FAIRFIELD VS RUSK

[justafan_02]

29 SHORT DAYS UNTIL THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I CANT WAIT. ITS GONNA BE A DOOZIE...
ANY COMMENTS?????????????

[zeke]

Both teams start the season off with a huge matchup as both were Regional Finalists . Rusk has a chance to get revenge from last years loss and be the spoiler. Looks like Rusk has everything to gain and nothing to lose in upsetting highly ranked Fairfield.
Rusk is a very good football team again this year with 9 seniors playing varsity ball for their third season. They only lost 8 players to graduation from last year which included their starting QB. They return 20 lettermen.
I would be interested in hearing how much playing time this years QB Reed Lanham got on varsity last year and what his attributes are.
Texas Football lists their star running back, Cody Glenn, as 215 lbs. and 4.5 in the 40. Anybody know if he's really that fast? He was voted his (tough)district's MVP so he must be something special.
Their coach says they are stronger and faster than last years team.
Fairfield returns 7 offensive skill players with a 3 year starter at QB, starting tailbacks and receivers. All their skill people are fast and experienced. The unknown factor is whether they can rebuild their offensive line to playoff caliber. Help comes from a talented 9-1 Junior Varsity that defeated Rusk last season. Fairfield's defense should still be very fast and stingy with 4 slots to fill at corner, linebacker, and 2 lineman. Fairfield has alot of team speed. I heard an old highly successful retired coach say the other nite "you either got speed or your chasing it".
Hope both teams have incredible success this season.

"To The Victor Goes The Spoils"

[zeke]

Here's the 2003 returning players that made the 2002 District 3A All-District team from Rusk. There is no doubt they have a lot of talented players.

Most Valuable Player: Cody Glenn

1st Team All-District Offense:
Jeremy Bolton- Offensive Line

1st Team All-District Defense:
Mark McGowan- Defensive Line
Jeremy Bolton- Linebacker
Gerald Morris- Linebacker

2nd Team All-District Offense:
Jake Ocker- Wide Receiver
Nelson Pryor- Offensive Line

Honorable Mention:
Jordan Beard- Wide Receiver
Brandon Corley- Offensive Line
Trent Fulton- Defensive Back
Reed Lanham- Linebacker
Kyle Larson- Defensive Line
Antonio Ruth- Defensive Back

[ThaRealBulldog]

Stop Cody Glenn and u got them... kinda like what the Carthage Bulldogs of 2002 did lol

[Blackcat03]

Put a few good hits on Glenn and get a nice lead and they will shut it down, and Glenn will act like he is hurt. That's what they did when we beat them last year. They are nothing without Glenn, and he'll shut it down if it gets too hard.

[Old Tiger]

I'll make an early prediction...and go with Fairfield.

[justafan_02]

stoppin cody glenn is harder than just saying that.. he trucked over people last year and he will do the same this year..fairfield is in his way...
rusk 1-0
faifield 0-1

[eaglefan]

Fairfield shut down Cody Glenn last year, and I think this year they will be even more out to stop him. Look for a lot of 8 man fronts from Fairfield in this game, making sure that they keep this guys numbers as down as possible. he is good, ther is no question but he can be stopped.

Fairfield is definitely gonna be a state contender this year. They're skill players are back and hungrier than ever after that tough loss to an awesome Bellville bunch last year. Look for Chance Elliott and Kyle Lightsey to both have all-state caliber seasons, and it all starts on zero week at Rusk. Last year it was Fairfield 36 and Rusk 32.....this year Fairfield 26 and Rusk 13.

[justafan_02]

8 man fronts? does rusk still run shotgun? how can you play an 8 man front when there are 4 receivers??????you gonna leave one open all the time?? i dont think so.

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN has it right. If I saw an 8 man front I'd quickly audible a quick pass. Teams that have good receivers and QB would kill ya. An 8 man front can kill an offense with a mediocre to poor line, and the opposite is true if the offensive line is good and gets a crease because there is only one man in the secondary to make the running back slowdown or tackle him. If the running back penetrates the line of scrimmage, he'll generally have a long play and score.

