Prep Talk

Football Friday in the rain

Just a few quick notes on Friday's action and the postponed games:

Former Strand football players making impact in college

>>Former Aynor lineman T.J. Johnson is slated to start at right guard for South Carolina against N.C. State on Thursday in the teams' season opener.

Johnson, a 19-year-old redshirt freshman, is listed at 6-foot-4 and 297 pounds. He is ahead of junior Heath Batchelor (6-7, 308) on the Gamecocks' depth chart. Johnson entered his senior season at Aynor in 2007 at 280 pounds.

“I’m living a dream. I’m just having so much fun,” Johnson told The State newspaper. “Not many people can say they’ve done this. And I feel blessed with the opportunity that I’ve been given.”

>>At Clemson, former Myrtle Beach kicker Spencer Benton has apparently fallen behind junior Richard Jackson for the starting kicking duties.

Benton, a 6-1, 190-pound redshirt freshman, came out of spring camp listed as the starter but he has struggled with consistency during the fall. The competition has been back and forth most of the fall.

Jackson is also in the running to be the Tigers' starting punter. Sophomore Dawson Zimmerman is the starter as of now.

>>Former Conway standout Junior Hemingway has drawn praise from one of his teammates for his work over the offseason. Check out this story: Hemingway article.

Hemingway received a medical redshirt last season after coming down with mononucleosis. He did appear in four games in 2008 and had two catches for 42 yards including a 33-yard TD catch. As a freshman in 2007, the 6-1, 226 sophomore played in 10 games and had four catches for 37 yards.

On the University of Michigan's Web site, Hemingway is listed as the offense's performer of the day on Aug. 12.

>>Bruce Taylor, from Myrtle Beach, is back at the linebacker position for Virginia Tech. Taylor, who redshirted last season as a freshman after hurting his shoulder, had been moved to defensive end prior to last season's opening game. He moved back to linebacker in the spring and is currently second on the depth chart at middle linebacker. Taylor is listed at 6-2, 237.

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I wasn't trying to make the above list reflect everyone, but Willard and Quigley are obvious ones that probably did need to be mentioned.

In the past, Josh had done a recruiting notebook and we have tweaked the format a little bit this year. Beginning in Wednesday's paper, Josh will have a weekly college football notebook that will have recruiting items as well as touch on the local guys around the college football landscape. The notebook will also have some Big South stuff and other locally relevant FBC material.

 

 

 

Week 1 Football Pick 'em (remember last week was Week 0)

I was on the right side in all but one game last week, but my effort to pick scores was a little off. My lone loss was with Green Sea Floyds, and that was probably a bad pick considering the turmoil their opponent had been going through in the offseason. But sad to say Trojans fans, I am picking against them again this week against Mullins. If the Trojans win this week, I swear I will pick them next week.

A weekly football pick 'em

Each week I will give my picks for the final scores of each football game. It's not going to be easy this early in the season, but here we go.

Conway 28, North Myrtle Beach 7
Lake City 30, South Columbus (N.C.) 21
Latta 45, Aynor 28
Carvers Bay 14, Marion 10
West Columbus (N.C.) 28, Green Sea Floyds 20
Timberland 42, Carolina Forest 21

State's top 50 senior football players Byrnes heavy

Here is The State newspaper's list of the top 50 seniors in S.C. Byrnes has seven players on this list.

The Grand Strand did have one player make the list -- Carvers Bay senior defensive back Clayton Geathers, also one of the area's top running backs. Unfortunately, Geathers is out with an ankle injury that is expected to sideline him for up to seven more weeks.

Freshman Moody to start at quarterback for Conway

Conway football coach Chuck Jordan confirmed that freshman Mykal Moody will be the Tigers' starting quarterback when the season begins Friday night.

Moody, who had initially been listed as a backup quarterback, started the Tigers' matchup against St. James last Friday in the CNB Kickoff Classic.

Prep writers preseason poll released

Here is the preseason Prep Writers Poll. The poll is compiled by The State newspaper's Prep Sports Editor Steve Wiseman. The poll has expanded its voting members this year to include several non-McClatchy newspapers in the state including Spartanburg, Greenville and Aiken as well as added a voter from the Charlotte Observer who covers a lot of S.C. teams.

CNB Kickoff Classic wrapup

The final scores from Friday night's CNB Kickoff Classic:

Waccamaw 14, Green Sea Floyds 6
North Myrtle Beach 20, Aynor 6
Carolina Forest 10, Socastee 7
Conway 14, St. James 0
Myrtle Beach 31, Loris 0

Some random thoughts on the teams: 

Myrtle Beach players visit USC

Here is a local recruiting note that was recently published by Josh Low at TheBigSpur.com.

Tigers get best of Bulldogs in scrimmage

 Two big area position battles became a little clearer on Friday night during Conway's 30-0 win over host Georgetown in each team's first scrimmage of the fall.