Wheelersburg @ Portsmouth week 3

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

I’m not trying to say they should only be playing one sport, but our guys are very inexperience and have a low football IQ because of it. No the guys Lutz puts out there have played since they were young and learned the game.
Not saying we don’t have other problems, but people are acting like we are losing these games with a team full of all Americans and that is just not the case.

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

And yes mistakes can be attributed to coaching, but again the boys that we have are being coached but they are essentially sophomores in there football knowledge and experience, and sticking guys out there that don’t have a good understanding of the game and yes the scheme makes it incredibly hard.

[rxburgfan]

gotta agree its time for a coach change in portsmouth. what was the deal with setting up for a PAT after the third TD and then calling time out only to come and go for two. failing to convert only ended the game with 2:30 to go. bad call from coaching staff. trojan qb did a nice job of getting his feet under him in the 4th qtr. seaol schedule tough one.

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

Below you will find the coaches and winning percentages for the last 55 years of Portsmouth football. Clifford has a better percentage then all of them including West new coach Shaffer. Just an example that PHS is and always has been a place that’s hard to win at. We have several factors that attribute to this. I know everyone will tell me about all the great athletes Clifford had and that’s the only time he can win. Well let’s think about who Shaffer had, Boomer Reed arguably the best running back in school history and he can only get the Trojans to one winning season with him. Not a knock against Shaffer just an example of to show that Clifford is actually more successful than most PHS coaches have been. Clifford has also been around to see us drop from a D2 school down to only a few boys away from D5 yet we still played an average of D3 last season.
Not saying Clifford is doing everything right, but he has done some things right over the years.


Clifford
2010 3-7
2009 7-3
2008 1-9
2007 8-3
2006 4-6
2005 3-7
2004 7-4
2003 4-6
2002 11-2
2001 11-2
2000 13-1
1999 7-4
1998 8-2
1997 7-2
1996 4-6
1995 1-9
1994 4-6
1993 4-6
1992 8-2
1991 9-2
1990 7-3
1989 6-4
Total 137- 96 averages 6.5 wins a year
Stohla
1988 7-4
1987 4-6
1986 4-6
Total 15-16 average of 5 wins a year
Shaffer
1985 3-7
1984 10-2
1983 5-4-1
1982 3-7
1981 6-4
1980 7-3
1979 3-7
Total 37-34 average of 5.2 wins a year
Bohren
1978 0-10
Lantz
1977 4-6
1976 4-6
1975 7-3
1974 3-6-1
Total 18- 21 average of 4.5 wins a year
Merb
1973 1-8-1
1972 5-5
Total 6- 13 average of 3 wins a year
Mentis
1971 2-7-1
1970 3-7
Total 5-14 average of 2.5 wins a year
Benhase
1969 4-5-1
1968 7-3
1967 7-3
1966 8-2
1965 3-7
1964 0-9-1
Total 29- 29 4.8 average
Apel
1963 3-7
1962 0-10
Total 3-17 1.5 average
Baughman
1961 3-7
1960 3-6
1959 4-6
1958 7-2
1957 6-3
1956 4-6
1955 7-3
Total 34-33 4.8 win average

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

And yes mistakes can be attributed to coaching, but again the boys that we have are being coached but they are essentially sophomores in there football knowledge and experience, and sticking guys out there that don’t have a good understanding of the game and yes the scheme makes it incredibly hard.

I agree with you and I'm not doubting he inexperience bit...Personally, I would be playing all the underclassmen I could at the varsity level. They seem to be head n shoulders above their competition. To get better you must play better competition. No better place to receive the baptism than on Friday Night!! JMO! I imagine the basketball coach is watching with apprehension. I would be!

Right now sophomores that see significant time are.
Johnnie Charles LB, RB (injured in Wilmington game and is still out)
Alex Grashel T/DT
Nate Basham G
Bryan Sexton DT/LB
Brandon Wederbrook WR/RB/DB ( didn’t play against Burg due to injury)
Jacob Albrecht WR/LB/P (played RB last night when Duke came out do to injuries to Charles, and Wederbrook)
Cody Stapleton QB/DB ( has come in for Mason twice this season at QB and sees time as a DB)

I’m sure there are others that get time as well but all these guys contribute on weekly bases. That’s 7 sophomores then add in guys with limited football experience. Dion, Duke, Romain Mills (1st year senior) and even Zaide hadn’t played more then 3 varsity games in Virginia last year and with his only other experience being kicking off as a freshman at Burg. That’s 11 guys that just haven’t had that real time to learn the game on the field, and it makes a difference. Good athletes and good guys but reps matter in this game, and we just don’t have them.

