First_Backer_Inside

And then there were two. Northfield and Rochester the lone conference teams remaining in the tournament. One game I think will be very competitive and might come down to the very end. The other might be over by halftime. Who ya got this week and whats your opinion on the games! Northfield and Adams Central (not sure which one is home) I'm taking the Jets here. That offense is a well-oiled machine and the defense is very physical. I think Northfield will try to limit the amount of possessions they have. For Northfield to have a chance, they have to be able to get those 3 and 4 yard gains every play, drain the clock, and hold onto the ball when they have it. I just don't think even if they do that they will be able to stop the AC offense. Lafayette Central Catholic at Rochester Give me the Zebras here. Demming, Ferverda, and Beck behind that line just keeps on cranking out yards with the team as a whole surpassing 4,000 yards on the season so far after last game. LCC throws the ball extremely well and does enough on the ground to compliment it really well. I think if Rochester holds onto the ball they win. If LCC forces them to turn the ball over, LCC takes it. In a clean game from both teams, I'm going with the Zebras by a touchdown.

Was very wrong on this. BC played LCC Week 8. Still night and day the team I saw on film compared to the team Rochester played last Friday night.

No need to throw it when you have three backs averaging over 100 yards a game and 400 yards rushing as a team the last three games😁 Looked to me like Cass didn’t throw the ball very effectively, but ran all over LCC, just couldn’t hold onto the ball. I’m very impressed with LCC’s wideouts route running and the screens they throw. Gonna come down to which defense steps up. Rochester had the score up to 50-12 against Benton Central when BC just started launching it deep and made some plays. They then recovered an onside kick and scored one more time before the game ended. Rochester had 500 yards rushing on the night. They couldn’t be stopped except for the lone turnover they had to start the game. I watched the BC/LCC game. BC could barely get the snap against them and they played very early in the season. The BC team Rochester played was much improved from the beginning of the year. It shows in the difference of the scores between the two BC and Delphi matchups. BC’s head coach is doing a great job with that program. With only losing 3 seniors, don’t expect BC to be a team you can put a running clock on every week like years past going forward into next season.

Haven't seen a lot of film for either one. Based off of what I know, I think it will come down to the LCC offense vs Cass defense. Can the Kings stop that high powered offense with their top 10 defense in 2A? On the flip side, can the Kings offense that isn't putting up a lot of points this year score against the LCC defense that seems disinterested in that side of the ball at times. Look for special teams to be a difference maker in the winner of this game for either team. Interested to see if Cass takes advantage of their size at the skilled position on the outside. I think this will be key in their ability to move the ball. Selfishly, I'm pulling for a Cass win. Would love to see two very physical Wing-T offenses going at it for the Sectional Championship(if the Zebras can get it done against the Bison, who are having a fantastic season for their program). But I think LCC is definitely the favorite in this one.

Lost half of the conference last week in a tough first round for a lot of teams. It isn't going to get any easier for the TRC conference this week. Who ya got for round 2 of Sectionals? Guerin at Tippecanoe Valley, 7 pm Valley is struggling without their best player. I don't think they can get it done this week against the Catholics, but I did not expect the Oak Hill game to be as close as it was with Guerin, so maybe Oak Hill was able to expose something that Valley can take advantage of. Still gonna be a long shot tho. I'm taking the Catholics. Rochester at Benton Central, 7 pm The Bison have won as many games this year as they have the previous five years combined. The head coach there is doing a fantastic job getting that program turned around. Zebras have another long bus ride to Oxford, but at least they don't have to go all the way to West Lebanon again. I don't think the Bison can stop the three headed monster of Demming, Beck, and Ferverda, especially with the line blocking the way they are. Zebras win and make it to their first Sectional Championship game since 2000. Eastside at Manchester, 7 pm Manchester has won two games this year and both have been against the same team. Lucky first round draw, but season ends for the Squires Friday. Eastside wins this big. Madison-Grant at Northfield, 7 pm Probably the most interesting game of the week, and the one other team other than Rochester who I think can make it to the Sectional Championship. Madison-Grant has a very impressive resume. They also beat a North Miami team that just took it to Northfield the week before. Just depends what Northfield team shows up. I'm taking the Norsemen to support the conference, but they're gonna have to play a great game to make it happen.

I haven’t seen the game so i don’t know how they played compared to what they were playing like in conference play. I’d take the TRC stacked up against ACC judging by the scores from the conference last night. Congrats on the win last night for AC. Goodluck the rest of the playoffs.

It will be a good game. I’d lean more towards Madison-Grant. They beat a North Miami team that just beat the Norseman.

