October 24, 2011
Editor's Note: Brandon Brigman, a sports writer for the Daily Post, writes a blog every Monday called "The Blitz."
Can you believe it? There are only two weeks left in the regular season. It doesn't seem that long ago that the season was just getting under way.
As the season comes to a close, there are still several big-game matchups on the horizon.
Several of them are this week. Archer is at Parkview with the final playoff spot in Region 8-AAAAA on the line. Collins Hill travels to Norcross with the winner locking up the No. 3 spot in the region. There's still the Region 7-AAAAA championship game with Peachtree Ridge at North Gwinnett next Friday. (Unless one of those teams is upset by Mill Creek or Duluth, respectively, this week.)
But the game that has already been getting a lot of hype is Brookwood at Grayson. The two programs have combined to win the last six Region 8-AAAAA championships. Brookwood is the defending state champion, but Grayson is ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 6 in the nation by USA Today.
The game started getting hyped last week when a group of Grayson students released a YouTube rap video titled 'Brookwood Where You At.' A message with the video says "Where is Brookwood? This is a song written for all you Brookwood students, fans, and fanatics. Where are you? This is what we can do, lets see what you can do."
You can check out the video here.
The video is quite entertaining and shot very well. Some of the clips are shot on Brookwood's campus. It's already got more than 159,000 hits on YouTube and Kawan Moore, Ryan Hutcheson, Patrick Sullivan and Kyle Sklenar are the people tagged in the video on YouTube.
I asked Grayson head coach Mickey Conn last week if he had seen the video yet and he said he had not, but planned to watch it. If he doesn't recognize the Grayson students rapping, he'll probably recognize two of his players -- quarterback Nick Schuessler and defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche -- making cameos in the video.
I think what makes the video and song so good is there's not a lot of negative trash talk towards Brookwood or individual players. Yes, there is trash talk in the lyrics, but it's tastefully done. They do make a reference to one Brookwood player, star running back Nick Tompkins.
Here's a few of the lyrics that stood out to me.
"Green and gold fans are taking over the stands/
Nick Tompkins even told me he wanted to be a Ram"
"Rivalry, nah, the thought makes me laugh/
I saw your players asking for Nick Schuessler's autograph"
"Maybe I should have mentioned this somewhere in the beginning/
But even if we lose our team is still winning"
"Your spirit is smaller and our game is quite taller/
If you were 6-foot-7, you might reach Nkemdiche's collar"
So there you have it. High school trash talking of the 21st century. It's probably better than vandalizing each other school's. It's been a week since the video has been released and I can't believe some Brookwood students haven't come up with their own video and song. If they need a song idea, I would go with 'Where's your ring?' to pay homage to Brookwood's state title ring and the fact Grayson still hasn't won one.
Either way, the Grayson video and song should add a little more flavor to this game of the week.
Now back to the real football talk.
Parkview needs to turn it around
I felt like Parkview had a playoff caliber team all season. But after two straight region losses, the Panthers could miss the postseason.
I'm interested to see how Parkview responds in this week's game against Archer. Parkview got beat down by Grayson two weeks ago and had an emotional last-second loss to rival Brookwood on Friday.
Now the Parkview needs to circle the wagons against a tough Archer team. The Panthers win and they are in. A loss and they would need some help to get in the playoffs.
No. 3 seed in Region 7 on the line
If you remember, I officially jumped off the Norcross bandwagon last week. The Blue Devils have a chance to make me a believer again this week against Collins Hill. The winner of this game will get the No. 3 seed in the Region 7-AAAAA.
With the graduation of record-setting quarterback Taylor Heinicke, I thought the best the Eagles could do was a No. 4 spot in the region. If you take away that big scoring play at the end of the game against Peachtree Ridge, Collins Hill could be going for a No. 2 spot. But that's in the past. The Eagles have relied on the running game with Jordan Parker and the defense has made stops when it needed to make them.
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Comments
ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 year, 7 months ago
Brookwood at Grayson is a MONSTER game.
Grayson has a very good team again this year as a nationally-ranked state title contender.
I liked the video that the students from Grayson made and thought that it was a really fun little video, but I don't necessarily agree with a bunch of students who aren't even on the Grayson football team talking trash to a Broncos program that shutout the Rams on the way to a state title last year.
If I were Coach Conn, I would not necessarily be too happy with the fact that some kids who don't even play on the team took it upon themselves to make a trash-talking video giving lots of "bulletin board" material to our main archrival, a program that has two more championships to our none, has about 20 more years of history of competing and winning at a high-level than ours and that plays us really tough, physical and close every year, even in the years we win.
If I were Coach Conn, I would also be very upset that two of my superstar players were recruited to appear in this video that effectively gives a truckload of "bulletin board" material to our archrivals when my team is trying to win the region and compete for a state title. I like the creativity of the video but it just seems to be kind of a distraction at a time when a program in Grayson's position needs to stay focused, especially with a matchup against a streaking defending state champion team looming and so much on the line going into that matchup against the crosstown archrival Broncos.
If I were Coach Conn I would probably be looking to give the kids that made the video a piece-of-my-mind and make an example out of them to make sure that no one else ever puts any of my players in a project like this again without running it through me. I would also make it clear to my players that they are to get my permission first before appearing in any video projects like this that could provide an opposing team with bulletin board material to inspire them for the entire week and an upcoming game.
ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 year, 7 months ago
"So there you have it. High school trash talking of the 21st century. It's probably better than vandalizing each other school's."
I totally agree, a trash-talking video like this is INFINITELY better than vandalizing each others' campuses.
"It's been a week since the video has been released and I can't believe some Brookwood students haven't come up with their own video and song. If they need a song idea, I would go with 'Where's your ring?' to pay homage to Brookwood's state title ring and the fact Grayson still hasn't won one."
Knowing Coach Crews' style, he probably wouldn't allow his players and would strongly discourage Brookwood's students from responding to such trash talk by video.
Instead, Coach Crews and the Broncos probably intend to do ALL of their talking with their play on the gridiron, the same place that the Rams' Nation should be focused on doing their talking as well.
I like the video, but with me personally I just think that it has the potential to derail what could be a very special season with alot of needless trash talk that gives a team that more than proved itself the year before by shutting out Grayson and winning a state title even more motivation than they might have already had.
I'm personally not too hot about the idea of a bunch of students who don't even play the game writing a bunch of checks with their mouths that their bodies can't cash. The kids who made this video are SPECTATORS, NOT players.
"Either way, the Grayson video and song should add a little more flavor to this game of the week."
You don't think? You don't think that Coach Crews hasn't gotten wind of this video and showed it to his players and told them to respond, not with another trash-talking video, but with inspired play on the field where it counts the most? But if it helps inspire the Rams' players to backup the trash talk made on their behalf by some kids who don't play the sport then it can't be all that bad.
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