Panther Football future

[Pantherhead]

Lets get something going . South has been mediocre for most of this decade, Is a winning season enough for the panthers nowadays ,is wanting more a desire within the panther hierarchy? Lets Talk.

[Pantherhead]

I noticed in the friday discussion with hugh kellenberger someone asked him who he thought would be the best football team in the area next year. Hugh has been consistently wrong about the all area team, and which opponent would challenge south in basketball this season, and was wrong when he said north had never made a sectional championship and i think he may be wrong about this too. I hope he will be wrong About north being the best team next season. I understand they have a solid running back and good oline returning. But might i add that south reserves and freshmen both beat north last season and we all know what happened in the varsity game. South though has been in the decline ever since they made it to the sectional championship in 06. The problem with south is that their leadership is afraid to get thier hands and pantlegs dirty, which is thier choice. I can see that and i will say that north seems to be building on success however slow it may seem to be building it. I responded to the all area team by saying how bad norths d was and that they gave up over 400 points which they did (418) and he (hugh Kellenberger) said i quote " if norths d was bad then souths stunk up the place". How he could use logic in this one and say that is beyond my understanding. South won more games and only gave up 282 points No way was souths d worse than norths, north even had an easier non conference schedule than south did. But somehow hugh reasoned that norths linebacker whose d was throttled by 418 points was better than souths ryan beall who is a three year starter and bigger faster and stronger than the north kid, and he was souths most valuable linebacker. My point is obvious that south will have to contend with shoddy reporters in the future also. Well Good Luck Panthers !

[bobby]

well let me say that you can't count out edgewood,yes they are losing 18 seinors,but the up and coming freshman team went undefeated,and they have the best coach in the area hands down,mr. bland a man who knows his football.

[Dustin T.]

IT is just a game. But to coach Wood it is just a job. I would like for you to show up to your job with the attitude that it is just a job and see how long it takes before some one replaces you. I agree that maybe some people get to serious about kids sports. That is the way of the world these days. Kids are bigger, faster, stronger than they were in my day. Parents who have children who are serious about the game and seek the opportunity to play beyond high school want to put their child in the best situation to obtain his goal. A mediocre coach is not the best for that childs interest. I'm not saying that kids don't come from bad high school teams and play college ball. A kid who is serious about the sport needs a coach with the ability to get the most out of each individual player on the field, in the weight room, in the film room, in the class room, and at home. I don't believe that coach Wood is the man who I can count on to bring all that. I do believe that their is coaches near and abtainable who could and would answer the call. As for the all american coach who didn't take the job!!!!!! I can't imagine what his thinking process might have been,,,,,,,But I'm glad that he didn't. I just can't imagine someone who believes in themselves would turn down a job like the one at South. Maybe he was not a believer??? Not to judge or make it personal, I suppose there are many factors that could have played part in his dicision.

[fan]

Dustin T, after reading your postings it is my guess is that you are not that close with the football program. To say that Coach Wood does not care about his team and the program, that it is just his job, is just dumb. Obviously you do not know the hours that Wood and his staff put into learning about how to improving the program and giving the players the best chance to be successful. Obviously he is doing a pretty good job as he has four players from this class going to play D1 ball, plus countless others going to play at smaller schools. You can also factor the amount of kids from his program that are currently playing college football. Yes, Coach Wood does not have the record that your beloved Mo did, but I played for Mo and know Coach Wood really well, and Drew Wood would never sacrafice his integrety to win a game. Yes Mo was successful, but Mo is no longer the coach at South so why don't you embrace the coaching staff and support the program, rather than bashing it and its staff. You say you want the program to get back to where it was, however, by talking about needing a different coach or what this coach needs to improve on does not help. So, why don't you support the kids, support the coaches, and help get people behind the program and back to where it used to be.

[Dustin T.]

