Spitting Llamas

It's an exciting day. Can't wait to see the first round matchups.

Nobody deserves it more than Brodie. That kid is pure electricity. If Memorial is going to beat Jasper in sectionals it will be because of Ray Brodie. I don't think it happens but if Brodie can break off a few big ones Memorial has a chance.

A lot of the drop in enrollment has to do with Evansville Christian opening a high school. Another big factor is that there are fewer and fewer people willing/able to fork over $8,000 for a year of high school. I don't look for the numbers to come back anytime soon.

Is Grant young and upgrade or a downgrade from Weinzapfel? Why was Weinzapfel out?

You needed inside information to make that pick? Any chance you could share that inside info with the rest of us? Has to be on the Mater Dei side.

That's a solid guess. Hopefully it will be the Wildcats from Evansville, but we have a lot to get better at if we are going to beat Jasper. Memorial took us to the woodshed. Hopefully that was a wake up call

There was a lot of hype about Xavier Tyler and believe me he's good, but Ray Brodie is on another level in my opinion. Just so damn fast and both run extremely hard behind a big, aggressive offensive line. Memorial line play dominated both sides of the ball and Memorial was just tougher than we were.

Castle over Bosse by 17, the Castle defense is just too good. Memorial over Central by 13, Memorial continues to win by knocking off Central. Rough start to the year for the Bears Jasper beats Reitz by 20. I don't see Reitz being able to stay with Jasper. Jasper will control the ball, the clock and the scoreboard. MD handles Vincennes. The MD defense is strong and this might be the game the offense rises to their level. North beats Harrison by 24. Tough start to the year for North but they rebound here with a nice win.

Reitz is not going to Jasper and winning. No chance that happens. The others I won't disagree with

The Castle defense is fantastic, but are they the best. The MD defense might disagree. But there isn't an offense in the SIAC that wants to play Castle. Jasper should be at least at 2. Only reason I might leave them at 2 and not 1 is that the MD wins are better at this point. Reitz has had a couple of wins but we will find out more about them this week. I don't expect them to stay at 4. Bosse is definitely the feel good story of the season so far. Beating Central really opens some eyes. Is there any truth to the rumor that Central had a lot of players out? Also heard North was missing quite a few starters because of contact tracing. Is North really a lot better than their 0-2 record? Two losses to the cream of the crop in the SIAC shouldn't kill their season especially if they had starters out against Memorial. After losing to Castle and Memorial, North just might win out. Speaking of Memorial, how good are they? They lost to a very good Jasper squad and beat North by a score. But was North down players? Two weeks from now we should get an answer. Haven't seen anything of Harrison but I did hear from a reliable source that they are improved over last year. Hopefully they stay on the right path and continue their improvement. VL is going to have a rough year. Seems like a bad time to have a down year in the SIAC. I think top to bottom this is the best the conference has been in a while.

A couple of more big games this week in the SIAC. It will be interesting to see predictions as the week goes on. I think Memorial rebounds and takes care of business against North. MD vs. Castle is too close to call. Should be a slug fest.

Man August football is hot. So many cramps in the Mater Dei/Central game causing game stoppages pushing the game to 3 hours. Both teams played hard but the offenses weren't pretty. Central is going to be good. They've got athletes. The Diaz kid can burn and Herdes is an athlete with a big arm. When they put it all together they are going to be a handful. Next week brings a couple more big games. How will North and Memorial respond to losses? Two quality teams going at it again. Memorial has a tough Central team waiting in week 3. Central at will look to get a win vs. Bosse this week and enter the week 3 contest with Memorial at 1-1. Mater Dei and Castle battle for the early lead in the SIAC with Jasper. It's early but it's a big game with conference title hopes getting a big boost for the winner. Good luck this week

Nice article in the Courier today on Central. They don't seem to be lacking confidence that's for sure.

I don't know how good Central will be by the end of the year. I just hope they are 0-1 Saturday morning.

As big as Castle is, I'm sure they've got plenty of guys to step in and fill the void. I doubt it is too big of a hit for them.

Which is exactly what I would say right now too. Memorial has to be the favorite but Castle and MD should be right there. The ball bounces tricky ways. We could see all three of them at 8-1 at the end of the regular season.

Good deal. Hope he sticks with it. Could be some great memories for him

It's sad too because kids don't realize they will never get that time on the field with their friends back. You will work the rest of your life, but you only have four years to play high school football. I know some kids don't have a choice but for those who do I hate to see them quit, especially since most of don't quit to work. They quit to hang out with their girlfriend or to do things they shouldn't be doing.

Unfortunately those things happen every year in every program. Kids get jobs, decide they like girls more than football, don't like their position or playing time or just lose the desire to play. Everyone has to deal with it on some level. That is why having numbers is so important. To be successful you have to have the "next man up" on the roster.

I think Jasper might be getting overlooked by some people. I know they have some big shoes to fill in Mann and Dawkins but they were really good in a lot of places. I feel like Jasper always has kids sitting on the side waiting their turn to step up. We will see.

According to the article in the Courier, Memorial should be ready to roll week 1. With 20 returning starters and a full offseason there shouldn't be a whole lot of trying to get new kids up to speed. But you are right, to win the SIAC this year you'll have to bring it from week 1 to the last game of the season. Very few weeks where a team can afford a poor effort

Memorial's defense was fast and physical last year. I would expect nothing less of them this year with 10 starters returning. Finding a place to attack them will be difficult for anyone in the SIAC

Castle not ranked? Memorial ranked 10th? Jasper unranked? Wow! Not much love for us down here. Castle was a semi state team a year ago and I expect them to improve from last year. Jasper will be very good as well, maybe not what they were a year ago but not far from it. And Memorial at 10 is a joke to me but what does a Llama know?

Wonder what kind of report we get once he studies them a little. That was pretty in depth for not much research yet.

Doesn't sound like either kid is moving from a school just down the road. When an Evansville kid moves from one school to another without a change of address it could, and probably should, raise some eyebrows. To have a kid move from Warrick County to Gibson County and another from 100+ miles away doesn't sound like a big deal.