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NEW Top Ten (entering 8/31/17) Here
NEW Top Rankings (entering 8-31-17 Games)
- Thread starter matthew328826
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I don't get these rankings...LB #1????They finished last season getting smacked in the mouth 3 straight games and bounced first round of playoffs. Who does these rankings?? My top 5 is Phoebus #1, Heritage #2, Magna Vista #3, Norcom #4 and Hopewell #5.
Heritage #2??? What's up with that Pioneer? I thought you said they are state champs this year... "lead dog" is what you said.. lmao
M
Maybe the people that put up the rankings know more than he does. Lmao couldn't be! That dude has all the answers!
He will be running with Bradley next week with his hands up in the air saying someone please catch graves ! Lol
Listen, Heritage is the lead dog in my opinion. I am basing it off last year's results and the pre-season ranking. I was just saying based on last year's results Phoebus should be #1 over LB. You don't agree? Heritage will be the best in state by end of the year....just keeping it real..stabler1980 please believe we going to make a statement Sept 8th and chucksteel72 we are not going to play you guys this year but I will send you a picture of our ring.
"Best in the state by the end of the year" So you admit, they are not right now? You better not look past you're next opponent. That's what good teams do..They take it one game at a time. Which I'm sure you already know,being a former coach and all.
So 2017 rankings should be based on how the 2016 season finished exclusively? You have me lost there.
If that was the case Staunton River would be #1 due to Blacksburg moving to class 4. Thanks for giving us the #1 spot Pioneer! I knew you'd come around!
Matthew just trying to figure out how they come up with rankings? Returning players? How the previous season ended? It appears that most of the teams on the list finished the 2016 years near the top, so I figured this is how the rankings were generated.. Just wondering.... chucksteel72 I am pretty sure just being a one hit wonder is not part of the equation. LOL....you make this forum fun. We will see what happens. Good luck.
Not a problem at all - it's a good question and worth asking. I like to use a variety of factors when constructing our rankings.
Among them - what teams bring back from the previous season, their past history is factored in but is not an enormous piece of the equation, coaching staff along with their continuity, opinion of other coaches around the area/state, info we receive back on surveys (and we got close to 150 of them), level of competition and postseason performance, sometimes will seek the input of our staff members, etc.
I try to weigh it all and there never is a right or wrong answer. Spend a lot of time researching and try to make the best decisions as possible.
There are certainly misses, but I will say that the changes made after one week were fewer than I anticipated going into the 2017 campaign. Whether that means the rankings were good, bad or neither is up for others to decide and really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I will say that I feel like the amount of time researching the teams + talking to several coaches as well as sources around the state to familiarize myself better with programs I knew very little about before this summer was time well spent.
Ok, thanks Matthew....makes sense...Based on that Heritage should have been #1. Just playing...thanks for to time covering VA football.
Any time - enjoy a spirited discussion, including on the rankings. Definitely like their team and potential.
When we look back, the #6 spot where they started could very well end up being too low. I would label them as the favorite in Region C right now with Brookville being second. Monticello was one of the tougher snubs for the Top Ten for me also with some of the offensive firepower they have.
with all this region ABCD. Are they cross bracketing east/west or will there be at least one team from east/west in state finals. And that being said who would be your early favorites for state championship game? Putting you on the spot!
The way I understand it, they will do Region A vs. Region B and Region C vs. Region D. However, I have not fully confirmed that. Today I would say it'll be Lord Botetourt against Phoebus in Final, but my pick may change if you ask me a month from now.
95mv I like and respect Magna Vistas program a lot and truly am not a fan of Phoebus. With that being said who does Magna Vista have on their regular season schedule that can compete with Hampton, Woodside and Lake Taylor to name three. Phoebus has a very tough schedule against teams in higher classifications.
I understand your points, but the west no longer has to travel to Phoebus. There is no west. A reg. Champ plays B, C plays D. Winners play for it all. Mv is in d. and if they win the regional the will play someone like Heritage/brookville in the semis. By the way, in 2016 Phoebus had the toughest strength of schedule in class 3 at 62.8. MV was 12th at 46.9. It means little on the field. Both teams are sound.
I understand your points, but the west no longer has to travel to Phoebus. There is no west. A reg. Champ plays B, C plays D. Winners play for it all. Mv is in d. and if they win the regional the will play someone like Heritage/brookville in the semis. By the way, in 2016 Phoebus had the toughest strength of schedule in class 3 at 62.8. MV was 12th at 46.9. It means little on the field. Both teams are sound.
I don't know if I'd say Phoebus has a weak schedule when they annually play within their district a Class 5 Hampton program that has more state titles than anyone else in VHSL history, Class 4 Heritage out of Newport News that has been to the Final 8 or Final 4 round twice under their current Head Coach, a Woodside program that got to the Final 8 a year ago and they are usually solid in Class 6, plus a Bethel program that isn't a pushover from Class 5.
