MHSTigerFan

Hartig and Rode definitely back next week. Leo Collins is getting there. He’s a maybe. There’s no telling when Weinzapfel will return. It could be a while. Memorial’s D hadn’t been too bad tonight. Not great, but not terrible. But, whew, that offense has been ugly.

8 quarters. Zero touchdowns.

Wow. Shocking. I think they should stick with Fisher. But neither of them are getting any time.

Whipped up front.

I’ll never understand why kids try to field punts like that. Its rule #1: get the hell away from it!

No answer for St. Louis. Ellspermann still can’t throw.

I've now confirmed that. He's still sitting out tonight. Will be eligible starting with next week's game against Central.

I've heard that he'll be playing next week. But I haven't confirmed that yet.

Well, I agree. But somebody linked an Indy Star piece here a while ago about the IHSAA and their former attorney who got in hot water and eventually resigned. In that piece, I believe it was Neidig quoted about using that rule to prevent certain schools from getting the good athletes and certain other ones from getting depleted. I guess where the kid wants to go to school was, at best, a secondary concern to them.

When we (Ev Memorial) were suspended from post-season play in the early 90s for recruiting, the IHSAA allowed incoming seniors to transfer to another school without any loss of eligibility. None did. However, several of them said they were approached by one or more opposing coaches about transferring to their schools. I thought that kinda summed it up pretty well. It’s not a question of who’s crooked, it’s a question of who gets targeted and caught. And I’ve never considered the IHSAA an honest referee for any of that.

I’ve heard some positive reviews on Pedtke - his arm, at least.

Has he even practiced yet? I’m not sure where his health situation currently stands.

I guess I should give some context for those who don’t know. Gunner Wyman was VL’s longtime basketball coach. And they had a massive rivalry with Jasper - one that usually would not have been described as “friendly.” There are some legendary stories about things that happened in and around VL/Jasper matchups. Gunner clearly insisted on getting the last word.

Can’t talk about Vincennes/Jasper without posting Gunner Wyman’s hilarious headstone:

Jasper/Memorial was pretty much what I expected, sad to say. I thought our defense would do better than it did, though.

Heard that Drew Weinzapfel had to leave the game at halftime due to a head injury. I don’t really know how much I should say about it on here though.

I won’t put the whole game on him, because our defense was really bad, too. I would mostly credit that to Jasper’s offense - they were terrific. But Caleb Ellspermann really had a tough night. He was pressured a lot, granted. But he threw a number of pretty bad passes where he had enough time.

I hope you’re right. I’m just not sure where our offense will be coming from. Our passing game wasn’t all that great last year and we’ll be without our best receiver. Pearce is a capable experienced receiver. So he’ll have to step up his game in Leo’s absence. It obviously helped to have two dynamic RBs who could take over a game last season. But our ground game Friday will be relying on a couple guys playing their first games - and behind 3 new OLs, to boot. A couple newcomers I’ll be watching are Alex Broshears and Luke Ellspermann.

I agree with all of this but Jasper/Memorial. Memorial will be missing a number of key players - including one of the best receivers in the area and the only RB on their roster with any varsity experience. I have a feeling that Jasper will win a 3rd straight against my Tigers.

I thought Boonville looked pretty raw at that 4-team scrimmage with New Palestine, Ev. Memorial, and Castle. But you can’t draw too many conclusions from something like that. There are usually players not there - especially if they’re multi-sport. And teams obviously haven’t had much practice.

So it looks like Memorial will be without several starters for at least the opener against Jasper. WR Leo Collins was in street clothes with a knee brace. Hearing he likely won’t play next week. RB Porter Rode’s final hearing on his transfer appeal won’t happen until after the Jasper game. DE Joey Collins was in street clothes in a boot. No word on his status. OL Edward Hartig will miss the first two games for a disciplinary reason. DT Kaleb Collins hasn’t practiced yet while recovering from an off-season injury.

Doug might want to consider moving some of his JV guys up to Varsity. I honestly thought a number of them looked better than their starters. Easily the smallest Castle team I can recall.

This is why Herdes was able to transfer without losing eligibility.

I will if I ever get some kind of confirmation. One thing I will say now is that Porter and his father have been in the process of moving to a newly built house. And that apparently matters, or could matter.

Yeah, I think the biggest question marks are on D. A whole lot of productive shoes to fill there. Really only 1 full-time starter on the D line returning. I think offense ought to be in good shape.