Welcome to The Deep Post, a weekly column-notebook recapping the week past and ahead.
This week’s helping breaks down the rise of freshman stars and the threat to a potential Princeton title run.
Rookie RockstarsÂ
There wasn’t much to be encouraged about other than there being room to grow if you watched Bluefield QB Max Simpson through two games. The freshman had completed just 5 of 7 passes for five yards and the Beaver offense had scored just seven points.
He erupted Thursday against Class AAA Greenbrier East with one of the best passing performances in the program’s rich history, completing 15 of 31 passes for 380 yards and three touchdowns with an interception, unofficially. Kennedy Award winner Will Cole is believed to hold the program’s single-game record with a 390-yard performance against Scott. Not bad company to be in. Simpson even received a nod from Cole himself.
The performance rallied Bluefield back from a 40-19 deficit with eight minutes to play as Simpson connected with Kisean Smith for a 23-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-10 with four seconds to play.
He threw for 315 yards in the second half alone, leading touchdown drives of 76, 80 and 74 yards, respectively, in the fourth quarter taking the field for the final one with no timeouts and 1:12 remaining on the clock. The end result was a 42-40 win over Class AAA Greenbrier East, restoring hopes of a deep playoff run for the Beavers. Simpson gave them hope when they needed it.
The next night Independence’s freshman QB Brock Green eviscerated Nicholas County’s secondary. Veteran head coach Gene Morris loaded the box to stop running back Sylas Nelson, forcing the rookie signal caller to beat him.
He did, completing 9 of 16 passes for 219 yards with an interception. He was 6 of 10 for 196 before the half with completions of 37, 47, 33, 67 and 16 yards, all down the field in the vertical passing game. It was the first 200-yard passing game of his young career, putting him well over 400 yards passing in three games. Not bad considering two of Indy’s game thus far have been against teams that will likely make the playoffs.
He played so well there was astonishment and disbelief throughout the Nicholas County press box when it was noted he’s a freshman.
Week 3 effectively marked the date the stars of tomorrow arrived.
I don’t like shining the light on freshmen, especially so early as it usually places unfair expectations on them but Green and Simpson are up to the challenge.
Green helps shoulder the legacy of a program that’s produced two Kennedy Award winners over the last four years with a pair of title game appearances during a meteoric rise. His grandfather coached the 1999 state championship Wyoming East team. His dad Kenny was a first team all-stater on the 1992 Herndon basketball team that finished as the Class A state runner-up and his mom Mallory was an all-state basketball player at Summers County.
Fair or not, expectations were always going to be high when he decided to play competitive sports.
Simpson is in a similar unenviable spot.
He’s the first freshman to ever start at QB for Bluefield, a program that boasts the second-most championships in state history with 11 and at least one in each decade since the 1950s. The expectation every year, regardless of record, personnel or experience, is championship or bust. Accepting that responsibility comes with scrutiny, much like that which Simpson endured after the Week 1 10-0 loss to Graham.
Since I started doing this in 2017, I haven’t seen the Bluefield program at a lower point than it’s been at over the first two weeks of the season. It desperately needed the spark Simpson helped provide in the fourth quarter Thursday, so much so that head coach Fred Simon was discombobulated and speechless after the win and he’s coached in 11 state championship games.
After spectacular Week 3 performances, the focus begins to shift to the Week 5 head-to-head matchup between the two young signal callers. Though they can’t look that far ahead.
Simpson faces a tall task in solving a Beckley secondary that’s hawking interceptions left and right while Green will play his home opener against Scott, one of the top Class AA teams in the state.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t peek ahead.
The matchup is one of the most highly anticipated each season with every Class AA title game from 2017-2022 featuring either Indy or Bluefield. They’ve even met twice in the playoffs with Independence taking both matchups.
Both QBs hope to end their high school careers with multiple state championships and in all likelihood they’ll have to go through each other to get them. The fate of Independence’s Class AA residency is in question after this season as it was bumped down from triple-A for a year two weeks before the season opener. But for this season they lead the charge for a pair of title-hopefuls.
Selfishly, I hope Independence stays in double-A so we can see this matchup as much as possible over the next four years.
Given their early performances, the position they play, the fact they’re both freshmen and the recent history between the two programs, they could ignite Class AA’s own Brady-Manning and Mahomes-Allen rivalries over the next four years. The parallels mean they’ll be compared against each other but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Nobody meaningfully debates who’s better between Daniel Jones, Gardner Minshew or Sam Darnold because they don’t matter.
We debate between the Allens, Burrows, Jacksons, Strouds and Staffords of the world because they, along with their teams, do.
