ragdoll

23 hours ago, Boilernation said:

Yep, One I can easily think of was the '96 State Title could have easily ended in Portage in Regionals. Portage had the ball on the goal line with enough time left to run 1 play. Buzea passed up a gimme FG attempt that would have sent the game into OT and instead went for the win. It wasn't even close. Penn's D-Line stopped the Portage RB in the backfield. 

Penn had strong defenses

1 hour ago, Bash Riprock said:

I concur completely with your thoughts.  Carroll reminded me a little of CG's first ever state title appearance against Penn.  Penn was clearly the better team and showed it that day.  But CG was on the cusp of building something great, which took more years in the very competitive MIC and Indy area.  Carroll looked impressive and one could tell they are building their program the right way.  I believe they are on the cusp.  

With Westfield, Carmel, HSE, Fishers, and programs like Penn will be back up there...I believe competition in the north will get stiffer.  I am glad to see CG and Carroll agreeing on a 4 year series (I believe its 4 years) starting in 2024.  This will be a benefit to both programs.

Penn was better in 2000 but Matt Kaler being out was a big detriment to the CG run attack and made them much easier to defend. 

The classic Penn teams had high level defenses. 

Watched that Westfield-Merrillville game on the wonderful whmb broadcast. Westfield clearly was better. Figured they would be tougher match for CG than year prior when got plowed over. 

On best teams ever, I will note that Bedford had good teams in 79 and 80. This was points era and only a four teams would playoff qualify south of Indy large school and Richmond was in that mix. Bedford had good size and tough I heard from older friends. 79 team only lost to East, including sectional. 80 team actually won conference by beating East, but East went to playoffs instead to face Martinsville because Bedford opened season against Martinsville back then. 

Since Shelbyville was brought up, their 84 team was strong and tough, very stingy defense. Beat Martinsville and CG (beating them out for cluster) during undefeated regular season. Unfortunately for them, Martinsville edged them 7-3 in sectional rematch. 

New Albany was tough matchup in 84 regional for Martinsville, very good team. The 2002 team may be considered top team, beating undefeated defending regional champ Reitz in sectional before getting overpowered in regional at CG on very wet, cold, windy night, which made passing challenging. 

Jeffersonville had some good squads in 90's when Bloomington South had many dominant teams. 

On 7/5/2023 at 9:10 AM, Frozen Tundra said:

For Columbus East it’s no doubt the 2013 undefeated 4A state championship team. They absolutely steamrolled everybody up to the championship game. They won their first 14 games by 28 or more and that includes wins against ranked opponents such as Jasper at regionals and New Palestine at semistate. They came from behind to beat Fort Wayne Dwenger in the state championship by 1.

Best coach is Bob Gaddis for obvious reasons. 

Best player is a tough one. It would probably be Stevie Brown (2002-2005) if you base it on the fact he was a Swiss Army knife and could fit in anywhere on the field and excel. Played four years at Michigan before having a short NFL career. If you want to base the best player on records set then it would be Markell Jones (2011-2014). He set the state record for rushing yards in a season in his senior year. He came close to the career rushing yardage record and probably would’ve gotten it had East made the state title game. 

Do not think can overlook the 79 team with Blair Kiel and Tom Hendrickson and a really good team. A first for south of Indy winning the big school title. 

Hogan Denny has another year at Mooresville. My friend thought he was a better qb than Patterson as a freshman. Came into the regional game at Evansville in 2020 and led game winning drive. Superior arm.

When was the NCAA a necessary, reasonable organization? Seems like all my life, it was terrible politics and just kept getting worse. Anyone with any thoughts?

Was not Decatur playing a lot of sophomores last year?

WOW. Shocking. google them. 

On 3/8/2023 at 7:41 AM, Just a dad said:

Dudik (WR) and Van Vleet (QB) from Chatard and Hansen (RB) from Roncalli have committed to Dayton 

Dayton was very good in the 80's. Stagg Bowls.

In Morgantown (between Indian Creek and Martinsville), the Green Hill is reopened and has a good tenderloin. They make their own potato chips, also. 

River Rouge is big boy pants football. If not for King, may have won a state title. 

Still wonder about Eric Bieniemy being a perpetual bridesmaid, even after 2 SB wins in 3 SB games in five years after replacing former Bears coach Matt Nagy as OC. Is it lack of credit and too much credit for Mahomes or something else (and no need to bring up way distant past)? Seems strange to me.

Did Irsay and Ballard ask him in the interview a hypothesis of what if you are down to Sam Ehlinger in the game and he has a bad leg and reduced to being a pocket passer with Pittman and Pierce out and Bieniemy stated, "Ehlinger on one leg missing our top two receivers and that line from this past season? Hell, no!"

Regarding Tutsie, he is really good as a DC. and his son just finished playing in his fourth FCS national championship game, having won the first three. 

Kudos to CG for playing St. Edward. An aggressive, competitive mindset. 

https://nypost.com/2023/01/18/texas-coach-john-harrell-backed-by-students-after-suspension-over-400-pushup-punishment/

Did not recall, for some reason I thought Lakewood was over 300 mile barrier from Indy. 

So, scheduling a home and home with St. Edward would still be out of bounds for Indy teams?

13 hours ago, Grover said:

Nobody who watched Carson play regularly is surprised by his success.

I laughed when I heard IU told him he lacked breakaway speed.  How often does that come into play for IU vs. a guy who can break tackles?  IU's backs get an open hole about as often as Halley's Comet makes a pass.  

IU was likely recruiting Cocaine Bear for that position. 

Steele on JMV at bottom of 4 hour.

was still a bit surprised at how bad Purdue was

20 hours ago, Irishman said:

The epitome of it wearing off was his pregame speech before the Purdue game. Man was that cringeworthy. Anything gimmicky just does not seem to work (row the boat comes to mind). Jusst the same, a coach who yells and screams all the time wears out too. It all just becomes noise. 

I recall that Chris Creighton used to use that boat rowing story at Wabash. Is Fleck the only Power 5 coach to carry on the boat theme to that level?

On 12/14/2022 at 1:05 PM, foxbat said:

He was at Texas when I was an undergrad at A&M, when Kubiak and Murray, Kyler Murray's dad, were QBs back in the early-/mid-80s.  He's had pretty good success in Texas as a coach ... at least at the high school level ... as he also coached at Southlake Carroll too and has rings from there as well.

Impressive to bring up both Kubiak and Murray dad qb days. 

On 12/12/2022 at 10:51 AM, foxbat said:

We hear a lot about how people don't like seeing the same teams play in the state championships, but don't tell the folks in Texas that.  North Shore and Duncanville will be squaring off again in 6A in a repeat of last year's title game and is the fourth time in the last five years that these two will meet in the championship game.  In 5A, Aledo, which will make its eighth appearance in eleven seasons in 5A will square off against College Station which is making its third appearance in six years.  Aledo also had a run in 4A as well showing up four championship games in its last five seasons of 4A and taking those four championships before heading to 5A.

 

North Shore broke the massive Westlake winning streak in semi. Anyone else remember Westlake Coach Todd Dodge when he was a highly touted qb coming out of hs and later played at Texas?

I recall that the McCullough brothers did not make the top 50 last year.