Re: scared, say scared When they put somebody in Div 1 football who turns out to be worth a crap then I'll give them their due. In the meantime, I will continue to think each and ever players "hype" is a product of the system. I don't question they're a good high school team I'm just sick of all the hype the guys get going into college and don't turn out to be nothing more that below average. The only player that comes to mind that has played above average is Richard Smith at Ark....he was somewhat highly touted and has kinda lived up to it. No other player has.....and if you try to use the word "Booty" the server will crash from BS overload.
don't forget about.... Byron Dawson... and the jury is still out on Jonathan Wade but he had a very good year as a freshman for Tennessee. Not an Evangel fan, but Byron Dawson is a good man, I know him by shooting some ball with him in the offseason, he don't have the Evangel Big Head holier than thou attitude.
Evangel players have never amassed to much at all. Some (Bubba Alexander) don't even make it to the field. I want to say its because those guys are prepared to be the best at Evangel , but when it comse to beyond that, they aren't ready for it. Guys like John David Booty may be the top prospect of the 2004 class, but I would take a Bradie James type character than anyone at Evangel. Guys like James are a class act whereas some of these Evangel bozo's heads are bigger than the field...
Re: don't forget about.... Nothing against any of the kids personally or what type of person they are. My problem is all the hype a kid gets b/c he came from Evangel.....heck I use to think the same way. but when none has amounted to the hype I lose my interest and don't care to get a kid from their. Now some had unrealistic hype coming in that they couldn't live up to....aka Josh Booty. But contrary to others I don't think he was even "good"....yes he made all SEC but IMO that was by default...who was his competition?
The Next Level Programs like Evangel and John Curtis are geared to win at the high school level. Excellence in high school football does not necessarily mean that the players who are products of those systems will excell at the college level Those programs are built to bring the players abilities to a peak to win in high school and maybe the top players in those systems have reached the peak of their abiltites before moving on to college. John Curtis has been winning state championships for years but a very low percentage of JC players have been impact players in Division I Do you ever wonder why coaches at those schools don't move up to big time college jobs? Jerry Faust teams at Moeller HS in Cincinnati were the cream of High School football nationally for years but when he became the Notre Dame coach he was a total flop. I think it is because such dominant HS programs intuitivly seek out players who reach the peak of their abilities at a young age. A lot of these guys are already as good as they are ever going to be. It still amazes me that Josh Booty was drafted by baseball ahead of Todd Walker. All Booty proved in HS was that he could hit high school pitchers while the same year Walker was the NCAA Player of the Year and while he is not a superstar he is still in the Big Leagues and will probably be there for a long time. It will be interesting to see if Brock Berlin even becomes the starting QB at Miami Byron Dawson is the only really decent college player I have seen come out of Evangel and the only player I can remember from John Curtis who had a great college career was Mike Stonebraker who played for Notre Dame, but that might be just because he had good genes being the son of Steve Stonebraker. On the other hand Catholic HS here in Baton Rouge has produced Warrick Dunn, Travis Minor and Major Applewhite who were all stars in college. I don't know if Catholic recruits players the way Evangel and John Curtis do but they have been one of the top football programs in the state for several years even though they have not dominated the way Evangel and JC have. I have to say that they should let schools play in whatever division they want to be in (aside from letting big schools play down) What would be the point of kicking Evangel and JC down to 2 A and having them win all their games by 60 or 70 points until they play each other for the state title. That would be like making the Tampa Bay Bucs play in Division 1AA of college football
grow up kids.. you people are green with envy of Evangel and sound like a bunch of democrats complaining about others who have more money than you do....if they want to run their program that way, what the heck business is it of yours? this sounds like the USL board complaining about LSU....grow up and leave the Evangel kids alone....you don't know them and have sound silly criticizing them and their school. cheers!
I've got a friend who has 3 children at Evangel, none of them play football (they are girls). But since EA gives "scholarships" to recruits (i.e., football players don't have to pay), my friend is actually paying tuition for his own kids and a couple of strangers. He likes the school and wants to keep his kids there, but he is unhappy about subsidizing their football team.
Re: scared, say scared I graduated from WM in '94. The last time I checked, WM has won more 5A state titles than ECA and has been as highly regarded nationally. Furthermore, when has Evangel beaten the Texas and Mississippi 5A State Champs in the same season? WM did: Midland Lee and Moss Point in 2000.
