Tag: Outside The Box

Would this be the Class of 2023’s top All-Star offense?

Good luck stopping this offensive attack!

The Class of 2023 is loaded with talent on both sides of the ball, so it’s not a surprise the group has generated a ton of buzz well ahead of the 2022 kickoffs that await in August and September.

See the current Top 50 recruits

While that anticipation and excitement for fall football builds, we’ve decided to have a little fun with the talented crop of athletes during the interim. In the era of Super Teams, we’ve taken our best shot at assembling a powerhouse all-star offense using the top recruits in the ’23 class.

Of course, the immediate argument with such an exercise is… what type of offense? That’s to say, a 12 personnel might feature a different group than other packages, and so on.

So, for this squad, we’re going with the most common: the 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE).

Ready?

Cheat Code: On.

Wild Alabama HS softball game features a combined 91 runs, 65 walks

Things got a little bit crazy when Park Crossing High School and Sidney Lanier High School met on the softball field in Alabama on Wednesday

Things got a little bit crazy when Park Crossing High School and Sidney Lanier High School met on the softball field in Alabama on Wednesday afternoon.

Park Crossing and Sidney Lanier combined for 91 total runs 65 total walks in a 46-45 Park Crossing win in the Alabama Class 6A Area 3 Tournament. Sidney Lanier mustered just five hits on the afternoon, but were the beneficiaries of 42 Park Crossing walks. Park Crossing, meanwhile, came out on top thanks to 15 hits, 23 Sidney Lanier walks and 12 unearned runs.

Sidney Lanier scores 10 or more runs in the fourth and sixth innings and took a 45-42 lead into the bottom of the seventh, but Park Crossing, which scored 11 runs in the first inning and 10 in the fifth and sixth innings, tacked on four more to walk it off with a win.

The game lasted nearly five hours and, according to the Alabama High School Athletic Association, shattered state records in most combined walks (65), most walks on one team (Sidney Lanier 42, Park Crossing 23), most combined hit by pitches (29) and most combined RBIs (68).

RELATED: Alabama HS basketball playoff game ends with 6-4 final score

WATCH: Mississippi State signee brings down entire hoop with dunk

Mississippi State signee KeShawn Murphy brought down the entire hoop with a dunk in an Alabama high school basketball game Friday night.

Backboard-shattering dunks happen few and far between, but fans are more than familiar with the thunderous slams.

The same cannot be said about what Mississippi State signee KeShawn Murphy accomplished in an Alabama high school basketball game Friday night.

Murphy did more than shatter the backboard with a dunk for Ramsay High School against Carver High School — he brought down the whole basket down.

Fortunately, nobody was injured and the game will be continued at a later date. Ramsay led Carver 61-44 with four minutes remaining at the time of the dunk.

Murphy committed to Mississippi State in November and signed with the Bulldogs shortly after. A three-star recruit according to 247Sports, Murphy also held offers from Alabama, Auburn, UAB and Western Kentucky.

WATCH: Texas commit Ja’Tavion Sanders makes absurd one-handed touchdown catch

If the 2020 high school football season has taught us anything, it’s this: Texas commit Ja’Tavion Sanders is a walking highlight reel.

If the 2020 high school football season has taught us anything, it’s this: Texas commit Ja’Tavion Sanders is a walking highlight reel.

Sanders took the field for Ryan (Texas) against Frisco Lone Star High School on Friday night and did not disappoint, making a ridiculous 25-yard, one-handed touchdown catch in a 35-21 Ryan win. Sanders finished with six receptions for 80 yards and a score. He also took four carries for 10 yards as Ryan capped a 9-0 regular season.

What makes Sanders’ grab even more impressive is that he is slated to play defensive end at Texas. That’s right, a future college defensive lineman is going up over defensive backs to make one-handed touchdown catches and thrashing opposing secondaries on a weekly basis.

Only in Texas.

WATCH: No. 7 Thompson stages miracle comeback to win Alabama 7A title

Thompson High School pulled off a miracle comeback to win an Alabama 7A state championship Wednesday night.

Thompson High School (Ala.), ranked No. 7 in the USA Today Super 25, was on the verge of seeing its storybook 2020 season come to a crushing end in the Alabama 7A state championship game Wednesday night.

Then, a miracle happened.

