[EKUAlum05]

Harlan isn't a quality win and yet they beat Pikeville by 20.
Even if that's right though, it's only one quality win compared to none. Both districts are really bad. You disagree that the teams Pikeville beat (except for Raceland) were also horrible?

I think your argument is a bit of a stretch. Everyone knew Pikeville was one of the, if not the, youngest teams in 1A last season. Against Harlan you had a young QB making his first ever start and he looked every bit the part, panicking at times and constantly missing wide open WR's with the slightest bit of pressure. It also didn't help he had a young Line which couldn't block a soul. Harlan, OTOH, had a good bit of experience and a QB who had seemed like he had been playing there for 6 years.

Pikeville's District IS awful. Noone can dispute that, noone will dispute that Raceland was their only quality win as well. To overlook a Pikeville schedule where they played two top shelf teams (Belfry and Swain County)and played up in class 3 times (Powell County, Shelby Valley, and Sheldon Clark), and took on a Raceland team who was clearly one of the Top 6 or 7 1A teams... and not acknowledge that it is expected a team as young as Pikeville would mature significantly faster doing this... is fallible logic. Pikeville didn't win those games, but they played three teams who were on a completely different level than anyone Williamsburg faced in the regular season. Include their playoff run and I would venture to say Pikeville's 5 Top Opponents were all better than W-burg's top opponent (Hazard)

Pikeville is the team I follow probably the 2nd closest outside of Belfry and I will root for the Panthers to do well when they are not playing Belfry. The difference between Pikeville in Week 0 and Pikeville in Week 4 was substantial. Pikeville operated much more smoothly on offense and the line finally was hitting their assignments.

The Difference between Week 4 and Week 11 was even more night and day. Pikeville went from a team who was showing continuity and confidence on offense, to a team who truly was clicking with three legit playmakers. Charles became a much more confident QB, ran the offense better, and through his confidence suddenly became a threat with his feet. Early in the season he was no offensive threat at all. Defensively, they improved substantially.