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?
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.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.
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.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.
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.
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.
We will never knowThe '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.
Wikki that 2007 Amherst team was something else too. After GW beat them in 06 and they inserted Peter in at QB, they were literally UNBEATABLE. It was a treat watching them. Glad Amherst is getting back to their winning ways. I really think a lot of that program!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?
Thanks, glad to hear that. I know he was facing some health issues, so I'm glad to know he is doing well.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.