JimThorpe

Will it come down to which team performs better when they are wet and generally miserable? The only thing missing is mud. Nothing like clumps of wet muddy grass in your face mask for building character.

Saturday is bad for me. Let's play tomorrow. These teams know each other. Who needs an extra day. Let's rock!

The senior players on the WOS football team have no memory of not making it to the championship game. How can you beat that? It's impossible for any other players in the state of Texas to have played more postseason games than a four year varsity player at WOS. It's likely this streak will come to an end in 2018. I hope it comes to an end Friday. But it is still quite something if you ask me.

In the final THSCA coaches poll was pretty accurate predictor of post season success. Region I has No. 1 Glen Rose vs. No. 7 Iowa Park Region II has No. 1 Pleasant Grove vs. No. 3 Pittsburg Region III has No. 3 WOS vs. No. 6 Silsbee Region iV has No.1 Cuero vs. No. 3 Navarro 3 of the 4 no. 1's are still with us. You could hardly call the win by No. 3 WOS over No. 1 Jasper an upset. This No. 3 is the most experienced playoff team in the state at any level.

Clearly this would be a huge win for Silsbee, arguably the biggest ever. But what about WOS? Obviously it couldn't be the biggest, not for a 4 time State Championship School. But how big is it? To me the 86 and 87 wins were the biggest because they came against the very best in Div 4A. 2015 and 2016 were huge of course, especially when combined with the 4 straight appearances. But WOS didn't beat the BEST 4A teams on the way to the championships. I think both Carthage and La Vega would beaten the Mustangs in those years. And probably Argyle in 2015. From what I've seen so far this year in watching Silsbee's run, Div II isn't quite as tough as Div I, which stands to reason. But that's neither here nor there. The bottom line is that the WOS program is arguably the strongest in the state for the last 40 years all things considered. And where does that put us? Well, the WOS faithful can (and do) say, "We beat you guys practically every time we meet in the regular season and preseason." But Tiger folks can rebut, "So what? We get beat regularly by a certain 3A team (that shall remain nameless). Big deal, none of that ever keeps us from making the playoffs. And you guys have never sent us home in the post season. We, on the other hand, HAVE sent you home. And that more than trumps all those less important games." So, can a win on Friday be just another Forest Gump type moment for the Mustangs? "So we went to the playoffs... again. And we won our quarterfinal game.... again." I wonder.

Looking past the quarterfinal game, which team do you think the Tigers match up better against, Cuero or Navarro? The conventional wisdom would be Navarro by all means.

The obvious follow up question is, if the coaching staffs were swapped then Silsbee wins?

Nice balance. Any one of the big 3 can carry the load in any given day. And Tyler makes it 4 who seriously contribute.

Just came out of the Papa’s Seafood at 69 & 1960. The sky is dark and it’s drizzling. I mean menacing. Maybe it’s going to blow over but so much for the Weather Channel.

Just came out of the Papa’s Seafood at 69 & 1960. The sky is dark and it’s drizzling

Actually it's not Giddings, it's Pleasant Valley and Cuero. Giddings doesn't make it past the quarter final. That's the standard line anyway. The interesting thing about the Tigers is the scores of those first two games. Those are the kind of scores the highly ranked teams post against second tier early competition. You've got to conclude that the Tigers are, at least for the next few hours, simply an unknown quantity. Plus they are playing at the Div II level which is brand new for this team. Silsbee is used to being tossed into the inevitable Carthage meat grinder. It's a new world now. It's possible the Tigers may be one of the best teams in the state in Div II at this point in the season. I know one thing. If I was a Tiger player I'd be totally pumped right now and ready to give more than I have to give. There's nobody in Div II the likes of Argyle or Carthage or Liberty Hill or even La Vega, Midlothian or Sealy. Jasper and Cuero are good but not that kind of good. Div I is stacked but there's no brick wall in Div II this year to stop an inspired Cinderella.

Rain chances have dropped off to 10%. It will be about 70 Deg. at game time. Conditions favor the better team. But which team is better? The internet staff at Dave Campbell's has already written Silsbee and WOS off. Three out of the four staff writers are taking Jasper over Giddings in Region III. They have Jasper ranked No. 1 in 4A Div II and they have Giddings ranked at No. 6 in the last regular season poll. But they write off Giddings and Jasper as well and they all predict that Cuero will beat Pleasant Grove for the 4A Div II championship. Silsbee and WOS of course are nowhere to be found. In the statewide chatter Silsbee is pretty much a non-entity. Our two dazzling wins were outliers played against other also rans and as soon as we face highly ranked competition it's adios Tigers. The Giddings coaches know that their boys are ranked in the middle of the top 10 and have a good shot at the semifinals. And they know that Silsbee is fair team and to be taken seriously, but really not in their league. (anyway I hope they know those things)

Excellent effort by WB. They just didn’t realize what was going to happen in the last few minutes until it was happening

WB using smart offense. Spread and slow pace. Useless of course against their larger 6A opponents. But it works against Silsbee. That and fact that the Tigers are ice cold.

Lumberton is my favorite school right now. I love how many kids they have enrolled. I love that they are in our district. I love that they are good enough to make the playoffs. Talk about a win-win scenario. This realignment is fabulous. Lumberton gets to go to the playoffs and has a big first round win. Meanwhile Carthage is nowhere on Silsbee's radar screen.

I’m surprised. This is 30 points different than I anticipated. I have no idea what it means. It’s a very good start for PA obviously. With so many question marks this is a huge confidence builder. They have to be thrilled about it. For the Tigers? It’s a tough start for another very challenging preseason. Oh well, once more into the breach dear friends, once more!

WOS has lost two games in a row. That's unusual.

0-0 at the halftime

Amazing! We love our Coach!

Carter will get their 3’s. Fabulous shooting. But the Tigers are on another level right now. Call it schoolyard if you like but I call it improvisational brilliance. If they have that going at a given moment it’s a real thing of beauty. If you’ll excuse the hokey metaphor, it’s like a tiger stalking in the jungle waiting to pounce. One thing for sure, the Tigers would have put Seminole away a lot sooner than Carter did. Any objective observer who was there yesterday would agree with that. That may not mean anything, but it’s true. The 19 point win over Somerset was 19 because Coach Sig wanted it that way.

.....and I think he was the Region 1 Tournament MVP. Really he's a tight end. He's signed to play offensive line with a Div. 1 team. He moves really well. Not quick but has surprising speed, like a large tight end, duh. We certainly don't have anybody who can move him out of the way. He goes pretty much where he wants at the discretion of the refs of course. We'll see what Carter can do with him. The whole team is pretty beefy actually. Probably Carter has too much skill for them but I hope they win. It would be more fun playing the Indians than playing Carter. Carter is a known quantity. They play in the mold of the better teams we're familiar with. Playing Seminole would be uncharted territory.

Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here all week.

Phil Jackson is looking for a job. We could rename it the Golden Triangle Offense. Get it? Golden Triangle! Ha!

Sadly, none of the three remaining teams will be willing to play with the reckless abandon on both ends that Yates demonstrated Saturday. Hence there won't be any more 120 point games for the Tigers. More's the pity because it was so much fun. But why would they cause it would be suicide. But if one of them did decide to run the unaffiliated attendees at the Alamo Dome would be in for a surprise treat.

Well, Seminole certainly isn't a skinny team. They have a forward who looks like a nose tackle. We can surely out jump him but I don't think any one of our guys can move him. Two probably could. He's 6'6 and weighs 285. Seminole should give Carter a game. They won by roughly the same margin against common opponents. If Seminole it will prove they are a team to be reckoned with.