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4A TOC Final 4 - 2012 Briar Woods v. 2013 Dinwiddie

Who was the better team? Who advances to the final?

  • #1 2012 Briar Woods

    Votes: 4 30.8%
  • #2 2013 Dinwiddie

    Votes: 9 69.2%

  • Total voters
    13
  • Poll closed .

CRF4Dan

Richmond Region Football Writer
Staff
Dec 17, 2012
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Mechanicsville, VA
Half of the final is set with the 1998 Salem advancing to the final... Who will join them? Will it be the 2012 Briar Woods team or the 2013 Dinwiddie team? Who was the better team?
 
BW and Dinwiddie should be the final two. Each stomps Salem. They were beasts and come from a completely different football era than the Spartans. Salem wouldn't even know what hit them.

I give the overall nod to Dinwiddie. The defense was exceptional and no 4A team could stop Ladarius Williams. Nobody. He was the reason they won the Championship and why no one else was even close. All due respect to the rest of the Generals that year.
 
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BW and Dinwiddie should be the final two. Each stomps Salem. They were beasts and come from a completely different football era than the Spartans. Salem wouldn't even know what hit them.

I give the overall nod to Dinwiddie. The defense was exceptional and no 4A team could stop Ladarius Williams. Nobody. He was the reason they won the Championship and why no one else was even close. All due respect to the rest of the Generals that year.
The '98 Salem team would not have been stomped by '12 Briar Woods or '13 Dinwiddie. Certainly the 2 latter teams were very impressive, could probably have won at any level those years, or any year for that matter. Before you completely dismiss a team that you never saw you should know the '98 Salem squad shutout 9 of their 14 opponents, the following year they shutout 7 of their opponents. So they were 28-0 & shutout 16 of their opponents. They beat the 3A champ 40-14 during the regular season. I'm not saying Salem would have beaten either BW or Din, but they would not have been stomped as you put it either. There's no way to match them up now but that's my 2 cents.

I do expect Dinwiddie or Briar Woods to "win" the TOC. Btw, I really liked the idea for this tournament Dan, great job!

I messaged DinwiddieProud at the beginning of the TOC & told him I thought the top 5 teams in 4A the last 30 years were (in no particular order) '12 Briar Woods, '13 Dinwiddie, '98 Salem, '07 Amherst, & '14 Lake Taylor. Pretty spot on with the way the "Tournament" ended up. Keep up the good work Dan, I like the creativity, especially when we're all going crazy waiting for our Friday Night Lights fix.
 
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Salem 1998 is the best AA squad ever. I don't know how else to say deal with it but yea, deal with it. Blanked 3 of 4 playoff teams, 9 of 14 teams overall, allowed 63 total points on the season. Enormous team across the board, D1 size at virtually any position on the field. It legit looked like Salem fielded a college team when they got off the bus. OL averaged 6'3 280lb and was bigger than the Denver Broncos' OL that year. Defense dictated games like a grandmaster playing chess with a 3 year old. Lafayette's '98 squad probably wins state a whole bunch of other years. Lafayette featured 1x 2,000 yard rusher and 2x 1,000 yard rushers and offense averaging 46ppg and over 450 yards on the ground; they finished with season lows in scoring(18), rushing(147 yards), total offense(about 300 yards lower than their average) and the 2,000 yard rusher had 59 yards on 15 carries. The 28 scored by Salem was a season-high allowed by Lafayette, too.

I let the bias run free on this one, that squad was simply the best.
 
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Salem 1998 is the best AA squad ever. I don't know how else to say deal with it but yea, deal with it. Blanked 3 of 4 playoff teams, 9 of 14 teams overall, allowed 63 total points on the season. Enormous team across the board, D1 size at virtually any position on the field. It legit looked like Salem fielded a college team when they got off the bus. OL averaged 6'3 280lb and was bigger than the Denver Broncos' OL that year. Defense dictated games like a grandmaster playing chess with a 3 year old. Lafayette's '98 squad probably wins state a whole bunch of other years. Lafayette featured 1x 2,000 yard rusher and 2x 1,000 yard rushers and offense averaging 46ppg and over 450 yards on the ground; they finished with season lows in scoring(18), rushing(147 yards), total offense(about 300 yards lower than their average) and the 2,000 yard rusher had 59 yards on 15 carries. The 28 scored by Salem was a season-high allowed by Lafayette, too.

I let the bias run free on this one, that squad was simply the best.
How do you think they would have done against the spread and the speed? Both things they had never seen before. It's like saying the Lombardi Packers could have beaten today's Patriots. The game is very different than it was over 15 years ago. Both offensively and defensively. They would never have known what hit them. IMO.

