Friday, October 19, 2007

Ask... receive. You know how it goes.

Someone asked where's the football?

Here's a little tidbit before you get out to those varsity games tonight: After this evening, I'll have seen every football team in the county play (with the exception of Coast Union and the 8-man teams. Apologies to T.J. Nelson)

I've decided from now until the end of the season, I'm going to playfully pick the winners of each of the remaining games we preview right here on the blog.

It should be fun. It'll give me a chance to talk some more football. It'll give you the chance to call me a moron. And it'll give you all the chance to weigh in on the matchups on the record for yourselves!

Yeah, I've noticed the trash talk has picked up a little here, but as long as we all keep it clean, it's all in good fun.

I'm just not sure what day I'll be posting the picks. Stay tuned.

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to the Hounds from a SLO Dad. Fine defense. Perfectly executed play for your first TD. Also, I found the parents, coaches and players of Atascadero to be good folks, not the beasts they were made to be. We don't give up here at SLO, so lessons learned and we are a better, stronger team for playing the Hounds. So no trash talk from SLO town here. It's all good County football.

Anonymous said...

Just curious, who made them out to be beasts?

Anonymous said...

You know, these PAC-7 teams are tough, but I honestly think that they're not the "beasts", even Atascadero, that they're being made out to be. If all the LPL teams matched up against all the PAC-7 teams, I bet you'd find that the LPL is a physically tougher and more skilled league than the PAC-7. Does the PAC-7 have such extreme standouts(note extreme, as in, superior, not standouts, like the Atascadero running backs, or Paso runningbacks, e.t.c.) such as Logan Budd from Morro Bay or Ben Terry from Templeton? Or how about the defense of St. Joseph, Morro Bay, Pioneer Valley, or especially Templeton? And in terms of being physically tougher, take a look at the defensive fronts of Templeton, Pioneer, St. Joe's Morro Bay, and Nipomo! In my eyes, the LPL is a much tougher league than the PAC-7.

Anonymous said...

All speculation on what would happen if LPL teams played PAC-7. High school football is strange at times. Different teams match up differently. After playing against Atas all I can say is they have a solid formula to win games. They control the clock, run tough even if it is only a few yards a carry, the defense is complete and they bring the athletes to execute it. Can they be beat? Yep, but the stars will have to align just right for some team. SLO had the defense to compete with Atas offense but couldn't get anything on the other side of the ball. That is a credit to A towns D. Any LPL team would fall to the Hounds beause they put 11 stars on the field on both sides of the ball. Not just a handfull like a LPL school have.

Anonymous said...

You can not be serious! The strength of the programs in the Pac-7 is a different breed than that in the LPL! Why do you think that they had to re-configure the league a few years back. The power simply lies in the Pac-7....Paso Robles, San Luis, Righetti, and Atascadero would physically wear down teams like a Morro Bay or a Templeton. If you look at the Pac-7 teams there are not a lot of two way starters like a Budd or Terry. The offensive and defensive units are fresh for every series. In the Pac-7 you have the standout teams more than the standout individuals! Look at the preseason and the quality teams that the Pac-7 faces then look at the LPL preseason.... it's a different ball game.... Atascadero and Paso Robles are playing big schools from out of the area...Templeton plays nobody even close to LPL league competition... Morro Bay plays who????.... Nipomo who?????... Their schedules are soft! The Los Padres Leagues top two teams might finish with a fourth or at best third place record in the Pac-7. Shoot look at what Lompoc has done since reentering the Pac-7... a whole lot of nothing! Lompoc would still be a power house in the LPL! I know you said that "In my eyes, the LPL is a much tougher league than the PAC-7." but seriously you either need glasses or just plain and simple open your eyes!

Anonymous said...

Just to clarify "Beasts" I had heard tha Atascadero fans were mean and arrogant and I found this NOT to be true after talking with some of them at the game and even a A-town coach. They are just proud parents. A-twon players however are BEASTS on the field if you know what I mean. But then we have a few BEASTS on the Tigers as well. Can you see a "Dominant ALL STAR team from the PAC-7" destroying an all star team from the Los Padres League? I can.

Anonymous said...

I've been posting most of the comments throughout these blog bulletins......I'm from Atown and would like to say that we don't have beef with SLO, SLO is a very respectable town in this county....we do have beef with Paso because they talk alot of s**t whether their team is worth a damn or not....so we have no problem talkn back and when we beat them it really makes them look bad....now with AG we don't really have beef with them unless someone comes out talkn crazy....and righetti and Lompoc we're cool with.

