Richlands Jamboree

[EKUAlum05]

I do not have details of George Wythe vs. Graham outside of the fact a Graham JV player had to be flown out for a serious leg injury.

Format was 10 plays then flip. Each Varsity got two offensive series of 10 and two defensive.

These are only Varsity scores

Richlands 3 Scores
George Wythe 0 Scores

Richlands dominated and moved the ball at will. Had two missed FG's as well. GW struggled to move the ball.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Belfry, KY 3 Scores
George Wythe 1 Score

Credit to GW as they scored a long run on Belfry with a counter play. Didn't really move it any besides that one play though.

Belfry moved it pretty easily on them scoring twice on the ground and once in the air. Better team than Graham but not as good as some of the GW teams from the past two years.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Belfry, KY 2 Scores
Richlands 1 Score

The one everyone was most interested in. Belfry is two time defending 3A Champs in KY and have a very good team returning. First series Rich played Belfry really well. Pirates didn't gain much at all and it resulted in a serious butt chewing of their OLine. Richlands first series they moved it very well with the intermediate passing game and capped it off with a pretty score. Belfry's second possession they got it going..scored after driving...then scored again on a pretty QB keep on the belly for a long score. Richlands threw an INT on their second drive but aside from it still had some success throwing the ball.

Belfry was still the cream of the crop and the deeper team...but Richlands was very impressive. The best Richlands team that has played in this over the past three years by far. Very good defense, very quick, and some nice pieces around the QB. They didn't have any success running on Belfry aside from QB scrambles, but not many people will. Nothing but positive things said about the Blues and expect them to have a very good year.

 

[stormwatcher]

Not a bad synopsis.....except I don't know how either team could claim to be "cream of the crop" based on what we witnessed. Given the format it's hard to say what would happen in a game between the two teams. Richlands moved the ball more consistently while Belfry exhibited big play potential......I counted only 4 Belfry plays gaining 5 or more yards. You didn't mention the fact that Richlands was a half yard from scoring a second td when their second series ended....

I actually wish I could have resisted the urge to post because I'm very aware that scrimmage results mean little. Richlands went 14-0 and won the state championship in 2006 after losing both of their preseason scrimmages.

 

[lovethisgame78]

Both teams looked good. They both have work to do. Belfry had problems holding on to the ball and Richlands didnt run the ball that well although they didnt run it much. Belfry's defense is ferocious as always. All three years ive seen them they have BIG hitters all over the field. Richlands will have a big time aerial attack this year with good receivers everywhere you look and a great looking 1st year QB. I expect both teams to have a good year and hope all players stay healthy. Who knows, maybe one day we will see a reg season game between these two teams.

 

[RichlandsRyan]

I feel like Richlands and Belfry in the regular season would be a slobberknocker. Both teams have defensed that can control the game, and both have offenses (although VASTLY different ones at that) that can move the ball.

I do feel like overall, the Richlands D was more impressive. In the first series of 10 plays, Belfry gained only 23 yards total and their longest play was a 5 yard run. The second series was much of the same, except for two plays. One, a missed tackle allowed the touchdown. On the second, it was flat out everyone bit on one back and then the QB took off.

Richlands offense looked really good passing the ball. One TD through the air in the first 10 and got to the 1/2 yard line on the last play. The interception was caused by a ball tipped up in the air.

We were definitely working on passing to get the timing down with Asbury, the new QB. We are 8 deep at WR and you will see 6 of them rotate constantly. We also have a TE that can be placed all over the field. And two RBs that are different styles.

Depth isn't really an issue for us this year. The biggest question mark on offense is replacing two starters on the line. We started a sophomore LT and a junior C that hadn't played until this scrimmage. Going against the Belfry D-line.......that's a tough challenge for anyone.

Overall I'm very happy with what I saw from Richlands. I truly see a long run coming. I also see Belfry going on to threepeat.

 

[EKUAlum05]

I definitely should have added a word in my original post as when I re-read it... it doesn't give enough credit.

