Just my opinion, but the 2 best 4A teams in the state were in the same conference
Congrats Salem/River Ridge Boyz
- Thread starter JOrndorff
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I was talking to a Blacksburg coach at the Salem/Sherando game and told him the same thing. Louisa is very, very good but I would say Blacksburg was the second best team.
The same way I think a top 2A school would do against a top 4A school: respectably. Asking for much more against programs like that is like asking how you'd think HSHS or Westfield would do against a Mater Dei or Allen team.
Random question but you could actually make an argument that 4A was close to 5A this year near the top. King's Fork beat 6A runner-up Oscar Smith and they didn't even make the 4A semi-finals. Dinwiddie handles Thomas Dale easily.
Again, pretty irrelevant but I do think 4A was very strong this year.
Gosh man you make NO sense. Last week you told me how much of an underdog Salem was, even though most who posted said otherwise (not voted in a poll). Now not only are we saying Louisa wasn't as good as a team you beat, but that the underdog would beat Highland Springs and Westfield by a TD.
I guess that underdog thing has worn off. I also saw the last part of the game after watching 2a game, Salem is quite a bit better than either of those 2 teams. But Salem wasn't 21 points better than Louisa. Louisa was about an inch away from potentially taking the lead, and leaving less time for the Spartans. When Salem got the ball, they would have scored though
Thank you. I'm actually not trying to be mean or anything, but it seems like at least this poster wanted it his way, to create the underdog role, and now wants everyone to think Salem is best. It can't be BOTH
Well it just doesn't make sense. And when others from Salem are calling him out it kind of proves the point.
I'm glad he is excited, he should be as all of Salem should be and I am sure is. But when you dig your heels in on something when everyone is saying the opposite, and then go overboard to the complete other side it begs the question
Blacksburg was at least as good as Dinwiddie and Louisa. Don't know who would have won , but would have been excellent games
I thought it was hard to think that Salem was the favorite when Salem had two losses and Louisa was undefeated with a win over Dinwiddie. However, Salem does rise to the occasion. After watching the games Salem was not 21 better than Louisa but I do think Salem wins seven if they play ten times. Ramsey the difference and Salem's ability to throw
After what happened in the regular season I assumed it was Dinwiddie vs Blacksburg, think that would have been a hell of a game. Blacksburg had excellent team speed, think they could have gashed Dinwiddie a bit with their O and vice versa.
Blacksburg and Dinwiddie would have been a hell of a match up. Who knows what would have happened there. Lots of speed and athletes on both sides. You saw them both in person so I would say you probably would know as good as anyone else.
Didn't see the Dinwiddie game but can't get away from the idea that Salem fumbled away a win against them only to get smacked by Blacksburg a couple weeks later. Not sure how Dinwiddie grew as the season went but Blacksburg seemed to be largely the same team the entire season. When Salem won in the POs it was their growth that won it. Blacksburg was close to their ceiling most of the year and mind you they were one point from going to semis where I think they'd have won and against Louisa it would be very interesting and close, I think, so they could have just as easily ended up winning back-to-back in my eyes. Blacksburg fans that want to claim #2 might not be wrong, I can't say for sure Salem would win the rubber match if there was one, Blacksburg gave them their toughest game of the POs.
It will be interesting to see how blacksburg is moving forward. Where do you find another Cole Beck? That was an anomaly. They would probably repeated in class 3 almost for certain this year and they were a point away from getting the opportunity to play In the Semi’s in class 4. Everything is speculation though the one source of truth is your Spartans are again king of the Hill.
I think they have a legitimately good coaching staff. They sometimes can get a little bit too outside of the box (Early last year when they were going for it on 4th every time, onside kicks, etc) but fundamentally they are actually very sound. They are losing some VERY good lineman on both sides of the ball along with Beck, Noah Ramsey, Vangilder and maybe one more. They still have some pretty solid athletes returning and were pretty strong JV and middle school. I can't imagine them having a team as talented as this one was in the future but they will certainly be solid.
They lose a lot of both sides of the line, I believe, that's going to kill them as much as losing Beck. They've still got Terry and a quality QB but there are 5* WRs who play on losing teams, that position can only hurt you so much. Tend to agree with Shabutie, they've upgraded with coaches but I think you'll see a noticeable dip next year and the following. Blacksburg used to be a punching bag so even a dip into 7-8 win territory is still a massive plus from most years. The door to #2 in the River Ridge is wide open most years with HV, CS, PH, PC, etc. just spinning their wheels in the mud most of the time.
