Szatmary's Column

UNTLifer · October 17, 2005

Oops. Can't email the title. Meant RF not RV

Ethan B. Szatmary: Ryan should not play like Mean Green

08:30 AM CDT on Sunday, October 16, 2005

Szatmary When did North Texas offensive coordinator Ramon Flanigan start calling plays for the Ryan Raiders?

Excluding fourth down, the Raider offensive game plan against Southlake Carroll on Thursday was more conservative than a John Birch Society meeting. Draw plays on third-and-15? Mean Green head coach Darrell Dickey would be proud.

I'm the first person to praise Joey Florence and the job he's done in building the Raiders into a powerhouse, and only an idiot would suggest that he could devise a better game plan than J-Flo and his staff. So, here goes.

Southlake Carroll is a great high school football team. The results of the last two years prove that the defending Class 5A Division II state champion and USA Today national champion Dragons are the Raiders' betters. That doesn't mean that Ryan can't beat Carroll, but the Raiders are going to have to open up their offense to get it done.

When you're playing a team better than you are, you're only going to beat them by going on the attack – trust in quarterback Austin Knight and stretch the field. That's how the Dallas Cowboys rolled over the alleged best team in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles, last Sunday, and that's the only way Ryan is going to beat Carroll.

The Raiders attempted one deep pass in the first half. Knight overthrew Justin Fenty on the play, as a Carroll defender egregiously held Fenty as he raced down the field. Like the Dragons' holding on the other side of the ball, it wasn't called. But, the Raiders never attempted to call Fenty's number on the deep ball again, until the second half when the game was out of reach. It was just running and short pass patterns for Ryan.

The Raiders weren't afraid to take chances in the game, going for it on fourth down three times, but they just picked the wrong times to roll the dice.

Playing conservatively against a great offense like Carroll can work for a quarter, as it did with Ryan holding the deficit to 7-0 after the first, but it doesn't work for the whole game. End result: 41-0.

• • •

I was pulling for Ryan quarterback Austin Knight to go wild on Thursday. "Knight slays Dragons" was just too good of a headline.

• • •

Speaking of defending mythical national champion Southlake Carroll, am I the only person bothered by the term "mythical national championship?"

Sure, the USA Today national championship is not decided on the field, so I guess it's a fictional national title. But, what's mythical about it?

The Dragons might have a two-headed quarterback in Greg McElroy and Riley Dodge, but a seven-headed hydra is mythical.

Carroll can carry the title mythical national champion when head coach Todd Dodge grows snakes for hair and develops the ability to turn people into stone. He's good, but he's not that good.

• • •

Lightning allegedly doesn't strike twice in one spot, but baseballs apparently do.

Sean Dean went to last Sunday's Houston Astros-Atlanta Braves playoff game expecting to see some exciting postseason action. He got more than his money's worth.

Not only did the Astros win the longest playoff game in Major League Baseball history after 18 innings, but the Houston Chronicle also reported that Dean caught Lance Berkman's grand slam ball in the eighth inning that cut the score to 6-5 and topped that off by snagging Chris Burke's game-winning walk-off homer in the bottom of the 18th.

"Everyone was congratulating me, patting me on the back," Dean told the paper. "I had several people say I should buy a lottery ticket or go to Vegas."

Brad Efron, the chairman of the department of statistics at Stanford University, told ESPN.com that the odds of this occurring are in between 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 5,000.

Buy two lottery tickets, buddy.

• • •

Ron Artest is back in the NBA after a season's suspension for the brawl in Detroit last year, but he's still the same old Artest.

"I'm going to continue playing hard and out of control, like a wild animal that needs to be caged in," Artest told the Associated Press this week.

So, keep those beers to yourself basketball fans. Like they always told you at the zoo when you were a kid ... don't tease the animals.

• • •

ETHAN B. SZATMARY can be reached at 940-566-6869. His e-mail address is eszatmary@dentonrc.com.

Edited October 17, 2005 by UNTLifer

Stan R · October 17, 2005

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzing!!!!!!

eulesseagle · October 17, 2005

Szatmary is just taking a CHEAP shot at the staff and RF. Maybe he needs to read the Albino Squirrel story!!!

1. Denton Ryan played the #1 ranked High School team in the nation and got beat badly. I am not real sure that the BEST OC/DC (Jr. High/H.S./J.C./College/Pro) in the country could have beat Carrol with that talent!!!

2. I am not real sure if Szatmary has ever coached....perhaps he can enlighten us if he could have done better against Carrol instead of critisizing and taking cheap shots at Ramon Flannigan!!!