Belfry was the cream of the crop "athletically" would have been more apt.

Richlands looked very good. I could easily see them at least reach the Semi's again.. if they were a 2A team in Kentucky I would think they would be right alongside Newport Catholic if not the favorite to be the Finalist from the East for sure (Shelby Valley reached the Semi's and IMHO Richlands would punish them by 3 TD's+).

One note though...to credit one of those TD's as a missed tackle is a bit of a mis-representation.... Belfry's QB hit the "B" button on a spin move as you can see here.
http://www.hudl.com/athlete/4303776/highlights/279161373/v2

I would love to see these teams begin a series one day. Belfry has had to travel pretty far distances to fill their schedule and will be playing Knoxville Catholic, TN and driving 5 hours on a bus to Newport, KY to play Newport Central Catholic next season. They just ended series with Christ. Acad. of Knoxville and Gallia Academy OH as well as back to back years travelling to 2.5 hours against 5A Southwestern.

Most WV schools will not schedule Belfry due to their playoff system..Cabell Midland is on the schedule this year and is the first WV team I remember them playing in decades. Cabell Midland also has over 3X the enrollment of Belfry.

Would be a huge gate for sure. Wouldn't mind seeing the Coaches get together after next season to work something out.

 

[stormwatcher]

"Richlands .... if they were a 2A team in Kentucky" ........would be playing out of their class.
I mention this because Richlands, with 721 students in grades 9-12, would be a 3A team in Kentucky.

Also, I’m not trying to be excessively disagreeable but I think your opinion regarding overall depth and athleticism may be biased due to misconception and timing. The misconception would be that Richlands is a significantly smaller school. They're not. Based on enrollment figures both Richlands and Belfry have fluctuated around the same numbers over the last 5 years. I think your opinion may also be tilted a little by the fact Belfry’s teams were unquestionably superior the last two years. I won’t deny that…..but I will say that the teams they have faced the last two years are the weakest of the past six years from Richlands.


I only mention this because I haven’t a clue how anyone could make a determination regarding which team has more overall athleticism, depth, or quality based on 40 plays of initial pre-season football. I’m sure Belfry is very good and I know Richlands is significantly more talented than they were the last couple of years. I also know I personally would need at least a half of football played under regular season game conditions in order to even suggest the conclusions that you voice with such conviction.

 

[EKUAlum05]

You are not coming off disagreeable at all. But I will share my perspective for my comments:

Depth
I am looking at it from the amount of players Belfry rotated vs. Richlands and everyone else

Just like Richlands went 7 or 8 deep at Receiver, Belfry rotated no less than 6 different people in their backfield. Same for their secondary. Belfry also tried out 4 different D-Line configurations as they are trying to figure out what to do at Noseguard and have a ton of talent but are trying to find the right combo. Belfry played two different Right Guards as well as experimenting with bentley at Guard and using younger TE's.

I will freely admit part of my view is simply because I am so familiar with Belfry and what they are doing. Belfry has two spots that are glaring holes right now and a tremendously strong group of Sophomores and Freshman they are trying to sort through (as evident by how well the Belfry JV looked). It's also about the lack of players who would be asked to play iron man football.

Athleticism
This is all about fast twitch fibers and playmakers. As pointed out Belfry has that big play potential. Though Belfry isn't exactly littered with these mythical 4.5 guys people brag about, when it comes to raw athletes and athletic burst they just simply are blessed. The bigger factor to me is Belfry also has Horton and Bentley... the two DT's who will end up playing on Saturday's.Between those two and Corbett (Belfry's QB) I think it would be safe to say Belfry probably had the three most talented individual talents on the field.



You also do bring up a point I wanted to make. Two years ago Belfry literally manhandled Richlands to the point people were saying how unique it was. Last year there was a clear disparity between the two, particularly up front..but Richlands had closed the gap. This Belfry team is right on par with those teams,, maybe even slightly better in some regards... that speaks volumes about Richlands to me and shows how quickly they have rebounded their level of play.

