Monday, August 04, 2008

PrepNation 101 Preseason FB Countdown: No. 20 Don Bosco Prep

20. Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.)
Last season’s record: 12-0, Non-Public Group IV champion
Coach: Greg Toal
Key players: QB Brett Knief (6-1, 190, Sr.), RB Dillon Romain (5-11, 215, Sr.), RB Tony Jones (5-9, 190, Jr.), OG Jack Templeton (6-3, 260, Sr.), DT Jim Kittredge (6-3, 235, Jr.), OT Brandon Sacco (6-3, 250, Jr.), LB Nick Vetterlein (5-11, 200, Sr.)
Biggest strength: Experience in offensive backfield and offensive line
Question mark: Inexperience on defense
Outlook: Six offensive and five defensive starters return for the Ironmen, who have won 24 straight games and four state titles the last six years. Knief is a mobile quarterback with a strong arm. He threw for 1,590 yards and 13 touchdowns and ran for 622 yards and 10 touchdowns last season. Romain and Jones will be featured in the running game. Romain had 991 yards on 98 carries with 12 touchdowns. Jones had over 700 combined rushing and receiving yards and scored 20 touchdowns. The offensive line has good experience with three starters back. Templeton and Sacco are both Division I prospects. Kittredge, who started as a sophomore, is the top returning defensive lineman. Vetterlein, a regional champion in wrestling, leads the linebacking corps. The Ironmen play one of the top out-of-state schedules this season with trips to No. 18 Cincinnati St. Xavier and No. 6 Concord (Calif.) De La Salle in September.
Toughest games: Sept. 13 at No. 18 Cincinnati St. Xavier, Sept. 27 at No. 6 Concord (Calif.) De La Salle, Nov. 1 at NE No. 15 Bergen Catholic, Nov. 8 vs. NE No. 9 St. Joseph’s Regional

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think having DBP ranked #20 in your preseason poll is ridiculous. The lack of respect for NJ high school football is comical. But then again, it's apparent that you know very little about DBP. Who the heck is this RB "Hunt", who along with Romain will provide a one two punch out of the backfield? His name is Tony Jones. He's a Junior and has started at RB as a freshman. DBP will beat your #6 and #18 and you will somehow find a way to leave them out of your top 5. i

Anonymous said...

Hey 11:11AM......
I don't think PrepNation is disrespecting DBP at all. A Top 20 ranking is great. Let's see what they do against X and DeLaSalle. If DBP beats both X and DLS, then a Top 5 ranking is very possible.

Anonymous said...

I've seen DBP, St. X and De La Salle play over the past couple of seasons. If DBP can defeat those two teams they WILL be in the Top 5, but that is an awfully big "if". De La Salle is the best high school team I have seen in the last 10 years.

Tough Guy said...

Listen, Jamie, I know you're in like Iowa or somewhere but is this a purposeful slap in the face to Bosco and NJ? If you think Bosco is the twentieth best team in the country than you have no idea what you are talking about. You remind me of the sports writers who refuse to put Bosco's baseball team at #1 simlpy because they are from NJ, even though they are the only undefeated top 25 team in the US.

Have you ever seen the level of play in Northern NJ? Are you aware that you ranked a team from PA higher than Bosco in the Northeast? There isn't a single credible person knowledgeable about HS FB on the national level that would dare put another team ahead of Bosco as the best in the Northeast. You just lost all credibility with that one.

Are you familiar with the level of play in NJ or aware that arguably the three best college players on the three best teams in the country are all from NJ? Moreno, UGA; Jenkins, OSU; and Cushing, USC? That doesn't even matter though because I can tell you that Bosco would house a school with 15 D1 players because of Bosco's coaching and discipline alone.

This appears to be a slap in the face of what is essentially the East Coast's DeLaSalle. It's way off base.

Jamie DeMoney said...

Tough Guy,

The beautiful thing is that Don Bosco has a great schedule this season that will take them to No. 18 St. Xavier and No. 6 DLS. Because of that, Don Bosco's national ranking will more than take care of itself, depending on how they perform in those games.

Rest assured, I have a lot of respect for Don Bosco Prep. And yes, I have seen Don Bosco Prep and many other North Jersey teams play on tape.

Anonymous said...

Tough Guy....you accomplished one "BIG" point in your back and forth with Jamie. He acknowledged that the games against StX and DLS will pretty much make or break the DBP season. Funny thing....Jamie acknowledged last season, the strong schedule factor with StX, and if they were able to go undefeated with that schedule, they would be considered for the Top Spot. We know what happened.
The fact that he acknowledged your comment, means he is watching DBP.
Good luck against StX and DLS.

Believe me, Jamie knows what he is talking about. He is very experienced, sets the criteria, and rewards teams that accomplish the "so-called" impossible.

Anonymous said...

I understand the comments on here, however this team is underrated now as they were last year. Having watched Bosco as well as several teams ranked ahead of them I can unequivocally state that alot of those teams would not even be competitive in a game against Don Bosco Prep. Bosco is a program that demoralizes great teams and alot of the fans of the teams ranked #1-19 would admit that they dont belong there.