With that said I would like to give credit to SLO's D, although Atascadero lost 4 fumbles really quickly.....SLO still did a great job keeping Atown from moving the ball like they have.....SLO's D would always have 4 guys at our running back so it was much tougher than usual to get first downs.

As far as the PAC-7 vs LPL comment....yeah that is definitely a crazy statement....lol it was like a cute little joke....I for one would love to see Atown or Paso or SLO play one of the LPL teams! lol......now with all jokes aside...I wouldn't mind seeing Morro Bay and Lompoc switch leagues.

Anonymous said...

overall, the LPL would tend to get hammered by the Pac-7.

It is unfortunate that there are not 1-2 games where the two leagues play each other.

This year especially it would have been nice to see Morro Bay & St. Joe play Atascaderro/SLO to measure up both the teams and players like Budd/Terry because Morro Bay has a once in a decade team and a couple of once in a decade players. When was the last time a player anywhere led in QB efficiency, throws ZERO interceptions to boot, a top five rusher, leads in interceptions on D, leads in field goals, leads in scoring, leads in punting average.

The play-offs will tell, if Morro Bay or St Joe can get to the finals, that's a statement enough.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm . . . when was the last time a SLO County QB got a ride to a D1 football program?

Anonymous said...

One player does not make a good team. We are all happy for the GREAT QB. But High School Football is not and should not be about supporting a single great player so HE can get a D1 ride. Look at A-town, a total team effort. SLO too. Who is the STAR on either of these teams? I don't know, who cares. You just made the point as to how weak a team can be that depends on a single player to be the whole team.

Anonymous said...

I notice a lot of people give there opinion but only have their feelings to back it up. If you go to Calpreps.com (I know i refer to this a lot) but it ranks schools and rates them on how good they are and there strength of schedule. It also does the same for leagues. In California, there are 168 leagues with the highest league getting a rating of 40 and the lowest a -37.9. The PAC 7 is ranked #27 with a rating of 18 and strength of schedule score of 10.2. The Los Padres league is ranked #63 with an average rating of 8 and a strength of schedule of 1.2. So the PAC-7 is definitely tougher. Here are the schools individually out of 1032 schools in the state. They are in order from highest ranked school with their league, the schools rating, and the last number is their schedule strength rating.
State Schedule
Rank HS/League Rating Strength
#46 AHS-Pac7 37.4 18.1
#110 MBHS-LPL 28.6 2.0
#122 PRHS-Pac7 27.4 9.0
#173 SLOHS-Pac7 23.7 16.8
#190 SJHS-LPL 22.7 3.8
#248 RHS-Pac7 18.1 13.3
#257 THS-LPL 17.3 11.1
#353 PVHS-LPL 12.1 8.4
#424 NHS-LPL 7.8 11.5
#450 LHS Pac7 6.7 10.8
#517 SYHS-LPL 3.8 6.6
#640 CHS-LPL -3.3 5.5
#657 AGHS-Pac7 -4.9 8.6
#931 SMHS-LPL -25.4 3.2

Anonymous said...

Great comments - and don't forget it's not about the leauge it's about the coach and the program he builds. I can recall back in the early 90s when the Hounds were winning all of their CIF titles under Larry Welsh they would use the then Northern leauge as a warmup for their LPL play. Atascadero would consistently beat up on AG, Reghetti, SLO and anybody else crazy enough to have them on their sched. It got so bad that SLO dropped A-town for a while because they were tired of getting their butts kicked on a regular basis from those "beasts" over the hill.
When Larry left in '96 the program at Atascadero started its downward spiral; 2 years of Greg Ausbury followed by a lack luster tenure form Sam DeRose and the once mighty Greyhound dynasty was relegated to sweeping the floors in the basement of the newly created PAC5 (yeah we started as the PAC 5 remember?)
The Greyhounds didn't win their first Pac 5 game until 2005!

Vic Cooper didn't win one leauge game in 2004!! and just 2 in 05, but he began to build back the program at Atascadero. Cooper has improved the program each and every year - starting with a strength program secound to none in the entire state- Trust me, a lot of D1 schools would be envious of Atascadero's new state-of-the-art weight room.
Programs take years to build and Cooper has the Greyhound back!
So while conversations spring up about one leauge being able to compete with another wihtin our county, just remember that it's not about the leauge, or even the school that enables one team to compete with another - it's all about he coach and the program he builds!

