I agree. No need for us Colonel fans to depress each other further. We can keep the Faith and see how the season evolves. Maybe someone will arrange Eternal Flame to be played when the boys run through the big helmet.....

First, the Mountainmutt was a big Mike Campbell supporter and is a long time (since grade school) personal friend of Mike Campbell. The Mutt believes that Mike Campbell was hand's down the best coach Whitley has ever had in any sport over the schools 40 year history. Mike took a dead football program and built it from the ground up to one of the better teams in the Mountains. He did this by working his behind off about 80 hours a week, 12 months a year.

 

Contrary to what some people on this board seem to think, Mike was not a victim of the fans. Mike was and is very popular with the long term Whitley fans. Mike was the victim of a political vendeta and a strong campaigning job by Murdock Gentry. Mike should by all means still be the Head Coach. Mike will tell you himself that his biggest mistake as coach was changing his offense last season. In the traditional Mike Campbell offense, Whitley would have won 8 ball games last season instead of 5. The passing attack was the direct cause of 3 losses in which Whitley could have powered over the opponent if they had simply pounded their opponent to death. The sad part of it was that Mike's experiment with the passing game came at a time, in which, he was politically vulnerable and in which he had Murdock Gentry openly campaigning for his job. Gentry had friends in high places and Mike had a 5-6 season. The result of this is obviously clear.

 

Second, the Mutt is also a fan of Jim Black and the current coaching staff. Whitley has an excellent coaching staff. Whitley's coaches are hardworking, knowledgable, and are of the highest character both on and off the field. The Mutt is extremely happy to have these men working with his son, blue pup. Jim Black has been around the Whitley program for a long time and has always done a great job. As for Coach Campbell's demise, Jim Black will tell you the same thing that the Mutt just wrote. Mike Campbell got a hatchett job.

 

Jim will straighten things out and be successful at Whitley. The Mutt is just of the opinion that Coach Black is going to find his success in an offense other than the the Hal Mumme spread. Mumme ball was a novel approach to the game that enjoyed some success when it was new to everyone. Coaches have simply seen it enough now, to know how to defend it. Even when it was novel, it resulted in the accumulation of huge yardage but, it also resulted in a lot of turnovers and poor field position, which resulted in a lot of losses.

 

The Mutt hopes he is proven wrong but, at this time he is convinced that power running, defensively oriented teams are almost always going to beat finesse oriented passing teams.

Whitley will get better. New coaches, new system completely different than what the Whitley kids have run since middle school. They will get MUCH better before the end of the season, mark it down. Black is an excellent coach.

 

Lincoln is proving themselves to be a very viable contender for district frontrunner this season. The district is so wide open that in it's last year, the last half of the season will be wild and woolly and a whole lotta fun!

Is Montgomery up or Mad. Cent. down? Maybe Whitley will have trouble the whole way through.

Is Montgomery up or Mad. Cent. down? Maybe Whitley will have trouble the whole way through.

May be the most balanced district in state this year.

I have seen North, South, and Whitley play. NL proved they were ahead of SL, Whitley is going to be hard pressed against the district. Lincoln is top dog right now, followed by North and South and, apparently Montgomery is playing some ball this year. madison Central is still out there lurking, too. The hill may still be too high to climb for this year.