[justafan_02]

i hope yall run an 8 man front. we will kill yall.

[eaglefan]

Don't get me wrong, Rusk does have an explosive offense. But if Rusk does begin to try to establish Cody Glenn then look for Fairfield to try to stack the line and stop him first. Fairfield wants Rusk to pass because the strength of the Fairfield defense is the pass rush. They will still have a strong secondary w/ all-state corner Brian Evans returning, so that is not to worry about. Fairfield had one of the premier defenses in the state last season, and a very large part of that defense returns, so don't expect to see much of a dropoff in that department. Bottom line though, they will try to stop the run first and I wouldn't be surprised to see 8 man fronts if that is what is called for. If Rusk cannot establish the run, then they are gonna be in trouble if they have to constantly go to the air.

[justafan_02]

i can tell that you do not have a very good fb mind. explain to me how you can play an 8 man front. that leaves 3 people to cover 4 possibly 5. im no math magician but thats hard to do, i dont care how much of a pass rush you bring. well i tell you what. you bring 8 and we will gladly go to the air.
ps..we did go to the 7 on 7 state tournament. we can pass the ball.

[zeke]

Thought I'd share Rusk's 7-on-7 results with you as well as the teams Rusk competed with at the state tournament. Congratulations Rusk by qualifying and getting there, and must say you competed well against some pretty outstanding competition. You guys beat Brownwood which says alot. Although you guys didn't generate alot of offensive points , your defense limited some pretty strong teams to a small output as well.

2003 TEXAS 7-ON-7 STATE TOURNAMENT SCORES
FIRST DAY POOL PLAY
Keller 42, Friendswood 28
Friendswood 35, Rusk 7
Friendswood 33, Brownwood 31
Keller 34, Rusk 12
Keller 28, Brownwood 27
Rusk 19, Brownwood 13

SECOND DAY BRACKET PLAY
Atlanta 14, Rusk 8
Atlanta 25, Klein 19
Georgetown 40, Atlanta 32
Keller 34, McAllen 20
Keller 38, Celina 27
Keller 42, A&M Consolidated 28
Burnet 39, Keller 30
Arlington Lamar 25, Friendswood 14
Brownwood 34, Crosby 23
Brownwood 35, Sharyland 14
Brownwood 33, Cy-Falls 32
Southlake Carroll 26, Brownwood 19

[justafan_02]

8 man fronts...what a joke.
come on

[eaglefan]

Look kid, you obviously may think that I don't have a football mind, but obviously you don't know much about personnel. You can run 8 man fronts if you have versatility. Fairfield has the ability to stuff the line w/ guys who are quality enough to drop back if the formation calls for it. You obviously did not read my last post. I said their initial objective was to stop the run, so initially they very well may stuff the line. Once they bring them out of the run and into the pass, which may come pretty quickly then you play accordinly. I saw Rusk play last year, and I saw the stats. I know they can pass the ball, and they do it very efficiently. If we were running 8 man fronts w/ 8 linemen then there would definitely be a problem, but when you are able to bring strong safeties up as linebackers, and have versitile linebackers who are able to cover slots then you have a lot more leniancy w/ your defense. Fairfield is fortunate enough to have that.

[Matthew328]

Rusk will still be a very good team...but Fairfield has the type of D to slow down Glenn....Fairfield wins this one..

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN2, Not to Worry, Fairfield runs a 5 man defensive front. 3 of these defensive front players are returning starters and have sprinter type speed. They are generally deep in the backfield and converging on the ball by the time the opposing QB makes the handoff...opposing running backs have a hard time getting untracked with no available running lanes visible. Fairfield's 2 linebackers are cat-quick and penetrate any remaining running lanes and make bone-jarring tackles. Fairfield's defensive backs are all lightning fast swarming to the ball and can do some pickin. Fairfield's returning starters and last years JV(9-1) players have worked very hard and matured tremendously since this time last year. Rusk and Fairfield are both very, very good....so get ready for some outstanding playoff type football in Week One.

