NationalHSFootball.com – Dallas Jackson, NationalHSFootball.com
Longtime followers of national high school football know the deal: Your placement in the final rankings can sometimes hinge on things outside your control.
Over the next two weeks, NationalHSFootball.com will look at the teams from the start of 2008 through the recently completed 2013 season and place them in an overall Top 25.
Not only will we find out the best team of the HSFB100 era – we’ll find out the best teams. Which years were stronger than others. Which great teams had the unfortunate fate of playing in the same year as an all-time great.
| No. 22 — Hampton (Va.) Phoebus, 2008 | No. 3 in HSFB100, 15-0 |
Looking Back: Defense and punishing offense is the calling card for Hampton (Vir.) Phoebus and no season did it perform better than in 2008. The team allowed just 53 points in the 15 game schedule and had nine shutouts on the season. It won the state title and finished the year No. 3 in the HSFB100.
Tahj Boyd was ranked No. 51 in the Class of 2009. View his Rivals.com profile.
The team was lead by Tajh Boyd – although he was rarely asked to throw more than 10-13 times per game — as running back Shawne Alston was fed the football. The team ran at a near six-to-one clip on the season as much by design as it was to keep the clock going as it was up by five touchdowns in most games.
The defensive unit was centered on Dominik Davenport taking up two blockers on every play and Daquan Romero as well as Charles Jones coming hard off the edge. Having a strong front allowed linebackers Demetrius Ward, LoVante’ Battle and Chaz Robinson to make plays as defensive back Paul Morant was nearly a lockdown type player in the secondary which was aided by constant pressure being applied up front.
While Phoebus had success prior to this season and has remained among the best teams in the state it has never been able to rekindle the magic that it had this season.
Boyd was a tremendous leader with a big arm even if he was rarely asked to use it in this offense.
Alston went over 2,000 yards on the season and may not have had the collegiate career many expected is still among the best backs to have come out of this program.
The state of Virginia simply didn’t have an answer for the Phantoms in 2008 as the team barely allowed more than a field goal per game.
Defining Game: As a team that dominated the season there is still a standout performance on the slate. The 38-8 domination of Ashburn (Vir.) Stone Bridge in the state semifinals game was a major victory for the team as it had fallen the year prior to the Bulldogs in the same round.
At the time of the game many expected Stone Bridge to expose Phoebus as a paper tiger with a soft schedule as it averaged 49 points per game and had a defense that allowed just over eight but that never materialized.
The game started with a Stone Bridge fumble on the first play and ended with an interception on the final pass as the eight points that Stone Bridge scored tied for a program low in the last decade.
Phoebus went on to win the following week to cap its state title but it made more believers the week prior as many local writers still had Stone Bridge No. 1 in the state.
Rankings Rewind Phoebus was as high as No. 2 in the HSFB100 during the 2008 season but fell in the last week behind Allen (Texas) High largely due to the strength of schedule tiebreaker as the two teams were evaluated to be very close to one another.
The defensive unit was exceptional for Phoebus this season with talent in all three classes. The team would go on to win the state title again in 2009, 2010, and 2011 but it was never as good as the 2008 season.
The Countdown of the Top 25: View the complete list of teams.
The Varsity Board: Post your thoughts on the 2008 Phantoms team. Should it be higher in the rankings?
