South "stuns" Central 35-28

Will the voters finally realize that Central is the most overrated team in the Power Polls?

No but Dover should still get a vote, right Jeremy?

Central always gets to much respect. Portsmouth lost another key player tonight. I believe that is now six projected starters from the beginning of the year and five of those where starters on last years championship team. Colin MacDonald went out early tonight with am injury and was on crutches the rest of the night. The are using band aids to survive.

Whoever finishes 3rd or 4th in Division 1 has ZERO chance of advancing to the finals.

Division 2 is where the party is at.


Dave Haley I can't wait to see your DARKHORSE pick is in basketball


Judging by your Merrimack pick for football, I'm guessing Timberlane.

Dave, you know I'm just playing, but even you gotta admit it's funny that you picked the worse team in all of NH as your darkhorse pick.

Jeremy, big game for Dover next week. Bedford.

Yea, it seems like most every body on the Forum has been calling Central soft and overrated for the last 3 weeks, except the people who vote on the "power" polls. Go figure. There's been something missing with Central football for a little while now and this year is no different.

Central's issue is that they are consistently inconsistent; the only consistency for this team is the coach????? Central seems to have the same issues year in and year out. We all know they can play horrible against good teams (Exeter), barely beat bad teams (North), and play great against middle-of-the-pack and good teams (Concord). Let's look at last year. Central got destroyed by Salem (playoff team), they barely beat Londonderrry (last in D1), they played close games against Pinkerton and Exeter (Pinkerton a close game until 2 mins left in the 4th quarter), and they easily beat South (playoff team only a close game at the end). As far as I'm concerned, everything starts at the top, and this team has been lacking since Schubert left. There is no reason a team with so much talent (last year and this year) should be so inconsistent, and at times, look so bad.

With the talent Central has and had, at very minimum, they should be playing in the semi finals 2 to 3 out of every 4 years. That has not been the case lately.

Thought I'd jump in here...as a voter in the UL/WGIR/WMUR Power Poll I guess it turns out I did have Central ranked a little high going into the game last night against South. I had them 4th last week. Here's my official ballot that was done last Sunday night Sept 30th...

1.Winnacunnet
2.Exeter
3.Pinkerton
4.Central
5.Bedford
6.Keene
7.BG
8.Concord
9.Nashua South
10.Plymouth

There's no question the Central offense is one of the best in the state. I think you are reaching if you think they aren't one of the most feared offensive teams in NH. To me, the Central defense is the problem, they just can't stop other good teams from moving the football and in most cases scoring. Reminds me of the Patriots D which gives up 1st down after 1st down and alot more points than you want to see your team giving up, but every once in a while they make a big play like an INT or a fumble recovery that helps them get wins. It's the kind of defense that always makes you feel uncomfortable. This is a problem most NH high school football teams have outside of Exeter, Pinkerton, Winnacunnet and Plymouth. All that being said, knowing what I know now, I will definately drop the Little Green down a spot and move Bedford up(providing they handle West this afternoon). But is a loss...in the final seconds to a pretty good South team reason to move them down behind the likes of Keene, BG or Concord? I just don't think either Keene or BG would beat Central head to head and we all know the Little Green have already crushed Concord this season. As far as Nashua South goes, they are probably alot better than the 9th best team in the state, heck I had them 4th until they got penalized by the back to back losses to Lowell and Concord where the offense didn't show up. Yeah, they just beat Central head to head last night, but does that mean I should flip flop them with Central on my ballot and put them 4th and Central 9th? I think not. The bottom line is ranking teams in these polls means nothing more than a conversation starter for NH High School Football fans...and some additional exposure for the local media outlets involved. That's what the polls are REALLY all about.

Pete it seems at the end of your shows you and your partner try to belittle, and put down the other poll.

Maybe your just being sarcastic, but it comes off as condescending.

There is room for 2 polls in this state, and for the record nobody goes to more high school sporting events then Jeremy. If he says Dover is good, then I believe him.

Pete - that Bulldog offense is pretty darn good and they can play defense in Bedford. I thought they were better than PA against BG... While Central's O is good, the D and offensive inconsistency especially against weak teams *has* to be noted in polls. I haven't seen Keene this year, but given they lost by 1 to Bedford with a healthy QB - I dunno - your thoughts could be proven otherwise. With him in the lineup they did what they're supposed to against Salem. Don't let D2 bias get in the way of your vote like we all know it gets in the way of your Saturday morning cohost...

