The biggest surprise tonight in this class was......

[LukeFeddersen]

Make your case here!

 

[DSMan]

Johnston. Looked pretty solid even without JW.

 

[IA Steel]

I would have to say Johnston beating SEP and Hoover almost pulling the upset over Urbandale were the two biggest surprises. I went to the Johnston/SEP game. SEP had all sorts of problems running their offense in the first half mainly with the shotgun snap. They had numerous bad snaps, mis-handled snaps and other timing issues that really hurt them. They seemed to get this corrected for the most part in the second half and played better on offense.

Johnston's defense looked much different than in previous years. They seemed much faster and more athletic. The offense is a work in progress but seemed to get it going more as the game went on. They had numerous opportunities in the first half to put more points on the board but repeatedly shot themselves in the foot, mainly with dropped passes. They have the potential to be a dangerous team but much to work on.

 

[screwloose]

My biggest surprises would be the relative ease that Waukee and Johnston disposed of West Des Moines Valley and Southeast Polk.

Other notes...
-- Lower classes went 4-6 against 4A this weekend. Not sure that was a huge surprise as most people would say the bottom of 4A is on par or below the top teams in some of the other classes. It is a little disturbing that a 4A team could lose so handily to a 2A school, no disrespect to Clear Lake, or losing to a Class A school at all, again no disrespect towards CB St. Albert. Both of those schools figured to be championship contenders this season anyhow.

-- Seems like a lot of teams scored safeties last night.

-- 18 of the 46 4A schools scored two touchdowns or less the first weekend. Is that a product of early season jitters, good defense or weather?

-- Mother Nature is a real bitch when she wants to be.

 

[CF_93]

-- 18 of the 46 4A schools scored two touchdowns or less the first weekend. Is that a product of early season jitters, good defense or weather?

There is a third element that I believe may be relevant to this....the absence of two-a-days. Offense almost always needs more time and preparation to develop. I really think it's enough to set offenses back 1 to 2 weeks. This is magnified at the 4A level, where it's mostly just seniors and juniors, with the occasional sophomore sprinkled in. Small school players have been together longer, both on and off the field. At a big school such as Cedar Falls or WDM Valley, your whole class isn't together under one roof until your sophomore year, so they're just meeting one another the first time. More small school kids have been together since kindergarten. And on the field, they play as freshman, and they are more likely to play all 4 years. So they start off with much stronger team-chemistry than a 4A team would. It would be interesting to see more of these 2A vs 4A or 3A vs 4A matchups later in the season. I'd about guarantee 4A teams would be FAR more successful later in the year.

 

[RamBling]

Good post Steel - I was also at the SEP-Johnston game and could not believe the troubles Polk had with the new offense (granted new QB+new center+shotgun=potential trouble) - they had negative plays on EVERY drive in the first half due to snap exchange problems - made a good Johnston defense look like Alabama.

Take nothing away from Johnston, they are solid, and with a schedule with only Dowling and Waukee standing in their way - should enter playoffs at an impressive 7-2, but I am concerned that they will struggle against larger O-lines and ball possession teams (aka Dowling and Waukee, but then so will everyone)

Polk has got to get something figured out offensively, soon, or next week's game against Waukee will be a running clock affair. As feared, the defense did a nice job against Johnston, but can't be expected to continually bail out an offense that turns the ball over on the wrong side of the 50.

Two surprises for me - Hoover resiliency against Urbandale, (could the Huskies be turning the corner on the program?) and Marshalltown's dismantling of Waterloo East (could also be stated as "is Marshalltown good? or is East that bad?")

 

[IA Steel]

I expect SEP to be much better on offense in Week 2. You could tell they were getting things worked out as the game went on. After one week, it's hard to predict records but I can tell you if Johnston could pull off 7-2, that would be huge for a program that hasn't won more than 6 games in the last four years.

One thing that will help them is that their best defensive player and probably the only legit D1 prospect on the team will be back next week after missing the SEP game due to a pre-season injury, so that will help.

 

[cruhawk]

Originally posted by screwloose:
My biggest surprises would be the relative ease that Waukee and Johnston disposed of West Des Moines Valley and Southeast Polk.

Other notes...
-- Lower classes went 4-6 against 4A this weekend. Not sure that was a huge surprise as most people would say the bottom of 4A is on par or below the top teams in some of the other classes. It is a little disturbing that a 4A team could lose so handily to a 2A school, no disrespect to Clear Lake, or losing to a Class A school at all, again no disrespect towards CB St. Albert. Both of those schools figured to be championship contenders this season anyhow.

-- Seems like a lot of teams scored safeties last night.

-- 18 of the 46 4A schools scored two touchdowns or less the first weekend. Is that a product of early season jitters, good defense or weather?

-- Mother Nature is a real bitch when she wants to be.

I'd say the top teams in 3A--or even 2A--are much more than just "on a par" with the "bottom of 4A". The top two or three teams in 3A would be top ten 4A teams most years.

 

[EHS1505]

Top 10... yes... would they make the dome on any given year... no. As dominant as Heelan was last year in 3A I don't think they make it to the Dome last year in 4A. That'd put them at 5th-10th. Still a respectable finish, but the gap between the top teams in 4A and everyone else is quite large and I don't think the 3A state champ fits in the same mold as the semi-finalist 4A teams no matter how special the particular class is for a 3A team.