Mountain 8 2026
- Thread starter MHHS"12
- Start date
All finals now:
Smoky 58 N Buncombe 35
Pisgah 24 Foard 38
W Hendo 56 Carson 27
N Hendo 15 Enka 30
congrats to Smoky & West (which we face next week)
Smoky 58 N Buncombe 35
Pisgah 24 Foard 38
W Hendo 56 Carson 27
N Hendo 15 Enka 30
congrats to Smoky & West (which we face next week)
Yes, next year’s Junior and senior class will be as much talent at the skill positions as we’ve had in probably 10+ years in terms of just shear volume and speed.
As for our staff, they bleed for this team and I’ll never doubt that. On offense the past two years we have struggled to get playmakers involved. I know that shocks some to include last year but we had Pope and he was a definite physical style player but we made some guys just non-existent in our offense when they didn’t have to be. This year we have struggled doing that as well. We ultimately run the stacked I and it has worked against weaker competition but average to good teams have stacked the box on us (tonight Foard had 9 in the box on this formation) and we just run right into the brick wall with an entirely straight blocking scheme. It’s truly Iso over and over. No misdirection, no pulls, no trapping, just straight ahead. It’s baffling to watch. With what is coming next year, we have to learn how to not let that go to waste. When we do pass most of our pass plays are deep and we throw right into the zone rather than underneath it and we never really adjusted. If we would have went to Cramer next week and ran our style, it would have been a bloodbath simply because of their personnel and how easy we are to prepare for. When we have needed to be in a hurry up style offense to close out halves or games, we have tended to just stay in our same offense and run up the middle and have no semblance of a 2-minute O. These things have to change. There is talent over the next two years to make very deep runs but we can’t kill it with play calling.
Tonight’s results were not surprising, although this was a winnable game, but I’m definitely not shocked we lost. We by far had the most elementary offense in the conference and that can’t continue.
This upcoming class will work hard in the offseason and there is zero doubt in that. The staff must absolutely challenge themselves to coach and teach an offensive scheme that doesn’t completely take our athletes out of the game because the talent and player leadership(wasn’t strong this year) is there to be very, very good these next two years.
Great summary, it kinda reminds of Coach Brooks in his earlier years. Gotta learn to diversify as a coaching staff.
Foard looked like a 10 seed and Pisgah looked like a 23 seed. How in the world did they win 6 games? Maybe they just had a bad night. Absolutely loved Pisgah’s stadium though. And #4 for the bear’s has got some dang speed. Foard’s QB was a difference maker. May go watch Franklin next week. I’ve heard they got a brand new fancy stadium.
Honestly, Pisgah was very fortunate to have won as many games as they did. Some of the games they won could have been losses and in any other years probably would have been. Very easily could have been an under .500 teams going into the playoffs .
Pisgah’s RPI was was misleading this year, IMO. Our OWP portion of the ranking was correct but misleading. Mtn. Heritage (8 wins), Franklin (10 wins), Tuscola (9 wins), and Smoky Mtn (8 wins), Enka (8 wins) were some big anchor games for it. We won against Heritage but if you look at the other games we weren’t competitive. So yes, they were “ stronger” teams but we got worn out against them. The Tuscola game’s score was misleading. Yes, it was 21-0 and a great effort by the team but we had less than 40 yds total offense for the game. The game wasn’t as “close” as the scoreboard showed. The Enka game was 100% winnable but the events leading up to that game got in our coaches heads and we played straight up into Enka’s defensive strength all night because we wanted to pound them and that wasn’t happening. Our OWP benefitted from the mountains being down and Enka having a historic year. I’m not taking away from Enka they were a greatly improved team from year’s past. I would argue that on paper we were the most “misleading” ranked team in our conference for these reasons. OWP just says you played a team with a good record it doesn’t tell you how bad/good you played against that team.
There were also some major distractions that happened on Senior night against Brevard and carried into this week and I can’t but feel like they had some effect. I won’t go into them but as I said before this team didn’t have the strongest upper leaders so that was going to be tough to overcome.
There are a lot of good ballplayers on the team they are just in a large junior class and a few Sophs. mixed in that will be huge leaders and impact guys in the future, we have just have to work in the system that will allow that to excel. This year’s offense will not be the best style to run with the personnel for the next two years.
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Listened to the wtzq radio call of their playoff game last night and Mike Morgan kept raving about him. He’s a junior, I didn’t realize how young this entire West team was. They should be pretty darn good next year as well.
That Pisgah score just floors me. I know they’re young but man.
I get so tired of our fans using the "young" excuse. The boys basketball coach said that for three straight years. Our football team has 47 total players, 14 seniors and and 17 juniors. So 31 of our 47 players are "upper classmen!" Juniors and seniors are not young, they are experienced and have been in the program since middle school.
#4 should have got more touches this year.I know he was hurt the first of the season but not in the last five games.At least he will be back next year.Only good thing about this is we want have to play Stuart Cramer .Anyway good luck to Ford ,you were the better team.I just saw on Facebook that #42 got hurt again last night and might have to have surgery on his foot.He won three state championship in track and field last year.He's a fine young man and hope it's not as bad as they think.
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Yes, definitely as explosive of a kid as we’ve had. I think trying to manage his load is a delicate balance. He’s a really good football player, has some unfortunate, unique injuries, and ultimately has a very bright collegiate future in track that is his focus. Attempting to keep football from messing up track. Hopefully, this injury is minimal.
Yes sir. The kid has almost instantaneous acceleration and deceleration.