GNG - I would say the poll bashing and in particular the Jeremy barbs go back to previously known biases Thaler has against what I think he refers to as blog journalists... Remember how much he got on Haley's case about the Keene basketball story... Perhaps a bit of "on the air" retort to the "friendly" twitter back-and-forth this week regarding Jeremy's vote for Dover vs. Thaler's vote ranking PA higher than Exeter. It'll be interesting to see if he drops Central out of the poll this week for their loss like he did to Concord when they lost to Exeter by fewer scores than the UL beloved Central...

When Bedford was being ranked 8th/9th at the start of the season I thought they were/would become a higher ranked team. There is no question Bedford would beat Central head to head. Central's rankings the last month was based on publicity.

You can't overstate the significance of the Bedford victory over BG last week. Last season, GNG and I talked about the consistent eroding of the BG football program that will start in the aftermath of the ToJo situation. The BG loss to Bedford is the start of that. The name Vailas comes to mind. BG won the title last year with a different coach. One could argue what percentage of that team was Cote and what percentage of that team was ToJo. This year's team has far less of a ToJo percentage than last year's team and the possibility of them losing 3 to 4 games this season is very good. Next year, with further erosion in their football program, BG will move to D1....... Ouch !!!!

Once again, you can say, those darn sports parents and their rose colored glasses they put on their short sighted heads

On Sept. 12th the 2 polls had Central ranked 2nd and 3rd. Bedford was ranked 9th and 10th.

Ouch!!!!!

As I said earlier in this thread, I will be ranking Bedford ahead of Manchester Central on my ballot when I fill it out later today. Still not sure how far Central will be dropped from 4th where I had them last week. Keep in mind guys, this is a weekly poll...so the rankings are probably going to change from week to week!

GNG, as far as me "belittling" the other poll on my show as you suggest I have, I respectfully disagree. There's obviously a little competitive angle I feel personally between my show on WGIR/96.7FM "The Wave" and the show I used to host on WGAM which they still do. I actually like those guys and talk to those guys...and I enjoy listening to what they do on both Friday nights and Saturday mornings. I think it was a good move for WGAM to allign with the Nashua Telegraph on a weekly NH high school football ranking after losing their 4 year affliliation with the UL/WMUR poll just prior to the start of this season...I'll give you this GNG, the one time I took a legitimate shot at their poll was right in the beginning of the season when I compared the 2 polls like this..."The UL/WGIR/WMUR Power Poll is like the AP Poll and the WGAM/Nashua Telegraph Poll is like the UPI Poll." After that, I haven't said anything derogatory about their poll, but I have called out certain voters on their poll, specifically Sean Sendall who voted Exeter #1 right after they lost a head to head battle of unbeatens against Winnacunnet...and then flipped flopped and moved Winny ahead of Exeter the very next week after Exeter torched a good Concord team while Winny struggled to beat Dover in double OT. I found the timing of moving Winny up to #1 after that to be very odd...and I told Sean that to his face when I saw him on Friday at Gill Stadium. Speaking of Dover, I respect Jeremy Levielle and all the hard work he puts in. He REALLY knows his stuff. I think he's the hardest working guy covering NH High School Football and Basketball. But I just can't agree with how he insists Dover belongs in any Top 10 ranking...regardless of their strength of schedule...because they're 1 and 5!!! Personally, I'd rather put an undefeated Plymouth team in the #10 spot than Dover at 1-5.

Don't worry Pete. Sometimes, my friend GNG, reminds me of Ken Linseman who played in the NHL for 15 years. "The Rat" Linseman used to start a scuffle in the corner of the rink on a tied up puck. He would then skate away while 2 to 4 guys would start exchanging "yo mamas", a couple of punches and then a stint in the penalty box. Linseman would be sitting on the bench saying to his mates, "What's up with those guys?"

In Forum terms, sometimes GNG starts a blogging scuffle, he'll walk away from the keyboard while a few members exchange "yo mamas" and GNG will be sinking some Rum n Cokes at Jade, Flats or Billy's while the Forum members exchange blogging blows.

And I really like and respect both of your opinions. Scuffle or no scuffle.

