If you have personally seen both it would be interesting to hear from you. How will Millbrook handle the situation of playing Salem at Salem?
Has anyone seen both Millbrook and Salem?
- Thread starter southbottomU
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Haven't seen Salem play this year, but I have seen them play more than once in recent years and have seen Millbrook play in person twice this year. Millbrook in its history has never played a team like Salem. The closest I would say would be Sherando, Jefferson Forest, and LCA, but none of those programs have anything on Salem historically speaking. Their games against Briar Woods came before their championship level teams.
I think their experience playing JF last year might give them some idea of what it's like to play a top tier team in the playoffs on the road, but I think if Salem knocks them down early they won't be able to make a comeback. Millbrook has spurts of being a great team, but I've not seen anything from them to suggest they'll be able to put four quarters together against Salem. They had questionable play calling last night against Loudoun Valley which they got away with because they were by far the better team, but they won't get away with that next weekend.
If Salem can shut down Savon Smith they'll win this game handily. He was more of a threat against Valley and Sherando than Kier was, which surprised me. Sherando didn't have the speed to keep up with them, but if it weren't for poor special teams play they likely would have won that game regardless of those deficiencies. Salem is much, much faster than anyone (outside of maybe Woodgrove, I've not seen them in person) Millbrook has played this year, so they shouldn't have those issues on either side of the ball.
It's really hard to prepare any players to play on the road in a hostile environment like Salem, but some teams are more ready for it than others by virtue of past experience. Millbrook's players and staff don't have much experience with games like this, so I'd be surprised if they played with perfect composure.
All that said, Millbrook can score a lot of points really quickly if Salem isn't able to lock down their running game, so it would be unwise to underestimate them.
One thing I know for 100% certain is that many Millbrook fans will have a rude awakening if they expect to do to Salem what they've done to most of their other opponents this year. At the Loudoun Valley game I overhead more than a handful of conversations about how Salem wouldn't have any answer to their runners. Fans will be fans and they won't affect the game, but I thought it was amusing regardless.
I think their experience playing JF last year might give them some idea of what it's like to play a top tier team in the playoffs on the road, but I think if Salem knocks them down early they won't be able to make a comeback. Millbrook has spurts of being a great team, but I've not seen anything from them to suggest they'll be able to put four quarters together against Salem. They had questionable play calling last night against Loudoun Valley which they got away with because they were by far the better team, but they won't get away with that next weekend.
If Salem can shut down Savon Smith they'll win this game handily. He was more of a threat against Valley and Sherando than Kier was, which surprised me. Sherando didn't have the speed to keep up with them, but if it weren't for poor special teams play they likely would have won that game regardless of those deficiencies. Salem is much, much faster than anyone (outside of maybe Woodgrove, I've not seen them in person) Millbrook has played this year, so they shouldn't have those issues on either side of the ball.
It's really hard to prepare any players to play on the road in a hostile environment like Salem, but some teams are more ready for it than others by virtue of past experience. Millbrook's players and staff don't have much experience with games like this, so I'd be surprised if they played with perfect composure.
All that said, Millbrook can score a lot of points really quickly if Salem isn't able to lock down their running game, so it would be unwise to underestimate them.
One thing I know for 100% certain is that many Millbrook fans will have a rude awakening if they expect to do to Salem what they've done to most of their other opponents this year. At the Loudoun Valley game I overhead more than a handful of conversations about how Salem wouldn't have any answer to their runners. Fans will be fans and they won't affect the game, but I thought it was amusing regardless.
Millbrook is a very good football team if 23 is left to run in the open field, he can hurt you. Not crazy fast, but makes some of best cuts I have seen in a while and has great vision. doubt they got what it takes to beat any type of Salem teams we are accustomed to. But I have seen some crazy stuff over the years. #1 won't be much of a threat to Salem, because nobody pushes Salem around up front and between the tackles, usually. and that's where he only runs. Millbrook will hang in there for a while. Salem 42- 28 is my Millbrook friendly generous guess.
One of Millbrook's basketball coaches is from Salem. Wonder if he has given the coaches a lowdown on what sort of atmosphere to expect at Salem?
52 7 salem. millbrook only faced 2 teams over 500. give salems staff two weeks to prepare and the entire staff went to the game friday. running clock 2nd half
It is just a place. Good players don't play different because they are at a new location that they aren't used to.
Home-field kinda sorta doesn't exist in high school anyway imo. What you're talking about at this level is the luxury to not travel 3-4+ hours on a bus then get off and get prepped, to be able to sleep in (Saturday PO games), know your surroundings and be more comfortable. In college all of that is negated since they arrive a day early and the crowd makes the difference but no crowd (shush, all of you) at this level is consistently responsible, week after week and year after year, for penalties, mistakes, and a general sense of discomfort that causes teams to lose.There are undoubtedly louder crowds than Salem as we are not a particularly raucous bunch, but none that have the kids misfiring like you'd see in a major college stadium where 50-100x as many people are roaring down on them.
