Welcome back to The Deep Post, a weekly column/notebook dissecting the week past and ahead.
This week’s helping parses through scheduling dilemmas and how to solve them, special teams and more.
Overwhelming SchedulesÂ
I may be the only person taking pity on Independence, Bluefield and Greenbrier West.
Four weeks into the season and those three programs are already losing the battle of attrition.
Independence had four freshmen playing along its offensive line Friday night as it held on to beat Scott. Bluefield, already lacking depth, played its backup QB at receiver Friday before having to move him to QB because starter Max Simpson joined the list of injured Beavers. Greenbrier West is seeing its standouts drop like flies.
Injuries in football aren’t new nor are they exclusive to these three teams. At least two other area teams have seen their starting QBs miss multiple games. It’s a violent sport by nature.
But when you look at the schedules, something stands out – Independence and Bluefield are playing up at an unsustainable rate and they’ve mostly had little choice.
Through four weeks two of Independence’s games have been against Class AAA foes on the road. One at Brooke and one at Herbert Hoover. Independence was a Class AAA team in August that bumped down right before the season started so some of its scheduling is understandable. Bluefield’s situation is more dire. The Beavers have been a Class AA team for years and found themselves in the new Class AA when the four classification system was introduced.
And through four weeks they’ve played an unsustainable gauntlet that’s featured three Class AAA schools and a quad-A. Playing against teams with bigger rosters and more depth has done a number on Bluefield and it doesn’t get much easier. Of the Beavers’ six remaining games, three are against Class AAA schools. By the end of the year the program will have played seven games against Class AAA or AAAA schools. Physically, that feels unsustainable and through four games it’s proving as much with injuries to the starting QB (Simpson), running back/safety (Jeff King) and all-state left tackle/defensive end (Jaden Francisco).
Bigger schools often have more depth and the ability to play players exclusively on offense or defense, limiting the wear and tear. Smaller schools that are barely fielding rosters of 40 players don’t have that same luxury.
Despite the differneces, some of those games will always be played.
The Graham and Princeton games will likely always exist for Bluefield and they should. But Bluefield shouldn’t have to pick up Grayson County and Giles just to fill a schedule. Independence shouldn’t have to travel to Brooke and Hoover. Greenbrier West shouldn’t have to travel to Petersburg and Pendleton County when there are closer Class A teams to play.
Aside from Bluefield and Independence, there are seven Class AA schools in the area comprising Region 3 in all other sports. Including Greenbrier West there are eight in Class A. Yet those three teams have trouble filling a schedule with local teams.
So what’s the solution?
A mandated change.
At the local level PikeView isn’t allowed to drop Bluefield, seemingly a directive from the BOE. But in Raleigh County Shady Spring (a Class AAA) and Liberty were allowed to discontinue their series with Independence. I find that intriguing considering Independence was one of the schools moved down a class because of a Board of Review decision that specifically cited player safety. And I understand its a sore spot when kids transfer from your program to a rival program but Princeton’s been a victim of that in year’s past, losing some of its best talent to schools like Bluefield and Graham, yet the Tigers persevered through it and the shoe’s on the other foot now.
The next best solution? A sweeping change to the way schedules are made.
Imagine a district or region that acts like a conference in each class. For Class AA start at Nicholas County and move south. You’d have a Class AA region featuring Nicholas, Midland Trail, Independence, Liberty, Wyoming East, Westside, James Monroe, PikeView and Bluefield. In Class A you could go as far north as Webster County or Richwood and move down.
Mandate that region teams must play at least six or seven games against one another. The other slots on a schedule are up to the team to fill as they please. It would allow teams like Bluefield to maintain those rivalries with Graham and Princeton while reaping the benefits of a consistent schedule featuring in-class opponents.
For regions with more than seven teams you can rotate an opponent out each year or use some sort of metric to determine which teams won’t play each other in a given year. I vetted this idea with several current and former administrators and athletic directors and the only negative feedback I received related to relationships between schools. A good example would be Shady Spring and Wyoming East, two schools that dropped each other in all sports after tensions boiled over in football and boys basketball during the 2021-22 school year. Even in that case the administrations could mutually agree to a no-contest.