It's all subjective I guess. If a pollster likes the team and they lose he says "they lost to a good team and they're still good" but if he doesn't like the team and they lose he says "they lost, they cant be that good"

To say that its simply possible that Bosco could be in the top 5 if they beat both Saint Xavier and DeLaSalle seems wrong. I would think at that point the issue would be why they shouldn't be #1.

Anonymous said...

I think the DBP vs DLS game will be a classic...the greatest HS program (DLS) against one of the top ten best HS programs (DBP). I hope it is a home and home series with DLS going to New Jersey in 2009. It was a shame that they could not play back in 2003, which was most likely the greatest DLS team in its history. I must confess that I did not know much about DBP back then, but I did have the pleasure of meeting some of the DBP football parents and players on a cruise in the summer of 2004. Simply put they were terrific people and great supporters of their program just like we are of DLS. We at DLS look forward to seeing them on September 27 and wish them tremendous success. Like us back in 2003, the DBP team this year may be their best ever.

Anonymous said...

Great for the DBP fans to look to the DeLaSalle game....it will be a classic I am sure. But you know something, unless you take care of business in game 1 against St.X, the DLS game will mean nothing. Remember this, it will be DBP first game, against an X team that will have played 3 games. Just food for thought....

Anonymous said...

DLS vs. Don Bosco Prep is going to be an incredible football game!! I personally can't wait because I am a former Ironman living down the road from De La Salle. One thing is for sure Bosco is hungry, and has been looking forward to this game since 2003.

I've talked this game up since rumors about it began months ago. The feeling I get, is that the SF East Bay sees Bosco as a walk in the park for DLS. People say, "who's Don Bosco." Well California will soon see.

I hope to see a lot of maroon and white there..if not, I'll be loud enough for all Bosco Alum!!!

Anonymous said...

Don Bosco Prep vs. De La Salle. This could be the game of the year in high school football in 2008. Its too bad this could not be in 2003 when De La Salle had that incredable winning streak and Don Bosco was the best Hs Football team on the East Coast, with Mike Teel, Brian Toal, Marquis Liverpool Eric Coumba. I hope this game Re-Peats in 2009 With De La Salle Coming to Ramsey, New Jersey. Just A note: For those who never saw Don Bosco Play Football, If They beat St. Xavier and De La Salle, then go 12-0 for the season, Don Bosco Prep should be # 1 Nationally in 2008

Anonymous said...

Prep nation is a favorite poll of mine. The reason is that each week all the top teams are evaluated anew without seeming regard to the prior ranking. It is not a poll where you don't move down if you win and if you prove yourself on the field you can jump over teams that played flat while winning. Last year Prep moved MNW down from one, rightfully so. No one else did. MNW last year had the best players but not the best team and Prep Nation acknowledged that in moving them. As to Bosco, it's a valid ranking. This is not Bosco's best team in the last 5 or 6 years not even second best.
As to those that complain that NJ is disrespected in Prep Nation it's hard not to agree. The one exception to this is St. Peter's Prep who usually gets ranked higher in Prep Nation than any other national poll. I have always wondered why?

Anonymous said...

I was at the St. X vs Don Bosco game and I cant wait to here all the whining from NJ.
Was that the team that gives up less than 9 PPG and scores +35 PPG and kills everyone the east coast??.
At half time it was 17-0 St.X.
Don Bosco had only 24 yds total offense. Second half they scored TD on a interception. But they actually did kick a field goal in the 4th qtr. Guess that is what legends are made of in NJ.
St. X lost their 1st game to Colerain without their QB and All State OT (only 2 starters from last year National Champs). This year is not the calabre of last years team, but they are getting better every game. Good enough last week to beat Pratville (2 time Alabama State Champs last week)

Good Don Bosco for the rest of the year but the team I saw today would be consistantly in the lower half of the St. X league GCL.

Anonymous said...

hey oldmlb

when you can go to a place like DeLaSalle and beat them on their own turf, as opposed to having a midseason team take 1st quarter advantage of a team that has not played yet, only to have the homer refs save your azz when it's gettin kicked by the second half...then maybe you can crow.

otherwise its probably best to quit while your ahead, shut up and hope people don't really understand how it all played out.

the team you make fun of is donig more to get your team in the playoffs than your own is LOL.

Anonymous said...

Prep Nation throws another sucker punch at Bosco. You cannot go out and beat the #8 team in the country and not budge in the rankings. It is a clear slight. How can you justify this???????

Jamie DeMoney said...

No sucker punch here. Bosco defeated a DLS team was ranked highly, but is no longer ranked at all.

But Bosco also lost to a 3-3 St. Xavier team that is also no longer ranked.

It's hard to move Bosco above teams that have not lost a game to teams that were ranked below them, which would be the case if Bosco moved into the Top 25 this week.

Anonymous said...

not really. Human polls should be able to take into account situations that computer models do not. if that is not X's 4th game and Bosco's first is there any reasonable way to think X wins again? As I said above I like your poll because teams can move without losing as with MNW (MNW IMHO was not a top 10 TEAM) last year, but what you gonna do. Hopefully Bosco will be able to schedule the top teams in the country for next year again. (MNW was not top 10 last year, as a team)

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