Scrimmages don't tell you how a game would play out because coaches handle them so differently (especially this format), but you can get a very good grasp on potential and skill level even with a short sample size. I mentioned in a past thread that if two teams play close but they don't pass the eyeball test it is safe to judge both teams' potential lower... if one team dominates the other it is safe to judge one's potential higher than the other.... in this case Richlands passed the eyeball test (especially in the Front 7 on D). They are going to be really tough to handle in their classification.

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

I'm just glad my little 1A team got to test themselves against these 2 great teams yes they both got the better of us. But I seriously doubt we will see anything like either team in the regular season.

 

[EKUAlum05]

^^^^

George Wythe equated themselves very well. Great foundation to work from.

As I said in the recap GW ran a TD on Belfry's 1's including that vaunted DLine. That's no small feat and something no team was able to do in the playoffs last season. That's a DLine that has relatively been in tact for over two years and has possibly the best DT in the entire state of Kentucky.

Steel sharpens steel and all three years Belfry has came to Richlands GW has been a quality test for them.

 

[stormwatcher]

@ EKU - edited because the post was written as I was rushing off to a meeting and upon reading it later tonight I have no clue of what I was trying to say. Evidently I suffer from post workday dementia.

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

I'm very glad to hear that and as far as Belfry all I've heard about them is good things they are 2 year defending state champions right? And I completely agree that steel sharpens steel that's why I'm glad GW has really strengthened our non district schedule. With the #2 #5 #7 1A teams and the #9 2A team in our 4 of our first 5 games.

 

[EKUAlum05]

^^^

Ray Horton actually missed a good portion of the Richlands scrimmage after cutting his finger pretty nasty. He only played about 8 or 9 of the snaps almost entirely the first drive. Bentley is the space eater (6'4 295) and occupies blockers, but Ray is the monster who creates penetration. Last year he had I think 3 sacks against Richlands and he had one of those sacks you mention in this scrimmage as well. Ray is absolutely filthy... Bentley has the size big schools love but Ray is a generational type player at the HS level. Richlands also did a

Haywood played it very straight up as well . He usually just rushed three and stood up his DE's. Most times he was either dropping one or both DE's and playing Cover Two and letting his green Linebackers read (Belfry lost both starting LB's..the Sophomore played great.. the other LB's struggled). Let it be known though, I don't want this to sound though as if he wasn't putting an effort forth...essentially that's how he always plays a spread team HAHA. If this were a real game he probably would have played it pretty similar, just a couple more stunts and strategic points to send the LB.

Richlands also did a good job of throwing quick passes against the Belfry zone. I really like your QB and how he gets the ball out fast instead of overthinking it. If you watch the video of that drive you will see Ray create strong penetration but the pass is out before he can make a move back to the QB.


.

 

[EKUAlum05]

As for your WR's

I really like what they did as well. Ran crisp routes, caught the passes when they were there, and never got alligator arms even though Belfry had some big hitters.

Good mix of rangy outside guys and shifty slot guys. The Atkinson kid is quick as a housecat.

They really compliment the QB and what he does best well. Pitch and catch...don't worry about the deep ball until it is time to take a calculated risk.

Will be interesting to see how well that offense clicks with the running game added into it. As long as the QB stays patient and Richlands holds on to the football going to be hard for teams to stop them from putting points up.

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

I know Richlands has some great WR's in your opinion how did GW deal with them and Belfry's WR's? And how did we compare with both teams on speed?

