Musings from Week 1

With the first week of football finally over, I saw some good, some bad and just plain-old bizarre stuff. I saw three football games during the first week – Harris County vs. LaGrange, Carver vs. Spencer and Shaw vs. Troup.

Week 2 is a BIG week, but we'll have plenty of time to break down those matchups as it gets closer to Friday. So we'll take a quick look at some of the things that happened during the first full week of football.

Rain, rain and more rain
By the time I got to Callaway Stadium at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the rain had already started. And it only got worse.
Those optimists said the game would start not later than 7:30 p.m. – 30 minutes after the game was scheduled to start. I wasn't as nearly optimistic. I am realist. I saw the heavy rain falling and wasn't sure the game would be played.
I felt like I was at a high school baseball game in March, hoping that first pitch would take place.
The rain finally stopped, and the game started at 8:54 p.m. And Harris County probably wishes it didn't as LaGrange took advantage of four second-half turnovers and rolled to a 31-0 win.
I have now sat through my first football rain delay.

Crazy return
It's not often the player that fumbles a punt recovers it. It's even rarer when that player advances it for a positive play.
But Carver's Carlos Ross took it one step further on Friday night.
Ross fumbled a punt. He fell down. He got back up, scooped the ball and returned it 61 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter against Spencer on Friday night.
Ross had the time to do this being that there were no Spencer defenders within 5 yards of him.

What's that call
Early in the first quarter of the Shaw-Troup game a penalty flag was thrown, and the referee signaled the penalty by putting his hand behind his head.
I had never seen this call. After a few minutes of confusion, an official manual was found and the penalty was discovered. The penalty was an equipment violation.
If that wasn't strange enough, it was called three more times in the first half. All four times it was called against Shaw. I know the officials weren't biased being that they called an equipment violation against Troup in the third quarter.
One of the officials in the press box told me it was because the chinstraps weren't fully buckled.
Let this serve as a reminder to all coaches -- TELL YOUR PLAYERS TO BUCKLE THEIR CHINSTRAP.
At least one thing is certain, the next time the referee makes that signal I'll know the call. The only question might be whether it was a chinstrap, a mouth piece or another piece of equipment that wasn't being worn or properly worn.

Getting a win
Russell County coach Rico White has urged his players to continue working hard throughout the preseason and that it would translate to wins during the regular season.
It happened Friday night.
Yes, the Warriors needed a late fourth-quarter touchdown to beat BTW, but it's still a win.
The Warriors will try to build off that this week.

Almost there
While Russell County pulled out a win, Jordan came up a little short against Kendrick.
The Red Jackets led 6-0 in the fourth quarter before the Cherokees scored a touchdown and made the extra point to win 7-6.
It was much closer than lat year's 26-0 loss and 2005's 39-6 loss.
It appears that first-year coach Tony Graziano has Jordan headed in the right direction. Jordan's next chance for a win will come Friday against Harris County.

With that week behind us, I look forward to another crazy week this Friday.