–Pigskin Report - Week 11 - by Michael Hughes
2 November 2007Tuscola tradition, Roberson reputation at stake
by Michael Hughes
With a conference championship on the line tonight at Guy Ensley Memorial Stadium, there is still more riding on tonight’s game in Skyland. Tuscola is trying to revive a standard of excellence that for decades was the envy of other football programs across the region. Roberson hopes to maintain its more recent status as a gridiron power in one of the toughest 3-A leagues in the state. The Mountaineers are looking to revive the past; The Rams want to establish a better grip.
To accomplish the latter, Roberson needs to exorcise the black-and-gold ghosts that have long dominated the series.
“It would be pretty big for our program to be able to get a win tomorrow night,” said Rams head coach Jim Beatty. “When it comes to us, they seem to have our number.”
If Roberson wins tonight it would be the program’s second conference crown in school history. Tuscola has 10 league championships and was state 3-A co-champions in 1972. The situation changed for both programs in the new century. Since 2001, Roberson is 58-24 overall and Tuscola currently stands at 35-42. In spite of the difference, the Mountaineers have beaten the Rams in four of the past five meetings, including the last two. One of Mountaineers’ two victories in ’06 occurred in Waynesville, almost one year to the day.
“Tuscola has been traditionally a pretty tough team,” said Beatty. “They’re pretty physical. It doesn’t matter if we’re fast or not, because they’re going to line up and play football that night.”
Coach Beatty arrived at Roberson in ’01 when former head coach Mike Houston, his college pal and teammate at Mars Hill College, took over the football program. One of the first things they tried to change was a perception from other teams that the Rams weren’t always anxious to hit hard in the trenches.
“We’ve tried to take our game very physical in recent years,” Beatty said. “That was one of our goals, to make sure that when you play us you better strap it on, because you’re going to get hit.
“I thought we were a pretty physical team last year," Beatty added. "I certainly think we’re a physical team this year.”
The Mountaineers’ recent dominance has continued since ’02, despite having a poorer won-loss record in all but one of those seasons. Their advantage was bigger in previous decades. Since dropping the first game of the series in 1975, Tuscola won the next 17 meetings until ’01. The third and last win for Roberson in the series came two years later—a hard fought 14-0 triumph for the eventual 13-1 Rams. Despite Roberson’s recent run of success and Tuscola’s 10-year series of setbacks, the Rams continue to be snake bit by their neighbors to the west.
Tonight’s underdogs have more history and tradition to draw on. The Haywood County school was consolidated in ’66 and never had a losing football season until ’98. The Mountaineers finished 2-9 that year, the first of five straight losing records. They have gone 30-26 since a 3-8 mark in ’02, but had gone steadily downhill since going 9-2 in ’03. Under first-year coach Donnie Kiefer, their ’07 record stands at 5-5 with one game to go.
A road win against the preseason MAC favorites could reverse the tide for the Mountaineers and start the program in an upward direction—as things stood for more than 30 years through the last half century.
A win by Roberson would earn a coveted MAC title, and also be a major step at conquering a long-time adversary. More importantly, it would secure a higher seed and home field advantage for the postseason, which begins next week.
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