[trojan7]

Personally I think something needs to change. We are not truly running a "spread" unlike some say. Yes we may be in the gun and have two receivers split out and this year we finally have a 3rd slot receiver instead of two backs in the backfield. The thing is we still have a TE out there. To truly run a spread you have the right concept of opening up running lanes but with your slot and TE bunched you still aren't spreading the field. Spread the field with 4 WRs or 3 WRs spread out and a TE (running a pass route to stretch the D), wider splits in the oline and always come to the line of scrimmage with two plays. One a pass the other a run, which they can look to the sidelines and a sign could indicate running the opposite of the play called. When you line up look at the BOX, (something we don't do) teams have 7 or 8 in the box and we run. But after you look at the box if it has 6 men in it or less you run. If there's seven or more pass the ball but have receivers run short quick routes and maybe one deep, maximizing their skill in one on one coverage. But that's just how I see it. I don't claim or have any coaching experience but just going off what I've read, studied and know. I hope the best for the Trojans and I hope they can right the ship.

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

I’ll give you that in most cases a spread offense contains no huddle although I don’t believe that is defining facet of it.
The spread is really about trying to spread out the defense to open up lanes to both run and pass. Although the most common way of doing this is to run 4 wide and lose the tight end again I don’t believe this is a defining point in it. To me the term spread means any offense that is in design set up to spread the defense out allowing the offense to capitalize on the lanes that appear from spreading the D.
Its all just what we want to call it. I guess we may actually be closer to the run and shoot, (which is the precursor to the spread) because of the amount of motion we use, although when we do go to split backs it isn’t really either. However although we start in split most of the time the back will go in motion effectively turning into a slot receiver. This was done with Royster the last few years, so the slot is not new.
My opinion is that we do run a variation of the spread although it is a very watered down and adapted variation of it. Doesn’t matter what we call it really.

As for the 2 play idea, I’m all for that, however what you probably don’t know is that we always have our black package in. Which is our audible package that the QB can use if he believes a run or pass would work better then what we have based on the defensive alignment.

[Ptown Playmaker]

OK, everyone keeps talking about all the athletes we have. We do have some but they are NOT FOOTBALL players. They are guys with speed they decided to play football. Wayne Evans is a basketball first guy, Zaide hasn’t played a complete football season since his freshmen year, Dion and Duke both have limited football experience with them both only playing a few games as sophomores then not playing last year.
We may be able to overcome this if we had a big experienced offensive line to run behind. We do not. We start 2 sophomores in Alex Grashel, and Nate Basham, a first year starter in Tyler Scott, then seniors JW Horsely and Kyle Ratcliff. Their weights are 230, 180, 270, 206 240 averaging 225 pounds a man, remove the one big guy in Tyler Scott and the other four drop to an average of 214. West had running backs bigger than this. This make it hard to find a run game when we are young and inexperienced up front, and we have inexperienced running backs, even though they may be good athletes.
I’m sorry but we do not have the guys everyone thinks we have, good athletes yes, good kids yes, football experience NO, size NO. Plan and simple we do not have the studs everyone thinks we have.
The spread is a real spread, and it is NOT the same we always ran just from the gun. Watch the offensive line play, we do not block the same way. For years we made a living on counter trey, and traps, we very rarely see any movement from the offensive line now. We try to use the spread to spread the defense out and create running lanes now instead of the old trap and counter game we used to make a living on. I would like to be able to get out of the spread and get back to the ace split back and I sets, but again with inexperience, and undersized linemen it would be very hard to run the old offense.

I agree with this statement 100% for this year....

We HAD a SENIOR dominated line last year with Howard, Sanders, Brown, Lewis etc......with plenty of size.......a senior team with most of them being 2 or 3 year starters......and we are getting the same results.

