July 26, 2012

Dallas Jackson
Senior Analyst

Dallas Jackson is the High School Football analyst for Rivals.com. Email him your question, comment or story ideas to DallasJ@Yahoo-Inc.com and follow him on Twitter.

Rivals.com began its 2012 countdown Monday, ranking the teams from No. 1 through No. 100.

We started at No. 100 and will release two groups of five teams per day. Then, we'll do a daily countdown from No. 10 to No. 1. Our top team will be unveiled on Wednesday, Aug. 8 - just 10 days from the start of the season.

After that, we will wait until Aug. 27 for the next rankings, then have them every Monday during the season.

The team rankings were compiled by high school sports senior analyst Dallas Jackson, the Rivals AMP team, football recruiting analysts and the entire RivalsHigh network of publishers.

View the complete rankings timeline if you missed anything | Final 2011 Expanded Rankings

Top 100 countdown No. 70 South Pointe, So. Carolina

Top 100 countdown No. 69 North Allegheny, Pennsylvania

?

Coach: Art Walker Last Season: 14-1, Class AAAA Semifinalist. Ranked No. 3 in Pennsylvania. Fast Fact: North Allegheny had gone 20 years without winning a WPIAL championship before Walker took over in 2004. It took him five years to win his first at the school but he has since added two more, making North Allegheny one of the perennial powers in Western Pennsylvania. Key Player: Quarterback Mack Leftwich. Leftwich is not the best player on the team but he may be the most important for its success this season. After leading the team to a WPIAL title and a deep playoff run last season there was plenty of concern that Leftwich would be forced to leave the program because his father was on staff at Pittsburgh when Todd Graham left. His dad retained his position at the school and Leftwich is back for the Tigers. The Good: The offensive line. North Allegheny lost most of its skill players but it returns most of its players in the trenches to go with Leftwich. Michigan commit Patrick Kugler leads the offensive line and is the No. 73-ranked player in the Rivals100. At 6-feet-5 and pushing close to 300 pounds he is the pace setter for the group and the anchor as the left tackle for the team. He is also one of the better pass protecting tackles in the country which will allow North Allegheny to remain balanced on offense. The Bad: Penalties and special teams. This may be reactionary to how the season ended for North Allegheny but those two areas directly cost the team a chance at a state title in 2011. Neither area has been the bedrock of the program but it hasn't been as costly as it was at the end of the 2011 season. The team will be physical on offense and can replace the skill players and it will always be defensively sound so it is those other, often overlooked, portions of the game that need to improve. The bottom line: North Allegheny figures to be the best team in the WPIAL again this season. It will start the season ranked behind Central Dauphin -- the team that won the state title in 2011 -- but North Allegheny is a close second. If the Tigers are able to make steady improvements on the offensive side of the ball they could bring a state title home.

Top 100 countdown No. 68 Maryville, Tennessee

Coach: George Quarles Last Season: 15-0, Won Tennessee Class 6A State title. Ranked No. 15 nationally. Fast Fact: Maryville will play its rival school Alcoa on national television to start the 2012 season. The teams asked for and received permission from local churches before they accepted the opportunity to kick off on a Sunday. Maryville leads the all-time series 57-23-3. Key Player: Running back Shawn Prevo. Only a rising junior, Prevo will step into the lead role of keeping the Rebels running toward another state title. As a sophomore, Prevo ran for over 1,500 yards and scored 20 touchdowns. He also hauled in 16 catches out of the backfield and totaled 217 receiving yards and three more scores. At 5-feet-11 and 180 pounds he is developing into one of the best backs in his class. The Good: The team never loses. Led by head coach George Quarles, Maryville is always in contention for a state title. The school has won 13 state titles in its history, with Quarles guiding the program to nine since 2000. The team is fundamentally sound and rarely has or relies on superstar players or even FBS-level players to keep the machine going. The Bad: Replacing major talent. As noted, the strength of the team is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Still, Maryville will be looking to replace two pretty incredible talents and leaders in quarterback Patton Robinette and offensive lineman Jay Guillermo. Both are gone, Robinette to Vanderbilt and Guillermo to Clemson and those holes will need to be filled. The quarterback position may be the most fluid of the two situations as there are currently three players battling for the position. The bottom line: You can never count out Maryville to be one of the best football teams in Tennessee. Since the 2000 season the Rebels have claimed all but two state titles and figure to be back in contention this season as the No. 2 team in Class 6A behind Memphis (Tenn.) Whitehaven. This year will look very different from last though as the team threw it plenty with a multi-year starter under center. Expect a lot more running this year as the leader in the quarterback race may be an undersized sophomore, Tyler Vaught, who is battling with senior Nick Meyers and junior John Garrett.?