Doesn't make anyone wrong and I appreciate your choice. IMO, if the 2015 Spartans plays LT tomorrow, they lose. But LT lost in the game that matters. So much for my opinions.
 
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It's hard to measure what teams from different generations would do against each other. There are better athletes and more speed on the field in the modern years. Or maybe not better , just more of it.
 
It's hard to measure what teams from different generations would do against each other. There are better athletes and more speed on the field in the modern years. Or maybe not better , just more of it.

Agreed. And generally speaking, the present playoff system does a better job of competing the top teams against each other. Using this rational, today's championship teams are a little more battle tested.

But, I've always felt that comparing teams more than a couple of years apart in years is an exercise in futility.
 
I didn't realize how extraordinary Dinwiddie's 2013 team was until I saw the very good teams since struggle to get back to Lynchburg. I would say that 2013 team was a "once in a generation" team, and I may never see that level of a team out of Dinwiddie again. But then, they had two "500 year" floods in Petersburg, three years apart! So there is hope.

But you are right, the last three 4a Champs have really been something.
 
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The '98 Salem team would not have been stomped by '12 Briar Woods or '13 Dinwiddie. Certainly the 2 latter teams were very impressive, could probably have won at any level those years, or any year for that matter. Before you completely dismiss a team that you never saw you should know the '98 Salem squad shutout 9 of their 14 opponents, the following year they shutout 7 of their opponents. So they were 28-0 & shutout 16 of their opponents. They beat the 3A champ 40-14 during the regular season. I'm not saying Salem would have beaten either BW or Din, but they would not have been stomped as you put it either. There's no way to match them up now but that's my 2 cents.

I do expect Dinwiddie or Briar Woods to "win" the TOC. Btw, I really liked the idea for this tournament Dan, great job!

I messaged DinwiddieProud at the beginning of the TOC & told him I thought the top 5 teams in 4A the last 30 years were (in no particular order) '12 Briar Woods, '13 Dinwiddie, '98 Salem, '07 Amherst, & '14 Lake Taylor. Pretty spot on with the way the "Tournament" ended up. Keep up the good work Dan, I like the creativity, especially when we're all going waiting for our Friday Night Lights fix.

Mike it did not go completely the way I had hoped. I was hoping for more debate between between fans such as yourself who know these teams better than I do. That said, I also know a lot of people tune out of the messageboards this time of year. With so many "fun" march madness brackets however across the web, I just thought this would be something fun to do since we are always debating who was a better team. Next year I'll have to do something a bit more creative which believe it or not, I'm already coming up with ideas on.

As far as the 98' Salem team... I know that 2013 Dinwiddie was the real deal but from what I've heard of the 98' Salem team, I think it would be a whale of a game and I'm with you, I don't think it would be a stomping.
 
I guess one of the good things about these types of debates is there is never a final answer. It's like infinity. You can always say "+1".

Speaking of math, has anyone seen or heard from Matt Gilliam in resent months?
 
The '98 Salem team would not have been stomped by '12 Briar Woods or '13 Dinwiddie. Certainly the 2 latter teams were very impressive, could probably have won at any level those years, or any year for that matter. Before you completely dismiss a team that you never saw you should know the '98 Salem squad shutout 9 of their 14 opponents, the following year they shutout 7 of their opponents. So they were 28-0 & shutout 16 of their opponents. They beat the 3A champ 40-14 during the regular season. I'm not saying Salem would have beaten either BW or Din, but they would not have been stomped as you put it either. There's no way to match them up now but that's my 2 cents.

I do expect Dinwiddie or Briar Woods to "win" the TOC. Btw, I really liked the idea for this tournament Dan, great job!

I messaged DinwiddieProud at the beginning of the TOC & told him I thought the top 5 teams in 4A the last 30 years were (in no particular order) '12 Briar Woods, '13 Dinwiddie, '98 Salem, '07 Amherst, & '14 Lake Taylor. Pretty spot on with the way the "Tournament" ended up. Keep up the good work Dan, I like the creativity, especially when we're all going crazy waiting for our Friday Night Lights fix.
We will never know
 
I guess one of the good things about these types of debates is there is never a final answer. It's like infinity. You can always say "+1".

Speaking of math, has anyone seen or heard from Matt Gilliam in resent months?

Gilliam is still alive and well. He is on my facebook and he does a lot of posting there but not much on football these days.
 
Gilliam is still alive and well. He is on my facebook and he does a lot of posting there but not much on football these days.
Thanks, glad to hear that. I know he was facing some health issues, so I'm glad to know he is doing well.
 
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