[SPAMONY]

WOW! quit crying about playing underclassmen Burg had more underclassmen on the field than Ptown did and we won. PERIOD
Burg didnt say we lost to Ironton cause we are young and inexperienced so why are you guys? We said great learning experience for the young guys getteing thumped by Ironton. You never know how you will respond to an A$$ whippin til you get one . I like the way our young players responded. You can make all the excuses you want for why Ptown is losing at the end of the day GOOD PROGRAMS WIN. 40 some straight years without a losing record do you really think we have been blessed with great talent and experience for ALL of those years or is it that our COACHING, PROGRAM and SYSTEM produces WINS!!!!!!

[Archie]

Below you will find the coaches and winning percentages for the last 55 years of Portsmouth football. Clifford has a better percentage then all of them including West new coach Shaffer. Just an example that PHS is and always has been a place that’s hard to win at. We have several factors that attribute to this. I know everyone will tell me about all the great athletes Clifford had and that’s the only time he can win. Well let’s think about who Shaffer had, Boomer Reed arguably the best running back in school history and he can only get the Trojans to one winning season with him. Not a knock against Shaffer just an example of to show that Clifford is actually more successful than most PHS coaches have been. Clifford has also been around to see us drop from a D2 school down to only a few boys away from D5 yet we still played an average of D3 last season.
Not saying Clifford is doing everything right, but he has done some things right over the years.


Clifford
2010 3-7
2009 7-3
2008 1-9
2007 8-3
2006 4-6
2005 3-7
2004 7-4
2003 4-6
2002 11-2
2001 11-2
2000 13-1
1999 7-4
1998 8-2
1997 7-2
1996 4-6
1995 1-9
1994 4-6
1993 4-6
1992 8-2
1991 9-2
1990 7-3
1989 6-4
Total 137- 96 averages 6.5 wins a year
Stohla
1988 7-4
1987 4-6
1986 4-6
Total 15-16 average of 5 wins a year
Shaffer
1985 3-7
1984 10-2
1983 5-4-1
1982 3-7
1981 6-4
1980 7-3
1979 3-7
Total 37-34 average of 5.2 wins a year
Bohren
1978 0-10
Lantz
1977 4-6
1976 4-6
1975 7-3
1974 3-6-1
Total 18- 21 average of 4.5 wins a year
Merb
1973 1-8-1
1972 5-5
Total 6- 13 average of 3 wins a year
Mentis
1971 2-7-1
1970 3-7
Total 5-14 average of 2.5 wins a year
Benhase
1969 4-5-1
1968 7-3
1967 7-3
1966 8-2
1965 3-7
1964 0-9-1
Total 29- 29 4.8 average
Apel
1963 3-7
1962 0-10
Total 3-17 1.5 average
Baughman
1961 3-7
1960 3-6
1959 4-6
1958 7-2
1957 6-3
1956 4-6
1955 7-3
Total 34-33 4.8 win average

Take out the 2000-2002 season teams(which I might add could well have won state titles) and what do you have? A 5.4 average!(if my math is correct) :122246

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

Wow, nobody is crying about starting sophomores, just explaining some of our situation. Burg was the better team and nobody is trying to take that away from them.
No Burg isn’t always blessed with great talent, however they do have other blessings that we at Portsmouth do not have. The blessing of far more affluent families, resulting in more parental involvement and your students having far more opportunities then are available to our students. This can and should be overcome, but you can’t tell me it’s not easier to win at a place like Burg where kids have had more parental involvement from a young age teaching them discipline at home so it is not all the responsibilities of the coaching staff to instill these values.
Also Burg was 5-6 in 2000 so there is your losing season.

[Go Bucks]

Wow, nobody is crying about starting sophomores, just explaining some of our situation. Burg was the better team and nobody is trying to take that away from them.
No Burg isn’t always blessed with great talent, however they do have other blessings that we at Portsmouth do not have. The blessing of far more affluent families, resulting in more parental involvement and your students having far more opportunities then are available to our students. This can and should be overcome, but you can’t tell me it’s not easier to win at a place like Burg where kids have had more parental involvement from a young age teaching them discipline at home so it is not all the responsibilities of the coaching staff to instill these values.
Also Burg was 5-6 in 2000 so there is your losing season.

excuses.....excuses.....excuses....Portsmouth has had better athletes over the years! I sure there are plenty of teams who win with kids who are less fortunate at home... Must be an admin LOL... A lot of the studs that Portsmouth has had in the past were from less fortunate families.

