2011 Allegheny Mountain Conference

[tidesturning]

It is almost football season!!

[Ghost]

Is Holland back for Curwensville? That kid impressed the heck out of me when I saw the Tide last year. What are District 9's chances of getting past District 10 this year?

[davesandstorm]

There is a fearless forcast during football season. We pick HS, college, and pro games. It's all in good fun, no prizes, but a lot of people do get involved.

I'm pretty sure I was the champion last year!

[tidesturning]

Ghost- Check out the first post.

Holland is back! I wonder if he can repeat what he did a year ago. If he does, I think the Tide could make a run at Hershey.

[Ghost]

D'oh. Skipped the first page and went to the second. OK.
What's the Tide's line going to be like this year? Are they going to be able to hold long enough for Holland to pile up the yards like last year? I have no idea what D10 has, but I have to assume Farrell, Sharpsville, and Mercyhurst Prep will be around late. I'm really pulling for D9 this year with Curwensville and the coach with the best mustache Andy Evanko.
Somebody mentioned the Tide being in the ICC. I wish they would play Bellwood. That would be one heck of a game.

[AMLDUDE]

Curwensville will probably be better than last year. The entire line (Smeal, Scribe, Bloom, Munchuk, and Stubbs) returns. They have to replace thier TE, who is just another lineman. They'll dominate D9, and I wouldn't be surprised if Holland picks up 3,000 yards, but at a state level. Same problem as in past years.

No diversity to the offense, and a good team will just spy on Holland with an athlete just as good as him, while the opponents defense will be good enough to neutralize Curwensville's offense line.

Shame is, McCracken looks as if he can throw (he looked decent against Farrell), and with Greslick and Zorger he has a couple of nice targets. If they tried to mix in a short passing game and throw the ball 15 or 20 times game along with Holland. The could do something at a state level.

As it is Evanko showed the importance of quaterbacking at Curwensville last year when he split snaps with at QB with a DE that had never been a QB at any level before (the kid had a shot put motion), but he could hand off. In the end, Curwensville will throw the ball 5 times a game and half of the throws will be a 40 yard bomb down the sideline that will be better than a punt if it is picked off.

Evanko has shown he's happy to win d9, and the type of game he will need to advance against a team of similar talent or superior talent. He won't risk installing that, because it might cost him a game during the year.

[Ghost]

Sounds similar to Bishop Carroll last year with the run heavy offense. That works in the D5/6/9 it seems, but if you want to take a team to the next level you better be able to throw a little. BC couldn't pass, ran up against a more balanced Taylor-Riverside team.
I guess my next question is: What is the defense going to be like? Curwensville ran over everyone last year with the exception of Brockway in D9, and then Farrell came along and they couldn't get past them. Will anyone in District 9 give them a game? ECC or Coudersport? Pearsall's gone for ECC though.

Is Curwensville the only team in the state to wear gold jerseys on the road? I think those look sharp. I would love to see McCort or Bishop Guilfoyle in a gold jersey.

[AMLDUDE]

In district 9, probably not. The AML appears to be down a bit. Coudy and Cameron County who have both been good recently have really lost a lot of players. In fact, Coudy finished the year last year with about 25 kids and decided not to particpate in D9 playoffs even though they could have. From memory they lost 3 of thier last 4 games and they were getting beat badly.

ECC had a really nice JH team two years ago, meaning they should be solid (even without Pearsol), but their best collective group of players are junoirs this year.

The Bodamer boy at Port is a really nice QB and will give Port Alleghany a good chance against anyone, but I would think Curwensville will just destroy Port an the line of scrimmage.

Despite everything Brockway lost they return 4 starting lineman and three of them are really good. A junoir by the name of Morgan Murry was probably the best defensive lineam in the AML last year. If anyone knocks off Curwensville it would be those guys, but along with all of the skilled kids they lost (and it was a boatload, they had 7 senoirs make first team all conference) they also lost their head coach (he went to Dubois) and the feedback I'm hearing is that they are going to completely alter the offense. Also, Brockway is AA, so they would not take Curwensville out of the D9A championship, just the AML title game.

Curwensville is really unique for an A school right now in that they are just absolutely loaded with lineman. Of the guys I mentioned that would start on the oline, it is very likely that only one or two will be asked to play on defense (most likely Smeal). Thier defense is design to keep people off of Holland at MLB. The kid basically makes half of the teams tackles, the other inside backer blitzes a lot (they normally play a 4-4)

Holland is a division one kid in a body that is too small for division one football. I don't think he weighs 170 lbs, but the kid can flat out fly, and he's just a very good instinctive football player, very quick and very aggressive. I was guessing that he'd end up in the PSAC as a DB, unless a school makes him a scatback that catches a lot of passes out of the backfield. Now, I am being told he has some FCS offers, so 1-AA is not bad. The kid can play.

[Ghost]

If memory serves I think Coudy opted out of the playoffs because they had so many injuries that they were concerned about the kids safety. Could be wrong, though.

So no more pass happy offense for the Rovers? Varischetti going to DuBois hurt Brockway, but I have to believe expectations for this season are not going to be very high. I was surprised he left. They lost Buganza, Veervort, Marshall, etc., so I'll be interested in seeing if they can make it back to the title game. I think if they do they'll lose to Brookville.

Yes, but what happens when the linemen come up against a team like Clairton? Is Curwensville going to have enough team speed overall to hang with them? I guess the same could be said for a team out of District 10. Kane I think was the last team to make it to the semis by beating Mercyhurst Prep, but then got blown out by Serra. What you're describing sounds an awful lot like the Bishop McCort team of 2009. Big upfront, a quality back (McCort also had Domonkos and Merriman), and they rarely passed. They pounded people, but Clairton's speed and overpowering defense shut them down for the most part.

Who is Evanko going with McCracken or Starr?

[AMLDUDE]

Starr graduated.

Farrell had too much team speed for anyone in D9 or D10, but they were also one of the most undisciplined taems I've ever seen. I didn't surprise me that when things went bad, they went really bad against Clairton. To beat a team like that you are going to have to use misdirection and a lot of short underneath stuff, if you can't completely dominate at the line of scrimmage (and you'fe not going to dominate a really good team) you have to do something other than just go staight ahead all of the time.

Brockway has 6 kids, Heigle, Brinkley, Murry, Snyder, Braun and Mike Vervoot that would start for anyone in the AML, they will be fine this year.