Well now that we are all out of the playoffs, I think we can go ahead and say for certain that we all underachieved greatly. When teams down east make fun of mountain football, its seasons like this that they point to.
McDowell: Kudos to them for making the playoffs, but that is the extent of their accomplishments this year. 0 playoff wins this year.
TC Roberson: Roberson was terrible, but in their defense they were competitive with Erwin and Asheville, although this year that doesn't say much. I thought the coaches son Deal would be a good qb but I heard a rumor he could be leaving? That could be bad. They gave 71st a good game in the playoffs but its still hard to see a team with that much size be 3-9. 0 playoff wins in 2015
Erwin: Some peoples pick to win the MAC. Returned a qb who had a great sophomore year. Many of us thought this was a year with Austin coming back and the addition of a tougher schedule, they would be prepared to make a run in the playoffs. The schedule did them no favors in the end and they came in second in the MAC and easily could have finished the year 6-6. Mike Sexton I believe has been at Erwin for 8 years and have 6 playoff wins. That's absolutely shocking. 0 playoff wins in 2015.
Asheville: The mountains unanimous number 1 preseason team for the MAC and for WNC. Returned a major D1 tackle and a tailback who finished his career with 4,000 rushing yards. This team just never had the drive all year. It is a shame too because to this day I still believe they had the most talent in the mountains. A lazy team who wanted to be tough after the whistle blew or after the game and will go down as the most underachieving team Danny Wilkins has coached. No excuse for a team with that much talent to not blow out most of their opponents on their schedule. Should have lost to Carver, should have lost even worse to Reynolds, very easily could have lost to a 3-9 Roberson team and displayed one of the worst perfomances in Asheville history against Erwin at home on senior night. On the road in the first round for the 3rd time in the last 15 years. 0 playoff wins in 2015.
AC Reynolds: I cant believe I am writing this one because after they beat the hell out of us, people were talking about this team as a state champion contender (and after that I believed they were). Started the season with a good win by 3 over a good West Forsyth team and showed a little chink in the armor in week 4 by giving up 57 points to Shelby. Some of us Asheville fans said the mountains sucked this year after they beat us and Erwin and I understand how that could have sounded like sour grapes, but in the end I think it ended up being true. Reynolds absolutely destroyed everybody in the regular season after the first game with the exception of Shelby, but in my eyes there was something wrong with Dowdle getting every touchdown. It was almost comical to see Reynolds winning 56-7 every week and Dowdle having 6 touchdowns every game. He is a terrific player, one of the best to ever come out of the mountains of NC, but I really think their reliance on him was ultimately to their detriment. All year long the recipe was to just stop rico, when ideally you would want multiple guys to count on in the event Dowdle did eventually get contained. I thought Logan would have been a much bigger part of their offense, but all year it was "Dowdle left, Dowdle right, Dowdle up the middle." For Reynolds to average 50 points a game and Logan to finish the season the season with about 1,100 rushing yards, tells you all you need to know. A very very disappointing ending to the 2015 season being held to 21 points at home after scoring 73 the week prior. I thought for sure I would be going to Crest next Friday for an epic game, but weddington finally did what nobody else could do, holding dowdle to a shocking 6 first half rushing yards. Truth be told, WEddington probably should have won last night by 14+ given the fact they had 4 turnovers and 2 missed field goals. That game vs Weddington last night was symbolic of MAC football this year....a big disappointment.1 playoff win in 2015 for Reynolds while ranked number 3 in the AP poll.
Lets hope we can do a little better in 2016 because as a whole we all greatly underachieved to put it nicely.
*Also, just a side note since there were so many conversations this season comparing Dowdle to past great skill players from the mountain. Crezdon Butler finished his high school career with 17 playoff wins as a starter for Asheville High. I believe Rico dowdle had 1.
