Johnsnow

I picked Elk to lose to Concord. Not mighty at all. Penn will beat them 56-0 this year. 3-6 is my prediction for the year. Don't think they beat anyone other than Adams, St joe and one of Hammond Morton or Marian. Could be even less. It took our new coach 1 year to go 7-3 against the easiest schedule in 6a, with the best players Elk has had in 30 years (last season) and now has ruined a once rising program. The defense is very good but the offense is beyond abysmal.

Love the first 2 weeks with NIC/NLC matchups. Here's an NIC guys look: Calumet at Plymouth: A solid foundation left to build a good program and some good players at Calumet. Calumet wins 21-14 Concord at Elkhart: Elkhart will have the areas best defense and worst offense. New coaching hire sets the program back to the late Elk Memorial days. ELK wasnt good last year when they had the North's best set of skill players and 10 returning starters on offense...they no longer have that. Small, slow and inexperienced isnt a good combination. QB is the best player on O but he has to weapons and a brand new OL. ELK had 11 sacks last year and I could see the 2 teams getting over 15. Concord gets a pick 6 and 2 point conversion to win 8-6. Jimtown at NorthWood: Northwood has the states best WR combo. Ugly here...NW 49-7 Mish. Marian at Mishawaka: This will be the best Mish team in years led by the North's best all around player in their QB. Mish 49-17 Northridge at North Side: Going to be a great game. Northridge starts slow. NS 21-17 Tippy Valley at Wawasee: No idea Warsaw at Michigan City: MC is going to surprise you. They may struggle against the DAC top teams and Im sure Bart will find ways to move the ball but this one isnt close...MC 49-24. WAY WAY WAY too much speed. QB is a stud and they have the states best RB. Not to mention an elite defense. OL is the only thing that keeps them out of the state championship in 5a.

Boone Grove at Glenn- . No Idea Grove 17- Glenn 10 Jimtown at NorthWood- Northwood has the best pair of WR in the state if not the midwest. Not fair. 42-0 at half . Panthers 49 Jimtown 0 Concord at Elkhart- Elkhart starts off a losing season with a close loss. Elkhart may have the areas best defense and almost assuredly have the areas worst offense. Its amazing how far their skill players have fallen and an entire new OL. Over under is 10 sacks (ELK had 11 last year) and 5 TOs between the teams...and Im taking over. Concord gets a pick 6 in the 1H and holds on. Also not sure if Elk best offensive player (QB) will play. Elkhart 6- Concord 8 Culver Academy at Adams- Adams 17-13 Bishop Noll at Clay- Sad to see Clay in this state. 42-0 Noll roll Lakeland at St. Joseph, Downey begins the ST Joe climb STJ 27- Lakeland 10 LaVille at Bremen, Bremen 21-14 Marian at Mishawaka- Cavemen roll. They are going to be tough to stop this year with the Norths best all around QB. Mish 49-20 New Prairie at LaPorte- Cougars will become NICs 2nd best team clearly overtaking Elk. QB runs wild and this one is over at half. 47-6 NP Penn at Valparaiso- Penn overachieved their talent level last year. Elk had to coach themselves out of routing Penn. Not this year, and likely not anytime soon. Kids are now all grown up and Penn's best team in years puts it on 5a favorite Valpo. Penn 42-27. QB/RB combo is too much. Riley at West Side- Riley wins a close one 22-20 Washington at Hammond Central- Biggest route in the state. HC QB is real deal. 63-0 HC

As it relates to Elkhart I dont see them going anywhere. Not that the ideas above dont make sense, because they do, but Elkhart has so little investment now in sports that while they are big enrollment wise they have fallen so far in the past year sports wise that they simply wont be able to compete anywhere else. They have massive issues arriving on time to games in the NIC due to bus driver shortages that they simply cannot play a schedule where travel is so far. They have had varsity teams LATE to games multiple times the past couple of years. The state of Elkhart sports is really bad and I think you will see that now show up on the football field this year. What was once a rising star with all sorts of hope has been mismanaged to the point that when Football and Basketball 6a jobs come open that the applicant pool is limited to current staff and local retreads says it all. They have no strength program, ancient weight rooms and top level athletes looking to transfer as opposed to being a destination for transfers just 2 years ago. The only sport they have beaten up on the smaller schools in the NIC has been football and that wont last. Elkhart needs the NIC.

