5 Key Questions: Booker T. Washington vs. Miami Central

Chad Wilson

What many regard as the two top teams in high school football in the country, Miami Booker T. Washington and Miami Central face each other in Traz Powell Stadium this Friday.  Speculation about the winner will be high and rampant leading up to the game but what are the most important questions that need to be asked going into this clash of the titans?  Here are my thoughts.

Is Revenge a Factor?

Booker T. had what appeared to be a comfortable lead in the 2012 game before Central made a stormy comeback and stole victory from the jaws of defeat.  Now can Booker T. return the favor?  How much of an emotional edge does revenge give Booker T. in preparing for and playing this game?  Will Central relax a little on last year’s result?

Can the Tornado’s tackle the Rocket tandem of Joseph Yearby and Dalvin Cook?

Through two games, it seems that Cook and Yearby can’t be stopped. The duo stomped through a pair of very respectable opponents in Dwyer and American Heritage Plantation.  In last year’s matchup, the duo came out of the halftime locker room like they were on something and that something ended up being Booker T.  Can the Tornados prevent another highlight worthy performance from these two top recruits?

Does Central have the flight patrol to stop the Booker T. air show?

Booker T.’s aerial assault looked like an impossible physics equation to Norcross HS in a nationally televised game.  It seemed every move Norcross made was the wrong one as Treon Harris conducted a session of routes on air.  Can Central’s secondary avoid a similar fate?

Can Central’s massive offensive line wear down Booker T.’s front seven?

The Rockets have seen what we have all seen.  Booker T.’s offense spreads across the field like spilt milk on a kitchen counter.  No doubt a big part of Central’s game plan will be to control the clock and the line of scrimmage since it appears they have an advantage there.  Can Miami Central’s much heralded and big offensive line impose their will on Booker T.’s front seven?  Will Booker T. play highly recruited Chad Thomas at tackle as they did for many snaps vs. Norcross HS?  Will such a move be enough to stop a Central attack that rushed for 400 yards last week against American Heritage Plantation?

How many points will be scored in this one?

Last year’s game saw a total of 63 points scored with 34 of those points coming from Central in the 2nd half of the contest.  What does this year’s contest hold in store? Any chance that the two defenses in this game can stand up and grab the headlines?  The majority of the stars are on the offensive units for these two teams but defense has long been the pride and joy of Dade County football.  Can the point total fall under 63 points or are we looking at some arena football numbers?

There are just so many things to think about heading into this grand clash that we are sure the answers will be hotly contested from barber shops to car washes throughout the streets of Dade County. The lovely thing about football is that unlike some other things in life,  we have a chance to get the answers this Friday Night.  High School football in America, you gotta love it!

 

Who’s going to win this contest? Drop me a comment below with your answer !

 

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Week One College Football Observations

Chad Wilson

Random observations from this weekend’s college football action thus far:

South Carolina and Steve Spurrier are building something quite nice up in Columbia.  They have a legitimate shot in the East to win the title but hey it’s week one.  North Carolina is going to be a solid team in the ACC this season as I suspected.  Always good when you have a senior quarterback.

Mississippi / Vanderbilt was a thrilling game to watch.  Both teams should have winning seasons and are doing their part to add to the depth in the SEC conference.  Defense may be the reason why neither team wins as many games as they want to.

 USC’s struggle with Hawaii was a bit of an eye opener. Can anyone tell me the last dual quarterback system that worked?  Nevertheless, that’s week one and the game was in Hawaii which has the power to make you bring less than your best.

The 52-51 final score in the Rutgers / Fresno St. game was indeed a surprise.  Expected Rutgers to play better defense than that.  Derek Carr, David’s younger brother throws for 470. Is he the best Carr in the driveway?  Rutgers needs to tighten up their air patrol pronto!

Michigan St. still lacking that explosive element in their offense.  It’s going to cost them this season.  Teams are going to drag them into a track meet and they won’t have their spikes.

