Under The Radar - #1 Carthage vs #8 Gilmer

Thankfully, this game is not getting much serious consideration this year. Why, cause Gilmer is just BAD, up to this point. We are not talking the normal Gilmer BAD, as in BAD A** or BAD TO DA BONE good. As they have looked in the past 3 seasons, they show promise and as fans we expect, if they can just clean that up or if they just improve these couple of things through the season, they can be really good. However, over the last 3 years, things just haven't seemed to improve or change much. We turn the ball over too much, we get too many stupid penalties, heck, we can't even reliably snap the ball to our QB. I will still be there in support tomorrow night, come wind, rain or whatever. People that still have Gilmer ranked #8 need a mental exam. Afraid it's going to be a long night for us Buckeye fans. :crying:

Poor defense and turnovers are what has kept us from more championships over the past couple of decades. Now that we've lost the Traylors, and a few other good coaches off our staff, the weaknesses are getting much more obvious. Until we stress discipline and defense we will just be another average 4A team, maybe a little above. Our level of talent has to be off the charts for the Buckeyes to be a serious contender year in and year out because the defensive scheme has always been seriously lacking. This year we are struggling to find our offensive identity, too. Not good.

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Originally Posted by waterboy

Poor defense and turnovers are what has kept us from more championships over the past couple of decades. Now that we've lost the Traylors, and a few other good coaches off our staff, the weaknesses are getting much more obvious. Until we stress discipline and defense we will just be another average 4A team, maybe a little above. Our level of talent has to be off the charts for the Buckeyes to be a serious contender year in and year out because the defensive scheme has always been seriously lacking. This year we are struggling to find our offensive identity, too. Not good.

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All great programs eventually have a down turn and there are so many contributing factors as to why. It seems to me that when Traylor left the program left with him. Gilmer has been able to hang on for a few years since he left, but looks like it maybe time for a rebuild?

I believe we had more athletes wanting to move into the district to play for the Buckeyes when Jeff Traylor was here.

For instance, the first famous example of this I recall was when Manuel Johnson moved here from Dallas when he was in ninth grade, IIRC.

Don't get me wrong. Manuel Johnson's family is from here. They live in a rural community a few miles northeast of Gilmer.

But Traylor, being from Gilmer and having played for the Buckeyes, knew all these families (Johnsons, Webbs, etc.) and encouraged any of the youth from here who were being raised, say, in Dallas, as Manuel Jr. was (Manuel Sr. was a great player as well and nearly made it to the NFL), to come play football here.

This, I believe, is why Traylor was accused of recruiting so much. Creating a desire to play for the Buckeyes and thus causing the youth with family ties to want to come back here and stay with an aunt or grandma or whatever is not recruiting per se, according to the UIL.

But that desire to move back here and play for the Buckeyes probably is no longer being cultivated. Traylor had a rapport with these families. There's no dobut about that.

In three seasons, Coach Turner has taken the Buckeyes to the semifinals twice, won two district titles and coached a total of 13 playoff games. This is a record of achievement similar to or better than most three-year snapshots of Traylor's run here.

Part of the problem is just that Traylor was and is so charismatic. You can't study to become charismatic. You either are or you're not. But I'll never knock Coach Turner. He has done a fantastic job as far as I'm concerned.

We still have the talent. Maybe more than we had in some really good years. It's young with a few really good seniors. We have lost discipline and we have lost our imaginative play calling. We used to run plays that no one had seen. Now we get those plays run against us. Creativity has gone by the wayside, banking that what got us to the top is good enough. We are too predictable so even if we have better athletes it doesn't matter. Off my soapbox now.

We are the game of the week. Everyone knows it's a big name game......this should just be added to above thread.