Top 100 countdown No. 67 Brophy, Arizona

Coach: Scooter Molander Last Season: 11-1, Arizona 5A-DI quarterfinalist. Ranked No. 7 in Arizona. Fast Fact: The team had four different nicknames in the early stages of its history. From 1928-30, Brophy's team was referred to as the Pintos, Colts, Preps and Irish. The school closed in 1935 but reopened in 1952 and was renamed the Broncos which has since stood the test of time. Key Player: Quarterback Tyler Bruggman. Teammate Devon Allen is ranked higher nationally than Bruggman is but Allen can only do so much if Bruggman doesn't get the ball into his hands. Bruggman has been on the recruiting radar since his sophomore season and has already committed to Washington State. He is considered to be the best quarterback in the state and is expected to get his team to a state title. Bruggman threw 37 touchdowns and only two interceptions last season. The Good: Bruggman to Allen. Of the near 2,500 yards that Bruggman threw for last season, 900 of them were to Allen -- as were 14 of his 37 touchdowns -- so this is a duo that knows how to get the job done. Allen is a burner who won the 110-meter hurdles and the 300 hurdles during track season but is also a very good blocker that helps the run game. The Bad: The secondary. This is nitpicking as the team has a very solid defense and held opponents to less than 14 points per game last year, but if there is a weakness it is in the defensive backfield. The team graduated two very strong players from the secondary last year and they could be tough to replace but ultimately this is one of the more talented teams in a state on the rise. The bottom line: Brophy could be severely underrated at No. 67 and could be a team that makes major noise on the national scene. An early season game against Rancho Santa Margarita (Calif.) Santa Margarita could be a game that shakes the national rankings as Brophy can certainly win that game against a team that will be among the top teams in the country.

Top 100 countdown No. 66 Columbus, Florida

?

Coach: Chris Merritt Last Season: 10-3, Class 8A semifinalist. Ranked No. 15 in Florida. Fast Fact: Coach Merritt, who has been with Columbus for 11 season, has been recognized as one of the best coaching in America and is a part of the USA Football coaching staff. He has been an assistant coach as well defensive coordinator for the Junior National Team. Key Player: Running backs Daryl Chestnut and Lorenzo Woodley. There is not much separating the two players in terms of evaluations; Woodley is ranked the No. 77 overall player in the state and Chestnut checks in at No. 89. They do offer slightly different skillsets, as Chestnut is more of an all-purpose back, while Woodley possesses slightly more power. Each will have a major role in the offense again in 2012. The Good: The offense. Clearly with two FBS-level running backs in Chestnut and Woodley combined with Florida State-bound athlete Jesus Wilson as a receiver there will be plenty of opportunity to score. Quarterback Tucker Beirne transfered in from Colorado and will be surrounded by playmakers and will just need to limit mistakes and allow the plays to unfold and let the backs do their jobs. The Bad: The trenches. There are a lot of talented players at all of the skill positions on this team. There are talented athletes at linebacker and the special teams units should be solid. The question will be on both the offensive and defensive lines for the Explorers this season. Coach Merritt graduated three on the offensive line -- including Eddie Garcia -- and for the team to navigate an always difficult schedule there will need to be players ready to step in and step up. The bottom line: Figuring out where Columbus belongs on the Miami totem pole is a difficult task. The Explorers will start behind Booker T. Washington and Miami Central, but ahead of Belen Jesuit and Miami Northwestern. The team will play Belen and Northwestern this year as well as national power St. Thomas Aquinas, so there will be plenty of cross competition to figure it out. Last season Columbus downed Belen but fell to Central and Northwestern, so it needs to at least defeat a down Northwestern team to keep receiving the benefit of the doubt in the preseason's to come.

THE NETWORK: Rivals site for your state | National High School Message Board