MHSTigerFan

IU’s O-Line coach will be at Memorial on Friday to meet with Edward.

That’s awful. God, bless this young man that he may heal and serve.

Zirkelbach with the big stones!

He does run tough (or at least quick and elusive). I like it when he runs and part of me would love to see him run more. I'm sure the reason they don't run him more is the fear of injury. But, let's face it, his passing hasn't been stellar. It's not just that he's had accuracy issues, his passes tend to be a bit on the rainbow side. And, again, I just think that limits this team's ceiling. But I'm just a fan yapping on a message board. I agree with you that this isn't going to happen.

I think we’re going to need a more potent passing game than what we have shown to date to realize this team’s full potential. Too many weapons are being left under-utilized out there. And a better defense than what we’ll face in the SIAC will be able to snuff out our running game if there isn’t a more credible threat of airing it out. Just FTR, I’m not saying we should change horses. I get that Fisher is a freshman and that’s obviously a limiting factor. But it could pay dividends in the post-season if he got some snaps with (and against) first stringers in the regular season…if for no other reason than the prospect of Caleb getting hurt.

I don’t see it happening either. I’m just throwing it out there because it may become an elephant in the room as the season goes on.

I’m just thinking it possible that Fisher gets more snaps in this game. It would be a bonus if he could get at least some of them while the rest of the starters are still in. Hurley had him punting the other night. Obviously, that went really badly. But I’m told that Fisher is a better punter than what he showed there. As we all know, he loves having his QBs punt.

I’m not stating it. In fact, I strongly doubt we’ll see it. I’m just wondering if it might be a possibility later in the season if Fisher keeps progressing and Ellspermann keeps struggling with passing the ball. This team has a chance to make some noise. We’ve got a good receiving corps to go along with two very good backs and a solid OL. We need to be able to pass the ball. If we can get that figured out, we’d be hard to beat.

I’m curious to see how Matthew Fisher does at QB against a varsity defense. If he does well enough….

While my money would be on Jasper, I think MD has a chance at beating them. They need to get more out of their defensive line than they did against us. James Ralph is a 2x all-state DT. He’s usually very effective at both stopping the run and getting TFLs/sacks. But he didn’t do much on Friday. Boots is a solid performer, too. They’ll have to bring their A games against Jasper’s formidable offense.

One other thing: Ray Brodie has really emerged as a surprise threat offensively. The last two games, he’s been a game-changer.

I felt like we dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. But Ellspermann has to work on his accuracy and decision-making. For the life of me, I don’t know why he doesn’t run it more when the targets aren’t there. And, obviously, the long-snapping. That has to be fixed.

I hadn’t heard that story. Why would anybody think it was a good idea to taunt Branson Combs? I can only imagine Goebel’s reaction when he learned of that.

I think Central should be favored to beat VL. But 20? I have a hard time imagining the Central team I saw the other night beating too many teams by 20. MD/Memorial seems off, too. That game is probably a pick ‘em….maybe MD a slight favorite. Should be a good game.

If what I heard was true (and it was a good source, but second hand), then you just have to feel for the pressures HS coaches have these days. Apparently, Coultis was more permissive. And that’s part of the problem AZ has. Burgess was tougher (as evidenced by his dismissing the Evans kid). And we saw how long he lasted. How is a coach supposed to win while insisting on at least some accountability for off-the-field stuff? It’s a heckuva dilemma…and obviously some coaches feel the best answer is to just look the other way. If what I heard was right, my hat’s off to Zirkelbach for trying to instill a better culture…even if at the expense of his team’s success on the field. That has to be hard considering how much success they’ve had of late. Now that I think about it, it was Coultis who dismissed Tor’jon, wasn’t it?

I’ve been told they had some players who haven’t exactly warmed to Coach Zirkelbach’s slightly more strenuous brand of discipline. I don’t know if that means they quit or were suspended or what. But there’s no question they had fewer players on the sideline last night than were listed on the roster and than they had their first couple games.

Had a nice drive going on first possession. Penalty killed it. Then they had a couple PFs. Didn’t do much after that. Looked like they had just lost interest by halftime.

I do think MD will contend in 2A. Memorial has a lot of work to do - especially on defense. Should get a boost this week with 3 starters back in the defensive backfield (2 from injury, 1 from suspension). But that doesn’t solve their problems up front. D line had high expectations this year. So far they’ve been a disappointment.

Jaiden Thomas is making a strong bid so far for POY in the SIAC. Congrats to the Dawgs!

I don’t know anything about Agler or Russell. But Shea has to sit out 20% of the games - or 2. Not exactly sure why. But I’ve been told that the Castle scrimmage counted as one. If that’s right, he should be dressed for the North game.

North is reportedly missing some starters to quarantine. Ugh. Will this ever end?

Yeah, but you have to credit Jasper a lot for that. They had us guessing all night. I was questioning how good the scouting and prep were. It looked at times like we just weren’t prepared for it - like it was the first time we’d seen it. Add in the OL turned FB (reminiscent of Central’s Madison last year), and it was a very potent ground game. They didn’t pass much - but were able to when they needed to.

Jasper very effective running the ball. Lots of effective deception. Some power rushing, when needed. QB stayed within himself and managed the game well. Memorial has a lot to clean up. That did not look like a team with 20 returning starters. Way too many costly errors, penalties. Just sloppy. Tyler played his heart out. But it wasn’t enough to overcome the above.

The defense change seems like a good move by Coach Lewis. He said they were on the smaller/quicker side up front this year. And obviously that lends itself well to a stack. I guess you just have to worry about kids adapting well to any new scheme. Even NFL players take some time until they’re familiar enough and confident enough in a new system.

Ugh, yes. Don't get me started.