Jim Roth blasted in Letter to the Editor

In today's (11/15) edition of the News-Item, Southern Coach Jim Roth is blasted by a reader for disrespecting the team in post game comments after the Line Mountain game. The reader's direct quote in his letter is:

I can’t believe coach Roth had the gall to disrespect the young players the way
he did. I shouldn’t even be addressing him as coach; he no longer deserves the
title, saying what he did in the paper: “This team just never had that next
gear;” “past teams that weren’t as good still found a way to step it up when it
counted.” What a way to kick your senior players when I’m sure they already feel
bad enough.

Here is the last half of Chuck Souder's article about the Southern streaks being over:

Southern coach Jim Roth echoed his quarterback’s assessment that the Tigers, while playing well, never quite reached the level of some previous teams.

“We feel we all did pretty well in recovering from some of the losses that we had from last year,” Roth said. “What we weren’t able to do, and I think all of the assistant coaches would agree, is we were never able to get this team to take that next step. Most of our teams in the past found another gear late in the year. This team, for whatever reason, didn’t come together like some of the others.”

Roth said even the teams which reached, and lost, six straight state championship games, were actually playing very well in their late season playoff runs.

“We had our full line together tonight, but it was the first time back for (Justin) Knoebel, (Mike) Joseph and some others,” Roth said. “I think if we had them back together for a couple of weeks, we might have found that (gear). But Line Mountain didn’t let us run consistently. With the scheme they were running, with seven guys up front, dropping four and double-teaming Colby Snyder, we should have been able to run, and they didn’t let us.”

Roth also credited some of the other teams on the Tigers’ schedule.

“This was one of those years when even the lesser teams on our schedule were really competitive,” Roth said. “I’m talking about teams like Lewisburg and Central. If you weren’t ready to play them this year, they would really come out and hit you. That meant we played our starters more than we have in the past. Whether that meant some were tired at the end, I don’t know.”

Read the full letter here. Here is Dan Burda's game story. Chuck Souder's full story is here. Read the Souder's article carefully. The starting quarterback is quoted as a team not playing to full potential. In the first part Roth quote by Souders, Roth takes blame along with his assistant coaches on not being able to get the team to the next step.

Ask yourself the obvious, if Jim Roth and Southern Area coaches were constantly blaming the players for the Tiger's shortcomings would they have one of the highest participation rates in the state? Some of those teams in the past Roth refers to is the 1995 and 2001 teams that went into the final, 14-0. Also a tough luck team was in 1996, when the Tigers lost Ricco Rosini to a broken leg in week 14 and over 2000 yards of total offense. Farrell won that final, 14-12.