I know that its over and all but just gathered a bit of interesting data.
To win a state championship, you must play the best.
On the way to their first State Championship, Sugar not only defeated 3 of the 4 other district champs but they also played a schedule that included 3 other 2018 State Champions.
Sugar challenged and held their own against 4A State Champions Hillcrest in a pre-season scrimmage. Then in the first week of the season came close to beating 2A State Champions Declo in their annual matchup. Lastly, in week 3, Sugar dominated 3A (4A equivalent) Wyoming State Champions Star Valley.
I see all this hype on 5A State Champions Rocky Mountain on their perfect and "uncommon" season. I don't want to take anything away from them and their success. I mean they did beat the #1 and #2 teams in the state on the way to their championship glory, but to me, nothing compares to Sugars road to their state title. I think Sugars 10-1 season with victories over #1, #3 and #4 teams in the state during the playoffs and playing 3 state champions during the season is nothing less than perfect and out shines even the 5A champs.
???? Now we are taking it too far. I was even giving props to Sugar last week. haha. Sugar is the second best 2A team in the state! Period. 3A was down from past Championship seasons so to compare this team's victories to what 5A Rocky did or to say they held their own with Hillcrest in a scrimmage is completely over the top. Shelley held their own with Hillcrest too, for a half and look how that game ended up. 4A and 5A is a complete different animal than 3A and 2A. Declo would have been a mid to lower tier 4A team. Sugar a half a step below that. Good for Sugar on their first blue football trophy, end of story.
Haha I would expect nothing more from a Russet.
Alright Kanye..."I'ma let you finish Hillcrest...but Sugar Salem had the best championship of all time."
I would say 3A was about like usual. Very good teams at the top, a few middle teams and quite a few poor teams. Shelley going to 4A hurt the quality in 3A some. Sugar, Homedale, Kimberly, Gooding, Fruitland, Marsh Valley, Timberlake, SF, Weiser were solid. I don't think it was much more different than in the past. Meaning a few real solid teams. Last Year, Fruitland, Snake, Shelley, Sugar, Gooding, SF, Kimberly were very good.
Declo was great this year, yes they beat Sugar, it has happened before when a lower class State Champion beat an upper class State Champion. Not much difference between real good 2A's and 3A's teams. I see more difference between 4A and 5A.
I wouldn't say Declo is a step above Sugar, Sugar improved a great deal as well as Declo. Declo was fortunate to beat Sugar, but they won, which counts for bragging rights.. Great teams win games they could've lost.
What? What? Sugar had a great year, but they wouldn’t have even won the 2A state Title. Homedale fell 1 yard short. It’s not like this was some dominating performance. Rocky, Hillcrest and Declo were more impressive all year, Nevertheless congrats to the kids and coaches at Sugar and the community.
Rocky beat the past two 5A State Champs ( Mtn View) (Highland). Absolutely dominated a perennial 5A power (CDA), had the number one defense in the state, created 39 or 40 turnovers, and also had the best player in the state. Oh yeah they also went 12-0 at the 5A level. First 5A team to do that since the 2014 Highland Rams, who were an all time great team imo.
Hillcrest was more impressive. A 1 point loss in the final seconds against a solid 5A program, from being undefeated. They put on an absolute clinic on Saturday. Setting state records in the process.
Declo was just an absolute wrecking machine all year, pretty much untouchable.
I think Sugar this year was better than Fruitland the last 2 years. Perhaps 3A overall was a little down this year, but we'll never know for sure.
Grizz maybe last year but two years ago was a very talented and LARGE group of kids. I thought your 2016 group was one of your more talented teams in recent history. I think most of Sugar's talent comes from their Junior class, so you may see a repeat in the making.
@RunForrest I think they are definitely capable of a repeat with the Junior class they have, however, I believe this year, the stars truly aligned for Sugar. Their sold Junior class did not cover every position and the Seniors who stepped up to fill those gaps were a special group, one that will be missed next year for sure.
Sugar returns the best Dual threat QB in the state but lost pretty much all of his all state WRs who are Seniors. The backfield will take a hit but will also be returning their leading rusher plus a few hard nosed RB/FB types. Pretty much the whole O-line will be returning which is always a plus. Defensively most of the elite LB core will return but the rest of the defense minus the all state nose gaurd Kenny Copely, will need replaced, meaning pretty much all of the DB's and D-Line.
I'm sure the Sophmore class coming in will fill some gaps but not sure they can fill the shoes of the Seniors who are leaving.
