Friday, July 11, 2008

Border Bash II: Falcons have size to spare!


To say that the Fulton Falcons are blessed with both speed and size would be putting is mildly. I have already touched briefly on the great tradition of running backs at Fulton, particularly current Tennessee Volunteer Dennis Rogan. Now I want to take a quick glance at the Fulton line.

When the Falcons won the Tennessee Class 3A state championship in 2006, their roster included these senior linemen:

Chase Kennedy (6'3" 221)
Mark Brown (6'3" 239)
Raymond Johnson (6'1" 276)
Ryan Gould (6'1" 223)
Sean Reilly (6'6" 308)
James Higgins (6'3" 298)
Rodney Sims (6'2" 275)
Charles Wiley-Gatewood (6'6" 311)
Antonio Hamilton (6'1" 294)

These were just some of the roadgraders paving the way for Dennis Rogan and Terrence Cobb. But surely this was a uniquely oversized class of linemen that couldn't possibly be replaced in a year's time...right?

In a way, yes. The 2007 Falcons only listed two senior linemen:

Gary Gamble (6'1" 237)
Ricky Hensley (6'2" 297)

The rest of the 2007 Falcon linemen on the roster were as follows:

Hakeem Gray (6'0" 209, 9th)
Adam Bowman (5'10" 218, 10th)
Tony Hendricks (5'10" 198, 10th)
Mychal Cason (6'1" 229, 9th)
Aaron Miller (5'10" 212, 9th)
Jarius Johnson (6'2" 263, 10th)
Christian Clark (6'0" 236, 10th)
Cardeem Brown (5'11" 245, 10th)
Michael Miller (5'11" 248, 11th)
Caleb Garrett (5'10" 215, 10th)
Jake Reilly (5'10" 235, 10th)
T.J. Miller (5'11" 206, 9th)
Kadeem Blair (6'3" 348, 11th)
Vincent Johnson (6'7" 251, 11th)
Jarvis Drew (5'11" 311, 10th)
Matthew Blasco (6'0" 276, 11th)
Jordan Phillips (6'3" 320, 11th)

The hot topic of discussion this time last year for the Falcons and their fans was the remarkable inexperience of the linemen. Well, one year and another trip to the state championship game later, the Falcons won't have that problem to worry about.

Of course size isn't everything. The biggest team Hickory faced all year in terms of raw size was undoubtedly Hunter Huss. But that didn't prevent the Red Tornadoes from administering a stunning 63-0 smackdown on the Huskies. But rest assured that Fulton is nothing like Huss - the Falcons won't lay down after getting smacked in the mouth. You do not want to miss this, folks!

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