OK, let me start off by shining my own tail a little bit. I was 18-4 picking Class A playoff games. A pretty impressive record, if I do say so myself. Now, let’s have the “everyone point and laugh at Travis” portion of the proceedings…I missed my pick in the biggest game of the year, the state championship. I picked Lamar, allowing my big, stupid brain to override my gut and my heart. Let that be a lesson to you kids, never use your brain if you can help it. On one hand, Green Sea-Floyds was a sentimental favorite given that the team missed a month of the season because of Hurricane Florence and the residual flooding that came with it. They had players on the field Friday night that still can’t go back to their homes. Then you add in the fact that the team has almost no history of success. Prior to 2018, the Trojans had never made it past the second round of the playoffs and they often didn’t even come close to getting that far. They were winless just a few years ago and had a long recent drought where they didn’t even make the playoffs. To have the best season in school history in the face of terrible adversity made them impossible not to pull for. But this wasn’t just one of those cheeseball, feel good Hallmark Christmas movies where Santa is going to bring the kid his sled and his mama is going to end up with the kindly, handsome fellow who was a mall Santa, who promised the kid the sled in the first place (seriously, someone send that to Hallmark, they’ll make that movie). This was a good team, one that got as hot offensively as is imaginable down the stretch. In the six games leading up to state, they never scored less than 40 points and cracked 60 four times. That came against the likes of Baptist Hill, Hemingway and C.E. Murray…so real, actual competition that hits back and stuff. They have a lot of weapons but Jaquan Dixon is a human lightning bolt with lawnmower blades for arms and I’ve heard a lot of good things about QB Bubba Elliot, whose name for all the world indicates he’s driving the Jimmy Jack’s Weiner Cantina-sponsored Chevy at the Sugar Tit dirt track. They play real defense too, as evidenced by their blowout of Baptist Hill. Despite all that, and despite the fact that Lamar narrowly got by Dixie in a turnover-marred game the week before, I just talked myself into believing the Silver Foxes would win the day. They certainly have more title game experience as no player on the team has ever known anything but playing for a state crown. The other factor is that they are so stinking good against the run. Nobody runs the ball on Lamar and that has been Green Sea’s bread-and-butter all year. Their one loss in the last two years came to Gray Collegiate early in the season. Gray throws the ball and had success through the air that night, but even in that loss there were extenuating circumstances. Lamar had been off the field for two weeks because of the hurricane (Gray had not) and their QB Cam Galloway was injured that night and lost for the year. Dixie had as strong a power running game as anybody, what with their gigundous 240-pound running back and senior-laden line, and they didn’t crack 100 total yards. Given all that, I figured the Silver Foxes would grind out a close, low-scoring game.
And I was wrong. Now, Green Sea did mix in a bit of a passing attack and some gadget plays that worked, but in the first half they pretty much did what no one else has done in running for well over 200 yards…on Lamar…in two quarters of football. They had over 300 yards of total offense and scored on four straight possessions to take a 26-12 lead into the break. My double-secret embedded Lamar informant said Wallace just has that “it” factor. Said he actually reminded him of Galloway. He said Dixon was a total stud and that Lamar had an un-Lamar-like half defensively, trying to arm-tackle Dixon and getting run over and through in the process. He ran for almost 250, which is more than Wagener-Salley and Dixie had in total yardage against Lamar COMBINED! Now, Green Sea doesn’t always run straight at you the way Dixie does. They run option, they run jet sweeps, they run some old double-handoff stuff…lots of formations too. Double tight with a single back, double wing scrum stuff, shotgun with two backs…you name a manner in which they might hand or pitch the ball to somebody and they apparently do it. They aren’t huge up front, but their kids are tough as nails and they have serious speed to the corners with which they were able to exploit everyone, even Lamar. Certainly, Lamar didn’t play its cleanest game. They had three interceptions, put the ball on the ground a couple of other times and weren’t their usual selves in the tackling department, at least in the first half. They also turned it over down