Would really like to see the Knights upset the Jets and really shake up the 1A bracket. Knights are playing some really good ball right now. Goodluck to all the fellow TRC teams. Time to make the conference known state wide again!

I think while its an interesting concept, seeding has its flaws as well just going off of the way in which they were decided here. Are we basing it off of regular season wins, sectional wins, sagarin rating, or a combination of all three? Are other factors involved? We've all one time or another said the sagarin ratings are flawed at times. For instance I hear time in and time out how the Summit conference has a weird sagarin rating due to all teams playing one another. There are also the teams that play out of state. That has to be taken into consideration if sagarin is the route you go. If you go regular season, you have a lot of 1 and 2A teams that play bigger schools that they probably won't win most years. If you go sectional record, not all teams play sectional opponents and if they do they may be the lower teams in the sectional that you don't want to see matched up in sectional anyway. If we want to seed sectionals, we might as well not have conferences and play each team in the sectional with two games played at the beginning of the season or end with more for sectionals that don't have 8 teams. That would be the one way I see sectionals getting seeded without controversy. Otherwise there are always going to be problems people have with seeding no matter how you decide to combine the previous three ways of seeding I mentioned above. While the ping pong balls don't fall the way people want them to year in and out, it adds a beauty to Indiana high school football that most states don't have. While its not ideal in most people's eyes, it keeps the blame of deciding who plays who from any one and places it on those gosh darn ping pong balls. Not trying to bash on anything you did here crimsonace1. This is an interesting and debatable idea and thank you for taking the time to do this!

Big week for the final week of the TRC. Four teams fighting for a share of the conference championship. TV can win it outright with a win over Southwood. Southwood pulls off the upset and chance to grab a share of the title along with the winner of the Mac and Rochester game. Who ya got this week for the last week of TRC play? Also how is everyone feeling about their sectional draw? A couple of TRC matchups first round, tough draw for Southwood first round facing defending North champions in Adams Central. Manchester at Peru ©, 7 pm I'm going to take Peru, but the tigers have struggled the last couple of weeks while Manchester seems to be improving with every week. Could make for a pretty good game. Northfield at North Miami ©, 7 pm Two mirror offenses facing one another. I'm going to take Northfield due to having the best player on the field in Fisher, but should be a close game. Rochester at Maconaquah ©, 7 pm Second biggest game of the week in the conference. Winner could come away with a share of the conference title if Southwood can get it done. I'm going to take Rochester, but they've gotta improve in the secondary. Good test for them going into sectionals. Maconaquah has some very good young receivers to throw to. Should be a great game. Tippecanoe Valley at Southwood ©, 7 pm Southwood has found a great groove to end the season, but TV is too big and physical. I'm taking TV in this one. Whitko at Wabash ©, 7 pm Tough year for Whitko. Wabash slings it all over them. I'm taking Wabash.

Lewis Cass win this week and a possible LCC/Cass back to back matchup depending on Sectional draw this week. They say you never beat a good team twice in the same year. (I hope that holds true for my Colts and the rest of the AFC South, oh wait I said good teams didn't I?) Interesting to see how it all plays out. I think Cass will have their hands full tonight against a good HH team. Back when I played, the Cass/HH matchup came way early in the year with both teams knowing it would likely determine the conference champs. Nice to see it played later in the year.

I like the 4-4 approach by having the unblocked DE close on the fullback, scraping middle backers making quarterback pitch, and outside backer taking away pitch man with a one high safety running the alley to make everyone right. Everyone has to be discipline every play, and gotta have some tough guys on defense and it sounds like AC has that. I just feel like if you don't have that DE close and hit FB before he even crosses the line, he is gaining 3-4 yards a carry because he will be two yards past LOS before anyone hits him. Usually the FB's in those offenses are some dudes and I'd rather hit them before they get going down hill.

If the DE stays home and waits on the QB, NJ is getting 4 yards a pop on you every play.

I don't think Adams Central has played anyone that has near the running game that NJ has. As for coaching and assignments, I hope the coaches are telling the DEs to close on that fullback because if they aren't it would be a long night. I think thats what bias was trying to get at. There have been times the DEs haven't closed and against other teams you can get away with it. I haven't watched any AC football this year other than the Eastside game so I have no idea. I just think thats what he is getting at. If you don't close and take away option number one of the fullback, you are in trouble.

I hope Triton saved that 40 point play for sectionals 😉 No, its obvious how much Triton has improved this season and regardless of how the rest of this season goes it will be a great season for them to build off of. This Judson team is just a different monster, especially for a 1A team!

