ever. Having run a clock during sporting events many times over the years I can tell you right now that the end of the Alabama -Auburn game when there was one second left or not any clock in the country when you as the time keeper hit the stop button one more second will always come off before it stops on the score board. Sitting home having watch all the second half of that game I thought they would rule game over and let's play overtime. I am sure at this time Alabama wished they had. I never in my wildest dreams thought about a run back but I was telling my TV screen that Auburn had to watch the fake kick and pass. The TV angle even while the ball was in flight I never thought about a run back until the deep man ran up into the screen. Every person in that stadium was watching the flight of the ball including the Alabama players so who can blame any player on the field for not being down in coverage. In fact the kick returner did dodge his first man at the 15 yard line and there is that saying in football that if you get by the first man you have a chance. If you saw the Turkey night NFL game anyone who has seen the replay Mike Tomlin the coach of the Steelers was right where he wanted to be on the return by the Ravens kicker returner. I think the best deal if you want to keep coaches off the field as in this case is suspend him for about two games and any coach thinking about that type idea again will remember he got about a half million dollar fine from the league.

Warning Signs

 Tarboro Vikings lost a state playoff game Friday night for the first in what seems like forever.  Fans of the Vikings assumed that dropping  down to1-AA the the state championship game was a lock.  Every coach knows his teams weak points and they do what ever is necessary to cover their flank in military terms.

Tarboro had injuries mounting to key players.  You might say they had injuries in the past like Todd Gurley senior year when Tarboro used Gurley sparingly until crunch time and Gurley made out like a division one recruit and took the Vikings to a title.

This is no fault of any player on the current roster that this years team has many excellent players but no Todd Gurley type among them.  Then there is the lack of competition from the Twin Rivers conference  where Tarboro did not have one conference game that wasn't over at the half.

Then there is one more  very important reason why the Vikings lost in the third round.  Wallace Rose Hill was a better football team.  WRH has just as great of tradition as the Vikings so they didn't come to Tarboro shaking in their boots. Every team that is successful and every team that is not falls into traps because they think we are playing ant home and nobody beats us here. Losing teams always have the mentality of not being sure they can win. Tarboro's previous seven games had given them the Superman thinking and here comes a team that is just as good as the Vikings being thrown into a underdog roll and they were ready. I would hope that everyone in Viking land remembers that there are only a few times in any schools lifetime that for six years in a row thay play on Thanksgiving Friday. This has been a good run and it might not be over yet.

Duke Does It

Duke did the impossible yesterday and won their division and now becomes the sacrificial lamb for Florida State in the ACC championship game in Charlotte.  You look at Duke and you scratch your head as to how has this team done what they have done.

This season has turned out to a season just like Wake had when they won the ACC title back not that long ago. This also means State and Caroina neither have played in the ACC championship  before while both Wake and Duke will. It also Dukes marks the second football title even though it is only a divisional for Duke when State and Carolina have none in 30 years

Why has this Duke team won and I think the answer is rather simple.  They do almost everything the way the game is suppose to be played?  Yes, they have had three or four turnovers in several games and yet they keep right on winning.  They run, tackle and do the basic football play correctly and after they have done this they wait for you to mess up.  They are the perverbial Bulldog  what grabs hold and won't let go.

David Cutcliffe in his 6th season has shown improvement every year but he has been a preacher that preaches the same sermon day after day.  Those sermons have improved Duke day after day and now after two years of bowl eligibility the fruits have come to Duke football.

I predicted the more talented Tar Heels would win but found myself cheering for Duke first of all Duke has been an underdog for so many years  every blind hog needs to find an acorn once in a while.  More than that however I appreciate good football when I see it.

One of the good things of modern technology  is you can hear every coach every day talking on some kind of media.  If anybody has ever heard coach Cut more than once has to like what he preaches.  I wonder would Cut let a player leaving to go pro after he still has eligibility walk as a senior like Carolina did yesterday with tight end Eric Ebron.  It just seems to me you slap all the seniors in the face who have given your school four or five years.  To me that just wasn't the right thing to do and in a small way keeps you team just a little divided instead of united.

This Duke team has been united playing the game of football the right way.  I do think they will lose next Saturday to Florida State but I suspect will give a good account of themselves better than anybody else in the ACC has this year.  The main reason is they are a good football team.