Auburn High School had Thompson on the ropes, up 28-19 with less than two minutes remaining and in possession of the football in Thompson territory. On third down, Auburn kneeled out of the shotgun in an effort to run more time off the clock before punting. However, the field position Auburn cost itself by kneeling out of the shotgun proved costly, as Thompson blocked Auburn’s punt, scooped it up and used the short field to its advantage en route to a touchdown to cut the lead to two with 18 seconds remaining.

Despite Thompson’s newfound life, Auburn still had the upper hand. The Warriors would have to recover the onside kick and get into field goal range with under 20 seconds and no timeouts.

And that’s exactly what they did.

Thompson miraculously recovered its onside kick attempt and worked its way into field goal range on the back of two defensive pass interference penalties on Auburn. The icing on the cake? A 35-yard field goal to give Thompson a 29-28 win and a state title to boot.

Thompson dominated the Alabama high school football scene throughout 2020, posting a 13-0 record with an average margin of victory of 29 points per game. Its miracle win to bring another state championship back to Alabaster, though?

That is something nobody in Thompson’s program will ever forget.

Watch: Crazy back-and-forth play during Texas high school football game

A wild moment during a Texas District 4-5A Division 1 matchup between Mansfield Summit and Richland.

High school football is always reliable for producing highlight-worthy moments, but what unfolded in the Texas District 4-5A Division 1 matchup between Mansfield Summit and Richland is an all-time gridiron “Say what?!” masterpiece.

Let’s go to the tape:

If you’re scoring at home, that’s a pass attempt from Royals’ Cole Benson to Jay Rhinehart…with the ball bouncing off a defender’s helmet (worn by Ahmaad Moses)… and then, defensive back Sean Smith snagging the ball for an interception.

Smith runs out of the end zone, a full head of steam…but gets stripped near the 15-yard line…it’s a fumble!

The Royals’ Mark Zamora recovers and rumbles toward the end zone, where a defender meets him, and, oh man…another fumble!

But wait! It’s…Rhinehart, who was still near the goal line from the beginning of the chaos. He recovers the ball for…a touchdown!

Phew. 

The hommage to Hot Potato would be Richland’s final score of the game. Although it wasn’t enough to overcome the undefeated Jaguars, the moment won the night—2020 high school football’s wildest moment?—even gaining notice on SportsCenter. 

To cap it all off, the Richland Royals had a little fun with it too, adding a classic zinger to a now-classic 19 seconds.

Related: High school Plays of the Week

WATCH: Arch Manning totals 6 touchdowns in dominant season debut

Arch Manning kicked off his sophomore season in style, totaling six touchdowns in a 41-0 win on Thursday night.

To say Arch Manning kicked off his sophomore season with a bang would be an understatement.

Manning, the nephew of Eli and Peyton Manning, made his season debut for New Orleans (La.) Isadore Newman High School on Thursday night and lit up the stat sheet, firing five touchdown passes and rushing for one in a dominant 41-0 win over Metairie (La.) East Jefferson High School on Thursday night.

Manning finished the night completing going 13-17 for 260 yards. Two of his incompletions were passes that were dropped in the end zone and one was an interception. He wasted no time flashing his big arm, connecting with four-star wide receiver AJ Johnson for a 63-yard touchdown on his second throw of the night. Manning and Johnson connected again in the back of the end zone in the second quarter for a score.

“Our O-line, they held up, they bought me time,” Manning said, per NOLA.com’s Chris Dabe. “Our receivers know how to get open. It was pretty easy after that.”

Hillcrest Patriots’ touchdown on the final play is must-see TV

Quite possibly the greatest 2.9 seconds in high school football ever.

It’s not the amount of time you have. It’s what you do with it.

At least, that’s what I thought while watching the greatest 2.9 seconds of the 2020 high school football season (so far) unfold from the game between the Hillcrest Patriots (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) and the Wetumpka Indians (Ala.).

The Pats found themselves in a 13-0 hole after the first quarter of Friday’s non-conference road test but managed to battle back, eventually taking the lead in the third. Wetumpka kept up their momentum in the forth, though, until an Ethan Crawford 30-yard touchdown strike left the Indians trailing by a point with seven minutes left.

It was a game of field position from there, with both teams exchanging punts and playing solid defense, before the Indians put together a drive that ended with Alex Londell’s 20-yard field goal to take the lead with under 15 seconds to go.

And that was more than enough time for Hillcrest to work a miracle.

If a picture is worth a 1000 words, then this video is worth a million (or, in points: a most memorable 6):

And to think: It’s only Week 3!

Related: Check out the Plays of Week from Week 1 of the high school football season.