ScoutSouth.com: Foley vs. Pine Forest

State championships aren’t won by playing cupcakes out of district. Pine Forest coach Jerry Pollard and Foley coach Todd Watson are well aware of that fact.

Pollard was an assistant at Pine Forest when the Eagles won back-to-back Florida state titles in 1987 and ’88, and led the Eagles to another title as their head coach in 2000. Watson was an assistant on a Hoover coaching staff that won multiple Alabama state titles earlier this decade.

Pollard, however, is taking things to a different level. Not only is he playing the best teams from the Florida Panhandle and Southwest Alabama, he’s taking on the best players, too.

The Eagles opened the season with Pace, the No.7 team in Florida’s Class 4A. A few weeks later, his team took on Tallahassee Lincoln, the No.6 team IN Florida Class 4A, and with that came the challenge of stopping Lincoln’s B.J. Daniels.

Daniels is a front runner for Mr. Football in Florida and torched the Eagles for six total touchdowns and 362 yards of total offense.

This past week, his team opened district play. And now his Eagles face Foley and Julio Jones — the No.3 team in Alabama’s highest classification, Class 6A, and the No.1 rated receiver in the country.



Jones is a specimen, standing 6-foot-4 with a vertical of more than 40 inches. His big-play ability is unmatched in the nation, and he has shown an ability to catch the ball over any defender.

But Jones doesn’t stop there. He also runs the ball, spends some time playing in the secondary and plays on the Lions’ special teams.

This past week, on national television, playing rival Daphne, Jones ran free at receiver and downed a punt at the goal line.

With all the hype surrounding Jones and with the Lions coming off a big victory, it would seem the Lions are the odds-on favorite to dominate the Eagles. But that might not be the case.

Jones is without quarterback Roosevelt Byrd, who graduated in May, and new signal caller Devin Smith doesn’t spread the ball around as well as Byrd did last season, so the Eagles will be able to key on Jones. More than half of Smith’s passing yards have come off the legs of Jones.

The Eagles also are coming off a win to open district play this past week in which they felt they improved on offense and defense and got rested.

Pine Forest sat its starters for most of the win against Washington while Foley gutted out a win against Daphne.

Another advantage, they are very familiar with Foley running back LaVance Mitchell. Mitchell played at Pensacola High last season and faced the Eagles. While he started the season as a relative unknown in the greater Mobile area, the Panhandle is very familiar with him.

Neither team will be intimidated. And both teams have realistic hopes of a championship in their respective states. Now it’s just a matter of who executes, and who wants the victory more.

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