3. UNT beat FIU by 3.......what is the comparison??? Is this a new writer for the Denton World Chronicle??

4. There is no comparison!!

NTEagle08 · October 17, 2005

Szatmary is just taking a CHEAP shot at the staff and RF. Maybe he needs to read the Albino Squirrel story!!!
1. Denton Ryan played the #1 ranked High School team in the nation and got beat badly. I am not real sure that the BEST OC/DC (Jr. High/H.S./J.C./College/Pro) in the country could have beat Carrol with that talent!!!
2. I am not real sure if Szatmary has ever coached....perhaps he can enlighten us if he could have done better against Carrol instead of critisizing and taking cheap shots at Ramon Flannigan!!!
3. UNT beat FIU by 3.......what is the comparison??? Is this a new writer for the Denton World Chronicle??
4. There is no comparison!!
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Did you watch the Southlake Carroll/Denton Ryan game? Denton Ryan did have a ULTRA conservative offense in the game, that would have rivaled ours, they were basicly playing not to lose. Florence, although a good coach, should have known that a game plan like that wouldn't beat a offensive jugernaut like Southlake Carroll. I was at the game Thursday, and was pretty much like, "Well this looks familar" when Denton Ryan put their offense on the field and pretty much ran up the middle all night.

PerryG2480 · October 17, 2005

I think Carroll is 3rd in the nation, but point taken.

emmitt01 · October 17, 2005

Ethan Szatmary is an idiot, make no mistake, but his analysis is spot on. This is why the LSU game will be in the 80 point range. You don't beat a team that is your superior up and down the line by trying to grind the clock...you won't get the first downs needed and all you'll do is put their offense back on the field. Besides, like LSU, Southlake Carroll recruits on a national level so you've got to try to counteract that with some gusto in your play calling.

OXatUNT · October 17, 2005

Szatmary is just taking a CHEAP shot at the staff and RF. Maybe he needs to read the Albino Squirrel story!!!
1. Denton Ryan played the #1 ranked High School team in the nation and got beat badly. I am not real sure that the BEST OC/DC (Jr. High/H.S./J.C./College/Pro) in the country could have beat Carrol with that talent!!!
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With a lot less talent than Carrol, Katy beat them in 2003. So far They are the only ones who can figure out how to stop them. I hope Katy meets them again this year, I'm betting it will be just as good as the 2003 game.

Green92 · October 17, 2005

Carroll doesn’t have a huge amount of “talent”. Never have. Coaching goes a long ways. The list of players that have gone on to 1A schools if fairly small compared to many other high schools.

Monkeypox · October 17, 2005

Ethan Szatmary is an idiot, make no mistake, but his analysis is spot on. This is why the LSU game will be in the 80 point range. You don't beat a team that is your superior up and down the line by trying to grind the clock...you won't get the first downs needed and all you'll do is put their offense back on the field.
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Exactly.

Travis · October 17, 2005

you all that are criticizing him for this are just mad that he called you all idiots a few weeks ago. Because there is no way you can say that what he said was wrong. He is right on. so quit your whining.

untStein · October 17, 2005

you all that are criticizing him for this are just mad that he called you all idiots a few weeks ago. Because there is no way you can say that what he said was wrong. He is right on. so quit your whining.
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I totally agree. IMHO Ethan is a good guy; some of his hot sports opinions bother people.

Monkeypox · October 17, 2005

I totally agree. IMHO Ethan is a good guy; some of his hot sports opinions bother people.
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IMHO he's a jackass, but that doesn't mean he's wrong. Here, for example, he's correct.

On another topic:

EVERYONE has a hot sports opinion. It's the lamest, most over-used, and self-aggrandizing crap to annoint to one's opinions. Gone are the days when people with actually talent and analytical abilities were involved in sports writing. Instead, they've been replaced by obnoxious loudmouths who've confused the volume of their opinions with the merit therein. Then again, that's just my HSO. I'm gonna go listen to some sportsTALK radio, where blowhard #1 will take a position that pretty much everyone agrees with so that blowhard #2 can disagree and they chatter at each other like a couple of old women until I get tired of it and decide to listen to the sound of my brain dying instead.

UNTLifer · October 18, 2005

Other than calling this the "Idiot Board," which he got from the posters on Scottie's board and calling the posters on Scottie's board the "Negative Board," what has he done or written that is so bad?

MeanGreen61 · October 18, 2005

Other than calling this the "Idiot Board," which he got from the posters on Scottie's board and calling the posters on Scottie's board the "Negative Board," what has he done or written that is so bad?
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Maybe he read some of the threads and then formed an opinion

UNTLifer · October 18, 2005

I wonder if Chapstick has ever considered a sponsorship deal?

October 18, 2005

I think Carroll is 3rd in the nation, but point taken.
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From Dallasnews.com:

Southlake Carroll's 41-0 win on national television against Denton Ryan was good enough to sway pollsters as Carroll jumped ahead of Mission Viejo, Calif., for the No. 1 ranking in the National Prep Football Poll.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw....10363b9ce.html