I told all of you the first week of the season that Central was not very good
and I do beleive that the head coach is average at best. They have some
good coaches in their program but they are part time coaches. As with
all football programs its all about the head coach. BG sure as hell knows
that but it is to little and way to late. I hope the parents who trashed Johnson
and thought their kid was better then what they actually were are happy.



Tarrier and all the other "Experts placing a D4 team in the top
10. Have some fortitude and tell Kevin Gray its bull S_ _ T!

Hey Pete????? How do you think Plymouth would do against Dover????

I highly doubt a coach of 17 years would be fired over an issue of someone "thought their kid was better then what they actually were," or as I would think of it, an issue of playing time.

E.I.R, if you are referring to ToJo as being "fired" from his football coaching job..... He WAS NOT. The BG administration told him he couldn't do both ad and coach.

My apologies..from the response on here as to the fishy circumstances I drew the conclusion he was told he couldn't coach

The only fishy circumstances was a meddling and troublesome parent who tried to destroy the reputation of an iconic HS football coach. Seems to be other cases of inmates running the asylum as evidenced by the parents in Keene who directly had a role in removing the boy's basketball coach last season.

Parents should be responsible for 2 things during an athletic season;

1) Get your son or daughter to practices/games on time.

2) Get your son or daughter back home from practices and games.

Any thing else should be handled by the coaching staff. Now a days parents think they are part coach, ref and administrator. Dangerous parental mix.

What a flipping ball we had. It doesn't hurt that all 4 of us had Pats and the over for an investment opportunity.

Pete- last show you called them "a mock poll". You called Jeremy's site. "NH notebook" or whatever that site is called".

The week before, or maybe 2 weeks Thaler spent a good 5 minutes saying why his poll is so great and the other poll is inferior. Go back and listen to the tapes. I know what I heard. Thaler always comes off as smug to me.

Jaf- I forgot how Thaler ripped Dave Haley how he would have done an in depth interview over that Keene situation. Isn't it ironic that 3 weeks ago he did a piece on TOJO and it was nothing but fluff.Not one question about a certain situation.

T@F, remember this EIR is a current BG parent. He is the one that said Boykin would be back two weeks ago.

Can't wait to see where Central lands in the polls this week.

T&F - You know the incident with the parent was the tipping point, right? While I generally agree with you about meddling parents, it is *still* the parents responsibility to look out for the best (welfare) of their child. If the head coach and the AD are the same person, to whom do you turn when you find/fear the head coach may [not] have done something in the best interests of a child? The situation in question wasn't entirely a play time issue and there was more than one child involved - vilify the parent all you want, but put yourself in their shoes, in a "generic situation", and wonder how would you have handled things differently. Our family experienced the "other side" more than once with the same individual and it's not like we went looking for trouble (so to speak). Ours is not to question, but to follow in lock step to get what we want/need? Again, way off topic from the original discussion.

Jaf, we are off point, but I will disagree with you that it was the "tipping point." If you are suggesting this coach had a general pattern of irregularities in the last few years of his tenure, with the this last issue being the tipping point, then I don't get it. You as well as most should know the parent meddling quotient is at an all time high. My God, a parent at Central was accused of hiding in the woods and taping the Central girl's track coach conducting a practice to try to prove her daughter was being wronged. I wouldn't want to be a HS coach in today's society.

I had a chance to spend the day with Tony Johnson about 6 weeks ago. I talked with him about many topics. It was the first time I talked with him. I came away being very impressed by Coach Johnson. The players and parents at Bishop Guertin who were fortunate enough to come in contact with this remarkable coach/man/mentor should feel blessed.

Too far off topic and personally not worth the effort to discuss further.

I believe Dover and Plymouth scrimmaged preseason and it was not even close. Plymouth crushed Dover.

Plymouth should be in the top ten.

I have to tell you guys...IMO...2 "Power Polls" in NH is a bit much. The good news is the only people who care about these Polls, and I mean only people......are the people who vote in them, and the diehards (like the people who come to this board). Its just not a big deal anywhere else, not with the kids...the parents...etc.

Central should and will drop in both polls, but they were aptly ranked based on their previous performances the last few weeks. Which is also the reason Dover is not ranked nor should they be. The have lost 5 games and only beaten a Spaulding team that hasn't shown much other than this past week. Glad we can all agree!