Carroll (9-0) at Penn (7-2) - Carroll - 34-24. Penn has the defense and Carroll the offense. I think Carroll wins but it could easily be the other way around. Elkhart (7-2) at Warsaw (7-2) - Warsaw 35-14. Elkhart's team has fallen apart since the Penn game. 6 starters (5 on offense) from when they played Penn wont play due to injury, academics and behavioral issues. The way the new coach wasted the talent on offense is a travesty. Elkhart's issues vs NP weren't defensive, it was the inability to get a first down Adams (1-8) at Mishawaka (8-1) - Mishawaka big New Prairie (9-1) at Lowell (7-3) - NP 35-14. NP is tough. RB/QB run game gets it done. NorthWood (10-) at St. Joseph (4-6) - Northwood big even with suspensions. Jimtown (8-2) at Glenn (6-4) - Jimtown 28-7. Jimmies get it going early Bremen (6-4) at Lake Station (4-6) - Bremen not sure why

Yes they can compete with Penn. Elkharts QB had a fairly significant injury in late July and is just now back to 100%. The backup is a soph whom they need to prepare in case the starter cant go, he's also really good and brings a different element (runner). They have been very very vanilla on offense but have still put up 32PPG. Concord and Northridge are both very good on defense so that should tell something. Elkhart will need to be balanced and execute better on offense against Penn, if they do they win if not, they wont.

This isn’t the Marian of years past so that proves nothing. My opinion was formed, To reference a Nick Sagan quote, in the scrimmage vs Elkhart where the Lions 1s ran through Mishawaka defense like “S*%t through a tin horn” so that’s a better reference IMO. We’ll see, but before you go attacking me further I’ve also called The cavemen the best team in the area at the moment.

Concord at Jimtown- Concord ran into a buzzsaw with Elkhart last week, but has a really good defense. They get just enough offense to take this one 17-14 Fairfield at Adams- Adams gets a win that will be hard to come by this year 27-20. Glenn at Riley -Not sure why. Marian at Culver Academy- Marian is in for a long regular season. New Prairie at Goshen- NP 35-7. New Prairie wont be challenged until October. Northridge at Elkhart,- Elkhart was the only thing that stopped Elkhart last week and they kept themselves from putting up 50. I expect a big improvement in eliminating mental mistakes on offense from week 1 to week 2. 40-10 Lions Penn at Portage- I think Penn is wildly overrated at #9 in 6a, but they roll against one of 6a's perennial worst teams 27-7. Next 3 weeks get real tough for the Kingsmen. Clay at Twin Lakes- Twin Lakes? Wasn't aware that is a high school. St. Joseph at Mishawaka- Cavemen are elite on offense and not great on defense. While I think St Joe is much improved that wont help them this week. 35-7 Cavemen. Washington at Bremen- Guess is Bremen 14-0

Combo 1) Penn’s front 7/8 all return plus you add a transfer dt. They are one of the best run defenses in the state. Not a great formula for valpo. 2) putting that jojo Williams kid on offense is going to be one of the best coaching moves of the year. Elite athlete that changes their dynamic. 3) Penn is always great on special teams and when you get a punt block early that makes a huge difference. on the other side 1) valpo is young (at least when it comes to # of returners) and playing at Penn is an intimidating place for teams from the North. 2) It doesn’t help to start with a busted play td and blocked punt.

I was at Rlkhart v Mishawaka. Went in thinking Mishawaka was best in area and a horrible matchup for the lions. The scrimmage for the varsity was a bit short as JV and Freshman each had periods. Elkhart 1s on offense were dominant and very polished looking. Only had about 15 or so plays and scored both possessions. They basically just ran the same power play over and over as the Ol dominated and each run was 10-20 yards. Passing was crisp but all short dink/dunk. These things can be fools gold but if Elkhart ol is that good then won’t get beaten in the regular season. Javien Sharpe looked really good in his first game back. Elkharts stable of 3 top RBs with different styles is going to be a problem. Elkhart only played starting d for 4-5 plays as Mishawaka cut blocks and no need to get anyone hurt. Mishawaka got a 1st and had a dropped pass but it was a few 2-3 yard gains. Cavemen scored 2-3 times against Elkhart backups but they really held their own. Elkhart has a soph dt who is huge and has a motor. Mishawaka threw it a lot and had a number of near misses. Qb for Mishawaka is going to be a great one. it also could be that Mishawaka isn’t very good on defense, but we will see…

