MHSTigerFan

Well, it’s only one player. He transferred to Central after a season at Westfield. His mother lives in the Carmel area, his dad is from Evansville. And his gripe with Central wasn’t Zirkelbach, but that his grades had suffered in what he thought wasn’t a great academic environment.

No. But it has a heckuva lot better chance of clearing Rule 19-4 than public to private. So, yeah, Curt Hopf failed to convince them he wanted to go to Barr-Reeve from FP for reasons other than athletics. But, as I recall, his parents made that an easy decision by trying to dictate what position he played to enhance his college prospects. But I’d argue that he’s the exception, not the rule.

LOL…he transferred from a public school to a parochial school. And he’s appealing to an IHSAA that is not only dominated by public school administrators, but almost openly hostile to P/P athletics. They’d let him transfer to North or Bosse - just as he transferred from Westfield to Central. But there’s no way on earth they’ll let him transfer to Memorial with full eligibility. FTR, Porter reportedly hated Central and he felt like it was not a good environment for him academically.

Didn’t Doug play there? Would probably explain it.

At the banquet this year, he said he asked Lindauer and Branson Combs to be ball boys in middle school, since neither of them had any direct family connection to Memorial. Of course, his wife’s maiden name is Lindauer…so he was really forward thinking when he married her. 😜 And they were already in feeder schools.

Well, clearly. Brodie was the conference POY and all-state. And Tyler was a very versatile complement who did a lot of things at a high level. We lose Josh Russell too. A lot of people have been wondering who would be in the Tigers’ backfield next year.

Yeah, I’m not a fan of coaches (or other interested parties) poaching players from other schools. I think the important thing is that the kid and/or his parents initiate it, not the other way around. If a kid initiates the interest to move, then it’s open game.

Yep. They both are enrolled at Memorial right now.

So Porter Rode transferred to Memorial? How did I just now hear that? Kid from Mater Dei, too - Waller.

Has Nick been able to get his teaching license?

Wooing transfers is something that Brunson is apparently putting some concerted effort in right now. He’s got to have more success than he’s had to date. And I would guess that he’s not been enthralled with the kids he’s had come through. Personally, I think actively poaching other schools’ players is bad form. I don’t know if Coach Brunson is doing that, or merely opening his arms to kids who were already looking to transfer. If it’s the latter case, that’s fair game.

My early money is on MD to be atop the list. That's mostly due to who they have returning vs. who they have to replace. They lose some good ones, but not as many as the others. The other top-half teams, IMO, are a puzzle to me...because they lose a number of key guys and I just don't know who they have coming up behind. Obviously, Castle would take a hit if Tilly doesn't play. But I don't know what kind of gap existed between him and the guy who would take his place.

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.