The Countdown To Kickoff: #55-52
One thing new head coach Mick Mullins will be guaranteed to bring with him to Freedom is a stingy defense. As an assistant with Park View, Mullins was credited with a lot of their team's success over the years with his work as a defensive coordinator.
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One key returner for Freedom will be running back Phil Britten. After the graduation of many of Freedom's top skill position players, Britten will be counted on heavily to produce in 2009.
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Much like Britten, Brian Orr will be asked to step up after all of Freedom's top receivers graduated.
Photo By: Chuck Moore / RandomSnapsPhotography.com | VIEW GALLERY
Let "The Countdown To Kickoff" begin!
You know football season is right around the corner with Media Day on Tuesday, but we decided to give the 2009 season a bit of an extra jolt this offseason when we countdown all 55 area teams. Yup, that's right, all 55 area teams.
For today, we start off with team #55, but over time, we'll eventually work our way down through to our Power Poll's top 10 teams.
55. FREEDOM EAGLES (SOUTH RIDING)
2008: 1-9 (0-7, Dulles District)
VHSL-Reference RPI: .399
Points For: 146
Points Against: 439
Overview: To put it nicely, things did not go so well for Freedom last year. After starting out the year 1-1, the Eagles proceeded to close out the year with eight straight losses, all but one of which came at the hands of district foes. To make matters worse, each district loss was by an average score of 35 points per game while allowing a total of 439 points scored in all 10 games. Their lone win on the year would come in Week 2 against Brentsville, but unfortunately for the four-year old school, their winning ways would come to a screeching halt. However, this is still a brand new program, having completed just its second full year as a member of the Dulles District and there is still plenty of untapped potential within the South Riding school.
Why 55?: Losing all their best skill position players won't help Freedom's cause much in our ranking. Quarterback Luke Bratton is gone as are running backs Marcus Clinton and T.J. Mizzell. Clinton and Mizzell served as two-way players, so consider their departure twice as painful.
Silver Lining: While Freedom lost their top three skill position players, there will be one very big addition in 2009, which will be new head coach Mick Mullins. As a previous defensive coordinator for Park View, he's a proven success. The buzz over his arrival was pretty big, and it should be. He has the opportunity to turn around a last place program and maybe turn them into a playoff team in 2-3 years. Keep in mind too that South Riding is along the same area as local power Westfield. Aside from the fact both schools have a huge enrollment difference, the demographics are very much the same, so the potential is certainly there at Freedom. Can Mullins get it done in his first year though? We'll have to wait and see.
54. FALLS CHURCH JAGUARS
2008: 1-9 (1-5, National District)
VHSL-Reference RPI: .369
Points For: 168
Points Against: 340
Overview: When Falls Church would play rival Stuart in Week 10 of the season, they likely had no intentions of going into that game at 0-9. After years hovering around .500 for much of the decade, the sobering reality of potentially losing to lowly rival Stuart and finishing 0-10 must have hurt. Yet the Jaguars would manage to finish out their season on a high note, besting rival Stuart by a score of 27-12. However, finishing the year out 1-9 was a far cry from when in 2005, the Jaguars had serious aspirations of being a district contender.
Why 54?: What makes the offense at Falls Church tick is a heavy reliance on their passing game, which has been known to put up some serious points in the past. Last year, they featured one of the National District's more electric players in wide receiver Jeremy Jones as well as athletic quarterback Sam Gerima. Unfortunately for Falls Church, both Jones and Gerima have departed which will put a serious dent into their offensive capabilities. Keep in mind too that offense is what has helped Falls Church succeed in the past. With both gone, things might get a little rough for the Jaguars.
Down to the core: Make no doubt about it, while head coach Tony Parker does have to deal with the loss of Jones and his quarterback, he does return a lot of quality players. No, they may not be flashy skill guys, but they're the type that can win you football games. They return their top two linemen in Kyle Ruttkay and Patrick Williams as well as tough guys Matt Renn at linebacker and Marcus Hughes, a hard-nosed two-way player at both running back and linebacker. Should their non-skill players make a big impact, they could find themselves much higher than 1-9 this year.