North Valpo @ Penn I’ve seen Valpo in a scrimmage and while that must be taken with a grain of salt, Penn still has some mystique at home and a front 7 on defense that rivals anyone in the North. Offense is tough to come by 13-10 Kingsmen in OT. Elkhart @ Concord The Lions bring back a ton and Concord doesn’t. First game under the lights caused the Lions issue last year and that and too many weapons gets Concord as it breaks open in the 2nd half. 34-7 Lions St Joe @ Lakeland: Indians much improved 24-7 Adams @ Northridge: Not big on the Raiders this year but Adams has had very little time with a new coach in a rebuild. Adams makes too many mistakes… Raiders 27-19 Laporte @ New Prairie: NP s scary good at home. QB runs wild. 35-14 Cougs Mishawaka @ Marian (Mish): Mishawaka is my call in the NLC. Another Fischer at QB and Marion is in for a rough regular season (for their standards) albeit they’ll be a different team come playoff time. Mish 33-14 South Northwood @ Jimtown: Ethan Evers is best player on the field. 24-21 NW Bremen @ Laville guess Glenn @ Boone Grove guess Hammond Central @ Washington: as others have said, has to be better than Washington Osceola Grace @ Clay ?

No nerve, just different perspective. My comments are all in relation to their schedule and the NIC. Keeping DC (and other staff) avoided a complete meltdown and the program is no where near where it should be based on district admins lack of commitment to sports in general. They easily play the softest schedule in 6a and it isn't close, and while they should win their first 11-12 games Im not saying they will. They could go 11-0 with 7-8 running clock games and have the same done to them once they go South of Kokomo. Long ways resource wise and program wise from where Indy area teams are.

Im not sure where you get Elkhart being in a rebuild? They have a new HC so maybe a bit there, but this years team is beyond loaded and will likely be better and more talented than the 2020 team. They have 21 kids back who started at least 3 games last year. The Top OL in the conference in 6a Jr All State returner Jellison (FCS offers). The Top 2 Wrs in the conference and possibly the best pair in the Northern part of the state in Gates (All NIC as JR and D1 interest) and Echols who had 13 for 277 in only 2 games (against NP and Marian who were pretty good last year) They have arguably the best QB in the conf in Krueper (big, smart, cannon arm, D2/FCS interest) who threw for 1300 from his back last year with mainly backups at skill positions. At RB they have a kid who had 400 total yards in just 6 HALFS of football (Houser MAC/D1 interest) and kid who ran for 1000 yards (Leonard). Newcomers are the younger brother (Teion) of Tyron Mason who is at Western and a TE who runs on their 4x100 relay and is a legit 4.6 kid. They have 5 other returning OL who started games last year. Oh...and then the have Javien Sharp who likely would be talked about as one of the best players in the state had he not missed last season. If he returns to form the offense will put up video game numbers, could do so even without him. They are putting in a new offense and have a new HC so its not like they wont be without challenge, but they should be clearly favored in all of their games. Penn will have top 5 6a defense as their front 7 is back, boosted by the Jones kid, and was very good last year. They however return nothing on offense to speak of and they havent had a good offense in 5 years. New Prairie will be really good and could possibly upset one of the top 2. QB is great athlete and RB was all conf last year. Front 7 on defense is back and will be strength of that team. St Joe: Mccullough will get them some wins. 4th place will come down to the Holy War game. Marian: lost a ton for second year in a row. QB Lasane is very good but wont have the weapons. Will get better as season goes on and should be favored in 23 season Adams: lost coach and top player. Going to be tough road for them. What should be SB's best team is in for a massive rebuild.

Pike is completely false. Who would go from Elkhart to pike?

1) Game was at Penn. Thats a big deal for teams up here still. 14 pts if creating a betting line for numerous reasons. It was 17-3 with Elk driving in 4th qtr so not really indicative of the score. 2) Game was right at peak of Elk injuries with many kids being hurt the week prior. Having a short week to figure out who to play and where was a big factor in that game. Kids playing spots they had never played etc. 3) Elk beat NP and Penn lost to NP in last couple weeks. Think it'll be close game Also don't see Culver stopping NP run game so Id take NP too if that line is -2