The current system is inadvertently penalizing the top schools for succeeding. The addition of the strength of schedule metric helps, but does it really matter if your team is so battered from a grueling schedule that they’re literally limping into a playoff matchup with a top seed?
There’s also the financial impact of fewer local matchups.
Football gates provide most of the funding for all athletic programs at a school. A school like Independence loses gate money without those Raleigh County matchups and has to spend that much more when traveling four hours away to Brooke. And when Brooke returns the favor it’s not bringing in enough money to compensate for those losses.
What matchup do you think brings in more money, Meadow Bridge-Bath County, Va., Greenbrier West-Petersburg or Meadow Bridge-Greenbrier West?
It’s my understanding proposals like those ones have been thrown out with incentives including a guaranteed playoff seed for a regular season district/regional/conference champion.
I’d stick to the ratings system to determine seeding but if the move to four classes has been spearheaded by an effort to create competitive balance, wouldn’t it make sense to ensure we’re creating as many in-class matchups as possible, especially on a regional scale? The football committee likely won’t touch such a proposal because its does more for the haves than have nots, the latter of which greatly outnumbers the former.
Spectacular Special TeamsÂ
I don’t remember a stretch quite like this one where we’ve seen so many pivotal special teams outcomes.
Last week Bluefield kicker Eli Riffe went 6 for 6 on PATs while Greenbrier East converted on just 2 of 6 two-point conversion attempts. Bluefield won that game 42-40.
Fast forward to this week where Brad Mossor returned a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns in a 62-0 Princeton win.
Last but not least Independence held on to beat Scott 30-24 and special teams were the difference.
An 84-yard kickoff return for a touchdown generated six points while the Patriots started drives at their 47, 49 and twice in Scott territory after strong returns. Add in a pair of stops on two-point conversion attempts and a blocked PAT for good measure, illustrating just how much special teams impacted the outcome of the game.
One of my favorite special teams plays came in the Beckley-Bluefield game where Beckley faked a PAT for a successful two-point conversion to make it 29-0. My only qualm with the play is I would’ve liked to have seen Beckley keep that in the bag. The game was already in hand and the play was executed well enough that I believe it could be useful down the road. It’s not something I would’ve put on film in what amounted to a meaningless situation. Still pretty nifty!
Often the most overlooked part of the game because it’s rarely exciting, the top teams have proven the third phase is a decisive weapon when utilized correctly.
Princeton keeps plowing
I’ve been critical of Princeton’s penchant for penalty inducing plays.
That said, they’ve been an unstoppable machine through four games, winning by an average of 40.7 points per game. Not scoring, winning. That’s slightly inflated by a 62-0 win at Pulaski on Friday night but take away that result and the margin of victory is 33.6 points per game. It might be even larger if not for a late lapse against Oak Hill.
This team plays like it’s on the warpath, feeling slighted by rankings in subjective polls. The WVSSAC’s objective rating system is one thing but the human polls that haven’t featured the Class AAA runners-up any higher than No. 3 seem to be rubbing them the wrong way and the poor souls that stand before them each Friday feel that wrath. The chance to definitively stake their claim is likely two months away but in the mean time I feel sorry for the remaining teams on their regular season schedule. The goal seems to be to make an example out of each opponent they face.
Final ThoughtsÂ
I find it surprising that very few teams have somebody keeping live stats to report to media outlets on Friday nights. These don’t have to be official stats, just something in the ball park. It’s an easy enough task yet only four or five teams report something on games we’re not at. Greenbrier East, Greenbrier West, James Monroe, Shady Spring, Westside and Wyoming East have done a terrific job submitting something on Friday nights.
Including myself, Lootpress only employs two sports writers. We can’t be everywhere.
It used to be a given that complete statistics and scoring summaries would be called in before midnight. Now we’re lucky to get anything before Sunday.
If any coaches are interested in reviving the practice, please reach out. I’d be happy to assist. It only benefits your kids and your program.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
