First_Backer_Inside

Their record doesn't show it, but South Adams is a very dangerous team in 1A. I think they have a chance to go to LOS. I don't know what the south has, so can't confidently say they win state, but I think they are the favorite to represent the north this year if they can get by Madison Grant whenever they would see them. Other than that, I don't think any of the other teams make it to Thanksgiving week, but there will be some Sectional champs and maybe a regional champ or two sprinkled in there.

I've heard talks of Andrean being really really good this year. Is Merrillville going to be that good that they are going to dust Andrean that bad?

32 on Maxpreps, not a single freshman was listed either so I'm guessing they have a few more. Busco's defense looked pretty solid on film. Offense looked a little rough.

Probably old news to all ND fans, but just saw the other day that Larry Fitzgerald's son committed to Notre Dame. The man still has one of the coolest statistics in all of sports. More tackles in his NFL career than dropped passes. Just amazing, can't wait to see what his son does at ND in the coming years.

Not surprised, can you get anything out of Richardson or do you just let his contract expire?

Carroll over Caston, Caston's scrimmage looked a lot better than what they looked like at the end of the summer, but I'm rolling with Carroll still. Culver and Attica, flip a coin Pioneer over Cass, watched both scrimmages, I think it will be close, I think Pioneer has the better depth and better players on the field. Knox over Judson, I really like Knox to represent the North for 3A this year. I think Judson is a really good 1A team this year, I don't think they will be good enough to beat Knox. North Miami over Northfield, Northfield looked better than I thought they would in their scrimmage. They got a good athletic QB running the option. North Miami is a very good team with a lot of guys back. Triton and Laville, pick the coin you flipped for the Culver game and flip it again. Wheeler over South Central, I don't know much about either team. Winamac over West Central, I don't know much about West Central. Winamac has a good QB. I'll give them the nod.

Any TRC folks out there? Any first week thoughts? Numbers down a little bit, but hopefully the conference stays very competitive. Here's the week one matchups. Cass at Pioneer, 7 pm Maconaquah at Wabash ©, 7 pm Manchester at Northwestern ©, 7 pm North Miami at Northfield, 7 pm Peru at Logansport, 7 pm Rochester at Southwood ©, 7 pm Whitko at Prairie Heights, 7 pm Cass hasn't had any trouble putting up points. Can they stop the other team from scoring this year? Tough week 1 opponent. Pulling for the TRC in this matchup, but I'm going to give Pioneer the nod. Maconaquah gets the win in the TRC matchup with Wabash. Manchester has some good players at the skilled positions. I think this will be the game of the week in the TRC. I'm going to take the Squires over the Tigers week 1. North Miami beats an improved Northfield team, but I think it will be close. Logansport over Peru Rochester gets the nod over the Knights. Flip a coin in the Whitko and Prairie Heights game. I don't know much about either team going into the season other than Whitko has a new coach. I'll pick Whitko just because of being in the TRC, but not sure how this game will go.

Agreed, I'm not saying tipton should even receive votes either, but if those two teams are I think they should. Bluffton and Adams Central should be a little more competitive this year compared to last you think?

The INSC thread has Valley winning handily. I've seen a little bit of Valley, but don't know much about Plymouth. Did they lose a lot of talent from last year? Did the well dry up in one year? I'm interested to see how this game unfolds a week before the Bell Game.

Busco and Bremen could be a good one. A lot of question marks surrounding the Lions from what I hear. A lot of young guys stepping up. I've seen a little bit of Valley over the summer, but not enough to know what they can do in an actual game. Plymouth had a good year last year. Is the well already dry?

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.