Since I was called out...

[MrJHamm]

I'll re-post what I said on 3A...

To date, certain teams look good. But why do they look so good? My personal opinion is certain teams that look good to date are ones that have benefited from an easy schedule...
Heritage -REALLY good! May be the best team in the area...

Blacksburg - I think you all know where I stand on this...State contenders and only negative is to another state contender, LB. LB will smack SR around - just too physical.

Lord B. - This is by far the best team, even over last year, they have had in some time. Look for them to make an appearance at W&M.

Salem - Salem is Salem. Enough said.

Staunton River - I just don't think they have "it." A few decent players, but lacks discipline and team speed to bring home the ring. Look for LB to bottle their self called three headed monster up and inflict serious pain in a revenge game.

Amherst - just a big heaping pile of disappointment. Looks the part but softer than marshmallow.

I'll provide more insight as the year goes on...

 

[71ShadesofNavy]

Welcome to the class 4 board. We need more Bruin fans on here. So, how do you feel about the Salem vs. Blacksburg matchup?

 

[MrJHamm]

Welcome to the class 4 board. We need more Bruin fans on here. So, how do you feel about the Salem vs. Blacksburg matchup?

Two defending state champs -this is what high school football is all about! If I were a betting man, I would say Salem (with their overall skill set) should win. With that, I would not count out coach Wells and staff to have a precise game plan to counter what Salem aims to establish.

Since I am not a betting man, 28-24 Blacksburg.

 

[freeatlast2013]

My opinion, and probably not a very good one is normally, barring a lot of injuries, the better coached teams tend to improve over the course of the year. Another big one is that it is very easy to analyze based upon how one team did against another team in predicting who will win. There are too many variables. I will go back three years of Salem football. 2014 was an extremely talented group of young men. Later in the year the injury bug hit plus some other stuff and they did not play as well in the championship game as they were capable but probably would not have won anyway. 2015 was a team that could score from anywhere but made their biggest strides on the Defensive side of ball as season progressed and that showed as they bottled up Lake Taylor's running game. 2016 started off by losing a home game to Amherst and the defense did not look good. A lot of arm tackling and out of position provided a lot of big opportunities for the Lancers. Against William Byrd they struggled the whole game but played sound defense for the most part somehow winning despite 2 bad snaps causing turnovers deep in Salem territory. The rest of the year saw gradual improvement. So far this year I have saw where we didn't show up in first half against Amherst and plenty of work to do as far as handling the ball against Dinwiddie. One measure of success for Blacksburg would be they have been getting better since their new coach took over. As far as everyone coronating Dinwiddie or Salem or anyone else, we have a long season left.