in Green Sea territory, which is also odd, since they generally finish in those circumstances. After a terribly lackluster first half, they moved the ball considerably better in the second half, but kept undercutting themselves with turnovers. Green Sea didn’t do much of anything in the second half offensively and I read three different descriptions of why that happened. My informant said Lamar didn’t really make any adjustments, they just started wrapping up and tackling better. I saw an interview with Green Sea Coach Donnie Kiefer where he said he went very conservative to work clock and protect the lead and I saw one newspaper account that said Lamar started crowding the box. Take your pick, but the Trojans didn’t threaten to score in the second half. It looked more like the Lamar we’re accustomed to, but by then they were in a hole and in trying to catch up, they took some risks and paid in the form or turnovers. They scored a touchdown to get within a score with under four minutes to play, then stuffed a Green Sea attempt to ice the game late, where the Trojans opted to go for it on fourth-and-an-inch deep in their own territory. That could have seriously blown up in their faces and ended the feel good story, but they held, getting a sack on fourth down with eight seconds left to clinch it. They made the plays early and held on late to win it all. The thing is, neither of these teams is likely to go anywhere. Lamar only had a handful of seniors this year, though one of those was super-studly RB Jacquez Lucas, who concluded his Lamar career with more than 200 yards on the ground Friday night. As for Green Sea-Floyds, they are no longer an also-ran, afterthought, “hey let’s schedule them for homecoming” program. They are champions. They went through hell this year to get there and are very worthy of bringing the big trophy home. Kiefer has done a masterful job, Dixon is only a sophomore and Elliot and junior, so they will enter the 2019 season as favorites to win the lowerstate title and be back in Columbia. I’ll have an end-of-season top 10 and some other notes later this week. Until then, congrats to the Trojans.
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It’s a great day and a sad. On one hand, we have a spectacular matchup between two great teams in today’s Class A state title game. It’s established, dominant program against the “out of nowhere” upstart. The back stories for both teams are intruiging and the game figures to be a classic. That’s all great. The sad part is that after today, I’ll be deprived of Class A football goodness for eight months, which is super, super sucky. In turn you, dear reader, will be deprived of words like “cranksmack,” “rootin’,” “toolin’” and truly dumb, awful analogies about pageant queen’s robbing liquor stores and such as that. We’ll just have to manage as best we can until August, I guess.
In one corner today we have Lamar, one of our state’s true football dynasties. They have lost one regular-season game in three years and BIG FAT NAM regular season games to Class A competition in four years. They are shooting for a third title in four years and have done that by physically whipping one opponent after another. In the other, we have Green Sea-Floyds, a program that, until this year, had never made it past the second round of the playoffs in its history. In fact, very rare was the year they even made it to the second round of the playoffs. By their own admission, they aspire to be like Lamar. They want to be thought of among Class A’s best programs and want to get there by stomping on your head wearing ski boots…or, you know, running the ball and playing good defense. Same deal. They come in on a seven-game winning streak and have had one of the state’s highest-scoring offenses during that stretch. That will give us a “strength-on-strength” as Lamar’s defense is essentially a castle wall with a moat full of acid, guarded by dragons, wrapped in razor wire. The offenses Since losing QB Cam Galloway to injury early in the year, the Silver Foxes have had to make some adjustments. Galloway brought a lot to the table with athleticism and that running component was going to be a big part of Lamar’s attack. New starter J.J. Langley isn’t the same kind of runner, so they’ve had to throw a little more…though Coach Corey Fountain joked that that means they now throw eight times a game instead of six. The scoring totals have dipped without Galloway, but the team still scores plenty of points, is good up front and has a stable of good backs. Now, Jacquez Lucas didn’t play last week against Dixie, I was told. Not sure of his status, but he’s a big piece of the puzzle for them on both sides of the ball. Malik Johnson is a studly back in his own right, though. The