SPORTS WEEKEND REVIEW ( 1st Edition )

Welcome to the 1st edition of the SPORTS WEEKEND REVIEW. I hope your sports weekend was as exciting as mine was. I attended the Gaffney @ Greenville high school game on Friday night. The Gaffney Indians fell behind 23 to 0 in the 1st half. The Indians had turnovers, mistakes, bad snaps on a punt and anything that could go wrong did go wrong. The Indians did score late in the half to trail 23 to 7 at the half. Gaffney came out moving the ball on their first possession of the 2nd half, only to have a tipped pass intercepted and returned for a TD by Greenville. The Red Raiders were up 29 to 7 at that time in the game. On Gaffney's next possession, Indians star player and Clemson commitment Joe Craig ran a reverse 49 yards for a TD. This really seamed to pump some life into the Indians and they played much better the rest of the game. The Indian's defense was able to get a 3 and out and their offense moved down field and kicked a 26 yard field goal to cut the lead to 29 to 17 going to the 4th quarter. The Indian's defense got another stop on Greenville's next possession. Gaffney then moved the ball just over midfield and QB D'Edward Burris went deep and WR Khris Brown made a diving catch for a 47 yard TD to cut the Greenville lead to 29 to 25. Greenville drove the ball into Indian's territory on their next possession only to be stopped on downs. Gaffney drove down field and scored on a 5 yard pass from QB Burris to WR Brown for a 32 to 29 Gaffney lead with 2:12 remaining. Greenville's offense which had been held in check most of the 2nd half, came to life and moved down the field and scored on a 10 yard pass from QB Rooke Crouch to WR Marquise Young to give the Red Raiders the lead again at 35 to 32 with 1:17 left in the game. Gaffney was 65 yards away from a win when their offense got the ball and QB Burris went to work driving the Indians down the field. Burris hit WR Quinshad Davis with 12 yard and 30 yard pass plays and Burris himself had a 20 yard run to give Gaffney a first-and-goal. Burris then threw a 3 yard pass to Davis, who fought off a pass interference penalty to make the game winning TD catch with 31 seconds remaining in the game. Greenville got the ball back after the kick off and Indian's QB D'Edward Burris was in the game as a deep safety and intercepted the ball to preserve an improbable comeback by the Gaffney Indians. Gaffney won 39 to 35. This was definitely the game of the night in High School football in South Carolina this past weekend.

In the HIGH SCHOOL GAME OF THE WEEK that I previewed on Friday, Byrnes pounded Myrtle Beach 65 to 14. The Rebels raced out to a 51 to 7 halftime lead and never looked back. So the battle of 2008 4A Division 1 State Champs and 2008 3A State Champs turned out to be a big blowout. Byrnes QB and Rutgers commitment Chas Dodd tosses 5 TD passes and super stud RB Marcus Lattimore rushes for 152 yards on 14 carries and two TD's.

In College football over the weekend the big upset was BYU defeating Oklahoma 14 to 13. This was an enormous win for the BYU program and a big loss for Oklahoma. The Sooners will have to run the table the rest of the season to have a chance at the BCS Championship Game. Oklahoma had opportunities to score more points but didn't and lost Heisman Trophy winning QB Sam Bradford to an injury in the 2nd quarter.

The Clemson Tigers won their season opener against Middle Tennessee State 37 to 14. Heisman Trophy candidate C.J. Spiller got the Tiger's season off to a great and exciting start by returning the opening kickoff 96 yards for a TD. Spiller finished the game with 171 all-purpose yards but didn't play after the 2nd quarter due to a minor injury he suffered during his long punt return. Jacoby Ford had a good game after a slow start. He dropped 3 passes in the 1st half but did return a punt 61 yards for a 2nd quarter TD. Ford also had a 43 yard TD reception in the 2nd quarter and finished with 3 catches for 70 yards. The Tigers showed just how much big play potential their offense has. Kyle Parker played well in his first college game. Parker was 9 for 20 for 159 yards and 2 TD passes and no interceptions. He also had 5 dropped passes 4 of which were on 3rd down that would have kept drives going. Parker added 25 yards on the ground which gives opposing defenses something else to think about. The Clemson defense played well and had 3 interceptions. They still have a long way to go but the Tigers got a good opening day win against a Division 1 FBS team.

In the COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME OF THE WEEK that I previewed on Friday, Alabama defeated Virginia Tech 34 to 24 despite the Hokies returning a kickoff 98 yards for a TD and 2 costly turnovers and several penalties. Alabama RB Mark Ingram rushed for 150 yards and finished off the Hokies with two 4th quarter TD's. The Crimson Tide's defense held the Hokies offense in check and wore down their defense in the 4th quarter to get a big win in a game between two top 10 teams.

The ArmChair Coach went 13 and 2 in the games that were predicted over the weekend in High School and College football. The misses were Baylor defeating Wake Forest and BYU upsetting Oklahoma. I hope your weekend of sports was as exciting as mine.

Untill Wednesday.