Hunt Defense Shines

The Hunt Warriors defense stood tall  twice, once late in the third quarter and early in the fourth as they held Douglas Byrd without any points inside the Hunt 15 yard  and that preserved a third round 3-AA playoff victory for the  Warriors 20-14.

Dexter Wright got Hunt on the board on their opening drive of the game with a 6 yard run and Hunt D dominated the first quarter.   Byrd got on the score board at the 8:09 mark in the second quarter when Jose Sanchez intercepted a Jacob Williams pass and took the pick six to the house to tie the game at seven.

It took only one minute and seven seconds before Hunt retook  the lead when Malik Williams took a pitch around the left side and preceded to go 68 yards to give  Hunt the lead at the half.  Byrd took their only lead of the game. Midway in the third to lead 14-13 but the lead was short lived as Hunt on their first play after the lead change retook the lead at 20-14 when Williamson hit Darian Ballard for a 70 yard touchdown strike.

Byrd drove to the 15  line but Hunt held in four plays but a face mask penalty gave one more play  but the extra play did little good for Byrd.  A Hunt three and out and after a punt return Byrd started on the Hunt 25 yard line. Once again from the ten yard line Hunt stopped Byrd at the  15 yard line.  The Warriors started using  the clock and finally punted the ball to the Byrd six yard line.  Byrd threw a screen pass and the catcher turned and fogged a pass to a wide open receiver which Hunt ran down at the Hunt 10 yard line but the passer was over the line of scrimmage and the ball came back and Byrd never crossed the fifty after that.

Hunt will travel to  Southern Durham who tonight beat Orange 31-24.

The news is not so good in Tarboro as the Vikings suffer their worse loss since the 2008 State championship game. When they lost 51-28. Tonight Wallace Rose Hill shuts out the Vikings in the second half and roll  35-10 in Tarboro.   It is the first time since  2007 that Tarboro has not played a football game in December.

Thanksgiving Friday Tradition

It is almost like a family reunion but the Tarboro Vikings will hold their sixth annual Thanksgiving Friday Family reunion called the state football playoffs when they will be match up in a game they just might lose after going eight straight weeks of averaging 51 points while allowing just 7.

My concern for the Vikings is they are for the  last two months are not playoff tested tough as the foe tonight Wallace Rose Hill is.  They have not play a game since their lost to Southern Nash in which the starters needed to play the fourth quarter. Despite that The Vikings play another week 26-20 over WRH.

Hunt the lone  beast from the Big East tangles with Douglas Byrd who last week took care of Fike.  This game will go down to the wire and Hunt will play in another Eastern Final. Hunt 26 Byrd23.

Oh yeah, there is a minor football game being played in Chapel Hill as Duke tries to clinch a ACC Championship  appearance against Florida State.  This just might wind up being the best Carolina-Duke game in history.  Have both ever been involved when both could win a share of a title ?  Carolina wins. 35-28 .

State will go out winners as they beat The quitters 38-24

Miami travels to Pittsburg where their decline will continue Panthers win at home 36-26.


If Florida State is to have a shot at the National Champoinship they must beat Florida.  They will 44-21

Georgia Tech host Georgia.  All of the Bull dogs are hurt aren't they?  Dogs win 35-34.

Clemson travels to South Carolina and if the ACC is to be able to say they are worthy of the statement that they are catching up  with the SEC Clemson needs to win this game.  They do 31-21.

Wake travels to Vanderbilt and the SEC wins this one 28-16 .

Virginia Tech Travels to Virginia and can Virginia score enough to win this one knowing VT can make the title game if Duke loses.  Tech 24-13 .

Syracuse at Boston College wait on Bowl invitations with the Cuse winning this one 38 -28 .

Our Day Of Thanksgiving

Two weeks ago tonight several new members were added to the Twin County Hall of Fame.  Today  we give thanks to one of those members who even today more than 40 years after his departure from Rocky Mount we can watch him at his craft.  Friday night will be the last night of the high school football show WRAL's "Football Friday " for this year anchored by Rocky Mount native Tom Suiter.

Tom grew up just across the street from Rocky Mount High School but he never attended high school here but at 12 years old followed his father's footsteps  to Christ School in Arden.  Tom was multi talented on the sports fields of Christ School and even today some 46 years after his departure he still holds the single game scoring record of 48 points in basketball, that is right even after the famous Plumlee brothers played there Rocky Mount's Tom Suiter still holds the single game scoring record.

