North Carolina Football Association (NCFA)

Why haven't Neil Walker's Warren County Eagles fared any better than
4-7 this NCFA2 season?

The quarterback has been solid. Seeded from NCFA Kinston, Robert Ramos
accumulated the third-best quarterback rating in the league (85.0)
through 10 weeks. He has been Warren County's starter from the start but threw
only his second interception of the season in a 24-10 Week 11 loss to the
Vance County Leafs. Ramos, preparing for only his second NCFA season, appears
to have solidified his standing as Kinston's signal-caller of the future.

Michael Dixon, another seed, has put together another fine NCFA2
campaign. Through 10 weeks, his 235 carries and 852 rushing yards both ranked as
league highs. He fumbled only once in those 10 starts and also
contributed an average of 7.3 yards on his 28 receptions. Dixon, entering his sixth
NCFA season, desperately seeks a shot at getting into the groove as a
primary ball-carrier at that level.

Seeded WR1 Taylor Delpaggio, a former first-round draft pick of
Kinston's, has not been especially impressive in NCFA2, catching only 23 balls for
two touchdowns and an average of 15.0 yards per reception through 10 weeks.
But those lackluster numbers might be the inevitable product of the Warren
County system. TE1 Ray Ruzek has been the club's leading receiver (43
receptions, 10.3 yards), and WR2 George Williams, a former NCFA
starter, essentially matched Delpaggio's production (21 catches, 15.8 yards per,
two touchdowns).

That's a fair amount of skill-position talent to have added up to only
the 10th-ranked NCFA2 offense through 11 weeks. Certainly, the offensive
line has been a problem. Walker, himself a former lineman, has finally
settled on a combination of Johnny Willow at center, seeds Eric Harris and Robert
Smith at guard and William Berrera and Tyrone McCoy at tackle. But none has
shone.

On defense, Kinston seeded defensive linemen William Erwin and Thomas
Walter; linebackers Scott Brackenbury, Clifford Morton and Forrest
Kreider, and defensive backs Robert Boyd and John Tierce. S1 Tierce, a former
Salisbury Popes second-round draft pick, has been a star-69 tackles,
two sacks and two interceptions (both returned for touchdowns) through 10
weeks. Morton (54 tackles, one interception and one sack), Kreider (39 tackles
and four sacks) and Boyd (42 tackles and two interceptions) also each have
held starting jobs all NCFA2 season. The other standout on defense for
Warren County has been a free agent, DT2 John Irvin, who made 13 sacks
(third-most in the league) among his 22 tackles. Despite the considerable
individual accomplishments, Warren County's defense ranks eighth in NCFA2.

Of course, the Eagles' biggest problem might be the special teams. Todd
Banks, at 60 percent accuracy, is the worst field-goal kicker in NCFA2.
He's zero-for-three from 50 yards or longer, and he has missed two of 17
extra-point attempts. The punter, Richard Watson, has the second-worst
gross (41.7) and worst net average (34.1) in the league. The returners, WR5
Harlan Callahan (an average of 20.0 yards on 22 kickoff returns) and Williams
(6.8 yards on seven punt returns), have been forgettable.