George Felt's football facts for week 2

Utah high school football historian George Felt prepares and sends this weekly during the season. 

Felt’s Facts – Week 2

The big news this week is the UHSAA Board of Trustee’s talking about adopting an every-two-year realignment proposal.  The greatest benefit is that the proposal uses more recent school populations, counting only juniors and seniors, the segment most involved in varsity sports. 

Rather than rely on an arbitrary population cutoff, it sets an arbitrary number of schools in each classification.  It also limits regions to two or four in each classification and then equalizes the number of teams in those regions to make state playoff seeding easier.  If adopted, and it should be, a couple of possible region configurations are listed at the end of this week’s Felt’s Facts.

Utah vs. the Nation – 2010:

This season, 27 games involve out-of-state teams, down from 41 last year.  Fifteen of the 27 are with teams from Nevada, and all but one are with teams from neighboring states.  This week will see 12 of those “out-of-state” games.  Utah’s all-time record vs. out-of-state teams in 1,918 contests: 1,039-820-59 (.557).

The Bingham vs. Kahuku game was, unfortunately, cancelled, but there’s still a game with a Hawaii team when Skyline visits Kealakehe in Kailua-Kona next week.  There’s a good chance for a Utah team to win in the islands for the first time ever.  Kealakehe was 5-5 last year, is 2-0 this season, although both wins came against lower classification teams.

Since 1937 when Tooele made a three-week trip by boat to Honolulu and lost badly (to Roosevelt, 40-0, and to Kamehameah, 41-0,) Davis, Skyline and Timpview (twice) have visited Hawaii – none has won there.  In fact, Utah is 3-13-1 vs. Hawaiian teams – the wins all came against Kahuku (by Skyline twice and Bingham).

Black and Blue Classic:

The second game of Saturday’s double-header at Rice-Eccles Stadium features bitter rivals Alta and Bingham, who have shared the last four Class 5A titles (Alta in ’07 and ’08, Bingham in ’06 and ’09).  Over the last four seasons the two have battled in August and again in the semifinals or finals.  In those eight games, Bingham is 5-3 and won both games last year.  Since the series resumed in 2001, the Miners have won eight of 13 contests over Alta.  However, Alta leads the all-time series, 24-10.

This Week’s Rivalry Games:

Grand and Monticelllo meet for the 59th time; Grand leads the series 42-12-4.

Orem faces Payson for the 51st time; the Tigers have dominated the series, 33-11-6.

Davis and Clearfield clash for the 49th time with the Darts ahead 25-22-1.

The 45th battle for the Rock takes place at Skyline with the Eagles up on Olympus 26-17-1.

South Sevier meets North Sevier for the 39th time with So. Sevier leading the series 29-9.

First-Time Matchups:

American Legion at Parowan, Desert Hills at Moapa Valley (Overton, Nev.), Herriman at Lehi, Desert Pines (Las Vegas) at Pine View, Wooster (Reno, Nev.) at Springville.

Milestones:

Grantsville is looking for win #350 while Lehi is playing its 750th game, Roy its 450th, Mountain View its 300th and Lone Peak, game #150.

In the coaching ranks, Cole Meacham is gunning for win #75 at Manti and Clint Christiansen, now at Stansbury, is trying for his 50th career victory….  Skyline’s Roger DuPaix is coaching his 300th game for the Eagles while Jeff Kilts, currently at Ben Lomond, is coaching his 100th career game and Todd Peacock of Cedar City is directing his 250th career contest.

Outstanding Performance:

In Springville’s 55-48 win over Dixie last Friday, Marcus Case had 502 all-purpose yards for Springville, only the second time that a player has accumulated over 500 all-purpose yards (Box Elder’s Joe Call had 593 in 1925).  Case’s 370 net rushing ranks as the third-best all-time performance.

More Dixie-Springville:

Dixie and Springville have now played each other in four of their last 15 games….Dixie tied for the most ever points scored in a losing cause in a regulation game….The two combined for 1,062 total yards, ninth most on record….The 103 points is the 13th most points scored by two teams.

Kuresa Watch:

Alex Kuresa’s career total offense jumped to 7,612 yards last week, fourth most all-time and 592 yards behind Kyler Carlsen (Sky View, 2007-09)….  In career passing yards, he has 7,204, good for third place.  He needs 420 more pass Alex Hart (Jordan, 2008-09)….  He’s now ninth in career touchdown passes with 64, ninth in attempts with 716 and sixth in career completions with 472.

Also Last Week:

Four first-year head coaches won their first games: Jeff Blanc (Carbon), Rick Corbridge (Weber), Josh Lyman (Cottonwood) and Yori Ludvigson (Gunnison).  A couple more won their first games at their new schools: Ed Larson (Timpanogos) and Brandon Matich (East)…. Juan Diego experienced just its second overtime, and first OT-loss, in its 11-year history….Kanab hadn’t been shut out since the 2006 season.

