scarab527

18 minutes ago, DE said:

Amazing that TSG and Scarab do not believe that personal responsibility needs addressing. Says all we need to know about them and so many others in this world. 

Lol some of us just don’t care to see people regurgitate meaningless platitudes about personal responsibility in a post about high school football which has nothing to do with personal responsibility. The fact that you’re so triggered by people on the internet rolling their eyes at your cookie cutter platitudes that you have to launch ad hominem attacks at them just shows how utterly insecure you are in your own life. Please work on your own obvious self-loathing before trying to attack random strangers on the internet. Or just save your comments for the posts where you can think about your glory years at LC 30 years ago. 

15 minutes ago, temptation said:

Can anybody tell me what Harrell uses for his projections?  I’ve always wondered.

Its not Sagarin.

I’m not sure he bases them purely off of any analytics more so than just his own thoughts and opinions, but I’d be surprised if the Sagarin Ratings didn’t influence his predictions at least somewhat. 

Go to John Harrell’s website, and on the home page, there’s a link for “Game Capsules” for Friday and Saturday. Click on the “Fri” or “Sat” link to see his projections for the game on each day.

54 minutes ago, fenderbender said:

What position is the Vode kid being recruited to play at WM?  Seems like quite a player for Hobart.

I have heard linebacker.

13 minutes ago, vito said:

Time for some honesty: 

IMO, Hobart had a much stronger team last year, and this year's road through the North was essentially a joke (not their fault,  the SF makes it what it is).  They only had one tight game, and the opponent was without their stud RB. This is THE senior class Hobart has been banking on to get them back to the title game. Congrats on getting there, which is a huge accomplishment, but this game will not be close.  42-7 Roncalli. 

Congrats to the Brickies on making their long-awaited return to the state finals. Unfortunately, I agree with everything said here. Roncalli has throttled two teams I think are better than Hobart in the past two weeks. It’s hard not to think that this game will go similarly. Hobart’s defense is excellent but their offense won’t be able to keep them in the game. I think it’ll be a little closer thanks to that stout Brickie defense, but I’ll go 28-7 Roncalli.

13 hours ago, temptation said:

The kids are bigger and stronger or they have a higher density of big strong kids?

I think the latter which is still connected to enrollment.

I would say the latter which to state the obvious is connected to state population. Indy and it’s suburbs are by far the largest population center in the state and are growing while many of the other population centers are dwindling. Just seems natural that the area with by far the largest amount of people would have the highest amount of good athletes and football players. I don’t think it’s necessarily “more commitment” to football (though this could be a factor) as it is just a much larger pool of kids to choose from. 

On 11/21/2020 at 8:45 AM, Boilernation said:

I’m thrilled to see the Bricks back in a State Title game, but I think it’s fair to acknowledge they punched the easy ticket while the South bracket had heavyweight battles starting in Sectionals. 
 

I know Hobart has big and strong boys like Johnson and Babcock. 
 

Are the Brickie lines capable of competing with Roncalli or do you foresee this one getting out of hand similar to MV and Mooresville?

I doubt it. I like Roncalli by 3+TDs.

5 hours ago, Bobref said:

I have to say I was disappointed by the Merrillville game. I enjoyed seeing Westfield. That’s a very good, very well-coached team. But Merrillville turned it over 3 times, and they had at least 7 pre-snap penalties, including at least 5 false starts. There was a very small crowd, due to distancing restrictions, so it certainly wasn’t crowd noise that caused those false starts. Just a lack of concentration at a critical time.

I saw the Pirates 3 times this year, and it was the same story each time. You cannot help but be impressed with their size, speed and athleticism. The first two times I saw them, they made these same mistakes, but the talent differential between them and the opponent was so great that they could overcome them. Not so when you play a disciplined, well-coached opponent who doesn’t make mistakes, and takes advantage of yours.

I didn’t know Coach Seiss before he came to Merrillville, but having seen him work now on multiple occasions, I have to say I’m impressed with him. But if Merrillville truly aspires to have downstate success, rather than just being the big fish in the relatively small pond that is 6A football in the North, he’s got to change these guys from athletes to football players. It’s great to have sensational athletes on your team. But they have to get better at playing football. 

Spot on comments. Game was maddening to watch. I think Westfield would’ve pulled away anyhow, but the Pirates did themselves no favors. 

1 hour ago, temptation said:

The gap from the HCC to the SAC may actually be bigger than the gap from the MIC to the HCC.

I would say so. 

1 minute ago, Boilernation said:

Was he in bounds?

100%

Missed call on a Marcus Hardy TD and a failed 4th down conversion gives the Rocks the ball.

7-7 End of 1Q

21 minutes ago, Boilernation said:

St. Germain took a lot of heat on these boards from us arm chair QB's for only being able to win one Sectional at Lake Central, but he had a nice string of 8 and 9 win seasons. 

I'm a firm believer that winning begets winners. Lake Central won't have a problem losing talent to Andrean, Chicago Mt. Carmel, or even upstart Illiana Christian if the Blue Indians are contenders again. IMO, the timing is perfect for LC as the writing is on the wall that Andrean has taken a dropoff in Mason's absence. I think it's fair to say the '59'ers are playing for a State Title either last year or this year (at least one of the years) had Mason not left for Michigan City. 