[justafan_02]

all this talk about the defense. does anyone think rusk wont score? how does fairfield offense match up with rusk's defense?

[justafan_02]

fairfield O vs rusk d...
how does this compare?

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN2, Come on compadre, I feel like I'm having a onesided conversation here. You want a scouting report, but you ain't bringing nothing to the table. Give up a little lowdown and I'll share a little offensive lowdown with ya, brudder. Truly don't give up the playbook unless ya just want to.

[justafan_02]

well i think the fairfield o could be strong if they can replace the o line. they have lots of skill kids back with a lot of team speed. i dunno if they can replenish a depleted offensive line. if they can...i think they could be tough
opinions?????????

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN2, Your not catching my drift, pardner. Rusk is your team, right. I was referring to you providing the lowdown on them(RUSK). Got it!!!

[justafan_02]

sorry zeke. yea rusk is my team..i feel we will be better offensively than we were last year. we plan on murderin the eagles any way we want. we feel we can run the ball when we want and we feel we can pass the ball whenever we want to.
if fairfield wants to line 7,8,9 guys on the line then they will be foolish. all i have 2 say is come on. my prediction rusk wins by 20.

[eaglefan]

well people, i'm back, sorry i've been gone. obviously i've missed a lot on this post, and i have to say taht i'm glad to have some other opinions coming in here. justafan, i will agree w/ you that the offensive line is going to be the key here in fairfield. will rusk score? lol, of coruse they will, they're offense is too high powered for them not to. now for you to have a 20 pt. rusk victory predicted, well i think that is quite far-fetched. i think people are going to be pleasantly surprised with the fairfield newcomers this season, espeically the ones moving up from a strong JV squad from last season. no doubt, a good game is in the making for zero week but w/ a game that will display two very good offenses i think it will be the defense that makes the difference and when that is the case then Fairfield has the obvious advantage, so the edge has to go to Fairfield.

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN, Since both Rusk and Fairfield return 7 offensive and 7 Defensive starters which is a substantial portion of their football players from last season where they both lost in the regional round, I thought it might be interesting to attempt to measure their comparative improvement at the end of last years season. We know that Fairfield was a close winner in last seasons Week 0 head-to-head matchup in a 36-32 win. Here’s my attempt to see which team improved the most using the playoff scores as a method to evaluate which team was stronger at the end of the season.

2002 REGIONALS:
Daingerfield 34..Rusk 10
Bellville 10..Fairfield 7

2002 SEMIFINALS:
Midland Greenwood 10 Daingerfield 0
Bandera 24 Bellville 13

2002 FINALS:
Bandera 27 Midland Greenwood 24

Winner Loser
Bandera +3 Midland Greenwood
Bandera +11 Bellville
Midland Greenwood +10 Daingerfield
Daingerfield +24 Rusk
Bellville +3 Fairfield

Hypothetical :
Midland Greenwood would have had a 34 point advantage over Rusk.
Bandera would have had a 14 point advantage over Fairfield.
Bandera beats Midland Greenwood by 3 points.
Using these playoff scores as measure of strength, Fairfield would have had a 23 point advantage over Rusk at the end of the 2002 season.

[justafan_02]

wow zeke. thats pretty complicated system u have there. never thought about it like that. i know fairfield's D is gonna be tough. i just feel that we have made a lot of improvement and we will be ready with some new stuff to counter fairfield's speedy D. i also feel that fairfield's O is not good enough to move the ball on us. dunno, 14 days we will all know. so zeke, what you think the outcome of the game will be??

[eaglefan]

I think you're highly underrating the Fairfield offense. They return a lot of skill position players from last year, including quarterback Chance Elliott and All-state receiver Brian Evans. Kyle Lightsey and Roderick Promise will both see a lot more touches this season, and Lightsey is coming off a year in which he scored 18 touchdowns in a 3 man runningback rotation. This is a very good offense, don't underestimate it. I also think it is going overlooked from teh game last season, Rusk jumped out to an early 20-2 lead on Fairfield before Fairfield started it's comback midway through the 2nd quarter to pull it out 36-32.