 

[EKUAlum05]

Belfry's WR's are the next thing short of a chess piece. Their job is to force you to honor them and to do their job blocking. Then when you least expect it they are called on for the home run ball. Belfry scored once through the air, but it is hard to judge GW's coverage ability against them because 75% of the time they aren't even running routes, just setting you up where they need to block you downfield. They s

Richlands WR's were a fit for everyone for reasons I gave above. Their job isn't to run past you but to get to their spot and catch the ball. They hurt GW doing this. Unlike Belfry, GW pressed Richlands a lot more and Richlands hurt them doing this. Richlands hit a couple passes over the top on them. I don't think it is fair to call them "average" athletically or speed... for a small school they moved well enough..just seemed to get out executed. My suspicion though is GW played Richlands receivers about as good as most teams in Southwest VA will... just well coached and consistent is tough to stop.

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

That's about what I expected from Richlands they have as long as I've known had great WR's. And I think you are spot on with how teams will play them. I cant say I'm surprised that they hurt us in the air as much as I hate to admit it our secondary is usually our weakest point of the whole team on O or D. I think this was a great way to try and get the kids ready for Radford next Friday and we have one more chance to tune up this Friday in a benefit game against Tazwell.

 

[stormwatcher]

Will be interesting to see how well that offense clicks with the running game added into it. As long as the QB stays patient and Richlands holds on to the football going to be hard for teams to stop them from putting points up.

I agree it's going to be interesting and they better jell quickly because the schedule has several teams returning a lot of talent. They could be very good and still finish up 6-4 in the regular season.

As for Belfry, I hope I didn't come across as overly critical because I have a great deal of respect for their program. My wife will be the first to tell you that I can be a little sensitive....

 

[fort69]

Sounds like George wythe is weak

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

Haha trust me you will get a wonderful chance to find out in week2 at the fort how weak we are. fc is the one team I will blast on the most as anyone on here will tell you. I'll go ahead and make my pick for that game GW49 fc 14 ill decide if I need to increase out score and lower yours after I see how bad RR beats you.

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

Oh and how does it sound like we suck? Was it the fact that we scrimmaged Richlands a team that many feel could make a state title run or the fact that we scrimmaged Belfry KY a 2 time defending state champion? I haven't seen fc scrimmage anyone even close to that level why is that?

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

Who has fc scrimmaged? Tazwell predicted to go 5-5 and has a sos of 259th, Rye cove predicted to go 0-10 and sos of 297th and Central-wise predicted to go 4-6 and sos of 223rd. Who has GW scrimmaged Richlands predicted to go 9-1 sos of 240th, Graham predicted to go 4-6 sos of 220th and Belfry KY a 2 year in a row state of KY 3A Champions and sos is 16th in the state of KY. So yeah I'm waiting...

 

[Bigrhsfan]

Actually, Belfry has won 3 out of the last 4, or 3 out of the last 5 Ky " 3A " state championships........not 2A.
I think GW could be better than what anybody saw in that scrimmage. Very tough to know about them because of who they scrimmaged...... 2 very good football teams. It would have been tough for just about any 1A school to look good against those 2.

 

[EKUAlum05]

Actually, Belfry has won 3 out of the last 4, or 3 out of the last 5 Ky " 3A " state championships........not 2A.
I think GW could be better than what anybody saw in that scrimmage. Very tough to know about them because of who they scrimmaged...... 2 very good football teams. It would have been tough for just about any 1A school to look good against those 2.

They have only won the last two in a row. Defeating Wayne County two years ago and Louisville Central last season.

They have reached the 3A Finals the past 5 years but lost three straight to Louisville Central. Two of those losses were literally decided by a missed XP in regulation ('11 and '12).

Belfry were also Runner-Up's to Louisville Central in 2007.

Belfry won the 2003 and 2004 Class 2A Title when KY was using the 4 Class System (it is currently 6 classes).

Belfry has reached the State Semi-Finals every single year since 2003 expect for 2009. That's 11 of the past 12 years.

 

[EKUAlum05]

I agree it's going to be interesting and they better jell quickly because the schedule has several teams returning a lot of talent. They could be very good and still finish up 6-4 in the regular season.

As for Belfry, I hope I didn't come across as overly critical because I have a great deal of respect for their program. My wife will be the first to tell you that I can be a little sensitive....