Is it outlandish to compare a pair of freshman QBs with three starts each to the best QBs in the world? Maybe, but the point is the matchups between the best are appointment viewing. They drive discourse. Mahomes’ 13-second scoring drive against Allen’s Bills in the 2021 AFC Divisional game and Manning’s 21-3 comeback against Brady’s Patriots in the 2006 AFC Championship game left indelible marks on the history of football.
Independence and Bluefield as programs have been in similar separate team-wide rivalries with Fairmont Senior over the last seven years.
Football’s a team game, but watching the Simpson and Green rivalry develop over the next four years will be worth it.
The young pups aren’t running from the expectations.
Princeton Penalties
Princeton head coach Keith Taylor said in the preseason he’d take his offensive line out for wings each time the team rushed for over 300 yards.
He may need to start treating running back Marquel Lowe as an apology instead. The unofficial “Marquel Lowe touchdowns lost to penalties” tracker is at five, unofficially.
Despite the 3-0 start, the Tigers are still committing penalties at an alarming rate. The 13 they committed for 135 yards Friday against Oak Hill brought their season total to 45 for 375 yards, again unofficially. I do a poor job charting offsetting penalties at times between spotting the ball and making notes amongst other responsibilities during those 40 seconds between plays, so the count may be even higher.
Extrapolate that over 10 games and that’s easily over 1,000 yards in penalties.
If there’s a positive to take away it’s that the 13 were a season low, but the mistakes are still concerning. They may not matter as much now, but they do once you get to the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
Princeton should know they can matter sooner.
Let’s rewind to Nov. 11, 2022. With 5:11 to play in the opening round of the playoffs at George Washington, Brad Mossor took a snap and raced right for a 3-yard touchdown with 5:11 to play in a 28-28 game. The touchdown was nullified by, you guessed it, a penalty! It was an illegal shift. Princeton took a sack on the next play and attempted a 37-yard field goal on fourth down. The field goal sailed wide right in the rain and GW took advantage, nailing the winning field goal from 28 yards out with 44 seconds left for a 31-28 victory.
In its current state, this Princeton team reminds me a lot of the 2022 Parkersburg South team that finished as the Class AAA state-runner up. That South team was dynamic, talented and thrived on offense but had little regard for turnovers and penalties. It caught up to the Patriots in the Class AAA title game as they turned the ball over four times and got tagged for penalties 15 times for 135 yards. They trailed 14-3 at the end of the third quarter, losing 28-3. Huntington committed just four penalties for 24 for yards that afternoon.
If any of this upsets you, take a deep breath, ask yourself if it’s objectively true and proceed.
The penalty tracker is likely going to be annoying for Princeton to see, but it’s relevant and meaningful with recent history suggesting as much.
Princeton has the talent to win a title this year and it’s difficult to pick at a program that’s clearly doing almost everything right but it needs to cut down on the avoidable mistakes.
Game BallsÂ
- Eli Riffe, Bluefield – The often forgotten phase of football is special teams. Riffe, the starting kicker for Bluefield a year ago, nailed all six of his PATs in Thursday’s win over Greenbrier East. It was the first time Riffe had a chance to showcase his skills this year with Grayson Parris, who kicked in the first two games, out. Bluefield needed all six of those PATs and Riffe was the difference. East went for two points after all six of its scores and converted on just two of those attempts. One or two more successful conversions would’ve changed the outcome of the game. Riffe lost his job and stepped up when opportunity knocked. Maybe if his mom Nicole had known I’d be writing about him in the future she would’ve given me an A in 11th grade chemistry.
- Willis Wilson, Bluefield – Wilson hauled in eight passes for 191 yards and a touchdown, saving Bluefield’s game-winning drive with a Hail Mary catch that ricocheted off an East defender.
- Independence’s Skill Players – Sylas Nelson, Christian Linksweiler and Dalton Adkins were explosive in a 41-14 win over Nicholas County and complemented each other well. Nelson drew a stacked box, opening opportunities for Adkins and Linksweiler on the outside. They both had long catches that set up Nelson with a pair of 2-yard touchdown runs.
- Wyatt Cline, Princeton – Three fumble recoveries? Fumble recoveries usually come down to luck and there’s a lot of research that backs that theory up. Still, Cline made it look like a skill Friday when he scooped three, one he returned for a score.
- Justin Cogar, Westside – Westside exhibits the qualities of a well-coached team. After an emotional win in Week 2, the Renegades put it behind them and took care of business on the road against a 2-1 Man team.
- Stat Keepers for PikeView and Wyoming East – Both teams are 0-3 and struggling but made sure to send their statistics early Saturday morning. That’s how you earn goodwill for your programs.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter/X @tjack94