I always thought St. Germain did a pretty good job at LC. The one thing that killed him was losing a lot of talent to Andrean those years. He just couldn’t keep kids in house for some reason. As for the comments about Andrean’s current situation, I can’t say I don’t agree. I also think that Andrean is poised to slip even more in the next few years. 

I guess I’ll give my thoughts on some of these games now.

Merrillville-Westfield: I think the keys to this game will be the play of the Merrillville offensive line and Pirate QB Angel Nelson. When Nelson has struggled, so have the Pirates. In the Chatard game, he lost two fumbles and threw a pick. Last week against Elkhart, he let the Lions back into the game by throwing 3 picks. He’ll need to hold onto the ball and make good reads for the Pirates to have a chance. The Pirate O-Line was physically humiliated in their loss to Chatard, but this group has improved since then, and came up huge last week in opening holes for Logan to rush for 187 yards and 3 huge TDs against a pretty good Elkhart defense. They’ll need to show up big this week against an even better Westfield defense. In the end, I think this one could turn into a bit of a shootout, but I think Westfield will get some key stops. I’ll go Westfield 42 - Merrillville 28. 

Valpo-Zionsville

This game is hard to predict. These two teams seem to play to the other teams’ weakness. From what I’ve seen from Zionsville, they’re pretty balanced run/pass, with a good RB, and three good receivers in #1, #11, and #19. The QB is hard to contain in the pocket as he’s very quick. I don’t think Valpo has played a team with this kind of balance all year, and definitely not a team who can sling the ball around like Zionsville. It’s hard to tell how the Viking secondary will match up. I expect the Vikings to dominate in the trenches, but will this matter if Zionsville can hit a few big plays to their receivers? The fact that this game is being played in Zionsville is definitely an advantage for the home team, hopefully Valpo won’t come out flat from the long bus ride. I’d like to see Valpo make a 2nd straight trip to LOS, but my gut tells me that Zionsville pulls this one out, 28-21.

Hobart-Marion

Can Hobart make its first state finals appearance in nearly 25 years? The defense has been spectacular, the offense has been suspect. If the defense can’t contain Marion’s two explosive running backs, I think the Bricks will have a hard time playing catch up. Hobart has hard a hard time hitting explosive plays this season. They’ll need to hit some on Friday. I think the Brickies finally exorcize their demons this Friday, and book their trip to LOS, 21-14.

17 minutes ago, SL816 said:

I don't see the issue of losing players to Andrean going away anytime soon. If/when the new school is built in CP and with their success, why wouldn't a good player in the Tri-town area go? 

Having officiated many Pop Warner games, in the Region over the years, Tri-town PW teams seem to be way down, across all ages and divisions. Not just in numbers, but talent level. 

Two very good points here. Andrean’s reach will probably grow when the new school is built. Also, when I played PW, all those years ago, Tri-Town was the dominate team. A lot of kids I played with at Andrean played on the Raiders too. The Tri-Town dominance has seemingly faded. 

17 minutes ago, DE said:

False.  When I played, we did not.  Actually, the 3 Catholic schools that "feed" into Andrean in the Tri-Town area (St. Joe's in Dyer is no longer, St. Michael's in Schererville and St. John Evangelist in St. John) "sent" more of their "talent" to LC when I was in school (92-96) than the other way around.

The floodgates opened around 1998 when some of our home grown talent chose to go to Andrean (Brett Goins-QB and Rob Caldwell-RB/LB).  I coached them both at Grimmer MS.  Both fantastic young men.  Rob went on to The Naval Academy and lead the country in tackles, IMSC.

One of those player's parents made it known that they were sending their child to Andrean because they did not like Coach Britton's option based offense.

I’m sorry, I’ll edit my comment to “in the past 20+ years”, is that better for you? 

57 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Lake Central is trending up.  Coach Bartolomeo has resigned.

It’s gonna take a lot more than a new coach to get that program trending up...

10 minutes ago, DT said:

The Head Football Coachng job at the states 6th largest school is now open.

Can the Lake Central football program be revived, or has the culture changed too much , leaving football behind as just another secondary choice on the extra curricular menu.

LC is 3-25 over the past 4 seasons in the Duneland Conference, despite being the leagues largest school in terms of total enrollment.  

The reasons for LCs demise have been discussed ad nauseum both here and on the Region Sports Network messageboard.  Dysfunctional feeder systems, infighting amongst the tri cities of Dyer, St John and Schererville that feed into LC.  A shift away from football and a focus on baseball and girls sports.  Declining participation.  "Mom issues" relative to concerns about head injuries.  A lack of toughness.  Coaching turnover.  The list goes on and on.

Big question.  Is the job attractive to an accomplished head coach looking for an opportunity to rebuild a former power?

Could a guy like Phil Mason be coaxed away from Michigan City to take on this rebuild?

Will LC make football a priority again?

A strong LC football program makes the DAC all the mnore competitive .  LC has not pulled its weight for some time.  This coaching decision will send a message as to their level of committment to the gridiron.

