Level of competition faced may have a little something to do with it, in as far as sinking all your facts in data alone. Lagways senior season resume thus far in as far as the quality of teams he's faced so far. Willis high school strength of schedule is the worst among the top 30 6A schools in TX. The best team Willis has faced thus far is ranked in the 1900s nationally, and it just gets substantially worse from there. The best team Willis will face during the regular season is district foe 6-2 Woodlands high school...(who ranked just below Willis high school currently) Raiola senior season resume has seen his Buford team face 3 teams ranked in the top 100 nationally, in fact the worst team Raiola's Buford team has faced so far this season is currently ranked 1380 nationally.....(almost 600 spots better than the best team Lagways Willis team has faced so far). It's a fool's folly to put everything on the line based on data points that aren't based on comparing apples to apples. Lagway is dominating his competition and he should be based on the level of talent he's faced thus far, but a better assessment of his over-all talent as well as his ability to dominate/lead is fast approaching as he closes in on the end of his regular season and the playoffs.
Well, aren't you a wet blanket. I bet you are the favorite at parties. Just kidding. You make a valid point.
You may have to pull out some advanced stats to educate us because from looking at the high versus low I see way more winning records in the low category and two legitimate national contenders in the low (UM and UW) with two who are pretenders (USC and OU) in the high. Are we talking wins or entertainment value?
Some of our Gators residing in Georgia can chip in about the talent at Buford every year. The talent at Willis is just not anywhere near, making Lagway's stats even more impressive. I watched Raiola last night. He is solid, but I couldn't imagine taking him over Lagway.
Watched the Buford-Mill Creek game last night. Raiola made some amazing throws along with a couple of mistakes. Mill Creek won by a touchdown. As for Buford they are multiple state champs and year after year among the best teams in Georgia.
I watched the Buford vs Mills Creek game last night on ESPN and couldn't get over the size of Buford players compared to Mills Creek. Men vs boys, yet it was Mills Creek for the win. Raiola is good, but I would go all in on Lagway. Happy our coaching staff at UF did so.
Buford HS began dominating in football right around the late 90's as a 2A school winning its 1st state title in 1997 as well as the 1st for Gwinnett county at that point, the program was just a really solid program at that point, with a 100% supportive community. How many remember Derrick Henry and his Yulee HS football team venturing up north I85 to play a 2A Buford football team in 2011? They would dominate Yulee 49-7 and go on to win the state 2A title that year. At that point it was pure local talent but as the area around I85 between exits 115 and 147 continued to grow Buford HS saw unbelievable growth and the school would grow in enrollment to the point that Buford now plays in the state of Georgia's largest classification. I want to say its been just in the last 10 years you've begun to see a influx of talent from outside the immediate Gwinnett county area, similar to what you se now going on at John Peacock's Venice HS football program in Sarasota County.
You need to look at the film. Not saying Lagway doesn’t have an argument but the Raiola kid is legit.
I go to a lot of the Buford games. The players are all D1 football recruits so they don't play hard all the time. They know they can afford to take plays off. Heck, their coaches know they don't have to be coached hard. Buford is a lazy team. In 2019 they were beaten in round two of the playoffs. They sent 4 of 5 O-Lineman to power 5 schools. 1 to UF 2 to Ole Miss 1 to Ohio State
You must be school faculty. Maybe the P.E coach, drivers Ed, Home Ec. Etc lol just.kidding. but seriously, are you?
My closest association to the school would be folks I worked with having kids that attended there. In fact a lady I worked with son, is a senior this year on the football team. My high school that I associate myself with is Manatee High, in Bradenton. I worked in Georgia for 20+ years for the USPS in Clarke County then later in Fulton and Gwinnett Counties, but have always been a big time High School football junkie as a kid and now as adult. I continued to make trips down to Florida to watch Manatee play once or twice a year while in Georgia, but since I was in Georgia also took advantage of getting to know the Georgia High school football scene as well as go to games!
It's at least 13 true freshmen. If Will Norman and Jaden Robinson have played it's 15. Maybe what Zach meant to say was 11 true freshmen have played meaningful minutes for UF this year.