MHSTigerFan

Heard that Reitz may also be getting another young QB and a WR by xfer.

That’s definitely part of it. We could all name kids who were absolute studs in middle school who, for whatever reason, weren’t all that great in HS. We’ve also seen kids who weren’t very good as youngsters who became good later. Kids are physically maturing at those ages and they do it at different times and paces. But it’s also that varsity teams are made up of 3 (or even 4) grades. You have kids that go elsewhere and kids that come from elsewhere. And, of course, coaching makes a big difference, too.

I’ve never put too much weight on middle school or freshman records in football. A school can have a healthy feeder program, a competitive varsity program, and still field MS/Frosh/JV teams all over the map.

Well, it's not like this is college or pros. He's still just a high schooler, albeit one that's more prominent than most with his baseball potential. So it would seem to me that he could just decline to play without needing any sort of official press release. The reason I posted this is because the source (albeit secondhand) is Tilly himself. So if he's openly telling people he isn't going to play, I'd say it's a legit topic of conversation in an SIAC football thread. Is it maybe a situation where he's leaning this way, but Coach Hurt thinks he can talk him into sticking around? I'm sure there are fans of a number of SIAC schools who would question this. That's not to say that no other schools have good feeder programs. But "the rest" of the conference? Well, they've won 5 Sectionals in the past 10 years, including '15, '16, '18, and '20. And they went on to win regionals in '15 and '20. That's not exactly slumming it. As for the conference, it's just been a dogfight for a long time...with several teams enjoying periods of success. And now that perennial contender Jasper's in the mix...

Both told me his not playing football was related to his baseball future, basically.

Well, I'm certainly in no position to confirm it. But I've heard it twice: once from a player from another school who knows Tilly and claims to have heard this from the horse's mouth...and a separate time from one of Tilly's Castle teammates. But, when it comes to HS football, I always take things with a grain of salt. There are always a bunch of rumors, and a whole lot of them amount to nothing.

Along with Fisher, other current freshmen I’d expect to see playing a lot as sophs are Horning and Broshears. I understand that Tilly will not be playing next year?

Nick Sheridan was IU’s QB coach at that time. So it’s not surprising that he wouldn’t have been too familiar with a prospect who wasn’t a quarterback.

Well, I can’t speak for Ball State. The coach I talked to is in the B10. He was well aware of both Combs brothers.

I can’t speak for Heltsey, but I did talk with an in-state college (asst) coach about Branson after the fact. He said that Branson was hard to find a position for at the FBS level. He was too slow for the positions he played in HS, and too small for any others. So it wasn’t that he was unnoticed. This coach knew Branson well. But he’s on his way to being a standout at SIU, which will surprise nobody who watched him in HS. Coincidentally, the Colts just released a short piece about scouting and drafting Robert Mathis. Everybody thought he was too small to be an edge rusher in the NFL. But the Colts area scout absolutely loved him at Alabama A&M. That 5th rounder who was too small should be donning a gold jacket pretty soon.

Right or wrong, if a kid is interested in playing college football, he needs to start going to camps as early as possible. And I think it’s important that he picks the right ones, too. He’ll not only get to meet coaches from all levels, he’ll get to perform in front of them (if only briefly). The earlier, the better. The more coaches he gets in front of the better. Unless you’re a very highly-touted recruit, you’re going to have to make most of the effort going after them…rather than the other way around. If you’re waiting for somebody to finally notice and show up at your doorstep, there’s a good chance they won’t. It’s a really good life lesson, actually. Success ain’t gonna come find you.

I think this is right. Allen is going to win Mr. Football.

If nothing materializes for him soon, he needs to get to the right camps. A whole lot of the real recruiting process happens at those. I remember asking the same questions about Branson Combs — who, IMO, is the best football player to come out of Memorial since I’ve been watching them (mid-80s). Turns out that he was just a tweener — a few steps slow to be a WR or OLB at the FBS level, undersized for a TE or MLB. But, to me, he’s just the kind of guy you want on the field somewhere. He moved to defense this year at SIU and had a great season as a COVID freshman. He wants to move back to Offense with Lindauer coming next year.

Calling it now: Goodwin will be a high 1st round draft pick within the next few years. He’s a freak of a lineman. I had an interesting conversation about him with Eric Wolford recently. And he would know, he spent a couple years as the Niners assistant OL coach. Will he end up at UK?

And they executed very well - especially offensively. Not many mistakes, guys out of position, bad routes, dropped passes.

I knew they had stopped for Mass. I didn't know that it was at St. Meinrad, though. That was a really cool idea. It's a place that is worth visiting for Catholics...but it's also so out of the way that you pretty much have to be going there. I'm guessing they didn't get a chance to visit the monks' brewpub at the Abbey.

Oh gosh, I've never heard that part of the story. This exact thing happened to us in the Sectional finals this year at Northview. NV was gracious enough to delay the kickoff by 15 minutes. Thanks! Lot of admirers of Chatard down this way, too. In that whole 3 year stretch, most of our fans consider that game the best win. Anytime you beat a Chatard team, you know you've accomplished something special. It's about like Duke in college basketball. Glad we didn't have to play the Trojans again in 2019. 😳

The Dawgs…doin us a solid!

I remember Chatard’s bus pulling up to Enlow about 45 minutes (or less?) before kickoff in 2018. I thought that wasn’t very well thought out.

Timing in that it’s unusual for an administrator to abruptly resign 3 months into a school year. I don’t mean that it had anything whatsoever to do with their game, or any bearing on it. When I say “distraction”, I’m hoping there isn’t some kind of scandal behind this.

Hmm, MD prez Andy Morris resigned today after just 2 years. No comment as to why. Considering the timing and the lack of explanation, it’s likely going to arouse suspicions. Hopefully not anything that would distract the team.

Jay Smith did? Or are you talking about Brodie? The stats I was citing were for Smith.

The votes were taken at the conclusion of the regular season. He had 440 yards in 2 postseason games. His regular season was certainly good: 875 yds on 175 carries (5.0 ypc) with 14 TDs (plus 1 receiving TD). But the vote came before his 332 yard 5 TD explosion against Boonville.

A whole lot of former QB Club members there today too. I think the oldest one there was Ralph Weinzapfel from 1954. His grandson Drew was a 3rd generation honoree.

Ray Brodie gets POY for QB Club All-City. Hurley is COY. Very well deserved for both. MHS put 10 players on the team, including 4 of 5 on the OL…and both Farmer brothers.