First_Backer_Inside

Agreed, I was losing my mind not being able to talk trash a week away from the season opening week

Quite comical in 2A to see a team last year that was 4-6 make the top 10. Also comical to see two teams in that sectional get votes after both of them got knocked out by a Tipton team that brings a lot of players back. I know it's just pre-season polls, but is any research done before making these?

Caston came to a scrimmage at Rochester last week. Couldn't believe the size those guys have as they were getting off the bus. I was more than impressed. I mean just big, strong lookin kids...that was about the only thing I was impressed with. The coaches gotta find a way to win some games this year with the dudes they got getting off those buses.

Rochester is right on the edge of having a freshman, JV, and Varsity schedule. We took about 45 guys to team camp with us this summer. I'm sure we will get a few more freshman, that don't understand the commitment needed over the summer that we haven't seen, show up on day one of practice. Might get a kicker or two as well. Sounds like our numbers will be very similar to Valley's. Would be cool to play a three team schedule. Not a lot of 2A programs with that opportunity and numbers around the state I'm sure.

Valley people are never happy. Valley people also are and always will be Valley people.

We joke.......but it will be here soon, not under the table like it could possibly be happening right now, but public and out in the open.

We like the team we have coming back. I hope you are right. Until someone dethrones them this year though, Mac is still the champs. We might get spoiled and get another Week 9 Conference Championship for a second year in a row. The atmosphere for the game last year was a cool one. Would be cool to have it again.

Maconaquah at #3 in 3A is wild. Last years team you could make an argument maybe. Graduating 3,000 yards of offense and 31 of your 46 touchdowns is gonna be hard to replace. Maybe someone knows more than I do. Must have had a great offseason in the portal.

Probably gotta put Jaylon Smith in this group. If you're a Fort Wayne guy you had to have seen him play once in person I would think. I'm not a Fort Wayne guy and unfortunately had to see him in person way more than i wanted to lol (one time on the opposite sidelines was enough)

Seems like Cignetti likes to go the transfer portal route. Just from what I've observed so far. With the NIL money Indiana has coming through, they must think it's a lot easier to snag a seasoned college player out of the transfer portal. Just my observation on IU though. I agree with you though. I like seeing in state guys stay in the state.

They lost to Snider and Snider didn't even win state so...???

Any relation to Cory Klem? Played at Gibson Southern class of 2016 I believe. Played football with him at Uindy for 4 or 5 years. Great teammate and an even better guy. Not surprised if there is a relation there.

Yes we do. It is harder for the smaller schools to do this. Not as many coaches, so our DC is also our JV coach. Would be hard to cut up and watch film of the other team to be prepared for meeting to implement the gameplan for the next week. Mondays are more of a walk through and conditioning day during the season, so Mondays work well for us to get JV guys to practice for special teams work, and then get ready to play that night. Again at a small school, we have a lot of JV guys that also play a lot of special teams for us on Friday nights. Playing on Thursday or Saturday runs the risk of injury either before the Varsity game or during it resulting in no time for adjustments for the Varsity or JV game on Saturday. Like the idea, just doesn't really work for us personally. I believe a lot of the teams around us play on Mondays as well.

Can students/athletes get in trouble for encouraging athletes to come to their school? They might have the biggest influence of all in all of this.

I wish my coach played me for 8 quarters a week when I played...maybe I wasn't as good as I thought I was in high school.

Yes, it was Marian. Probably could have played at a higher level than that too. The 2019 team was good for Cass that made the 2A list, but hard to believe they were better than the '05 and '08 teams. A case could be made for the '06 team too. Got bounced by Heritage in a mud pit game second round of sectionals. Had some great battles with Heritage and Harding back in the 2000's.

Lewis Cass would have liked another crack at that Jimtown team as well. Game was back and forth for the most of the first half. Cass picked Jimtown off in the end zone early in the game. Instead of taking a knee in the end zone, kid thinks he's going 100 yards for a pick 6. Didn't make it 5 yards out of the end zone before he was stripped from behind and Jimtown recovered with a fresh set of downs inside the 10. Flipped the game completely, and Cass never recovered. That Cass team had some studs too. Garrett Seagraves was a Prime Time 26 player in the state. I believe he was only a junior at the time. Cass head football coach Clay Mannering was a senior on that semistate team.

Not a bad place to start with track and field records. Might have to ask not how much better, but rather is the average team in 2024 actually better than that of 1999. I would say one could make the argument that the difference in the top level teams of today and bottom level is a wider gap than it was in 1999. I have nothing statistically to back it up but it felt like the classes were more competitive throughout at least in sectional play those earlier years being measured here. Of course there wasn't any success factor, so you had a lot of the same teams winning state every year, but it felt harder to find a favorite for the majority of the sectionals. No matter what you find, this is an interesting and cool thing you've done here. Kind of reminds me of the debates people have about the different great college teams that people try to predict as being the best such as the '01 Hurricanes, '04 Trojans, '19 LSU Tigers, and '08 Gators. I'm sure there are some wiser minds on here that know of great teams further back, but those are kind of the few that I grew up getting to watch.

Agreed, my guess is since based off of Sagarin point differential and faster paced offense is going to benefit the more recent teams in this than teams in the past. Reasoning for a lot of those late 90's to early 2000's really good teams not making lists.

Andrean will be very good this year. LCC lost a lot of studs from last years team if I'm not mistaken. They always do reload very well. Still great senior class they graduated. I think three of them made the region team. If not definitely two.

Had to play 2015 Pioneer and LCC in the same year. Those teams made playing football not fun. Both had dudes that made fast people look...not fast.

Excellent point, that would be a good way of avoiding the situation I'm trying to explain. With your last sentence, I feel like that happens already with the rule we have. I would agree should be enough, but a rule change would be needed for that. I guess going for two would be a lot better than sending out your ones for yet another drive to score another touchdown and make it even uglier. I understand your point though and agree with you. We had a situation like this during the season. We used our 2's offense to drive down the field, and it was pretty obvious they weren't going to be stopped. Instead of scoring another touchdown we used the opportunity at about the 15 yard line to run our field goal team on late in the play clock to simulate a late game field goal. The long snapper snapped it way over the place holders head and it was a disaster, but it was a good opportunity to practice something in a game you might need later down the road. We never did get to a running clock that game. Our 2's and 3's just duked it out with there 1's the rest of the game.

It's rare, but something I think they should change is taking away the running clock when a team is no longer winning by 35 pts. Again it is rare, but I have seen times when a team gets down 35 pts, and they start to make a push back into the game but the time continues to run regardless of how close the other team gets. Good teams have had absolutely awful halves where nothing goes right, and they are down. They quickly score two touchdowns in the second half and it's a game again. However, the clock continues to run and makes it nearly impossible to come back from. Again doesn't happen often, but there have been rare cases.

I've been impressed with Valpo's physicality last couple of years. Wouldn't be surprised if they do beat Merrillville. I just like to troll Merrillville fans.

Yes sir, another winning season is a given. Another sectional too! Another regional as well! And then another exit in the semi-state...but they only lose by 16 pts this time!