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN2, How did your guys fare in the scrimmage yesterday? How about sharing some of the highlights.
Fairfield scrimmaged at Grapeland. Grapeland is a 2A team in the same district as the 2002 Division 1 state champion Corrigan-Camden. Grapeland returns 18 starters from last years team and are much improved from what they were the last few years.
Fairfield's 1st team offense played 30 downs total and scored 4 times. They ended up with about 15 running and 15 passing plays. QB ELLIOT completed 7 passes with 40-50 yard bombs to both Evans and Dove who made leaping catches in traffic. Casey, Collins, and Brown also had good pass receptions. Kyle Lightsey scored twice in breaking half a dozen tackles on a 50 and 35 yard touchdown scampers. Running backs Promise, Manning, and Gallegos had good runs, as did QB Elliot. Each of the receivers and tailbacks got about 10 reps each.
Fairfield's 1st team defense looked very strong in pretty much shutting down Grapeland's offense and no scores. Grapeland had 3-4 1st downs for the whole scrimmage and don't believe they ever got past midfield. Grapeland completed one pass for 5 yards.
Overall a good start for Fairfield but lots of improvement can be made in the next couple of weeks.

[justafan_02]

we did really well against a 3A team. we dont have to pick on lil' 2A. we drove diboll anywhere we wanted them. we just gave the eagles a lil taste of what we are gonna do to them.

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN2, "we drove diboll anywhere we wanted them". Come on JUSTAFAN2, I'm trying to engage in conversation with ya. How many TD's were scored by each team. Details, friend...DETAILS!!!! Are you currently a student at Rusk High?...Football Player?..or if you're still wearing diapers I can understand your limited use of the vocabulary. Let me Know if thats the case and I can start injecting a few lullaby songs for ya.

[justafan_02]

in diapers???thats a good one.
yea im a rusk high player. we scored 3-4 times. scored on the second play of the game. could haev scored all we wanted. we are saving all our scoring for the eagles.

[eaglefan]

is all of that driving you nuts as much as it is me zeke? i didn't get to go to the fairfield scrimmage but i am glad to hear the good report, that goes pretty much along w/ the report that i got from two of the coaches yesterday. it's still early in the season and i don't doubt at all that fairfield is not in midseason form, although supposedly rusk already is.

[justafan_02]

all i have to say is i cant wait for payback.

[Blackcat03]

Boy, if their is all this hype for the Rusk/Fairfield game, I wonder what will happen when Mexia comes to Fairfield. That will be one of the best games in all of Texas for that week. Can't wait! see ya'll in Fairfield! Good luck Cats! Bring back another District Championship!

[justafan_02]

we got something for the cats to !!!!!!!
cant wait

[eaglefan]

man kid, you sure are talking a lot of smack aren't ya? it's always so simple to pick out the ones that are students because they put immature posts like that. be civil when talking about the game, there's no point to go nutty on everybody that puts up a post. ya'll have a good team, we have a good team, mexia has a very good team. and by the way, you are right Blackcat, when Mexia comes to fairfield this year it is definitely gonna be a great game, as was the one last year in mexia. i know the seniors this year from fairfield have never beaten mexia in football, so i think they will be very pumped up for one last shot at them and the inside track on the district title.

[c-town]

Cody Glen must have had some good games. The only game I saw him in was against Carthage and they shut him down. He had under 80 yards.. But Carthage did a pretty good job against the #1 back in the nation in sat. scrimmage.. He broke one time for a big gain with some 2nd team guys on the field.

[zeke]

Hey Eaglefan, Welcome back. The kid hasn't got my goat yet. I'm just surprised there's not an adult from Rusk tuning in to a little pregame buildup. Justafan2 if you're eavesdropping get some adults to come and join us at Downlow. Anyway EAGLEFAN, I couldn't believe how much some of our returning starters had grown since last Football season. From what I heard Elliot was having a problem with his throwing motion because of a restriction from his shoulderpads...his new ones didn't make in time for last Saturday's scrimmage. Fairfield has some talented receivers...hope we go to the air more this year.