Off to Erskine College where Tom would become sports editor of his school newspapers by his senior year.  Tom's first paid job was the PA announcer for the old Rocky Mount  Leafs bringing down a salary of six dollars a game perched on the old press box at the old Municipal Stadium  while home for summer vacation in 1969.  Tom ran many a mile around the old dirt track behind Rocky Mount high school during summer vacations since the track was right across the street.

Tom realized as a junior at Christ Church that he wanted a job in sports. Never in his wildest dreams could he ever imagine that WRAL would become his home in 1971.  Spent many a weekend on the sports desk waiting for his time to become the sports anchor.  By the 1980's Tom help create one of the most watched sports show in the history of high school sports, "Football Friday".  Every NFL football players wants the spot light on "Monday Night Football" every high school football player in North Carolina that can receive the WRAL signal wants his 15 seconds on "Football Friday".

Many of us thought Tom retired from WRAL  in 2008  but we still see him with the "Extra Effort Award" and during the fall Football Friday..   Every Saturday Tom scans the high school football schedules of Wake County schools first then heads in all direction deciding on what games can be covered with 13 Photographers.   That's why you might see Rocky Mount- Nash Central game paired up with Hunt at Northern Nash.

So by 7pm Friday Tom has already written his lead in for every game like "Let's head to Rocky Mount where the Gryphons at 7-3 play at Northern Nash 4-6 but still has a shot at the playoffs".  Once each photographer finishes the first half of their first game they send Tom their highlights and Tom picks his plays normally four or five that make it to TV.  By the time he has finished the first batch the second games are in and here we go trying to get them all ready for 11:35.  If you take notice most of the highlights start with Wake County Schools and the schools further away are processed for the last part of the show.

Tom Suiter turns 66 next June and no one can predict the future.  I asked Tom if there was a chance retirement  when it comes might be in Rocky Mount?  "Raleigh is only an hour away.  Before I went off to Prep school Rocky Mount was a place of good friends,  nobody ever locked a door, people gave a hello greeting and came right on in. "

If you think about it Tom Suiter's style  as a sportscaster is just like when he grew up in Rocky Mount.  Every Friday night he tells us to come on in and everyone in the viewing area comes over to Tom's house to enjoy a Friday night of football.

Thank you Tom Suiter you have made Rocky Mount thankful that you call Rocky Mount home and whenever you decide it is time to unplug your mic we will always remember your favorite phrase "let' s go to the video tape"'.

Raining Inside And Out

Just maybe the rout of Rose last week lingered in the minds of the 2013/2014 Rocky Mount Gryphons but South Central brought in a talented group of guards who had no other choice but to shoot outside shots because the Gryphon  big men owned the inside.  The Falcons made nine three pointers on the night and each one seemed to keep Rocky Mount at bay until the about the two minute mark of the third quarter.  Isaiah Alston found his three form and rained down seven over the next six minutes scoring 29 on the night as the Gryphons survive South Central 76-74.

Rocky Mount dominated the backboards winning  that phase 40-22.  Immanuel King lead the way hauling down 18 boards and he added 17 points for good measure. Donte Battle added nine rebounds and 18 points.

Rocky Mount trailed 19-16 after the first quarter.  38-27 at the half and before they finally got their engines running trailed 42-27 early in the third quarter but cut the lead to 56-51 after three.  The Gryphons lead by three, three different times down the stretch but could never get out go the clutches of the Falcons.  Jermaine Wilis who had four threes finished with 21 points and Tyree Suggs had four threes himself also  tossing in 21

The Lady Gryphons won their first game of the year beating South Central 47-41.  The Lady Gryphons were coasting along having lead the entire game and were leading 34-29 after Carmen Richardson scored eight straight points but she tumbled to the floor clutching her knee with about 1:49 to play in the 3rd quarter.  From that point on the Lady Gryphons would make only one basket by freshman Michelle Gainey.  It wasn't because they were not shooting nothing was going in.  Rocky Mount made 11 free throws.  The good news Richardson returned to the game   to help solidify that Pam Gainey defense that put the clamps on the Falcons down the stretch

Carmen Richardson lead the Gryphons with 19 T T Thomas added 11. South Central won the rebounding  38-32 but the Lady Gryphons cut the total in half in the fourth quarter getting rebound and putting the ball by up but missed every one.  Tamara Harper yanked down 9 rebounds for Rocky Mount.  The Gryphons caused 24 turnovers while giving the ball away only  13 times.

Northern Nash girls stay undefeated beating Conly while the Northern boys lost by six.