Falcons Land in the Top 5 in Preseason Football Polls

This years edition of the football Falcons are being lauded by two prominent Tennessee high school football pollsters. The Falcons have landed in the top 5 of both Earl Nall and Murphy Fair's pre-season rankings. Here is a complete rundown of each poll, which also includes local and rival teams:

--Earl Nall, technology director for the TSSAA, released his 17th annual state football preseason rankings earlier this month. For his preseason ratings he uses a statistical model that takes into account historical data with the single most important factor being Margin of Victory. Note: Only 3 times in its 17 year history has a team made it to one of the 80+ state championship game since the ratings began that wasn’t ranked in the top 10 in the final week 10 ratings.

• Class 4A rankings:

1. David Lipscomb 73.5 pts


2. Nash Maplewood 70.1


3. Mem Fairley 68.5
   
4. White House 66.2


5. Knox Fulton 66.2


6. Crockett County 64.3


7. Chatt Red Bank 64.0


8. Jackson Soutside 63.1


9. Giles County 61.5


10. Haywood County 59.8
    

• 2009 Opponents Rankings: 3A--13 Knox Carter, 47 Gibbs, 50 Union County; 2A--1 Alcoa, 5 Austin East, 22 Gatlinburg Pittman, 47 Pigeon Forge; 5A--18 Knox Powell, 23 Morristown West, 25 Knox West


• Notables from other classes: 1A--1 South Pittsburg, 11 Knox Grace; 2A--1 Trousdale County; 3A--1 Alcoa, 10 CAK; 5A--1 Henry County, 4 Knox Catholic, 14 Clinton, 18 Knox Powell, 21 Knox Halls; Class 6A--1 Oakland, 4 Maryville, 6 Knox Farragut, 15 Knox Bearden

--Murphy Fair, self proclaimed high school football "Guru" and capitalist from Tullahoma, TN. Fair puts out an annual pre-season football preview magazine that profiles most all of the teams in Tennessee. He can also be heard on Nashville's 104.5 The Zone on Fridays from 2-3 PM. Murphy's preseason Top Five in each playoff classification consists of the five teams that he believes have the best chance to be competiting in the BlueCross Bowl in Cookeville in the first week of December. Teams are listed alphabetically:

• Class 6A--Brentwood, Maryville, Millington, Oakland, Whitehaven
  
  Class 5A--Clinton, Henry Co., Melrose, Mitchell, Sullivan South
  
  Class 4A--Fulton, Giles Co., Lipscomb, Maplewood, Red Bank
  
  Class 3A--Alcoa, Austin East, Tyner, Milan, Westview
  
  Class 2A--Boyd-Buchanan, McKenzie, Oneida, Trinity Christian, Trousdale Co.
  
  Class 1A--Huntingdon, Jo Byrns, South Pittsburg, Union City, Wayne Co.