Welcome to the Deep Post, a new weekly column where I’ll share my thoughts on various results, rumblings, players and plays from the weekend.
Greenbrier West’s Aggressiveness
Too often football coaches play it conservatively and cost themselves opportunity. Take it from former Eagles head coach and current Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson who led the Eagles to their lone Super Bowl win in 2018.
After watching the Jacksonville Jaguars, coached at the time by Doug Marrone, kneel the ball with all three timeouts and 55 seconds left in the second quarter of the 2018 AFC Championship game, Pederson had this to say in his 2018 book “Fearless.”
“I was there thinking, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me right now,’” Pederson wrote. “It made me mad because Jacksonville had New England right where they wanted them. I was screaming at the TV in my office. When they knelt right before halftime, inside I was like, ‘I’ll never do that.’ It fueled me. They could have least tried for a field goal. They took it out of their quarterback’s hands, and they didn’t give to their big back Leonard Fournette. I thought, ‘If they lose this game, this is why.’ Sure enough they would go on to lose the game.”
Just hours later Pederson’s Eagles led the Minnesota Vikings 21-7 with 29 seconds to go in the first half of the NFC Championship game. With three timeouts the Eagles went 59 yards, nailing a 38-yard field goal as time expired to go up 24-7.
Kelly Vaughan and the rest of the gang at Greenbrier West followed that same blueprint and because of it the Class A playoffs may run through Charmco. With 20 seconds left in the first half the Cavaliers, trailing 8-0 after a James Monroe touchdown, needed a jolt. Quarterback Cole Vandall and receiver Ethan Holliday provided it as the Cavaliers went from their own 41 after the kickoff return to the end zone in just two plays, needing just 12 seconds to even the score.
It gave the Cavaliers all of the momentum heading into the half and they rode it to a 25-8 victory.
It’s no secret that West had been the little brother of late in the matchups between the two schools and mentally that can be difficult to overcome. Coaching aggressively in that spot showed the Cavalier players that not only could it move the ball, but do so effectively and score quickly.
As defensive coordinator Jared Robertson put it “Greenbrier West in five-wide empty sets a ton, I never dreamed that would happen.”
Getting his Dues
Alabama, WVU, Marshall, Ohio State and Penn State.
All of those schools have offered players that were on the field Friday night for Hurricane’s 56-42 win over Princeton. Dominick Collins, who was arguably the best player on that field with 10 catches for 175 yards and four touchdowns, isn’t one of those players that’s been offered by a DI school.
Unofficially, Collins is up to 897 receiving yards in seven games with 15 touchdown receptions to boot. And sure, high school numbers don’t mean much in the grand scheme of college offers but Collins has proven his worth against top tier competition. Let’s start with Hurricane, a team he’s caught 20 balls for 352 yards and six touchdowns against in their last two meetings.
Against Parkersburg South’s Cyrus Traugh last season, who’s at Youngstown St. now, Collins went 8-116-2. against Lord Botetourt, Va. last season he registered 4-137-3. Let’s not forget the 4.25 40-yard dash he ran this summer at multiple camps including one at WVU.
Friday’s game was personal for Collins, and on defense he was matched up against Hurricane’s Tyshawn Dues, a player who was offered by Marshall, Kent State and WVU this past offseason, giving the latter his commitment while Collins walked away from the summer period without any DI offers. In addition to what Collins did on offense he held Dues to four catches for nine yards on defense. Sure, the game was played in a downpour, but both teams faced the same conditions and Collins excelled.
I’ve covered three Kennedy Award winners during my seven seasons in Mookie Collier (Bluefield), Judah Price (Independence) and Atticus Goodson (Independence). I’m comfortable saying Collins is a better football player than Goodson was, which isn’t a slight against Goodson but a testament to how good Collins is.
Sure, Collins is a smaller player at 5-foot-8 on a good hair day but when you can play, you can play. It’s past time for DI schools to get on board.
Gold Stars
Chance Barker, Princeton – Barker has thrown for over 1,700 yards with 23 touchdown passes after a 300-yard, five touchdown pass performance against Hurricane. At the current pace he’ll shatter Grant Cochran’s single-season passing records before the end of the regular season.
Brandan Isaac, Summer County – Isaac broke Summers’ single-game passing yard record with 368 yards in a dominant showing against Sherman. He’s over 1,400 yards on the season now.
Kaiden Simms, Meadow Bridge – A 402-yard performance rushing performance with six touchdowns to boot? Who says the running game is dead?
Ethan Holliday, Greenbrier West – Four catches including the two on the final drive of the half and a two-point conversion run in addition to what he did on defense? Remarkable.
The Independence Defense – I thought Independence would win this one. I didn’t think the Patriots would blank Westside. The Renegades came into the game above .500, hoping to make some noise against an Indy team reeling from consecutive losses and they left empty handed.
Oak Hill – The Red Devils are quietly 5-1 with a manageable schedule on the back end. The playoffs could be in store for first-year head coach Davon Marion who has generated much excitement in his old stomping grounds of Fayette County.
Wyoming East – When you’re losing every game in blowout fashion it’s demoralizing. The Warriors bucked that trend with a win over Richwood Friday. Twenty years after posting the only winless season in school history, the 2023 team has avoided that fate.
The Phillies – After an easy wildcard series it’s time to send the Braves packing again.
Fred Simon, Bluefield – Simon picked up his 299th career victory in Friday’s homecoming win over PikeView. The watch for 300 has officially begun.
Closing Thoughts
Hurricane’s Noah Vellaithambi has turned lemons into lemonade.
For those that don’t know he was at George Washington his freshman year and transferred to Hurricane after it became evident the Patriots were going with Abe Fenwick at QB. He quarterbacked the Redskins to a state semifinal appearance last year and did well, throwing for 2,399 yards to go with 27 touchdown passes.
Almost any school would take those numbers at QB but he was the bridesmaid again this season when Marshall commit JacQai Long showed up on campus and took the starting job at QB.
Vellaithambi responded by eventually buying in and after a few games found a home at running back.
In a comeback win against Spring Valley he rushed for 272 yards and five touchdowns. Against Princeton he added 285 yards and four more scores. It doesn’t feel like an overstatement to say Hurricane would be sitting at 2-3 had Vellaithambi not accepted his new role.
Princeton head coach Keith Taylor admitted that he thought on a roster loaded with DI talent that the junior running back was the one player his team needed to stop. His belief was that Vellaithambi was playing with the purpose of showing his worth which made him the most dangerous player on the field. He played like it, breaking tackle after tackle and often requiring gang tackles to be brought down.
Taylor thought that the breakout performance against Spring Valley was the worst thing that could’ve happened to his team because it opened the eyes of Hurricane’s coaching staff in regards to what Vellaithambi could do with more touches as a runner. He was probably right and hoped his team could jump out to a three- or four-score lead and force Hurricane to the airing away from junior runner. The Tiger got halfway there before Vellaithambi’s 35-yard touchdown run cut the deficit in half at 14-7.
Hurricane isn’t going to garner much sympathy because of the influx of transfers over the last two years (which I don’t think matters) but Vellaithambi’s story has been a neat one to watch unfold over the first half of the season.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
