My philosophy about posting on here is, and always has been, never put down another teams' players, another team or another school. This post is not about another teams' player, their team or another school. It is about "my" team.
Mt Airy won last night. That is it. We won. And for that, yes, we are happy, I am happy. But I am more relieved than happy.
What I see, and said after the Wythe High School scrimmages at the first of the season and after the second game, is:
1. Mt Airy does not have a head coach. We have a caretaker. In every crucial situation this season he has not been at the fore front.
OMG do we miss JK Adkins!!!
2. Mt Airy is not quite as talented as last year, but we are talented enough to win the State Championship, if, and only if, we use that talent correctly. We did not last night, and have not all season. It was just not glaring until last night.
QB play is good 1 play out of 10, maybe. Decent in 3 out of 10, and horrible the rest of the time.
There is a really good QB on the team. He obviously is not being used in that capacity and, in my opinion, being wasted at a receiver position and being used only as a decoy.
3. Mt Airy has 5 really talented offensive players (beside Taeshon Martin) that are not being utilized in any significant way. The end result of this is two fold: to over work the one great talent (in addition to the other 5) that is being used and over working him to the point of reducing his effectiveness and exposing him to needless injury. This allows the other team to concentrate their defense on stopping him and ignore the others. Last night the majority of the night, Starmount had 9 or 10 players lined up, in the box, to stop "one" Mt Airy player!
4. Mt Airy has all but thrown out the "option" and gone to a one back set. Why? Not because we do not have the running backs, but apparently because the QB can not run the option. But their is another QB option that could run it to perfection and has in previous years.
The conclusion that comes to mine is that playing that one person in that one position is more important than preparing the team to win the State Championship a third straight time.
5. Defense is carrying the team. Totally. Full Stop. (Or the Mt Airy team just plain and simply has so much more talent than the other team).
6. Discipline (or rather the lack of it) killed, I would guess, nearly half of the offensive drives last night. The same player committed the same flag offense two plays in a row. No taking him out of the game. No verbal coaching instruction that could be seen.
Sometimes their were as many as 3 offensive plays in a row with some type of flag either during the play or after the play. One time we had a flag killing a great play and then another Dead Ball Flag. Talk about destroying field position!
Discipline is obviously not something that is on anybody's mind.
7. Conditioning is also a problem. Cramps all over the place last night. It was not a hot night temperature wise and this was the 6th week of the season.
People, if the other team is just plain and simply better than we are, we get beat. OK that is life. No big deal. BUT, with no unkindness intended to Starmount, Mt Airy was 3 to 4 touchdowns better. After the first offensive play of the game, Starmount achieved ONE, yes 1, first down until the last quarter, when Mt Airy went to a prevent defense, which just played into a talented Starmounts' hands.
If Mt Airy wants to win, or even have a chance to play for a State Championship, somebody or several somebodies on the Coaching Staff better have a real hard look in the mirror and decide what adjustments need to be made. Now is the time to make those adjustments, with Mt Airy entering the easiest part of the regular season.