O.K. I miss spoke in my last entry. I didn't mean that it is just a job to coach Wood... I clearly said earlier that I don't know much about him personally. What I meant was, it is not just a game to him. It is his job!!!!!! If he can not do his job to satisfaction,,,,,,,,, then he should be replaced....... Just as anyone in the work force should....... That is why my parents and hopefully yours and coach Woods parents taught us that if your going to do something, do your best.... They had the foresight to see that if you are not the best at what you do then you are replacable. I do support the kids. In fact that is why my opinion is what it is.... I think that they are underachieving.. I believe that our recent success is due to the caliber of kids that have come through the program not because of our coaching staff.. I believe that they could have had even more success given the right coach.... Since we can't choose our players abilities, we have to ajust our style around our players ability.. If you are fast you are fast. If your are big and slow then you are. If you are well rounded than that is what you teach. GOOOOO SOUTH.

[Mike P.]

There are so many things that have changed in the last decade, especially with the addition of Jackson Creek Middle School.

I have personally been in contact with Coach Wood, Coach Bland and Coach Bless about implementing things in to our area youth football program. This idea was discussed by Coach Wood and his staff after the beat down by Center Grove, and brought to me by one of his assistant coaches who has a son that plays for my youth team.

The idea is to use the entry level (2nd-4th grade) to get the kids in and teach them fundamentals of the game. Once they move to the higher part of the league (5th-6th grade) the kids are split according to their high school district.

The Coaches at the schools will hold coaching clinics and work with the youth coaches to start implementing offensive and defensive sets that they will run at the high school level.

These are not in place yet with the MCYFA, but they are ideas that all 3 of the coaching staffs want to see implemented and was born out of discussions in Coach Wood's office. It's not just a job to him, he wants to succeed, he wants to win, and he is trying to do everything he can to make that happen, but Coach Wood WILL NOT sacrifice his morals just to win a game.

[Dustin T.]

Again I'll say that I chose the wrong words to say what I meant. I do not think that it is just a job to coach Wood. I think that he does want to succeed. But you said it yourself, he is trying to teach a style of football to children before they even get to him. It seems that he only knows one way. Lets take the Florida Gators for instance. Two years ago they had on one hand Cris Leak. On the other hand they have Tim Tebow. They shared the position of Quarterback. When Leak was in they ran one style of offense and when Tebow came in they ran another. You can't be a good spread offensive team if you don't have speed. Speed is something that you are born with. You can improve it through technique but only to a certain extent. If your lineman are averaging 250 LBS and your running back runs a 4.8 40, than you might want to pound the ball and make your success in the trenches. You have to change your style and game plan to fit your personel. This is where, in my opinion, the problem lies. We can not stick with the same old game plan year in and year out. Our kids change and so must our game plan. If the coaching staff needs to change in order for that to happen than so be it. We have in middle school right now, a very speedy group of kids coming out of both seventh and eighth grades. A very talented group of kids. They in my opinion need the right coach and they can really accomplish great things.... Gooo South.

[Pantherhead]

Mike P. said:

There are so many things that have changed in the last decade, especially with the addition of Jackson Creek Middle School.

I have personally been in contact with Coach Wood, Coach Bland and Coach Bless about implementing things in to our area youth football program. This idea was discussed by Coach Wood and his staff after the beat down by Center Grove, and brought to me by one of his assistant coaches who has a son that plays for my youth team.

The idea is to use the entry level (2nd-4th grade) to get the kids in and teach them fundamentals of the game. Once they move to the higher part of the league (5th-6th grade) the kids are split according to their high school district.

The Coaches at the schools will hold coaching clinics and work with the youth coaches to start implementing offensive and defensive sets that they will run at the high school level.

These are not in place yet with the MCYFA, but they are ideas that all 3 of the coaching staffs want to see implemented and was born out of discussions in Coach Wood's office. It's not just a job to him, he wants to succeed, he wants to win, and he is trying to do everything he can to make that happen, but Coach Wood WILL NOT sacrifice his morals just to win a game.

You guys keep talking about the coach not sacrificing his morals to win a game. What exactly do you think we want from him that would sacrifice his morals? Is he too saintly to get guys to dig deeper and throw the opponents down to the turf evreynow and then? I heard a guy from the Gridiron Digest that went to the pike game say that south should have won the game but after the first or second quarter the playcalling was sort of "vanilla" as he put it. Which i think meant that they got up and controlled the game but then went soft i think thats the problem. Noone is asking coach wood to do anything immorral if thats whaT HE THINKS THEN WE AER WAY AWAY FROM HAVING A COACH WHO IS COMFORTABLE ENOUGH TO COACH HERE AND WIN!!!!

