Congratulations to Reedley College's Randy Whited, the newly crowned footbll coach of the year in the Valley Conference.
If there were any doubts about Whited's credentials as interim coach, that should take care of them. The Tigers also tied for first and will represent the conference in the Northern California championship against San Mateo Saturday in the Bulldog Bowl.
Reedley has to make a national search for a coach at the end of the season and former coach, Michael White, has a clause in his contract that would allow him to return. So it should be interesting to see how things shake out.
Whited (pictured at right) was White's long-time defensive guru and he'd probably feel
comfortable going back to that relationship. Either way, the Tigers have won or shared two straight conference titles and six of the past eight, so the future remains bright.
That being said, Saturday's clash against San Mateo won't be a fair fight.
Reedley plays the No. 1 team for the Northern California football championship and I'm going to cover my eyes and ears until it's over.
If the Tigers win it will be the biggest upset in the history of JC football.
Why? Because San Mateo ranks No. 3 in NorCal in offense scoring 44 points per game. The Bulldogs are the No. 1 rushing team, too, and QB Matt Pelesasa has thrown for 1,621 yards and 21 TDs.
Reedley has a good defense -- ranking No. 10 -- but it's going up against a monster with a BB gun. Also, the Tigers can't score. They only had two field goals in Saturday's first-place clash against Fresno City.
At this point in the season, Fresno City would have had a better chance against San Mateo, although it still might have been a blowout.
Rams coach Tony Caviglia, understandably, is still irked that his team didn't get into the NorCal championship after tying Reedley and Sierra for first place. Fresno City is playing the best of those teams at the end of the season.
Reedley got in because of a flawed tie-breaker that took into account a Tigers win against Foothill in the third week of the season.
Conference coaches should look into another way to decide the champion. Coin flips are ridiculous. So maybe point differentials in the head-to-head meetings could be used. Or perhaps the coaches could meet on the field and decide things with a field-goal kicking contest.
Whatever. The system needs to be changed so matchups like Reedley-San Mateo don't happen.
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