Tyrone coach John Franco probably isn\u2019t a fan of NFL players like the Bengals\u2019 Chad Johnson or the Eagles\u2019 Terrell Owens, who have made names for themselves through their elaborate end zone celebrations as much as their play on the field.
\nOld school to the end, Franco is much more concerned with respecting the game and respecting an opponent, so for him, taunting is a definite no-no.
\nOne sure way, he said, to demonstrate your respect for an opponent is through effort.
\n\u201cThe best way to show a team you respect them is by giving them your best shot,\u201d he said. \u201cYou come out and show that you think highly enough of them to play your hardest.\u201d
\nSomewhere in Centre County, Penns Valley coach Martin Tobias may be wishing Franco could ease up on his \u201crespect\u201d stance a little, but there\u2019s small chance that\u2019s going to happen.
\nThe 2-6 Rams come to Gray Veterans Memorial Field tomorrow on Senior Night to face the undefeated Golden Eagles in a MAC Nittany Division game, and with all Franco says Tyrone has on the line, there\u2019s slim chance that he will allow his squad to ease off the throttle now.
\n\u201cWe have an opportunity for an undefeated regular season, and that would be our fourth undefeated regular season in the last 10 years,\u201d Franco said. \u201cThis team could enter a very elite group by doing that. On top of that, if we take a step backwards, it hurts our quest for a District title, and that\u2019s the ultimate goal here.\u201d
\nTyrone\u2019s last undefeated regular season came in 1999, when the Eagles went 9-0 before sweeping through the playoffs to win the PIAA Class AA championship. Franco also coached undefeated teams in 1996 and 1997.
\nOnly five other teams finished the regular season without a loss in the 84-year history of football at Tyrone Area High School. The first came in 1924 (9-0-1), and was followed by perfect campaigns in 1940 (12-0-1), 1942 (11-0-1), 1947 (11-0) and 1948 (11-0).
\nThat means that, far from playing a meaningless Senior Night game, there is actually a lot on the line for the Eagles and Franco, who saw his first shot at an undefeated season at Tyrone shot down by a 2-6 Indian Valley team in the season-finale in 1995.
\n\u201cFinishing undefeated is not usually a goal for us, but this is something we\u2019re looking forward to,\u201d Franco said.
\nThe approach Franco has preached to his team all week is something that makes Tobias\u2019 job with the Rams even tougher. Now, on top of bringing one of his youngest teams to play at the home of an unbeaten No. 1 seed on its Senior Night, he will also have to deal with overcoming the intensity Franco will demand from his players.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to put all of that aside and focus on doing our best,\u201d Tobias said. \u201cThis is our playoff. It\u2019s something that can help us one or two years from now as the team matures and when we are involved in the playoffs. It can only help us to play in an atmosphere like this.\u201d
\nSo far, Valley\u2019s best hasn\u2019t been quite enough against opponents in the Nittany Division. The Rams\u2019 only two wins have come against Mount Union and West Branch, two lowly Single-A schools who have only three wins between them. Against divisional opponents, Valley is 0-4 and allowing over 34 points per game.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re still trying to learn to play up to the competition,\u201d said Tobias. \u201cThis is a competitive conference and if I\u2019m not mistaken we\u2019re one of the smallest schools in it. Our kids have to learn to play up to the next level.\u201d
\nOne obstacle has been the Rams\u2019 relative inexperience. On a roster of 45 players, Penns Valley has only nine seniors, and many key contributors are sophomores, including starting quarterback Matt Johnson, who has completed 44 of 107 passes for 407 yards, while throwing 8 interceptions. Junior running back Chris Korn has been the lone bright spot, gaining 715 yards on 117 carries.
\n\u201cOffensively, we\u2019re a work in progress,\u201d Tobias said. \u201cOur kids are improving every week, and I\u2019m proud that they have remained competitive in the face of some tough competition.\u201d
\nThe competition will never get any stiffer for the Rams than it will be this week. The Eagles are ranked No. 4 by both the Harrisburg Patriot and the Pennsylvania Football News, and all indications are they are very much worthy of their position in the top 5.