problem last week wasn’t moving the ball (they had over 400 total yards) it was the very un-Lamar like six turnovers. They were able to get away with that in part because the defense played so well. Dixie was a good, efficient offense, but they are mostly a between-the-tackles running team and that ain’t flying against Lamar, Bubba. I haven’t seen Green Sea-Floyds play in person, so I reached out to a few coaches who have. Running back Jaquan Dixon, according to one coach “Can flat G-O.” They rarely throw the ball but run at you from a lot of looks and formations. One coach told me they’ll go shotgun with two backs, they’ll show a double wing look, they’ll go double tight, two H-backs and a single back to run iso, power and counters. They mix in some option and some play action passes. They apparently ate Hemingway’s tail slam up with jet sweeps last week. Bubba Elliot is the QB and is a good athlete. Dixon has more speed than a truck stop, but they’ve got other backs too. Line isn’t gigantic but they are tough and move well. The defenses Lamar usually bases out of a 4-3 and they don’t stunt or blitz much. They play you straight up, which I like. Sometimes its better not to confuse high school kids with a bajillion coverages and stuff. They are always among the best tackling teams in the state. They play with a nasty edge…nothing dirty, but they hit you hard and never let up. They slowly grind down even the most physical teams, making you question your decision to play a contact sport. According to one coach I talked to, Green Sea’s defense has improved immensely since early in the year. Early on, they weren’t great against the run and would give up big passing plays. Then, they switched to an odd front, made a couple of personnel moves and they have been a force against the run since. Their corners and safeties attack downhill when they suspect a run play is coming. They apparently are OK against the pass too judging by the success they had against Baptist Hill. Opinions I talked to about four coaches about this match-up. Once said he fully expects Green Sea to win state in the next two years, but gives a slight edge to Lamar today based on their big-game experience. Another marveled at the job Kiefer has done, but thinks Lamar wins it based on experience and how good they are in the trenches. One said Lamar wins it unless they have a turnover-filled game like last week. The last coach said it would be a good game but would be won in the trenches, where he thinks Lamar has the upper hand. As for me, I can see this game going either way. Green Sea is an amazing story. They are having the best season in school history. The Trojans had NEVER made it past the second round in their history before this year. They have done that while facing a hurricane and residual flooding that kept them out of school for a three weeks and off the field for a month. Some players lost their homes…to succeed in the face of that tells you a lot about the character and grit of this bunch. They are giving an area that’s been whacked twice in three years by Mother Nature something to rally around, to root for and to feel good bad. How can you not appreciate that and root for them. And this isn’t just a scrappy little team that gets by on effort. They have talent, real talent and the will to build something great. When I went down there last week, the kids weren’t just talking about winning state this year, they were talking about building a foundation for future success after they graduate. I think their defense can have a pretty good night against Lamar, particularly if Lucas is out. Where I struggle is looking at their offense matching up against the Lamar defense. I know they show a lot of looks, test you inside and outside and have crazy skill talent. But it’s just really, really hard for me to see anybody…and I do mean anybody, beat Lamar with a running game. They only teams that have success against them throw the ball. That’s what Gray did. That’s what Baptist Hill did in a high-scoring loss to Lamar for state last year. This is one of those tater-kicking contest games I talk about far too often. Until I see it, I can’t pick it to happen. Now, if Lamar gets sloppy with the ball again, they might get boat-raced this week, but it’s hard to see a Corey Fountain coached team messing its britches on the turnover front twice in two weeks. I say this one is close and down to the wire, but in the end the big-game experience and slight edge in the trenches tips the scales towards the Silver Foxes. The Pick- Lamar. When Green Sea-Floyds Coach Donnie Kiefer and his players looked across the table at Monday’s state championship press conference they didn’t just see an opponent. They hope they were looking at their future.
