[Hawks101]

Thoughts?

[HollerRat]

Grizzle seems like a good coach. I saw their schedule posted somewhere and it looked pretty tough. One thing about it, nothing is easy about the job over there being right in the middle between Pikeville and Belfry

[TheTruth!]

Any news on a QB?

[BlackcatAlum]

Any news on a QB?

I'd say Lukas Varney will be the quarterback for the Hawks.

As for the season, I think they can compete for a potential home playoff game. They lost 15 seniors and Knuckles. Some of those seniors were really good football players too, so replacing their production won't come easy. 

I think preseason district ranking for 2A D8 will be:

1. Belfry
2. Shelby Valley
3. Pike Co Central
4. Betsy Layne
5. East Ridge

Hawks biggest issue last season was their offense. They had a decent defense and had good size and some athletes, but their offense just wasn't consistent and struggled to find the endzone all season. Lane Adams needs to touch the ball 20+ times a game. He's going to be their best player and if they can't figure out ways to get him in the open field, then this team is going to struggle again offensively. 

Best of luck to coach Grizzle and the Hawks!

[Red and Black]

Any news on a QB?

I'd say Lukas Varney will be the quarterback for the Hawks.

As for the season, I think they can compete for a potential home playoff game. They lost 15 seniors and Knuckles. Some of those seniors were really good football players too, so replacing their production won't come easy. 

I think preseason district ranking for 2A D8 will be:

1. Belfry
2. Shelby Valley
3. Pike Co Central
4. Betsy Layne
5. East Ridge

Hawks biggest issue last season was their offense. They had a decent defense and had good size and some athletes, but their offense just wasn't consistent and struggled to find the endzone all season. Lane Adams needs to touch the ball 20+ times a game. He's going to be their best player and if they can't figure out ways to get him in the open field, then this team is going to struggle again offensively. 

Best of luck to coach Grizzle and the Hawks!

I agree with all of this. They came a frog's hair of winning that district last year. 2 point loss to SV and 1 point loss to BL. I think they return their best football player in Adams, return some pretty good linemen and if Varney can develop at QB then they can be competitive, especially if they can get some more basketball players out to play DB/WR for them. Nobody in that district is within 30 points of Belfry, but if Grizzle can get a home playoff game and probably host Leslie or Knott then I think it's a very successful season for them. The PC/SV game should be tight. I think they're both pretty comparable teams talent-wise. Seems like their offensive scheme is what handcuffed them the most last year. They were more of a "spread to run GT" team instead of a true spread offense, so once defenses picked up on what they wanted to do then they started putting 7-8 guys in the box and just outnumbered them in the run game. They had the athletes last year to open it up more, they just didn't do a good job of getting the ball to those guys in space, for whatever reason. If Varney develops a good short to intermediate passing game and hits a few homeruns while still being able to threaten defenses with his legs then it will open up their offense more.

[PHS95]

There is some young talent on Buckley’s Creek . Wouldn’t be surprised to see some of the Fr/Soph surprise some people this season! With Adams and Varney back and Jonah Hicks as another tall receiving target with speed and great hands, it could make for a good combo offensively!