Anonymous said...

I was merely asking the question about local quarterbacks moving on to the next level, not making any point. However, since you put forth the assertion, I went ahead and looked up the stats (so nicely available at the Trib website). Morro Bay is second to Paso in scoring with 35 touchdowns, of those Budd had 11. For rushing, the team is second to Atascadero with over 2000 yards, of which Budd contributed 773. And finally, Morro Bay is first among teams on interceptions, Budd and another player tied at 4 and the rest spread around the defense. Sure, he is their QB and kicker, but Morro Bay is full of talented players this year. There are several better examples of local teams dependent on 1 or 2 individuals for their success.

Anonymous said...

What other local teams are dependent on 1 or 2 individuals?

Strength of competition........
Wake up MB. Let's see how you do in the playoffs. Or for that matter against St. Joe.........

I have to agree with the building concept of football. Great teams are made off season over many years starting often before 9th grade. Again Atascadero is the model. Especially when you consider they don't have the lagest enrollment at the High School.

At our school we have a core group of kids that have always worked hard off season but not the number that A-town has working out. You can tell who these kids are on the field.

Anonymous said...

What other local teams?

Why don't we start with model Atascadero, where one player is reponsible for 45% of all touchdowns . . or Righetti, where one player accounts for 60% of the rushing yardage . . and let's not forget Coast Union where one player alone has 77% of the rushing and 50% of the touchdowns.
Looking at the stats, I would say that Paso has probably done the best job of spreading out both the scoring and yardage to many good players.

Anonymous said...

How can you say one player? So no one is blocking on these teams? Give some credit to the O line. Being dependent on a QB is a risk to the team. Atascadero can run with any number of the good backs they have. Look up the stats. Also, a team can't score if the defense doesn't get them the ball back.

Anonymous said...

Some one made the comment that it starts even before these guys 9th grade year. I strongly believe that to be true. Both Atascadero and Paso Robles have very strong youth programs. This year Atascadero fell quit a bit at that level... the last two years they had made it to the Central Coast Youth Football Superbowl....this year they only won two games.... But Paso Has been dominate both last year and this year! The Bearcats have rolled off 17 wins in a row...they went 11 and 0 last year to beat Atascadero in the Superbowl and this year have a great 6-0 start. I would say that this is a great feat in our county. The coaching staff at that level for Paso is uncompariable... they have their kids focused and composed. On top of being the better team in the league they also play with great sportsmanship...my hats off to that great coaching staff! Look for Paso to even get stronger in the next couple of years!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I have seen that paso team play and they are very well coached. They have a young group of coaches who all have CIF rings. If i were schimke i would be looking over my shoulder... making sure those guys don't snag your job if you screw things up this year!
The one thing i want to point out is that at the younger level those guys aren't getting pay checks to coach... Thank you to all youth football coaches for donating your time to help our youth learn the basics of our county's favorite game!

Anonymous said...

You say Atascadero has a small enrollment, when Templeton has barely 750, yet consistantly beats up opponents with more than 1,500 students.

And as for spreading it around, Terry as 8 touchdowns, three other players(two RBs, and Bogart, the QB) have 5 touchdowns, one RB has 4, and two more have 3.

Also, the losses are much closer than it seems. Against MB, they were on MB's 5 when Budd intercepted a bobbled pass, with less than 2 minutes to go.

Against St. Joe's, it went to overtime, where an extra point was missed.

And both games had Templeton give up two or more turnovers inside the opposing 10.

LPL teams spread it around more than you think, and by the way, Templeton leads the county in touchdowns.

Anonymous said...

No one is comparing Templeton to Atascadero. There is no comparison. The Hounds are a far more powerful and skilled team then Templeton. For a PAC-7 team there enrollment is on the low end. And giving up turnovers is not an excuse for loosing. Atas made no excuses about the SLO game. They just kept bringing it until they won. I never heard them once say it would have blown SLO out if they didn't gumble 4 times. They owned it like men and won anyway.

Anonymous said...

The opinion being put out there is that LPL teams are dependant on one to two players - not true. Check the number of MB RBs with high averages. It's more than the QB, dude.

Long is a more probable D-1 player than the QB, anyway.

Again, it's too bad MB or St. Joe's doesn't play Atascaderro, especially this year. To see how their defense stacks up, especially when they would stack the line to test Atas. passing.