[justafan_02]

hey c-town,
how do u think yall stopped adrian peterson(the #1 back in the nation).he only ran a few plays and had over 100 yards.

[eaglefan]

i didn't know anything about the shoulder pad thing, but hopeully they got all of that resolved. I have to agree with you on going to the air, because people really do not think of Fairfield as a aerial team and when you think about it, in the playoffs against Rockdale and Bellville it was in the air that they had the most success. Chance can throw very well, and with receivers like Casey, Dove, Collins, and Evans how can you not want the ball in the hands of athletes like that. Also when they get Chance back in teh gun it opens it up for him to run and use his athletic ability. These kids really have matured a lot and have worked extremely hard this summer. All of the coaches were impressed with their work ethic over the summer and are expecting great things out of them this year, as are the rest of us.

[justafan_02]

i hear ya eagle fan. ur qb is a decent thrower. but it will be hard to throw from while he is lying on his back all night. we are comin for ya....

[eaglefan]

geezes you are a cocky one aren't ya? i know you said that you are on the team, but is that varsity? and if so do you play? just my own curiosity because i'm curious to see you on the field next friday nite.

[justafan_02]

well i dont wanna give out all my info. yes i will be on the field. actually all over the field. im ready for friday nite

[ThaRealBulldog]

justafan yes Carthage did keep Peterson in check for the most part. He had one big run against second team guys. Other than that he didn't do much.

[c-town]

Justafan 70 of the 100 yards came on one play.. But it really doesnt matter because Glen is not even close to peterson and carthage will shut him down again.

[justafan_02]

thanks for the bulletin board material.
glenn is gonna run over everybody!!!!!!!!!!
it all starts with the eagles

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN2, Here's a little post you can show off to your coaches and fellow teammates down there at Rusk, pard. Post it on that bulletin board where everybody can see it!!!!
JUSTAFAN2's brain is so small....that if you put his brain on a razorblade....it would look like a BB rolling down a 4 lane highway!!!

[KL3]

You guys from Rusk, have yall heard what colleges Cody Glenn is favoring? Some say he is the best Jr. back in Texas, all classifications. Adrian Peterson was quoted yesterday as saying A&M and Texas are at the top of his list right now, with OU and Miami not far behind.

[justafan_02]

i never knew you were so funny zeke. man where did you come up wit something sp funny?? please share so i may look for a joke in the same book. the joke is you and the eagles. we saw some film on yall. yall were a lot better last year and we just blew yall off last year. wont happen again.

[eaglefan]

geezes kid, i have made a lot of posts on here and i have read far more and i have to say that you are the cockiest person i've ever read on here, and i really do not mean that as a compliment. its one thing to be confident about ones team, it's another thing to be cocky about it before the season has even started. neither you or your team has proven anything this year and the claims you make about your team are far from substantial. all you say is that you have a good running back (which ya'll do), and that ya'll are gonna run up and down on anyone you play. you say nothing else about your personellor any aspects of your team. unless you aer gonna start having some intelligent conversation and posts i would find it the better thing for you to just to keep your mouth shut until you can back up the claims that you have already made on the field.

[justafan_02]

5 days away..
fairfield is goin downnnnnnnnnnnnn

[zeke]

JUSTAFAN@, Glad you thought my little anecdote was funny.. that is the spirit in which it was intended. Actually, this didn't come from a jokebook....it came from a song written and recorded by Frank Zappa. He was a far out dude from your parent's generation...circa early 1970's. He was so cool he named his daughter and son cool names...Moon Unit and Dweezil. JustaFan, don't you wish your parents were that cool?
How come we haven't heard from you about Rusk totally devastating Kaufman in this past Friday nites scrimmage? Could it be that it didn't go down that way. Inquiring minds want to know..Come on JUSTAFAN...get to braggin.
Fairfield didn't meet up to my standard of perfection, but still outscored Kemp 6-1. Hope you guys have been saving up your BenGay and horse linament for Friday nite.

[justafan_02]

zeke,
we wore kaufman out. scored on like the 3rd or 4th play.
we gave em all they wanted.
almost time for the whoopin to commence