Before the season started I predicted:
Erwin should get RB #6 involved RUNNING, he is young but has talent. NB WR's now play defense. Do not throw to #4's side of the field. I would flip Erwin #7 to the other side and dominate the smaller CB. You hear me Bucky?
Asheville wins. They threw 4 times last week, maybe they'll throw it 5 times.
ACR wins.
Asheville has thrown the ball less than 14 times in the last 2 games combined! I would be willing to bet you Brewer is averaging close to 30 yards per touch offensively. Having him change positions on defense is really going to help out in the event we play Reynolds or weddington again.
As for number 6 for Erwin, I agree with you completely. They have done a terrible job of getting him touches. You look at the box scores after the games and it will say he had like 4 carries, 2 catches? I have heard rumblings of him possibly wanting to transfer from a pretty reliable source too or at least being unhappy with his lack of touches. Obviously Asheville High would love to have him. He wouldn't have any trouble getting the ball with us and what is the upside to staying at Erwin? So he can stick around and watch Damien Ferguson throw the ball 65 times a game his senior year and work on his pass protection? The kid could be a monster if he is given more carries. He needs to come to Asheville High and be our next great tailback. We may waste our wide receivers, but we damn sure don't waste our runningbacks. That's my sales pitch and I'm sticking to it.
As for this week. Lets start with Erwin and North Buncombe. If I would have told you August 1st that the game of the week in Week 10 of the MAC would be North Buncombe at Erwin, people would have called me crazy. Erwin is the better team, but this could go either way if Erwin doesn't play well. Is it true that the NB "preseason all state WR" has 0 touchdowns?? How can you be all state and not be a top 5 WR in your conference? Anyway... Erwin lost to Mount Paran, Ooltewah, Science Hill and Reynolds...BUT they were a 4th and 12 at midfield away from losing to Franklin with a minute left and won that. They were in an unfathomable scoreless tie with Enka in the 3rd quarter and won that. They were down I believe by double digits in the 4th quarter to McDowell and won that. They were down 28-7 to TC Roberson last week and pulled that one out too. Now either they are playing incredibly sloppy or they are one of the coolest teams under pressure around. It could be a little of both, but it has to be very concerning to know they are a play or two away from being 2-7 this season. This is one of those games where they could win 42-7 and it wouldn't surprise me, but I also could see them losing this. Erwin needs to worry about Blake Matthews primarily and NB needs to worry about Chase Austin. Erwin 34-27.
TC Roberson brings their "Family" jerseys to Asheville high this week. The last time we played Roberson at home 2 years ago we won by 7 and were nothing short of terrible. Luckily this Roberson team isn't as good as that team. We need to continue to work on the passing game, which im sure we wont and wrap up on defense. Like AHSDYNASY said, our last 2 games were against McDowell and Enka, but the score could have literally been 80-0 in both games. I was really surprised with the McDowell game. I thought with their QB breaking every single one of their school records, they would at least give us a little trouble, but I don't think they had 30 yards of offense through 3 quarters. I pray to God we don't throw the ball 5-6 times like we did the past 2 weeks. We cant just throw it a hand full of times in these easier games and then in 5 weeks just think we are going to open it up and throw it 25 times against a good playoff team. But im not a coach so what the hell do I know? Also, that TC linebacker needs to come to Asheville high for his senior year. Nobody wants to finish their career with 400 tackles and 17 wins in 4 years. Asheville 24-7 if Roberson comes to play, Asheville 49-7 if Asheville comes to play.
McDowell at Reynolds: Not really much to say about this one. I was shocked at how easily Asheville dominated the Titans last week. I mean, there was never even a point where McDowell had anything going. Doing score comparisons, this one should be another blowout. Keep Rico upright and its over maybe after the first quarter. Reynolds 45-7
*Obviously my Cougars haven't played everyone in the MAC yet and I fully expect Erwin to give us a game in the final week of the regular season, but as I see it right now, its seems like Asheville and Reynolds are by far the best 2 teams in WNC. If you were making a top 10 list it would be Reynolds 1, Asheville 2 and then there is a big gap from 2-3. Then again there was a big gap between 1 and 2 on October 2.