Didn't come off that way at all.

Enjoyed the discussion!

Will keep an eye out for Richlands and hope to see them do very well!

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

They have only won the last two in a row. Defeating Wayne County two years ago and Louisville Central last season.

They have reached the 3A Finals the past 5 years but lost three straight to Louisville Central. Two of those losses were literally decided by a missed XP in regulation ('11 and '12).

Belfry were also Runner-Up's to Louisville Central in 2007.

Belfry won the 2003 and 2004 Class 2A Title when KY was using the 4 Class System (it is currently 6 classes).

Belfry has reached the State Semi-Finals every single year since 2003 expect for 2009. That's 11 of the past 12 years.

Fort69 which one of the teams that your team tested themselves against can say this?

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

Bigrhsfan I agree it would've been hard for any 1A team to have scrimmaged these 2 and actually make it look like they gave either team real trouble.

 

[Bigrhsfan]

Sorry about the wrong info EKUAlum05.
I thought I it was like 3 out of 5, I was really just wanting to let G Master Blaster know that Belfry was actually 3A in Ky.
Even though I was wrong, that is still a pretty impressive resume !
They ( Belfry ) are very athletic, with a lot of speed and quickness......especially in the skill positions. D line is going to give everyone they play nightmares. Very well coached and disciplined also.

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

Thanks for letting me know that they are 3A and that's crazy that they have been to the finals and the semis that many times very impressive!

 

[fort69]

Thanks for letting me know that they are 3A and that's crazy that they have been to the finals and the semis that many times very impressive!

 

[fort69]

They have only won the last two in a row. Defeating Wayne County two years ago and Louisville Central last season.

They have reached the 3A Finals the past 5 years but lost three straight to Louisville Central. Two of those losses were literally decided by a missed XP in regulation ('11 and '12).

Belfry were also Runner-Up's to Louisville Central in 2007.

Belfry won the 2003 and 2004 Class 2A Title when KY was using the 4 Class System (it is currently 6 classes).

Belfry has reached the State Semi-Finals every single year since 2003 expect for 2009. That's 11 of the past 12 years.

Clam down im so glad it means so much for yall to beat the fort it don't mean that much to beat George wythe to me anyway

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

Hahahahahaha!!! Please come talk to me when you beat us 20years in a row and we drop you off our schedule like FC did to us to stop the beatings. Then after a 3 year gap you pick us back up and no I didn't seem like it meant that much the first time you beat us after all of those BEATINGS in 2009. The fans practically threw a party in the parking lot and you all acted like you had won the superbowl! Oh one last thing let me know when your team is relevant by this I mean when you have a STATE CHAMPIONSHIP! or 2 btw incase you didn't know you've never even played for one so sad :''( haha bye TROLL69

 

[fort69]

Legend in own mind. They drop us said we wouldn't good enough to play the reason they play now is all about the money

 

[G MASTER BLASTER W]

No one said anything about legend's of any sort and if you really wanna talk about who is heading down the path to become a legend it's us. If you go to VHSL reference and look at the games played against GW and fc between 1999 and 2014 which is 14 games we are 10-4 against you and out scored you 468-167. We have had 0 losing seasons in that time fc has had 7. And If we're talking legend's in VA football I would've said Salem, Giles, Phobeus, Oscar Smith, Ocean Lakes and many others. But ask anyone here who is the better team year in and year out I promise you it's not fc it would be GW without a doubt. And either way if you dropped us which you did or if we dropped you cause you wouldn't be worth playing guess what you weren't worth playing or our time. And if you haven't noticed most everything is about money so yeah the money from the gate at the games between GW and fc is good for both school's. But it doesn't matter what I say or what you say the only thing that matter is which team comes away with the Win come week 2 and I promise you it wont be you. So say what you will both of our teams will get the chance to prove who is the better team in 2 weeks at STUMP STADIUM! So enjoy running your mouth Troll69 times running out!