[Burg_Grad_77]

Wow, nobody is crying about starting sophomores, just explaining some of our situation. Burg was the better team and nobody is trying to take that away from them.
No Burg isn’t always blessed with great talent, however they do have other blessings that we at Portsmouth do not have. The blessing of far more affluent families, resulting in more parental involvement and your students having far more opportunities then are available to our students. This can and should be overcome, but you can’t tell me it’s not easier to win at a place like Burg where kids have had more parental involvement from a young age teaching them discipline at home so it is not all the responsibilities of the coaching staff to instill these values.
Also Burg was 5-6 in 2000 so there is your losing season.

1964-2000, that's 36 years. I believe that's what he meant and if we just talking regular season the streak is still going since they went 5-5 that year and lost in the playoffs for loss #6.

[sportsfan43]

when does our series with VALLEY start?, next year or the following? ...maybe a valley admin, can help us out

[Bleeding Red]

I watched the Valley Jr High play Coal Grove last week. I can tell you that even though Valley lost, they were running most of the same offense the high school runs. Their pee wee teams were practicing behind us. I watched them for a while during timeouts. I will bet you that Crabtree knows all of those pee wee coaches and they are nearly hand picked.

Valley's 8th grade QB threw a nice ball. He ran a spread style offense. Their 7th grade QB threw the ball alot, not well, but they are DEVELOPING players to be able to play in THEIR system.

Same thing at Minford. Same thing at West. Same thing at Burg. Look at the number of kids they have coming out for high school football. It is increasing almost every year at these schools. When they have to play younger kids, and most of them do, they are doing a good job in there because they are better prepared.

I just wonder if Portsmouth is doing this as well. If their coaches are just hoping that they get football players when they hit their freshman year? Are they grooming these athletes into football players earlier than high school? Are they pushing these kids to hit the weight room hard during the off season?

High school is getting more and more competitive. If the Portsmouth coaches are failing to do these things, they are behind the times. If they are doing these things above, something is broken in the system and that is also a coaching issue and they have serious issues with coaching (development and keeping interests in the younger kids)?

Just some food for thought.

[maniac66]

I watched the Valley Jr High play Coal Grove last week. I can tell you that even though Valley lost, they were running most of the same offense the high school runs. Their pee wee teams were practicing behind us. I watched them for a while during timeouts. I will bet you that Crabtree knows all of those pee wee coaches and they are nearly hand picked.

Valley's 8th grade QB threw a nice ball. He ran a spread style offense. Their 7th grade QB threw the ball alot, not well, but they are DEVELOPING players to be able to play in THEIR system.

Same thing at Minford. Same thing at West. Same thing at Burg. Look at the number of kids they have coming out for high school football. It is increasing almost every year at these schools. When they have to play younger kids, and most of them do, they are doing a good job in there because they are better prepared.

I just wonder if Portsmouth is doing this as well. If their coaches are just hoping that they get football players when they hit their freshman year? Are they grooming these athletes into football players earlier than high school? Are they pushing these kids to hit the weight room hard during the off season?

High school is getting more and more competitive. If the Portsmouth coaches are failing to do these things, they are behind the times. If they are doing these things above, something is broken in the system and that is also a coaching issue and they have serious issues with coaching (development and keeping interests in the younger kids)?

Just some food for thought.

ironton has been doing this for years teach the system young and progress it every year.

[Westfan]

I don't even know if I wanna get in this but here goes.

I thought Portsmouth would beat Wheelersburg because they do have talent in the so called "skill" positions. If they can hold their own in the trenches they can play with any team around here, and from what I had read, Burg was down in the trenches as well compared to normal burg teams. They obviously lost the trenches battle because they couldn't run it and they couldn't stop the run. So they lost.

What alot of people just can't comprehend is the game is won and lost on the line of scrimmage. Size, agility, and aggresiveness, from your lines are just as or more important than the "skill" positions. It is a skill. Until Portsmouth can get dedication from their big guys in the offseason, they will struggle to beat any of the good physical teams they play. Red mentioned the younger grades. I've seen them all. They win from pee-wee to junior high to freshman because it is a different game. Pitch it to their "athletes" and watch them run. Doesn't work at the varsity level of high school. Basically all the way up they play _uss ball.

Portsmouth beat West in 7th, 8th, and 9th this year (although I was told several weren't freshmen, but thats another story). They have more speed and athleticism in those grades. But I'll bet you when they get to varsity, it looks more like the last 2 years because we take pride in other aspects of football besides the "skill" positions.

