Spitting Llamas

I don't see Evansville Mater Dei anywhere.

The MD 170 pound state champion hasn't played football since his freshman year and the MD 195 pound state champion never did play in high school.

If this is true, what is driving the exodus from Central? Only a couple of years ago they were the landing spot for most transfers.

That's a little rich for the west side. Maybe 6'1" 240 and not so ultra athletic?

Sounds like the transfer portal is open. Maybe some ultra athletic 6'5" 300 lb lineman can head toward the westside.

I wasn't referring to what @Wildcat1992 stated. My statement was directed to the poster who claimed that the PAC would be right at the top with the SIAC schools in all sports other than the country club sports. Certainly wrestling isn't one of them and the best team the PAC has to offer certainly wouldn't be anywhere near Mater Dei.

I'm fairly confident Harrison would dominate track against all teams from the PAC. And I had no idea wrestling was a country club sport. I don't belong to a country club but never would have guessed that one.

Maybe we get our wish to a certain degree and the SIAC gains an open week of scheduling or perhaps VL joins the PAC and GS jumps from the PAC to the SIAC. No offense to VL, but either way I don't think the conference is left in a worse bad position.

keep Central and North as a rivalry game and make VL and GS the other.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of scheduling out of conference games, just not real sure what the best way to go about it would be. I personally don't want to see Bosse or Harrison on the MD schedule every year. I don't see where playing VL, Bosse and Harrison every year does anything to help MD. Open the scheduling and outside of a couple of rivalry games, rotate through the other teams so everyone in the conference can benefit.

No way MD would be in favor of that schedule. We would lose both of our rivalry games and other than Gibson Southern would have a horrible conference schedule. Not to say those teams don't occasionally have a good year but they don't consistently.

I'm in complete agreement on this. Would love to see MD keep the traditional rivalry games of Memorial and Reitz but it would also be great to play a team or two from out of the area. If we could rotate through the other conference teams and just play Reitz, Memorial and then 5 of the other 7 (dropping two of either Bosse, Harrison, Vincennes Lincoln, Central, North, Jasper or Castle) each year. That makes it hard to crown a conference champ though, especially if one team drops Castle and Jasper and plays Bosse and Harrison while another team has just the opposite. I doubt we will see that happen but maybe .....

Did someone say week 1?

Congratulations to all of the young men listed. That is quite an accomplishment for each of you. Looks like some big shoes to fill from some of the graduating seniors but some promising young men returning as well.

That's a big if. Purdy is a monster and will anchor that defense and Aigner coming back is big too, but finding an offensive line and a quarterback isn't easy.

They return all of their O line? If so they should be ok.

That is a huge loss for Castle unless the JV kid was a stud too. Castle does have some very good pieces remaining but I'm sure this will be a big hit. What else will Castle lose off of this years team? I know Purdy is back and he's a stud.

That's amazing and so awesome to see. That picture alone says so much about the kid. I've never met him but I can tell you he's a great competitor, a worker and a fighter. He and his family should be very proud of his efforts.

MD returns a sophomore and junior that started on the O Line this year and will return another who was out this year due to injury but started at center as a sophomore. We have a couple of other options as well but I'm sure that is a concern going into next year. We will have to find a few receivers as well. We lose almost 100 catches from this season. Stolz and Martin will be fine but we will need at least 2-3 more.

Nice work Fanatic. MD also returns DL Clay Martin, DL Ethan Money, LB Mitchell Adler, OLB/S Spencer Turner, WR/S Drew Martin. I agree we will be solid again, but we've got some big shoes to fill too.

I assume your rankings are a joke. GS has won 4 sectional titles in it's history, MD has 23 sectional championships, 14 regionals, 6 semi state titles and one state title. GS has been on a nice little run the last few years, but dude you are out of your mind. 1. Memorial 2/3. MD/Reitz 4/5. HH/SR Honorable mention: Castle, GS I'm sure I missed something and these rankings are obviously only for our little corner of the world.

I agree, 2021 was a good season for the SIAC. The conference was very strong at the top with Jasper romping it's way to a 9-0 regular season and Mater Dei, Memorial and Castle all finishing 7-2. We saw Reitz make some strides late in the season and North is still on the come up. I expect all of the teams mentioned have their sights set high for 2022. While I don't see Jasper repeating the year they had this year, I didn't see this year coming either. They had to be disappointed with the quick out in the playoffs but Tony Lewis is doing something right there. Castle retains their quarterback and some studs on defense so they should be strong again. Memorial has a lot to replace on the front lines, running back and wide receivers, but they do return the quarterback Ellsperman, receiver Leo Collins and a few big fellas. I expect them to have something to say about the winner of the conference as well. Mater Dei loses some studs too. Replacing James Ralph will be near impossible. Tyler Martin, Nick Boots, JT Mayer, Bryce Humphrey will all be missed as well as a couple of offensive lineman, but having Cody Wells (started at center as a sophomore and probably would have gone both ways this year if not for injury) back will be a huge step in the right direction. There are also some sophomores who got their feet wet this year and will make strides next year as well as starters back for their third seasons at quarterback and running back. Mater Dei will be right in the mix too. Good luck to all for a healthy offseason. Can't wait for 2022.

Bowen was the difference in the 2A game. He was a menace on both sides of the ball. Looking forward to seeing what he does at Notre Dame and whether he stays inside and hangs 30 more pounds of muscle on or if he goes outside. Either way, he's the real deal.

Well said. Great group of seniors that will be very difficult to replace but I'm looking forward to what next season can bring also. Thanks Wildcats for a great run!

Obviously, Andrean will have the most highly recruited and highly touted player on the field but MD has some players too. Football is the ultimate team sport, so while one guy can make a big difference, he can't do it all. Scheme will come into play as well and hopefully MD has enough Jimmy's and Joe's to get the job done.