“We want to become a championship team. We want people to think of us like they do Lamar,” said Trojans sophomore nose tackle Xavier Edwards. Today’s Class A state championship football game will pit the upstart against the dynasty, a program striving to become a consistent power vs. one that already is. Until this year, the greatest season in program history at Green Sea-Floyds was an 8-4 season in 1984. The Trojans had never made it past the second round of the playoffs until this year, suffered a decade drought in terms of even making the post-season and numerous winless campaigns. That started to change when Kiefer arrived on campus last season. “I like going to programs that are down. I love going places where people think it can’t be done,” said Kiefer, who coached in North Carolina for 31 years. The team went 6-6 and recorded a rare playoff win in Kiefer’s debut in 2017. Judged against its entire history, that stood as a great season. Kiefer, though, didn’t want his players thinking that way. “I told the guys 6-6 was not something to be satisfied with. That should be considered a down year. I told them if they were OK with mediocrity, they needed to do something else,” Kiefer said. His players took that message to heart, pouring themselves into Kiefer’s rigorous offseason strength and speed program. “We bought in. We came together as a team. We don’t play for individual stats. Wins are the only stat we care about,” said senior lineman Tyson Sorrell. There were early indications that the Trojans might be in for a special season, with the team beating Loris in overtime early in the season, the first time in 34 years Green Sea-Floyds beat its neighbor and rival. They didn’t get the chance to build on the momentum of that win, though. Fate and nature intervened in the form of Hurricane Florence. The initial impact wasn’t awful, but the residual flooding closed the school for three weeks and kept the team off the field for nearly a month. That was bad enough, but some players lost their homes. Center Lucas McDowell was one of those. He and his family were helpless to do much more than sit and watch the water creep up Highway 9 and eventually flood their home with more than three feet of water. Kiefer kept tabs on his players to make sure they were OK, but the players also checked up on each other. “I was worried about those boys,” Edwards said. The team communicated regularly on social media and the primary topic of conversation was not the stark reality they were dealing it, it was a return to the field, which would be as close to a return to normalcy as possible under the circumstances. They missed the camaraderie and family vibe and were itching to get back on the field. They finally did get back and had to take the field against Timmonsville on four days of practice. Their conditioning had regressed, they were sore, but they gutted out a close win. Kiefer said to succeed in spite of all they had faced and dealt with showed the toughness present up-and-down the roster.They lost the next week, but Sorrell said after that, the team got its legs back under it and hasn’t lost since. They began their current seven-game winning streak with a thrilled against Hemingway. Down 21-14, the Trojans scored a touchdown with three seconds left, immediately lined up and went for two. They got it, they won the game and that seems to have provided a springboard. Their lowest point total since then was the 44 they hung on defending lowerstate champ Baptist Hill. They’ve scored more than 60 points four times. Lamar has also had to deal with adversity during the year. They missed two weeks of school and were off the field for three weeks because of the hurricane. When they returned, the opponent was Gray Collegiate. Silver Foxes quarterback Cam Galloway suffered a season-ending injury early in the first quarter and the overall rust from the layoff may have shown against a team that missed little or no time. Lamar lost to Gray, marking the team’s first regular-season loss in three years. “We weren’t where we needed to be then,” said Lamar Coach Corey Fountain. “We couldn’t practice for almost two weeks. The practices needed to be tougher. That threw us for a loop.” Losing Galloway meant some changes had to be made to the offensive attack. J.J. Langley stepped in, but did not possess the running skills of Galloway. That meant throwing the ball a bit more. Langley proved a good caretaker and showed he could bounce back from adversity. Against Dixie last week in the upperstate championship game, he threw a pick six early on and had another pass intercepted and returned to the one to set up another score. Lamar trailed 14-0 at halftime, but he made a couple of big plays throwing the ball in the second half to rally his team to an 18-14 win. The defense, of course, did it’s part, holding a powerful Dixie offense to less than 90 yards of total offense. “J.J. had a rough start, but you got to stay resilient and battle your tail off,” Fountain said. The two teams that will take the field at Benedict today look a lot alike. Both are physically tough teams that want to run the ball and impose their will on opposition. “We have the mentality that nobody’s going to beat us,” said Lamar lineman Shane Amerson. That’s a well-founded feeling for a team looking to win its third title in four years. Green Sea-Floyds isn’t to that level yet but they’ve taken a big step in that direction with the promise of more to come. Kiefer said he needed to look no further than across the table Monday to see where he wants his team to go. “It’s very difficult to get to state, let alone four years in-a-row. It’s a program, not just an occasional good team. It’s where we want to take our program to,” Kiefer said. Today, he has his chance. Lamar- 18