@Coach Newell Harris is a good QB. Best dual threat QB?.........definitely in 3A! On this side of the State Rigby's QB is one of the better dual threat QBs and I believe he was only a Junior. I didn't realize most of SS line were seniors. Your Bonneville transfer will definitely be missed on both sides of the ball. Great WR and a shut-down Corner. 3 year starting RB will also be missed but they had some nice speed at that position in the junior class. Sad that football is over already.
Im not sure what criteria is being used but by the numbers I dont see it. Harris, Passing- 1580 yds 26 TDs 3 int, Rushing 485 yds 12 TDs. Jennings, Passing 2593 yds 32 TDs 4 int, Rushing 997 yds 15 TDs both played 11 games
Honestly, I thought Jennings was a Senior. We will put him a close 2nd haha
@Coach Newell, ha ha ha, I guess we can respectfully dissagree. The other stat i found interesting is Jennings compleeted almost as man passes as Harris threw Jennings 144/234(61.5%) Harris 88/151(58.3%)
I too thought Jennings was a senior. I retract my comment of Harris being the best in 3A. Jennings hands down is the better dual threat QB. Harris is the bigger stronger dude but Jennings the quicker more slippery type QB.
@Shane Prince that state title comment was a little low. What I meant to say is that the tie breaker will be the all state selections. And we all know how favored that system goes to the state champions. For an example, 3-4 years ago when Emmett won it all, their running back who was an excellent standout had less stats than Sugars running back who finished with 2300 yards rushing and 30+ touchdowns. Not to mention Sugar RB was running behind a line that averaged 5'10" 160 pounds while the Emmett kid had a average line of 6'4" 270 pounds. But because Sugar finished in 3rd, the default went to the state champions. I think Sugars QB had a huge year that year too and dident get all state honors again defaulting to the champs and runners up (Gooding).
Sugar had to fight to get one or two kids on that all state team including our 5'4" Center. Who was laughed at by so many haters when the whole All State line was 6'4" or 6'5 kids from Emmett l, Fruitland or Snake River. They continued to doubt the kid even when he prepared for the East Idaho All Star game. He finally got his day though when during that game he chewed up and spit out that Highland Ram, Oregon commit, D-lineman all game long.
I got a little off topic there, but my point is the tiebreaker will be based on the State Champs favored All State picks :)
I didnt take it as a low blow. And a agree that playoff results carry a lot of weight. I was just doing a side by side of their stats.
@Shane Prince Also got to remember like stated above by Mr. Russet, Sugar is a rushing team with a little passing mixed in. They passed the most this season then I have seen them pass in a long time. With Tanner at QB and the great WR core, I was not surprised. Another Stat gap difference that I also noticed after discussing things a bit with some other coaches, is that Sugars defense would cause turnovers in opposing teams territory a lot. This means shorter fields for the offense to gather stats on. Mix that and the fact that Sugar would often get up early and put their 2's and JV in would also lower Tanners stats. Its hard to compare the two QB's when Tanners held back by these two factors.
One thing that was positive out of this, however, is that you would often hear or read about Sugar having 6 to 8 different players score in a single game throughout the season.
I agree that blow outs do reduce stats, though the same can be said for Jennings who played very few 4th quarters. Both threw TDs to 5 diff recievers Sugar had 13 diff players score TDs Gooding 10 I guess it is one topic we will have to agree to disagree. No matter who you think is the better 3A(@Huey) dual threat QB, it will be interesting to see them both play next year!
Before you start comparing dual threat QB's in the State - you might want to look west at Vallivue's QB - 4A - Lan Larison, and he is a jr. I watched him 3 times this year and he absolutely gave teams fits. Idaho Falls couldn't stop him and they took him out in the 3rd quarter. Kind of felt sorry for the kid because his receivers dropped more balls than they caught and most were right on target. He rushed for more than 2000 yds and didn't get the touches a RB would. Also passed for over 1500 yds. I call that a dual threat.
Vallivue is 4A not 3A like we are talking about.
Uh... have you watched Jennings play? I watched most of sugars playoff games and I watched Jennings play against Kimberley. Harris is a fine qb but Jennings is on another level.
@RunForrest @Shane Prince @Steelers60
I think the argument is a little more backed up after Harris just received 3A player of the year.
@Coach Newell player of the year honors are definatly fitting of a guy that lead his team to the title, though Jennings recieving the first team all state QB nod for the second straight year definatly backs up my opinion that the he is as good as advertised. As previously stated watching them compete next year will be interesting to say the least.
@Shane Prince Agreed.
I think Harris is a good qb. I never said otherwise. I just think Jennings is a better dual threat qb. To be honest I think the homedale qb should be in the convo too. What I agree with is that Harris played qb on the best team in the state.