53. THOMAS JEFFERSON COLONIALS
2008: 4-7 (3-4, Liberty District)
VHSL-Reference RPI: .451
Points For: 186
Points Against: 394
Overview: Looking back on last year, Jefferson head coach Tim Puvogel really did one heck of a coaching job. After all, it's not the easiest thing to coach at a school like Jefferson, but Puvogel really did a bang-up job in 2008. Going 4-6 in the regular season, the Colonials gained their first playoff berth since 2004 and only its third in the school's history. Working with a roster under 30 players, that's one heck of an accomplishment in our book.
Why 53?: Considering what Jefferson lost this year, it seems that duplicating last year's success will be very tough. Not only did the Colonials graduate all of their skill players, but they also saw the departure of their best linemen in Matt Becker. Replacing a starting quarterback, two running backs and top two wide receivers is tough enough for any school, but with the difficulty of being at a magnet school such as Jefferson, their job of reloading will be extra tough. Remember too that Jefferson's players all go both ways, so the impact of losing their top offensive players will be dually felt on defense. And for a squad that allowed 35.8 points per game on defense, the graduation hit will likely be very hard to take.
The Ace in the Hole: True, Jefferson loses a lot of talent, but their coach isn't going anywhere and that alone might account for several wins. The cupboard isn't completely bare for Puvogel as he'll be working with Alex Shrmorhun, Adil Dittmer and Daniel Barnes, who could blossom into quality players in 2009. If there would be a coach to get the most of his players its Puvogel. And let's not lose too much perspective here. In 2004, this program went 8-2 in the regular season and managed to always to stay around .500 before then. To expect an 0-10 or 1-9 season to be the norm just because of their status as a magnet school is a bit exaggerated and unfair.
52. J.E.B. STUART RAIDERS
2008: 1-9 (1-5, National District)
VHSL-Reference RPI: .339
Points For: 141
Points Against: 368
Overview: History has been pretty rough on Stuart over the years. With a record of 12-107 since 1996, there hasn't been much to look forward to at the Falls Church school. Yet last year did bring with it one bright spot, which was the ending of their 25 game losing streak, which had dated back to 2005. Second year head coach Roy Ferri, who is in his second head coaching gig at Stuart, had come over as an assistant from Centreville to help resurrect this once proud program, but he certainly has his work cut out for him. This is a school, like Jefferson, that is extremely tough to coach at and whose best record in the past 12 years is 3-7. However, by getting Stuart out of its 25-game rut, he is off on the right foot and the school is more than excited about having Ferri back on the sidelines.
Why 52?: To be honest, Stuart could have been placed much higher in our ranking. They return a considerable amount of talent, but like a lot of things in this life, we want to see it to believe it. That is, we want to see wins before they can get ranked any higher. After all, in the past four years, their two wins have come against teams with a combined 1-19 record. We'd love nothing more than to put this program up a lot higher, but we're a little trigger shy on this program.
Potential Breakthrough?: The makings are all here for Stuart to have a potential breakout year and make the playoffs. Yeah, we said it: Stuart in the playoffs. Remember, a 3-7 record is likely good enough to get you into the playoffs, so it's really not too far out of the picture. What gets our attention is how Stuart returns two-way linemen Danny Lawrence, William Haynes and Tony Conjuvota. Stuart has always been known for its ability to produce talented running backs (see Charlie Garner) even during their worst years, so a strong line can be nothing but good news for Stuart. However, they do lose arguably their top two linemen in Brian Saravia and Kevin Morales from last year, but make no doubt about it: Stuart will be a lot stronger in the trenches. Factor in the return of their top two receivers in Chris Ventura and Ricarlo Bell along with quarterback Jason Friday, then things look pretty good for Stuart to make a bit of a run. Replacing running back Anthony Champ will be tough, but like we said, running back is never too big a concern for the Stuart program.