\nQuarterback Leonard Wilson is on the verge of becoming the first quarterback in Tyrone history to pass for 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons, Brinton Mingle is 160 yards away from becoming the schools 13th 1,000-yard rusher, and the first team defense hasn\u2019t allowed more than one touchdown in a game since Week 1.
\nWith one of the most balanced offenses in the Franco Era, the Eagles have three rushers besides Mingle with over 150 yards (Tyler Gillmen, 432; Johnny Franco 320; Wilson 175), and three receivers with over 140 yards (Trey Brockett 367; Shane Barr, 191; Doug Morrow, 143).
\nDefensively, Tyrone is +12 in the turnover ratio while recording 65 stops behind the line of scrimmage. Robert Emigh is the team\u2019s leader in sacks with 7, while James Updike leads the squad with 13 tackles for loss.
\nStill, the old school Franco doesn\u2019t put much stock in mismatches on paper.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been around too long to take anything for granted,\u201d he said. \u201cThe minute you do that, you get beat.\u201d
\nSENIOR NIGHT
\nThe Tyrone Area School District will recognize senior members of the football team, band and cheerleading squads as part of its senior night ceremonies tomorrow.
\nFranco heaped heavy praise on this year\u2019s senior class, most notably for stepping forward to become leaders.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a group of kids who were always good followers, and you need that,\u201d Franco said. \u201cThe class in front of them was filled with natural leaders, so they never had to assume that role. But they took charge, and little by little the guys really got it together.\u201d
\nFranco said it started with Mingle and Wilson, who came into this season with the most experience, but soon it filtered down through the entire class.
\n\u201cTrey stepped forward and then Thad Graham became like a coach on the field,\u201d he said. \u201cBob Emigh is probably the biggest turnaround story of a player becoming a leader. Shane Barr and Buddy Stotler had to learn a new system and they became leaders by example. Other players like Matthew Lauder, Tyler Updike, Marvin Williams and Keith Leader assumed important roles on the team. They may not have been natural leaders, but they found something they could do to help us.\u201d
\nSince the Class of 2006 moved to the varsity team as sophomores, Tyrone has gone 31-4 with two District championships.
\nRESPECT
\nJust as Franco wants his players to respect every opponent, Penns Valley will enter tomorrow\u2019s game with a healthy respect for the Eagles. According to Tobias, his staff is always impressed watching Franco-coached teams on film in preparation for this game.
\n\u201cThe thing that impresses me most about Tyrone and coach Franco is that their execution is almost flawless,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s impressive to watch just as a fan, let alone as an opposing coach. Their quarterback, Leonard Wilson, is an outstanding leader with the ability to turn nothing into something. He controls their offense. They have a plethora of running backs with different running styles, and their line is impressive on both sides of the ball.\u201d
\nBACK TO BASICS
\nWith the playoffs just a week away, you might think the Eagles spent at least part of their week tweaking the offense, adding a new wrinkle here or there, or installing some packages other playoff teams haven\u2019t seen on film.
\nNot so, according to Franco.
\nInstead, Tyrone has spent most of the week going back to the basics in preparation for Penns Valley. It\u2019s a move Franco feels can help prevent the Eagles from playing sloppy in a game that would be easy to overlook.
\n \u201cWe worked a lot on our fundamentals,\u201d Franco said. \u201cPenns Valley may be having a rough season, but there are plenty of books full of stories of teams that rose to the occasion to win when they were underdogs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tyrone coach John Franco probably isn\u2019t a fan of NFL players like the Bengals\u2019 Chad Johnson or the Eagles\u2019 Terrell Owens, who have made names for themselves through their elaborate end zone celebrations as much as their play on the field. Old school to the end, Franco is much more concerned with respecting the game […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}