Didn’t expect to learn much from Miami’s game vs. Florida Atlantic on Friday and this remains true. I am assuming that Golden and staff did not want to show much offensively and that led to them failing to reach the 40 or 50 point barrier that fans wanted to see.  Canes fans will get a clearer picture come this Saturday for sure.

Gotta love the story of Baker Mayfield the Texas Tech walk on freshman quarterback who went out on Friday Night and out dueled former 5-star recruit and Texas commit turned SMU Mustang from the same high school, Garrett Gilbert.  Mayfield put up 5 TDs and 400 + yards in Tech’s 41-23 win over SMU.  Mayfield had 67 touchdowns in high school but only three offers of which,  Texas Tech was not one of them. Sometimes production actually matters folks!  That I think Kliff Kingsbury was just trying to show off.

Great debut for Wisconsin’s Garry Anderson.  The man is a great coach and folks need to get used to Wisconsin doing a whole lot of winning.  Shout out to Plantation HS, Florida product Sojurn Shelton snagging a pick in his first college football game.

Michigan certainly flexed their muscle against Central Michigan 59-9.  Apparently trying to send a message to the team down South who struggled with Buffalo in their opener.

Northern Illinois continuing to show that parity exists in college football knocking off Iowa 30-27.  Kirk Ferentz need not add layers to his clothing when the weather turns cold in Iowa, his hot seat will take care of him.

Anyone else surprised by Notre Dame’s mere 28-6 win over Temple.  Not sure what to make of it.

And the Tide just keep rolling along.  Alabama is competing against themselves at this point.  Yes, I know this is totally knee jerk coming off of week one but their defense is just smothersome if I can use such a word.  That means beating them is going to be quite the chore. The Heisman Trophy type RB and QB plus the lights out receiver only adds to the problem.

Bobby Petrino can coach. I hope Hilltopper fans enjoy his one or two years at Western Kentucky.

Johnny Manziel, as much as I want to defend him, looks like a train wreck. His ability to consistently make the wrong decision is disappointing. Who’s this kid’s idol? Jim McMahon?

Florida, like Miami, apparently decided to play possum.  No surprise really that neither team covered the spread ahead of their meeting next week.  Both teams looked to be offensively challenged in their opener.

Clemson and Georgia gave the fans what they wanted.  Georgia’s stable of running backs seems endless.  Clemson’s offensive pressure seems undying.  Would love to see them matched up against Bama’s defense.  The game was worth the price of admission and who can’t love the atmosphere in Death Valley on game day.

Man how’s LSU gonna just score 37 points like that without warning somebody?.  The Tigers will do do something foolish like score 20 something against Nicholls St. then hang 37 on TCU like a family photo in a new home.  LSU brings some offense this season then I could be wrong about their SEC fate for 2013.  TCU, better tighten up, you are not in the Mountain West anymore.

Oregon’s scoreboard operator should consider using PEDs.  It’s going to be like that this year.

Now for the College Football parity report:

Towson 33  Connecticut 18
North Dakota St. 24  Kansas St. 21
Northern Illinois 30  Iowa 27
Cincinnati 42  Purdue 7
Illinois 42  Southern Illinois 34
West Virginia 24  William & Mary 17
Eastern Washington 49  Oregon St. 46
McNeese St. 53  South Florida 21
Northern Iowa 28  Iowa St. 20
Eastern Illinois 40  San Diego St. 19

Stop fooling yourself, parity in college football is here.

 

GridironStuds Play of the Week sponsored by FirstDown Playbook

Chad Wilson
GridironStuds.com Play of the Week: Sponsored by FirstDown Playbook
by: Charlie Coiner – CEO Developer First Down Playbook App

942 China H Swing

This 3×1 high low passing play was one of my favorites when I was coaching the Tight Ends with the Buffalo Bills. We ran it a lot with two Tight Ends in the game. One of the main reasons was that Derek Schouman ran it so well from the F position. The slot Tight End has to have a feel for the route to run it correctly. Derek was very good at detecting man or zone coverage based on the pre-snap alignment of the defense and also at reading how the Mike and Will LB’s reacted after the ball was snapped.