Oh man, this might be one of the toughest jobs in the state. LC needs a complete and total culture shift starting from their feeder schools and moving up. They have all the problems you listed, and I would also add that LC has always had problems losing some of their best football players to Andrean as well. It’s going to take a very dedicated coach who will be in it for the long haul to turn this program around. But in all honesty, I’m not sure it can be done. As for Mason possibly taking the job, I’d say there’s slim to no chance of that happening.  I think he really likes his situation in Michigan City for various reasons. Plus he moved from Schererville when he left Andrean and took the Michigan City job, so I don’t think he’ll want to move back so quickly. 

13 minutes ago, Bobref said:

“Good” is somewhat ambiguous. My opinion is based on a comparison of Duneland teams top to bottom relative to other conferences. It’s not really possible to say whether the quality of play is as good as it was then. What I feel confident in saying is that the overall quality of play in the conference has declined relative to the quality of play in other conferences.

Which conferences are you relating to them? 

15 minutes ago, Bobref said:

No, it’s not.

Why do you say that? I’d say it’s at least as good as it was then. 

9 hours ago, temptation said:

I disagree.  The HCC has started to win its fair share of head to head battles (all be it in the regular season) with MIC schools and the Indy suburbs are beginning to develop next level players at a higher rate than the Marion County schools (the MIC should thank the lord for CG)..

I know that’s a sketchy comparison as Carmel and CG are MIC schools by name only.  Their socioeconomics/geography align (DT will tee off on this) with HCC schools more so than their MIC brethren.

They just can’t get over the hump in November for some reason.  I don’t get it.

I agree with everything you said here. The best teams in the HCC have shown they can beat teams in the MIC, even the Big 4, in the regular season. But as you said, they haven’t shown they can beat the best team in the MIC in the playoffs yet. Avon almost did it in 2015, but they came up short. The HCC has all the factors for future success, but as you said, so do Carmel and CG. I don’t see Warren Central and Ben Davis going away for a long time either. I probably wouldn’t take the bet that the MIC will win every 6A title this decade either. But if you asked me to bet in 2013 that in 2020, every 6A title so far would’ve been won by one of the Big 4, I probably wouldn’t have taken that bet either. 

3 minutes ago, temptation said:

5A was Indiana's largest class prior so I went from 2010-2019 which included both Fishers and Lawrence Central (pre-MIC) winning titles.

Fair. Still, those 2 titles were at the very beginning of the decade. In the years that have followed, in my opinion, the gap between the MIC and everyone else has grown. This isn’t a knock on those other teams, the HCC has proven to be a great conference too. But the MIC has proven itself to be on a whole ‘nother level.  

10 minutes ago, temptation said:

By 2030?  Easily.

Hell, as dominant as the MIC has been it "only" got 8 out of 10 in the last decade.

? 6A has been won every year by the MIC since it was first introduced. 

23 minutes ago, temptation said:

I'll gladly take that bet.  DT was correct in stating that the HCC was a bit disappointing this season and took a step back but simple socioeconomics and the upgraded commitment that HCC schools are putting into football is astounding.  Common sense suggests that someone outside of the MIC will get one soon.  Maybe later rather than sooner, but if you are giving me until 2030, I will take that bet.

Trust me, I’d love to see it happen. Maybe it will. But I doubt it. 

31 minutes ago, Yuccaguy said:

(6A) The MiC has dominated things, now the HHC is also in the mix.  Never the Duneland, SAC, NLC, NIC ... Time to think outside of the box, if this is the ultimate objective.  Otherwise, its a trip to Indy-land and a red ribbon on the bus ride back home.  

The dominance of the MIC isn’t going away anytime soon. I doubt that changing scheduling is going to help. To be honest, I’d be shocked if a team that’s not in the MIC wins 6A once in this entire decade. 

I disagree with your analysis of the DAC. I think the DAC has to be considered trending up. Valpo has won 3 straight regionals, Merrillville 2 straight. Valpo overcame a lot of covid and injury adversity to get there. Merrillville took down a good Elkhart team despite throwing 3 INTs, the Pirates were cruising up 14-0 until the turnover party began. Chesterton beat Penn, admittedly in a down year, but you tell me the last time when the 3rd best team in the DAC beat Penn in the playoffs. The Trojans then took Elkhart down to the wire and nearly won that game. Coach Mason told me before the season that he thought Michigan City was “a year away”, but they still took Valpo down to the wire in the sectional and had a good win over Warsaw in the regular season. I think Coach Mason feels great about his team’s prospects for next year. LaPorte played Valpo tougher than anyone expected in the sectional and had a great win over Michigan City in the regular season. I think that program is trending up. Crown Point was hit the hardest by covid this year, but this program is only a couple years away from winning 3 straight 6A sectionals. They’ll recover. Portage hasn’t been good in over a decade and definitely wasn’t going to be good this season after the Radtke fiasco combined with covid. LC is admittedly trending in the wrong direction. 

4 minutes ago, temptation said:

42-14 prediction?  Wow.  I'd say Chatard is a favorite, no doubt.  But 28 points?  Whoa.

Agreed, I was surprised by this prediction, especially after how tough Concordia played Chatard last week.