[Dustin T.]

Amen and halaluja!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike P.]

Dustin T,

Go to Carmel, Ben Davis, Center Grove or Warren Central. Take a trip with me to Oklahoma, to look at the Tulsa Jenks and Tulsa Union Programs that have combined to win the last 13 or 14 Class 6A (same as our 5A) state titles. What you will learn is something simple, the offensive and defensive sets are the same every year, where their success starts is before these kids ever get to middle school. They are brought up in the system, they learn it young and know it top to bottom by the time they get to High School. The coaches know the kids, know who can do what effectively in their system, and know where to plug them from day one. Go back to the days that Martinsville had competitive teams, they started playing the varsity offense in the junior league games.

It is very, very common in this day and age, spend time on the high school chat boards, and listen to them talk about the feeder programs at the major schools in the MIC, or the CYO feeder programs and you will learn something about how these other schools really build their programs.

Pantherhead,

I was at the Pike game, the play calling was consistent from the start to the end of the game. It did not change due to the score. Pike figured out a way to get their athlete's in position to do the damage they needed to do. There was maybe 4 calls that were questionable when made, and I know at least 2 of them were audibles at the line.

[Dustin T.]

If the play clling stayed the same and the other coach was able to figure out how to stop us and we didn't change at that point than it sounds like we was out coached!!! As for all the talk about Tulsa Jenks and Tulsa Union programs, well I would have to know more about them. How big is the community. How big of a pool do they pull there kids from. Do they have open enrolement in their school system? You can't judge a bool by its cover. If Monroe County was to put all three high schools together I suppose we would be hanging more state championship banners than we do, regardless of the coach. So you can say what you want, my belief is that if you don't have a quarterback who can throw the ball well then you don't run the west coast offense. If you don't have above average speed at all positions then you don't run the spread offense. And no matter what you have, you don't run a stand up defense!!! You have to have the personel capable of accomplishing the task in which you set out to accomplish.

[Mike P.]

Dustin,

I get where you are coming from, but the more you post, the more I realize you don't really don't follow the program that close.

I agree about the stand up defense, and if you haven't paid attention, IT WAS DROPPED, and not only was it dropped, it was replaced with the same defensive set that Mo ran here when we were winning state titles. Not only that, but a coach that was added to the staff has spent the last 16 years coaching college football.

Who do you think can't throw the ball? Are you saying Marcus can't throw the ball?? 134/229 (59%), 1957 yards, 17TD's and 13 INT's are pretty solid numbers. Could use less interceptions, but still solid numbers last year. His Junior year he had the some of the best numbers in CI bettering Adam Weise from Perry Meridian who ended up being the "South" MVP and the North/South All-Star MVP in the annual senior game last year. As for South's offense last year, they ran 686 plays out of those plays 452 (67%) were rushes. Looks like the relied on the ground game more than their "QB who can't throw". As for speed, Pike and Center Grove were the only TEAMS with more speed than South, Pike has 3 of their studs all going to BCS programs with full rides, Center Grove has 2 with full rides, and another to a non-BCS school. Nick Turner at Southport was the only other PLAYER that could beat South with pure speed, and it was showed many times through out the year. I can't remember seeing any of our receivers or Blackwell get ran down from behind, of course that doesn't include deep routes when the ball would hang up a bit allowing the gap to close, but in a foot race no one could catch Morris out there.

Back to the play calling at Pike, maybe I wasn't clear in what I was saying. The play calling stayed consistent with how they had called games all year. In other words, they didn't go from 2 to 1 run to pass to calling 5-1 run to pass. In other words, they didn't just go into safe mode, the kept at their normal game plan, but Dakotah Tyler (SEC Kentucky recruit) proved to be to much for them late in the game.

As for Jenks and Union, they are districts inside the Tulsa school system. No open enrollments, both districts are smaller than the MCCSC, and both High Schools are larger than North or South, but smaller than Ben Davis, Carmel, Warren Central. If you were to combine North and South you would have a slightly larger school. Thing is this, there are other schools as large in their class, but unlike these schools their programs don't start till middle school or with their freshman teams. You can't coach speed or size, you can coach strength and technique, and you can build understanding and discipline, all things that come with time. If you can get that started earlier, the more success you will have later.