Realignment Speculation (1):

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for, or skipped to.  These speculations are based on October 2009 enrollment numbers with a bit of fudging for new schools.  The first possibility is also based on the seven St. George area schools being in same region and classification.  There would be four regions in each of 5A (24 teams), 4A (28) and 3A (28).  For football, 2A would have 12 teams (no change); and 1A would have eight (no change).  (I tried a 28-team 5A and 24-team 4A but that didn’t work as well, at least for me.)

5A – Region 1: Davis, Fremont, Layton, Northridge, Syracuse, Weber.

5A – Region 2: Cottonwood, Cyprus, Granger, Hunter, Kearns, Viewmont

5A – Region 3: Bingham, Copper Hills, Herriman, Riverton, Taylorsville, West Jordan

5A – Region 4: Alta, American Fork, Brighton, Jordan, Lone Peak, Pleasant Grove

4A – Region 5: Bonneville, Box Elder, Clearfield, Logan, Mountain Crest, Roy, Sky View

4A – Region 6: Bountiful, East, Highland, Olympus, Skyline, West, Woods Cross

4A – Region 7: Hillcrest, Lehi, Mountain View, Murray, Orem, Uintah, Westlake

4A – Region 8: Maple Mountain, Provo, Salem Hills, Spanish Fork, Springville, Timpanogos, Timpview

(I know Region 7 is kind of a hodgepodge, but Uintah had to go in somewhere.)

3A – Region 9: Canyon View, Cedar City, Desert Hills, Dixie, Hurricane, Pine View, Snow Canyon

3A – Region 10: Carbon, Emery, Juan Diego, Judge Memorial, Park City, Union, Wasatch

3A – Region 11: Bear River, Ben Lomond, Grantsville, Morgan, Ogden, Stansbury, Tooele

3A – Region 12: American Leadership, Delta, Juab, Manti, North Sanpete, Payson, Richfield

Several schools are interchangeable – their enrollments are so close and right in the cut-off between classifications that newer numbers could push them either way: Cyprus and West, for example, and southern Utah County schools (Payson, Spanish Fork, Maple Mountain, Salem Hills).  Geographically, changing one team for another won’t make much difference.

Realignment Speculation (2):

However, some at the UHSAA would reportedly like to see 5A limited to the largest 16 schools. 4A and 3A might then each have 32 teams – four regions of eight.

The breakdown could look like this:

5A – Region 1: Brighton, Davis, Hunter, Kearns, Northridge, Syracuse, Taylorsville, Weber.

5A – Region 2: Alta, American Fork, Bingham, Copper Hills, Herriman, Lone Peak, Riverton, Pleasant Grove

4A – Region 5: Bonneville, Box Elder, Clearfield, Fremont, Logan, Mountain Crest, Roy, Sky View

4A – Region 6: Bountiful, Cyprus, East, Highland, Layton, Viewmont, West, Woods Cross

4A – Region 7: Cottonwood, Granger, Hillcrest, Olympus, Skyline, Murray, Jordan, West Jordan

4A – Region 8: Lehi, Orem, Mountain View, Provo, Springville, Timpanogos, Timpview, Westlake

3A – Region 9: Canyon View, Cedar City, Delta, Desert Hills, Dixie, Hurricane, Pine View, Snow Canyon

3A – Region 10: Carbon, Emery, Park City, Juan Diego, Judge Memorial, Uintah, Union, Wasatch

3A – Region 11: American Leadership, Bear River, Ben Lomond, Grantsville, Morgan, Ogden, Stansbury, Tooele

3A – Region 12: Juab, Maple Mountain, Manti, North Sanpete, Payson, Richfield, Salem Hills,

Spanish Fork

Or 4A and 3A could be limited to 24 or 28 teams and 2A could pick up another the rest.

Disclaimer:  This exercise is just for fun, actual results will probably end up being vastly different. 

The UHSAA Board of Trustees will vote on the proposal Thursday, Aug. 26 and, if adopted, would be based on Oct. 1, 2010 numbers and go into effect next August, just when Utah joins the Pac-10.

(The enrollment numbers take a few clicks to get to, but are available at schools.utah.gov, then Data & Statistics, then Educational Data, then Student Enrollment and Membership.  Finally, scroll to Fall Enrollment by School, Grade, etc.  You will get an Excel spreadsheet to play around with.  Here’s the direct link: schools.utah.gov/main/DATA-STATISTICS/Educational-Data/Student-Enrollment-and-Membership.aspx  )