At South Fayette, it’s all about passing
there was a 44-game winning streak, two WPIAL titles and two PIAA championships.
A perfect record this season would be notable because the Lions moved up in class. Their past success was in Class 2A. Under the PIAA’s new six-classification system, South Fayette is in 4A this season.
“The size and bulk of the kids is different,” Rossi said of the difference between classifications. “You’re definitely in a grind every week, too. Fortunately, in moving up we’ve had some depth because we’ve had a lot of injuries this year. But we’re not looking across the field any more and facing teams with 30 or 35 players. Some teams have 60 against our 65.”
Jeter apologizes
Kids might indeed say the darndest things — and Beaver Falls’ Donovan Jeter would like to take back what he said earlier this week about Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly.
Jeter, a highly-rated defensive lineman, made a verbal commitment to Notre Dame last month, backed out of his commitment last week, visited Michigan last weekend and then committed to the Wolverines. On Sunday, when talking about his liking for Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, Jeter said, “He’s easy to talk to. Talking to Brian Kelly wasn’t fun. It wasn’t cool. You have to make an appointment just to go to his office. Coach Harbaugh has an open-door policy. Every one of Michigan’s coaches has an open-door policy.”
Jeter got some backlash on Twitter for his comments and a day later, he regretted his words.
“I don’t want to make it sound like Brian Kelly is a bad person,” Jeter said. “I should’ve chosen my words better when I was talking about him. He’s not a bad guy at all.”
Jeter wants to put the recruiting ordeal behind him and concentrate on tonight’s game against Beaver. Beaver Falls is 7-1, but if the Tigers don’t win, they might not make the playoffs. Beaver Falls has won seven in a row and Jeter believes both he and the Tigers have come a long way since a season-opening blowout loss to Aliquippa.
“That Aliquippa game left a bad taste in my mouth and everyone’s mouth,” said Jeter. “I played bad. We all played bad. Some plays, I wasn’t even firing out. Every week, I’ve gotten better and I’m learning.”
About the forfeit
A shrinking roster and safety concerns are the reasons Shady Side Academy is forfeiting tonight’s game against Central Valley. The game is non-conference and does not affect the playoffs. Shady Side Academy is 0-8 while Central Valley is 7-2.
Shady Side Academy coach Dave Havern said his team started the season with only 22 players. Because of injuries and other reasons, the team would only dress 15 players against Central Valley, but Havern said probably only 12 would be able to play.
“It was really a safety issue,” said Havern. “We just did not feel we would have enough able bodies to go out and play a competitive game. But I’ve been doing this since Kennedy was president and this team has the greatest grit of any I’ve seen. We’re certainly not the best team, but the fact they have gone on with so few guys and tried to compete has been remarkable. It’s just to the point where we, as a coaching staff, said we can’t do this.”
Havern, 68, believes things will change at Shady Side next year. The Indians had been to the playoffs eight consecutive years until the streak was broken last year.
“Over the last 12 years, of the 101 senior players we had graduate, 51 went on to play college football,” said Havern. “So we’ve had a pretty good program. It’s not like this program is crashing and burning. This has just been one crazy, perfect storm of a year. But the kids have been great.”