As the drawing indicates the F must stay on the move but a good player will understand staying on the move does not always mean to come screaming across the middle 100 MPH with your hair on fire. Vs man coverage staying on the move with speed is the correct thing but vs zone a good player will come across with a little pace so that he does not run out of the opening in the zone coverage. This will also help the F after the catch when it is time for him to put his foot in the ground and get north south to split the zone defenders. Schouman was particularly good at this in the red zone as he had a feel for catching the ball and finding a way to get in the end zone. This is a relatively simple read for the QB if he also has a good feel for the coverage he is attacking. I have included a few coaching tips for this 3×1 passing game concept below.

Read: Y to F to Z

-If the QB sees bracket or in and out coverage on the Y, F or Z he can remove that receiver from the read and get to the H back on the swing route as #3.

-This is a high low on the MLB and SLB depending on who carries the the Y.
– The Y must get his depth and sell a vertical route so that there will be separation between him and the F.
-In the tight red zone the Y will run the crossing route two yards from the back of the end zone.
-The Y should also outside release to provide a possible rub vs man coverage and to sell the threat of a vertical route.
– There is a complimentary play to this that has the Y running a corner route. The Y must take advantage of this at the top of his route and do a good job with his head selling the corner route first before breaking inside on his crossing route.
-The Z must delay off of the ball to allow spacing between him and the F. 

For detailed passing plays every week from FirstDown PlayBook go to the NFL High School Player Development website.

Random Thoughts from a Recruiting Mind: Quincy Wilson

Chad Wilson

quincy-actionBy: Chad Wilson – Editor – GridironStuds Blog
Twitter: @GridironStuds

It has been about a week since Quincy Wilson committed to the University of Florida and many are wondering what are my thoughts on a wide range of topics surrounding his commitment.  I will address some of those here.  First am I proud of him,  absolutely.  The goal for Quincy was to receive a scholarship to play football, the game he loves and he has accomplished that.  The level of success he has achieved while pursuing this goal has allowed him to set new goals above and beyond the scholarship.

The two biggest questions surrounding Quincy Wilson during his recruitment have been what position will he play in college and what happened with the University of Miami.  Regarding his position, despite what many fans may think, Wilson was recruited as a cornerback by a majority of the schools that offered him.  In fact, I can’t think of one school on his offer list of 50 that said they want him to play safety.  While many may say that this was just coaches telling a recruit what he wants to hear,  I will say that they would have to be some of the World’s greatest liars to slide some b.s. past me.  I was born in Brooklyn.  I spent my early years watching bricks in a box being sold as a VCR.  Second, I am not some average parent,  I played this game and I coach it.  Would be kind of difficult to b.s. me and Quincy as well in this regard.  The teams that Quincy and I had serious discussions with about attending all gave at length and detailed discussions about their philosophy on defense and in the secondary.  Whether people realize it or not,  the cornerback position is one that is getting bigger.  Defenses are tired of being overwhelmed by bigger, taller and more physical wide receivers.  At some point,  you knew defenses would do something to counteract that and that time is now.  In the future, cornerbacks are going to more resemble Xavier Rhodes than they will Tyrann Mathieu.  Perhaps Quincy keeps growing into a 6’3″ 240 lb. athlete and ends up moving his position but I doubt it.

