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If I was a Penn State fan, I would call for the firing of Franklin. Atrocious record vs. Top 10 teams and he can never close the deal. Losing to a winless UCLA team is the final straw. As an IU fan, please keep him around…

How hot is James Franklin’s seat, after gagging on another one last week, and then losing to lowly UCLA today?

Penn left a minimum of 14 points on the field last night. Elkhart cannot sustain blocks they have given up 20+ sacks in two games. Elkhart has athletes but against equal or better talent they are not competitive. Penn has suffered from not playing full games over the past four weeks. Stupid errors, 3 turnovers and not able to execute and get the ball in the endzone in key situations will not get the job done against a CP, Carroll or anyone else south of us. Penn coaches and administration need to take a hard look at the schedule and find a way to ramp up their schedule. If you wont leave the NIC then send the JV to play the South Bend Schools. If that makes them mad oh well. We are having a hard time filling out the schedules for freshman and JV anyways, in situations where both squads need to play on Friday, 3rd and 4th string of the JV combine with the freshman team and they play the varsity teams from South Bend. At this point it does not matter if they win the game, this experience will help them more than playing no one. Penn HAS to get Ft. Wayne, Indy and at minimum another Region team on the schedule ASAP.

Brownsburg Carmel New Palestine Westfield Fishers Lawrence North Indianapolis Cathedral Center Grove Crown Point Decatur Central Warren Central Bishop Chatard Lafayette Jefferson Hamilton Southeastern Lawrence Central East Noble Carroll (Fort Wayne) Avon Penn Bloomington South Franklin Central Merrillville Gibson Southern Heritage Hills Roncalli

I went and did a fill in and to get Salem, Silver Creek and North (only MSC teams not already playing Madison) this is what will need to happen. So, Silver Creek would lose NA, Salem would lose Springs Valley, and North Harrison would lose Providence.

Seems like this era has made pre season and early season polls more useless than they have ever been.

UCLA 42 - Penn State 37, Big game James NEVER fails to amaze me…

28-7 final. The defense was much better today against a very good offensive team. And it was good to have Leonard Moore back! Two picks for him in the game.

But that’s why they play the game…

Too many guys getting in the backfield and plugging gaps up the gut.

I'm hoping we get a Merrillville vs. Lafayette Jeff Semi-State. The O/U on that one should be set at 80. The more I watch Hill from Merrillville the more I'm impressed by him. I won't be surprised if he gets some Power conference offers heading into his Sr. year. Kid has an arm and is a threat running the ball. Merrillville has a stable of speedy WR's.

I think CP walks in heavy favorite. Carroll will likely have a 5 game winning streak going into sectionals and by the time they play they will be on a 7 game streak. That is a team with confidence. Plus if they are playing at home, then they have the crowd support as well. I think CP is running with the mantle best team from the True North. They will likely run into Carmel at Semi-State.

Memorial is going to have a difficult time in the tournament if they don’t figure out their offensive woes. Excluding the “bye week” games against Harrison, Bosse, and Central, the offense has struggled in their past 2 competitive games (Mater Dei and Reitz). It looked good to start the season in the first 2 games against Jasper and North. I’m not sure they’d beat Jasper if they played again - maybe both of them. Ben Johnson’s defense still looks excellent. Grayson Carter has emerged as one of the best players in the conference. And Brady Combs is starting to look like a Combs. But they have to figure out a way to sustain more drives. They can’t just count on occasional big plays and defensive TDs.

Playing football for 10 years is such a hard flex man. Congrats. You’re the only one that really ever whines about anything. You even do it when you win

A little shocked myself. But Lowell does have a great feeder system and the facilities improvements have been next level,

They have a chance for Semi-State. They get out of that sectional and need to put together a great game against CP. Once you get that far, anything is possible at Semi-State. They may not win it all, but they have a chance to make a run.

We have connections with the two schools up the Detroit area (OLSM and Brother Rice), the Catholic school in Toledo and we could even reach out to Chicago schools to see if we can get a game on the board. We could have had Carmel in the schedule the last two seasons. This year would have been very eye opening as how we measure up this season. I know he had a TD, I would say he was around 100 yards with 3-5 receptions. They did not get the ball off to him often because the QB did not have much time to get the ball out.

Unfortunately, the running clock situation in some circumstances works as an impediment to preparation for the 'tournament". The Southmount game this week may be the 1st time all season that the Varsity squad plays ALL 4 quarters. This may be a barometer as to the quality of both the wins, and the ability of Cascade. I wish Cascade all the best this season, but be wary of the ability to 'walk' past the others....There's always someone on the other side that isn't impressed with the plaudits that are being promoted.

I officiated the Penn/Marian game, and honestly I was astounded that this was a "conference game". Being from FW, I look the SAC in particular and I want to say that even MORE paring down of 'conference' games are needed. There is NO need for an undefeated (or 1/2 loss) 6A team to be playing a 3A squad in conference in the middle of the season. i.e.: Carroll/Homestead/Snider/now Northrop in the SAC. It may be something to think about as some conferences have very divergent differences in size and quality from the top to the bottom on a regular basis. Yes, it helps the smaller schools with being prepared for the playoffs. But what does it really do for the larger ones? Give them that 'bye week' of playing Austin Peay or Truman State instead of another SEC school? Ask East Saint Louis (IL) to head up your way... Even with a loss, you see a quality program.

Stinky, Stink, Stink 1.2..3.... I bet no one had this on their Bingo Card, including Flat Bill the HC! With that being said, give credit where credit is due.... Stinktown will have a bonfire and a few Tiger BL's to celebrate Flat Bill & Crew!

The thing that is most frustrating is that in games like this, we should be excited about the victory, but the very obvious issues of not playing full games have become very apparent. The father's are very tired of playing this bad competition.

Corn fed south side lads? Hats off to the Irish for executing a very good game plan. CG after losing of 2 of their top offensive players for the season cannot afford lots of penalties and turnovers and expect to win. Good lesson for a team with a young QB. Get that out of the system now, learn and move forward. Coach Moore and staff will use this experience and get the Trojans back on track.

I will say this until the "cow's come home".... North of US24; Every team that wants to be relevant needs to ramp up their schedule. In Penn's situation, why not even look at Michigan/Illinois schools?

I think it's way more astounding that you have only played 5 6A teams in your history. Cathedral plays 5 a year! I guess with conference commitments it checks out, but thought NP would go out and chase it a bit more.

A class act.

New Pal is now just the favorite to win 5A. No longer a lock in my opinion.