More Friday night lights

There's plenty of buzz around No. 5 West Virginia coming to face No. 18 USF.
Locally, there’s a cost for the television exposure.
Because the game is on ESPN, it is being played Friday, which casts a shadow over high school football. As Times staff writer Joe Smith noted in a prior post, some high schools with bye weeks will be in attendance.
Many others will not.
“They’re not going to be able to have any recruits on the sidelines,” Land O'Lakes coach John Benedetto said. “Coaches won’t be able to go to the games. Attendance in Hillsborough County (Friday) night has got to be really horrible for high school games.”
Coaches in Hernando and Pasco counties don’t seem as concerned that their fans will choose USF-WVU over high school football.
“Hopefully in Brooksville it won’t affect us,” Nature Coast coach Jamie Joyner said. “Pasco’s coming here, and they have a big following. I don’t like colleges playing on Friday night. I’m sure it will have an impact in Hillsborough. And I’m a little selfish. I wish I could see it.”
A similar scenario happened in 2004 when Florida State and Miami played a Friday night game, which was met with criticism.

(And please scroll down to see a sweet graphic to accompany a post by Times staff writer David Murphy. The post is pretty sweet, too.)

-- IZZY GOULD
Times Staff Writer

Comments

so, less people coming to watch Nature Coast lose???

[Andy]

The matchup between Pasco and Nature Coast should be an interesting one at that. Both teams are trying to find their identity and stick with it. Nature Coast started off 2-0 with a eye opening 39-7 win against a strong Dunnellon team, then followed up by shutting down a usually consistent Springstead ball club in a 20-0 victory in Spring Hill. After last week's debacle against Crystal River, where Nature Coast came back to earth and fumbled the football 6 times and let Crystal River slip by with a 18-15 victory, Nature Coast comes into tonight's game with something to prove.
Hold on there Pasco you guys have some history to try and follow up on ( hint hint 1992 state championship ) over there in Dade City. After an impressive showing in a season opening win over Land O'Lakes, Pasco has had a little drop off since then, losing the 7-0 lead to Sebring in the 4th quarter and a home opener loss to Wesley Chapel 24-10, Pasco rebounded by exploding for 39 points against Hudson and showed their true potential when they excute correctly. Now at 2-2, Pasco can use this game versus Nature Coast as a measuring stick to see where they stand among the Nature Coast Region elite and Nature Coast can use this game to find out which team will show up tonight. Dominant Nature Coast that manhandled area power Dunnellon, or the one that could not hold on to the football versus Crystal River. Both teams control their destiny, but which one will take advantage of this opportunity, whoever's better side comes out will win this ballgame. As of right now, I have no clue who that is until 10:30pm tonight.