At the outset, the Captain must first address the ongoing issue between Garth Vader and the Captain.  First, the Captain is obligated to post in the third person perspective due to Rule 56.2(C) Section (B) of the International Superhero Union's "Protection of Alter-Egos Act."  The Captain could run afoul of such act and potentially endanger his day job as a mild-mannered custodian at a Smyth County Elementary School.  The Captain cannot have that.  Second, the Captain owes Garth an apology.  The problems at PH cannot possibly be a Walmart conspiracy.  If Walmart were to conspire against any town, it would be Abingdon.  That town stands as one of the few in this world that has successfully kept Walmart from locating there.  Having seen some of last Friday's PH/Abingdon game, there were no outside influences whatsoever.  Just an absolute domination at the line of scrimmage.

 

Now, to address the elephant in the room.  How bad is the Hogo this year?  At the present time, it certainly appears that the Mountain Empire is better.  It can even be argued that it appears that the Cumberland is better from top to bottom.  Those have in recent history been the weakest districts in Southwest Virginia.  Can anyone remember when all Hogo teams that played in a week lost?  And, are there any yardsticks?  Chilhowie beat Marion by 14 and Marion beat NW by 21.  How good is Marion?  When analyzed in comparison to the Chilhowie/Grayson game and the NW/Galax game, impossible to guess.  Abingdon absolutely wore PH out having had only one scrimmage and an open week to start the season.  How good is Abingdon?  Not supposed to be great at all.  GW wore out Tazewell, but not nearly as bad as Gate City did.  How bad is Tazewell?  Twin Springs got obliterated by Battle, who in turn got obliterated by Virginia High.  Well, what's that say about Holston?  RR returned nearly everyone from a playoff team last year and were expected to contend for the Hogo and especially the D-1 regionals.  They've been manhandled in the first two games by D-2 teams that were decimated by graduation.

 

Obviously, teams perform differently week to week and you can't compare scores against common teams for anything definitive, however, they do provide "yardsticks" to measure strength.  At this point, the Hogo is looking very, very down.  (GW has to be exempt from this statement with only one game under its belt and a positive performance at the Bristol jamboree).  All teams have cycles.  Heck, even Richlands, Gate City, Lebanon, and yes, GW, have years that they are better than others.  But, for all Hogo teams (again, excepting GW at this point) to be down in the same year is exceedingly odd. 

 

As the Captain said earlier, he has sworn not to use his powers to alter the outcomes.  It has been tempting thus far.  However, from the Hogo games the Captain has witnessed this year thus far, there appears to be problems with effort, focus and understanding.  As examples, when PH had the ball against Abingdon, as soon as the ball was snapped, Jonathan Whitesides seemed to have four falcons in his face while the PH linemen were still coming out of their stances.  That's effort.  Chilhowie seemed asleep in the first half against Grayson and went into the locker room 28 points behind.  Grayson was a good team, but shouldn't have been that much better than the Warriors.  The problem there seemed to be focus.  Holston seemed out of place all night on defense, seemed to force things that weren't there on offense, and it seems that the younger guys are just waiting for the older guys to do something.  That's understanding. 

 

One thing is for sure.  The Hogo has four winless teams right now.  They all start playing each other in a few short weeks.  They all cannot go winless this year.  Of the four, who comes out with more than two wins, thus far, is impossible to predict.

 

The Captain knows that times have changed.  However, in the 1970s, if there were problems with effort, focus or understanding in a game, the next week's practices would insure that those problems did not occur again.  Maybe that's the answer.  Maybe it's not.  Maybe there is no answer.  Maybe the Hogo is just very, very down this year. 

 

With that in mind, and sorry for the lack of humor this week, here are next week's picks:

 

Chilhowie at Twin Springs:  If Chilhowie comes to play inspired, this will be a blowout.  I do think that Chilhowie is better than John Battle, who "Remembered the Titans" in week one to the tune of 35-0.  If Chilhowie brings its first half against Grayson, it will still win but the game will be close.  Twin Springs has a decent qb and a wide-out that is about 6'-6" and can catch the high ball.  Holston tried to cover him with a 5'-5" corner.  Chilhowie needs to keep in mind that it didn't work for Holston.  Not sure what Battle did there - didn't have the benefit of seeing that film, but, apparently it worked.  Chilhowie's linemen need to get mean and fire off the ball and hold their blocks.  If they do so, the Warrior running game will work well against the Titans.  Chilhowie 35, TS 14.

  

GW at Radford:  GW is the Hogo flagship and the only team not to lose last week.  It runs against a potential buzz-saw this week in defending Region C D-2 champion and State Runner-up Radford.  Great games last year.  This year, GW seems to have a blue-collar, lunch-pail, get-it-done without superstars, all-around solid kind of team.  That's the kind of spirit the Captain likes.  Also, the Captain has been invited to do the pre-game fly-over immediately after the National Anthem this week.  Can't wait to watch this one and heard that the popcorn in Radford is very good.  Gonna say GW 21, Radford 20.  Go Hogo!

 

J.J. Kelly at PH:  The problems at PH are far more serious than the Captain imagined after week one.  As stated, last week, it appeared that Whitesides was being hit while most of the line was still in their stances.  Abingdon is not that good.  Jake Hess, (Abingdon's qb) IS that good offensively, but Abingdon's defense is nothing stellar.  PH may actually have had negative total offense in the first half.  WHAT IS WRONG?  PH looks like a team.  There ARE enough guys out.  As expected, they have some size.  And, as always, they have some athletes.  Come on guys!  Get it together.  This week, a better team than Abingdon comes to Glade.  PH's only hope is that the long bus ride tires the Tribe out, or that they stop for food along the way and get a bad case of "Hansonville's Revenge."  Doubt that either would be close to being enough.  JJ Kelly 48, PH 7.

 

John Battle at Holston:  Holston is just grateful that it doesn't play Virginia High this week.  Battle, who thrashed TS in week one, lost by 35 to the Bearcats, in a game that wasn't that close.  It also lost a terrific competitor and running back, Jeremiah Denton.  Prayers go out to this tough young man.  Holston was manhandled and confused all night against Twin Springs.  The Captain will say the same here - Holston has a great mix of experienced athletes and young athletes.  The freshman and sophomore classes will bring Holston back to the front in D-1 if the coaching stays intact.  BUT THERE SHOULDN'T BE THIS BIG OF A DROP-OFF!  Get it together guys.  The young guys should not be so tenative.  The older guys need to lead and keep the younger guys fired up and their heads in the game.  Like PH, this is a better team than what is shown.  Such will not be enough this week to stop a revenge hungry, fired-up, Trojan team.  JB 30, Holston 14.

 

 Northwood at Fort Chiswell:  Northwood is a program on the way up.  The kids seem fired up and the single-wing is a thing of the past.  The numbers and depth are not what they should be, nor are they what they will be in a few years.  A 21 - 0 loss to Marion is actually and improvement over the past week, and definitely the past year.  Unfortunately, NW has to go to face the Fort this week.  The Pioneers are much better than the Captain expected pre-season.  FC 38, NW 7.  Keep fighting, guys.

 

Rural Retreat at Grayson:  The Captain finds this one a bit interesting.  It is, at least conceivably possible, that Grayson will be too high after its big win on the road last week and that Rural Retreat may finally get it together this week.  Then again, it is also possible that Grayson is as good as the Fort and/or Floyd, both of which had no problems with the Indians in weeks one and two.  The Captain is, to say the least, disappointed in RR so far.  Gotta go with my gut on this one, but, look for it to be closer than expected.  GC 31, RR 24.