I can't earnestly think of a team Salem plays regularly where their field is a house of horrors and Salem Stadium is the sanctuary. Salem tends to win wherever you put them, that's what makes them Salem. Same likely goes for any program like Salem. I can't imagine an Amherst or an LT or a Dinwiddie is noticeably worse on the road than they are at home.
I can't earnestly think of a team Salem plays regularly where their field is a house of horrors and Salem Stadium is the sanctuary. Salem tends to win wherever you put them, that's what makes them Salem. Same likely goes for any program like Salem. I can't imagine an Amherst or an LT or a Dinwiddie is noticeably worse on the road than they are at home.
Don't you think Salem staff was wise enough to predict a Millbrook victory over Loudoun and to begin to prepare their team before it was official?
I honestly don't know if you are being serious. If you are then, no they would not do that. They wouldn't do that if it was a 4-6 team playing against a 10-0 team and they were playing the winner. They probably did take that time and run through some newer plays and ideas that they might want to try throughout the playoffs but none of the preparation last week would have been team-specific.
You're funny! Ummm...I'm taking a chance to prepare my team for the most likely opponent instead of spinning my wheels at practice. I'm running my offense against their defense and vice versa. I'm not waiting. It's a calculated risk, but if the outcome isn't as predicted, you're back to where you started anyways, plus you've had a week to condition and run plays.
In this type of situation, you spend a lot of time evaluating your own film and working on some things you want to implement on both sides of the ball in practice. I can guarantee you that the scout team was not simulating Milbrook on either side of the ball.
So you are telling me that Salem tried to guess at which team would win and practiced for that team early? As someone who played there, I find that impossible to believe.
Others have packed stadiums also and are much louder than Salem as far as the crowd goes. Actually Appomattox was as loud as I have anyone,
It doesn't really matter. Salem will be ready regardless. I just like to challenge assumptions...
I know Home field is great, but we prefer the road. Nothing like going into a hostile environment where everyone wants you to lose and walking out of there with a W.
Challenge assumptions? You guaranteed that I was wrong without any knowledge of the situation. You randomly made an assumption that the staff would try to guess which team would win and prepare ahead of time and to be honest, that is absurd.
I preferred road games myself. The atmosphere was usually better because opponents were trying to pull off the big home upset and even though Salem Stadium doesn't usually get very rowdy, the Salem fans that travel would get pretty into the game.
This honestly makes no sense from a coaching standpoint. You prepare for the team you have to play. You use the bye week to get healthy and sure up your own plays. Make sure your execution is great. There are but so many defenses a team can play so practice your plays against all defenses.
I can tell you this running the veer whatever we see teams run on film probably isn't what we are going to see on Friday. Usually whoever had some success slowing it down has provided video to whoever we are playing and they will be trying to imitate that defense most of the time. It happens just about every week because most teams are used to playing defense against the spread so that makes our preparation for the week even harder as we have to practice against EVERY defensive front. From 7-1 on down to your base 3-4.
In college we ran a very similar offense to what you guys run. Same thing when it comes to having to prep for basically any defensive front... including ones that you might have never seen or played against before.
It was also difficult on the other end to get our scout team to simulate the spread offenses that practically every other team was using. When all of your recruits on offense are being recruited to play in that a veer option you usually aren't going to have top-end passing quarterbacks and great receiving talent. Shoot, even the type of OL you recruit are not very suited to sit back and pass protect.
Second paragraph is not really relevant to the topic because very few high schools are able to have anything close to a competent scout team that can challenge the starters.
I did not randomly make an assumption. I know what occurred in practice and no I'm not a coach. I know I would simulate the stronger team's defense against my offense. Why not?
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Veer and single wing very hard to prepare for, but teams that can both run and pass are also hard to prepare for
Not an argument, a friendly debate...plus the fun part is Devils joined in on the discussion.
I think Salem's defense did a pretty good job of preparing for it last year. We'll have to see if this year's defense does the same.
For the love of God stop. And we wonder why people hate Salem fans.
You based an assumption off of what you, not being a coach, would do. I based my extremely likely assumption off of past experience and then a current coach at a high-level program said the same thing.
You are contradicting yourself in this very comment that I am quoting. You say essentially that you know what you would do and that, at the same time, you know what occurred in practice. If you knew what occurred in practice it wouldn't matter what you would do in the situation because you wouldn't be making an assumption.
In my opinion, a lot of defensive preparation comes through watching an opponent's film too. The more you study a team, the more prepared you'll be. Simulation is great but film study is important too.
Your statement is accurate but we were actually talking about how hard it is for the team running the veer to prepare for potential defenses they will face.
I'm saying I agree with what happened in practice. I would have done the same thing. I also said I wasn't making an assumption. I guess I should have said I was stating a fact. End of debate. It just irritated me you were so quick to correct 3putt when you didn't have first hand knowledge, just past experience. I'm done talking about this. On to talking about the game ahead with Milbrook.
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