I don't see any of these games being super close this week. I don't know anything about West Central so that game with Winamac might be close, but all the others I see them being three touchdown games. Knox will just wear Pioneer down for four quarters. Laville is going to be refocused with something to prove this week. It feels odd saying that for a team coming off a win, but I feel a statement this Friday will be made by the Lancers. As for Triton and NJ, the improvement is very obvious in this Triton team. I watched a few games on the IHSAA website and was very impressed with their team as a whole, not just the running back who is a great player. I just don't think they can keep it close with Judson. This North Judson team is just something special. I picked them back in June to represent the North at LOS. The good teams find a way to keep getting better and that is exactly what this Judson team seems to do week in and week out. Comes down to great leadership from the players and one heck of a coaching staff!

I wasn't at the game, but we saw them week 2. It is night and day how much better this Knox team is from last year. I was shocked when Judson beat them 26-0. That was a statement game for Judson that I don't think a lot of people realized was. I did hear from someone there might have been some uncommon mistakes from Laville that helped Knox back in the game because it was 21-7 halfway through the 4th quarter. Has not been a good year for Knox and going for two in the closing minutes. Lost to Rochester by two on an unsuccessful two point conversion with under a min left in the game. Lost to Laville with under a min left going for two to win the game. The difference in a 3-3 season for them so far rather than 5-1.

Braves have had a very impressive season. Would not have guessed they would be where they are at this point in the season. The honeymoon is about to come to an end tho. 2 of their last 3 games are against Valley and Rochester. They are lucky they don't play Southwood in the TRC rotation this year or they would probably be 4th at the end of the year in the conference.

Spot on with everything. Northfield and Wabash will be close for a half. Coach Shaffer has been preaching to his guys to not take the Peru Tigers lightly. We'll see if they have listened to his message. I wonder if Valley's scoreboard can show triple digits. Might just find out tomorrow night 😉

You could be right, only time will tell! It may not be worth anything, but Rochester is ahead of both in the sagarin ratings. Calpreps also has Rochester beating both teams. But its football anything can happen. We still have two and a half weeks before Sectional drawings, and then another week before the playoffs start. A lot of time to get better or worse. Either way you are never staying the same!

You def bring up two very good points. Not giving them excuses, but every reclassification ends with Valley going to the dominate Sectional for 2 years. If not for some years I think they def had the talent of other sectional champions just had to play the state champion in the first three rounds every year. As for leaving the TRC, I agree. The problem is finding another conference to join. The Northern conference might put them in about the same spot they are in. Maybe a little more competition every week, but I think they would end up dominating it as well. After that, I'm not sure where they go. Its one of those things where I think they might just be content with piling on the conference championships, and maybe one day when Chatard is up in 4A they find a way to make a playoff run.

Has Laville had to play four quarters yet all year? Will be interesting to see if Knox can stay competitive with them for four quarters. I think the only team that has played them tough was Triton for a half. Other than that its been blowouts left and right. As a coach as good as it feels to blow teams out week in and week out, it is also nice to have those close games with a little adversity to see how your guys respond. Certainly will happen come playoff time, and knowing what you have before then sure does help. I know all those players on Laville are veterans that have faced it in pryer years but its been a minute.

Valley controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Hats off to them. Rochester fought hard but needed to limit the amount of mistakes they made on both sides of the ball. Rochester doesn't fumble the ball on the 20 with 7 min left in the game could be a different game. Can't make those mistakes against a team bigger, faster, and stronger than you are. This was a good wake up call for the Zebras. This Rochester team has a chance to make a deep playoff run but its gonna take constant improvement the next four weeks to do so. There are teams in 2A that will be just as big and physical. Can the Zebras learn from this game and reach the potential they have? I think its obvious these two teams are on a different level this year compared to the other teams in the conference. Valley has a very good team. Rumors that the Chatard team isn't what people thought they were going to be this year. Could Valley stun them and the rest of their sectional and these two teams represent the TRC deep into the month of November? Only time will tell

Will be interesting to see how it plays out, but a potential Cass/LCC mathup in the crossover game week 9 and then turn around and draw each other first round of Sectional. I think the deciding games will be this week RC and LCC and then how Cass plays Western and HH. Theres been a few years where you play teams regular season and then crossover to play them again, but not many times is it Crossover and Sectional. If Cass and LCC had each other regular season they could've played each other three teams in a year. With how equally matched I think they are this year just going off scores (which even tho I'm not a believer in the transitive property I find myself doing it all the time) that could have been quite the series of three games.

I agree there. Of course having Mr. Kiser helped too 😉