Dixie- 14 Green Sea-Floyds- 47 Hemingway- 7 Breakdown- After 16 weeks and hundreds of games, 28 teams have taken their Kool-Aid and bologna sandwiches to the kiddie table, leaving a pair of grown folks to sit inside to eat steak and raid the liquor cabinet...or something like that. That Lamar is playing for a title is obviously not surprising, since that's kinda their thing. What is surprising is the degree to which they struggled against Dixie in the upper state championship game. That is no knock on Dixie who has come miles and miles as a program, had a great group of seniors, is well coached and is tougher than Dollar Store steaks (that's not one of those crazy "Travis made that up" deals either. I saw steaks for sale for $1 each a few years ago in a Dollar Store. I'm pretty handy with a grill but I don't believe I could do much with those. Nor could Bobby Flay. What part of a cow do $1 staeaks come from? That's gotta be hoof meat or his jublees. And did the cow have like scurvy or rubella or something? But I digress). They deserved to be where they were. They did not play a dialed back schedule as they had the previous two years as they slowly built and progressed. They gave dang good AA Landrum and 96 teams real battles, they beat Christ Church, they curb stomped the rest of their region etc. but what happened last Friday seemed to have a lot more to do wiith Lamar not playing very well than Dixie hanging tough with them. They had a very un-Lamar like six turnovers, including five in the first half. Dixie ran one pick back for a score and ran another back to the Lamar one to set up another score to give them that 14-0 lead they enjoyed at half. One that made me suspect that Twitter was drunk or that the entire football world was executing a colossal prank of some kind on me. I actually tried to think of a time recently that Lamar beat themselves (or put themselves in a position where they could possibly lose a game) and drew a big, fat blank. It doesn't happen. Discipline and robotic efficiency are their hallmarks. Even coughing it up as often as they did, though, they rallied for a win, largely because their defense didn't take to sucking all of a sudden. Dixie, who is big and experienced up front and has a terrific one-two backfield punch couldn't squeeze out one, tiny drop, They had less than 90 total yards of offense. Good as they were all year, their offensive style was just a terrible matchup with Lamar. You can have success against them through the air if you can hold up in pass protection, you may have limited success with misdirection, option, multiple looks and other sleight of hand, but if you try to line up and run it between the tackles on them, they'll point and laugh at you. Or hit you really hard, one or the other. I understand that Jacquez Lucas didn't play in this game which obviously makes a big difference. Still, they found a way to advance and will have a chance to defend their title. The lowerstate championship game was not nearly as close or compelling. Truth be told, Green Sea-Floyds doled out a gooo-oood rootin'. That they did demonstrates how well they are playing and the degree to which they have improved as the season has worn on. When tbey played Hemingway earlier in the year, they scored with three seconds left, went for two, got it and won 22-21. I picked Green Sea to win but was expecting something similar to that result. Instead, according to a coach I talked to, the Trojans ate Hemingway alive wth jet sweeps and some double wing looks. Coach Kiefer apparently shows a lot of different looks, often based on the opponent. Defensively, they just kinda kicked Hemingway in the face. Even with their top end talent (a series of scary athletes all of whom are named Darius) Hemingway didn't get to 100 yards of offense. And as mentioned, their defense left the field bow legged and with with marks. All-in-all they had a good, if inconsistent year. Despite losing 16 starters and their coach from last year, they overcame a slow start and were one of the last four teams standing. They just ran into a dadgum buzzsaw. And given how bad Green Sea has been for so long and what they've dealt with this year in terms of hurricanes and flooding and whatnot, it's hard not to root for them. They are lowerstate champions for the first time in school history. Good on them. We'll see if they can take it one step farther today. I'll have a preview and my pick Friday morning. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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