[The D]

Discipline, community/parent involvement, teamwork, coaching, and the drive to win are what set these teams apart...so much talk about the coaching, but when it comes down to it, its the players' responsibility to step up and win ballgames...even with a bad coach, the players are the ones who had five turnovers, right? Now I'm sure I'm going to get bashed by all the parents whose kids' poop don't stink, but the players are the ones who must have the discipline to fill their role and to not blame someone else when something goes wrong, the teamwork to push through the adversity of bad conditions on the field and on the sidelines instead of bickering amongst themselves or once again blaming others, and the drive to win....Portsmouth had the talent, but like every other year, the players lacked discipline and drive, and when faced with adversity crumbled....blame the coach, but he's not the one on the field playing....

that said Congrats BURG and keep it up next week!!!

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

I don't even know if I wanna get in this but here goes.

I thought Portsmouth would beat Wheelersburg because they do have talent in the so called "skill" positions. If they can hold their own in the trenches they can play with any team around here, and from what I had read, Burg was down in the trenches as well compared to normal burg teams. They obviously lost the trenches battle because they couldn't run it and they couldn't stop the run. So they lost.

What alot of people just can't comprehend is the game is won and lost on the line of scrimmage. Size, agility, and aggresiveness, from your lines are just as or more important than the "skill" positions. It is a skill. Until Portsmouth can get dedication from their big guys in the offseason, they will struggle to beat any of the good physical teams they play. Red mentioned the younger grades. I've seen them all. They win from pee-wee to junior high to freshman because it is a different game. Pitch it to their "athletes" and watch them run. Doesn't work at the varsity level of high school. Basically all the way up they play _uss ball.

Portsmouth beat West in 7th, 8th, and 9th this year (although I was told several weren't freshmen, but thats another story). They have more speed and athleticism in those grades. But I'll bet you when they get to varsity, it looks more like the last 2 years because we take pride in other aspects of football besides the "skill" positions.

Great post siderman,
I can’t agree with you anymore then I do. I would much rather have a great line and average backs than the other way around. It all starts up front; if you can’t control the line of scrimmage it doesn’t matter what scheme you run you will not be successful.
From 97-2002 PHS had some pretty solid lines that don’t get the credit they deserve, because we also had such good backs. What people don’t remember are the times when JoJo was hurt in 99, and we were so hurting for backs we moved Johna Booker to the backfield, and he was successful thanks to a great line in front of him. In 2002 when Bolden went down and the line got Tyler Clifford to be a hundred yards against a D1 team, and was able get another sophomore in Andrew Newman to several good games as well in Bolden’s absence.
The same was true for the defensive lines, when PHS had really good defenses; they were built on very good guys up front. This is true from 99-2002, 2004, and 2007. They may not have always been big, but they were always hardnosed fast and strong. That’s what made all those defenses.
Why are the lines different now? Only things that are different is that Hickman left after the 2001 season, and Joe Albrecht quit coaching a few years back to take the A.D. job. Clifford and Newsom were both very involved with the lines all those years so what is it? How do we remedy this? Is it something we can fix or do we just not have the guys to stick out there right now?

[Trojan_FB_Alum]

Discipline, community/parent involvement, teamwork, coaching, and the drive to win are what set these teams apart...so much talk about the coaching, but when it comes down to it, its the players' responsibility to step up and win ballgames...even with a bad coach, the players are the ones who had five turnovers, right? Now I'm sure I'm going to get bashed by all the parents whose kids' poop don't stink, but the players are the ones who must have the discipline to fill their role and to not blame someone else when something goes wrong, the teamwork to push through the adversity of bad conditions on the field and on the sidelines instead of bickering amongst themselves or once again blaming others, and the drive to win....Portsmouth had the talent, but like every other year, the players lacked discipline and drive, and when faced with adversity crumbled....blame the coach, but he's not the one on the field playing....

that said Congrats BURG and keep it up next week!!!

Another great post, I’m glad some people actually get it. At some point you have to be responsible for yourself. Clifford isn’t the one fumbling balls, missing tackles, missing blocks and just generally not being prepared each week. I.E. I don’t think they read their scouting reports.

Also I’m glad that someone else realizes what a difference it makes to have community/parent involvement.