Regarding Miami.  I won’t talk much about this because I think it’s rather disingenuous to continue talking about Miami when Florida is the school he has committed to.  At the end of the day, Miami did not offer Quincy at any position: cornerback, safety, linebacker, etc.  I am sure they have their reasons and I am ok with that.  For those wondering, we had no discussions whatsoever with Al Golden about an offer or a position he could, should or would be offered at. He was no shoe in to go to Miami had they offered.  He was going to explore all of his options anyway because as a parent,  I feel that is the proper way to make a decision.  Miami was the best choice for me in 1992.  It’s 2013 and he is his own man.  I am not bitter about his lack of an offer from the University of Miami.  Would it be nice to have them in consideration, absolutely but 70 division I schools did not offer him.  We were both overwhelmed and elated by the 50 who did and that was the focus during the process.  Miami fans continued to make the Hurricanes lack of an offer an issue and still do to this day.  This is what fans do and I appreciate fans.  I loved them when I ran out of the smoke and can still appreciate their passion today.  Some may ask why I allowed him to rip Miami when approached by fans on Twitter.  I say let him speak his mind.  I am confident that he knows the limits.  If fans want to bring it,  I say he can give it back, he has a witty mind and a flare for comebacks (wonder where he got that from?).  His limits are not what fans think they should be and not really yours to choose.  Your opinion is your opinion.  My wife and I raised him, not the fans.  Our family is pleased with his decision to join the Gators.  It’s a chance for him to earn a free education and have an opportunity to play for a great program in one of the toughest conferences in the country.  As a parent,  what more can you ask for.

I hope that puts to rest these issues but I’m guessing it won’t.  At some point fans will move on but I’m guess it’s not any time soon

Gridironstuds.com Play of the Week by FirstDown Playbook

Chad Wilson

Visit FirstDown Playbook – The fastest growing playbook software on the Web 

FirstDown PlayBookCoaching Points:
by: Charlie Coiner – CEO FirstDown Playbook 

-This is a 5 step our progression read for the QB.

-He should read this Y to X to F to H (If his protection is suspect I would tell him Y to X to H)

-Vs MOF Open/Zone: (2 or 1/4’s coverage)

-The QB should look to get the ball to the Tight End on the 5th step of his drop.
-The Tight End should outside release and sell a vertical route early.
-The Tight End should turn outside and sit in the hole away from the leverage of the LB.
-If the SLB expands past the Y and the MLB expands or gets depth then the QB should get to the X who is sitting down in that hole.
-If the SLB and the MLB match the Y and the X the QB can:

a) Take one hitch and hit the F as he comes into the zone behind the MLB

b) Swing the ball out to the H.

-Vs MOF Closed/Zone:

I would read this the same way except I would get off of the Y earlier especially vs strong rotation.

-Vs Man Free Coverage: 

– The read stays the same except:
-The Y and the X should stay on the move with their routes.
-If the F recognizes man he can shorten his route to 14 for the QB.

-The Z is a consideration on an alert if you like that matchup vs the corner.

-Vs 2 Man Coverage: 

– The read stays the same.
-The QB needs to understand that the F will likely be doubled at the top of his route so F-X-H is better.

– QB can think tuck it and run if all are covered.

Hot Reads:

-Strong Pressure makes you hot: The Y must expedite his route to the outside and look for the ball.
-Weak Pressure makes you hot: The X is coming into your vision.

Coaching Points:

-The Z must outside release at all cost
-The Y and the X must stay on the move vs man and sit down in the hole vs zone.
– The F must stem outside on his release to get the proper spacing with the x vs zone.

Gridironstuds.com 2013 American Athletic Conference Predictions

Chad Wilson

By: Chad Wilson – Owner Gridironstuds.com

I recently broke down the American Athletic Conference race for 2013 on the Gridiron Studs Show.  The newly formed conference includes the 2013 Sugar Bowl winners Louisville who everyone has predicted to win the conference going away.  I say not so fast.  In what many will call a shocker,  I say Louisville finishes 3rd in the conference and this AAC ends up being a more competitive conference than many anticipated.  Here’s how I feel the race will end up this season:

American Athletic Conference 2013 Predictions
1 Rutgers 10-2
2 Cincinnati 10-2
3 Louisville 9-3
4 Central Florida 9-3
5 Southern Methodist 7-5
6 Houston 6-6
7 Connecticut 5-7
8 Memphis 5-7
9 South Florida 4-8
10 Temple 4-8