Other than Templeton, no one has really challenged MB's defense when it counted.

While the Pac-7 is generally a better talented league, this year the top 3 LPL teams could hold their own against the top of the Pac-7.

Anonymous said...

So true. Why so many excuses? If, if, if. If only I had worked out off season. If only we didn't go that party on thursday.
You WIN or LOSE, No if, No could have been, No what if I had.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Morro Bay is an excellent team. I think they are even better then any of us think. But in High School football wins are not a sure thing. Kids have issues and don't always play the same each week. I just want to see them play hard and come out safe each week.

Anonymous said...

A agree 100% with anonymous! That guy knows what he is talking about when it comes to high school football.

Anonymous said...

Not just high school for issues. College and the pros too.

UCLA goes in the tank against ND (ok, so losing 2 QBs had a lot to do with it) and Utah big time, but then their Defense shuts down better teams. Go figure.

Anonymous said...

Hey Scrog-dawg where are your picks for this week??

I want to hear from the group on this weeks' match ups too....

A-Town hosts Righetti...
Warriors always play Atas tough. Last year the greyhounds squeaked by with a 17-13 win, Warriors worry me -more than Paso!
I know crazy to think, but an upset might me in the air Friday night in Atascadero.

Paso heads to AG and should have little to no problem with a struggling Eagle team this year.
Go ahead and take the week off Bearcats -you need to start focusing on the Atascadero game instead!

SLO will get their offense back in gear and score early and often in Lompoc- Yes, they are a better team for playing Atas tough last week.

What about the LPL?

Cabarillo at Morro Bay -

Tempeton takes on Pioneer Valley and St.Joe v Santa Ynez

so let me hear from some true County High School Football afficiandos on what's going to go down this Friday night!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Honestly. Why can't they play ONE non-league game against the other league each year? It would be great for local football. Atas vs MB, Paso vs Templeton and SLO vs St. Joe..........

Anonymous said...

Scroggs, you're running out of time, MAKE YOUR PICKS. Don't wait until Friday at 10:00 PM to decide.

Anonymous said...

Yes, leave us enough time to consider your picks before carefully wording our "you are a moron" comments.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Kick him out and hire one of the Paso Youth Football coaches.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Maybe Atascadero will take him back! After all he is a greyhound at heart! I used to play for him and used to hate the paso vs atascadero rivalry! he always tried to play it down and always to this day thinks that SLO should be more of a rivarly game that Atascadero when paso play! He inherited a great group of athlete when paso was winning all of their CIF championships.. it was not his coaching that got the job done. If any coaches deserve the creadit for paso success it is the defensive coach Alvord and the X Varsity coach Stansbury! Those two guys are football gods! Schimke is something else... I wouldn't even wish him upon atascadero! nobody needs a coach like that!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joshua D. Scroggin said...

OK, good discussions guys and girls, but we had to delete a few of the posts for foul language.

Lemme first say, I love reading the feedback. I appreciate it, and I hope for more.

We all love creativity. But please keep it clean. No four-letter bombs. No offensive terms.

Those whose messages were deleted, feel free to post again or e-mail me with any questions.

Anonymous said...

JOSH SCROGGIN:
I didn't post one of those 4 letter messages....but we are all adults here no kids will be on here....and this is football talk no virgin ears are on here....let us have fun lol

Anonymous said...

Aw it's alright we can only imagine the comment was based at someone who was ragging on Schimke.... it's hard not to describe the guy and not us a four letter word of some kind. I do have a four letter word that describes him very well and i can use on this board....he is a JOKE!

Joshua D. Scroggin said...

Hey, feel free to criticize. Have fun. I'm 100 percent behind free speech. But you gotta do better than vulgarities, that's all.

Rich might not like to see people calling for his job, but that's the nature of sports.

Still, The Tribune is not going to support or allow cursing or name-calling. So, please, keep the comments coming, but keep them clean.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm . . . when was the last time a SLO County QB got a ride to a D1 football program?

I think the next won will be paso robles sophmore starting quarterback tom bernall this kid is going to be good that is if he doesnt go in baseball he was allcounty as a freshmen WOW!!superstar

Anonymous said...

He doesn't pass enough. Paso will always be a run first team. Now if he played for SLO or Righetti and got to pass 50 times a game he would get a D1 ride. Only SLO and Righetti pass enough to showcase a QB. Look at his average yards per game. Give it up. Paso will never raise a D1 quarterback.