So while the Peninsula District certainly isn't the brute of a league it was during the 1990's and early part of the 2000's, the schedule argument is not exactly a great one in my opinion.
Now - what I will give you is regionally at the Class 3 level. Unless they get tested by Norcom this year - and the Greyhounds look to be a contender after beating Hopewell and Class 4 contender Lafayette last night - it seems like a relative walk to the quarterfinal and even semifinal round of the State Playoffs compared to what is out west.
If Phoebus had to go through the likes of Staunton River, Magna Vista, Lord Botetourt, Heritage-Lynchburg and teams like that on a yearly basis to get to the Final 4 round, then I think it would be much tougher for them to do so than facing some of the teams they do now in the early rounds of the playoffs, a few of which have been just middle of the pack Bay Rivers District type squads.
I understand. I think most MV posters know the Dinwiddie boys root for the kids from Ridgeway, so I wasnt trying to disrespect you.
Out of curiosity, why is Staunton River High School not up there? I would figure one of if not the most dominate backfields in the state returning, the player of the year and coach of the year. A team that blew everyone out in the playoffs up to the championship. Level of competition was pretty stiff. Oh and they beat LB last year 75-29 last year. Like I said bud I was just curious.
To say Pheobus plays a weak schedule is way off. SR, MV or any of those teams mentioned are not better than Hampton, Woodside or Heritage. I know the Pennisula District is not as powerful as in past years but it's still a tough district. Stick MV or SR in the Peninsula and see what happens.
My opinion is magna Vista plays the easiest schedule of any team in the top 10. They play 3 tough teams(which they already lost to one)and the rest of the games are like scrimmages. Magna Vista could be down this year and at worse they go 7-3..I am a SW guy and believe a west team is winning the 3a again this year but we are fouling ourselves by saying Phoebus plays a week schedule. Last time I heard they play some good football in 757. 95mv IMO as far as strength of schedule is concerned, I am not sure you have a dog in the fight. In Seminole district MV would probably get beat by JF, Brookville, Heritage, Amherst, LCA and maybe EC Glass. Just not really sold on MV...
Pheobus usually doesnt see a 3A teams til playoff time.. they get all these high ranking beacuse the majority of the schools they play are 5A. With that being said most of the 5a teams they play are not very good, but they still get points for playing up. People can say stick MV and teams around here in the penisula they wont do this and that, blah, blah.. you dont know what will happen.. it would be like playing halifax 4 or 5 times a year, and lose the couple of games to really good teams. phoebus suppose to dominate 3a when they dropped and we havnt seen it yet. Both west teams have drove 5 hrs to beat them on their home turf in semis, and one was 5-5 entering the playoffs.. alot of folks are living off the phoebus of old. Different team now. Last two state championships have been 2 west opponents. This year will be an east and west final, but id prob bet money about the top 5 teams in C and D divisions could beat anyone in the A and C, in 3A. Thats the thing come playoff time all you have to focus on is 3A, regular season opponents dont matter.
Staunton River is #3 in the rankings. Very capable of winning the whole thing for sure.
Teams cant help who they play on the regular season. Im with you on MV im not sold on them yet either. They still have alot to work on, but the potential is there. They have over 500 yrds passing in 2 games. Chris scales is still not playing a full game on offense, plus dont know the status of rupert injury. I do know a couple of years ago JF beat the brakes off MV as GW, but they still raised the trophy. No way blacksburg should have won last year, but that last 5 games they played, was nothing like their regular season. They hit that stride at the right time. I bet no coach in the seminole come playoff time thinks they gonna win that game just because they been seminole tested. Right now im still saying heritage is the favorite, ive been saying that since the end of last year, but im not giving them the trophy yet. There will be atleast one team in 3a come playoff time that will give them a good game.
I'm not saying anything about mv schedule I know the piedmont is down I'm saying a team like Phoebus don't play 3a schools so there points will be higher every year cause of that.
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I will also comment. Tides change every season; that's the beauty of high school football. Coaches have to coach up schemes based on personnel.
"Maybe even." rule of thumb in football is not to look forward to the game beyond. Focus on the game right in front of your face. Counting chickens before they hatch is bad luck. Not good to predict state champions in week 2. Way to early to make predictions. Cream always rises. Watch out when throwing teams under the bus, teams are hunting for some respect. These boards often provide great motivation.
No dog in 3a fight, but not playing a 3a schedule doesn't mean playing a weak schedule. There is a reason playing higher classifications means more points. And in MOST cases, playing an upper tier higher classification is more impressive than higher tier lower classification.
Are you saying that teams shouldn't be rewarded for playing bigger schools?
Think he meant a weak schedule against 3a teams. But according to bleedingnavy they don't cross bracket in semis anymore so it doesn't matter.
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