kingtut

A pleasant surprise to Miner fans as the Miners won by 15 at Clay City. After an excusable shaky start in their first game, the Miner defense pretty much shut down CC. It will be interesting to see how the varsity inexperienced Linton players improve as the season progresses. Since Linton is a class of mostly sophomores, The future is bright.

Looking back at the records of the last two coaches covering 23 years, the Linton Miners have averaged 10+ wins per season with only one losing season, a 5-6 record a few years ago. Going back even further to 1980, the Miners have averaged 8+ wins per season. True, not much post-season success since the move to 2A, but I would say that's a pretty good program.

I'm still alive and well and mostly lurking these days on the GID. I'll be 91 next month. True, I don't post as much as I used to. In fact, I wonder about all the other Miner GIDers that used to post regularly but have seemingly disappeared. I'm still just as passionate about all the Miner sports teams that are doing very well. I think there is a Proverb that says something to the effect that with old age comes wisdom. Maybe that's why anyone else's opinion about my team, good or bad, rarely incites me to respond. But I certainly enjoy reading all your posts. When I feel like I have something meaningful to contribute, I'll jump in. As far as the MD game is concerned, I hope the team is more confident than I am, and I'm pretty sure they are and I know they are looking forward to getting another shot at their nemesis. Linton is very good offensively, led by the running of senior QB Gennicks. I don't know what his total yardage is but it's impressive. But the Miners spread the carries around and three other backs have good totals as well. Less effective is the passing game but it is still a big part of the offense. Run defense is very good but pass defense is suspect, however it has been better through the playoffs even though they have been burned by long passes a few times. It's going to be bitter cold. I don't know how that might impact the play or which team it might favor. My guess it will hurt the passing game more than the run. I won't be there. Too cold for me but I'll be watching on my big TV.

Sullivan will move back up to 3A at the next classification cycle. I counted 72 players on their roster when they played Linton earlier.

Maybe, but in a lot of cases it was just the ineptitude of the opposition. Linton was a state power in 1924 and Midland was a small school 6 miles up the road from Linton. That had to be a terrible mismatch. 156 - 0. In fact, Midland has never played football in my lifetime and that goes pretty far back. But not quite to 1924. Although my sister was born in '25. She'll be 97 this month.

??? Not me. I made no mention of a Lafayette Jeff game.

Three good receiver targets for QB Gennicks in Freshman Paul Oliver, 6-3, senior, Logan Webb 6-4, and junior, Braden Walters, 6-5. All three are basketball players. Webb and Walters, two year starters and FB Coach Oliver's son, Paul a likely BB starter this season. Walters just joined the team this year after being outstanding in middle school. He is a great addition to the team. 6-3 Lineman, Franklin is also a BB team starter.

First home game for Linton and should be the first test for the Miners to see what kind of a team they have. Linton is playing a lot of young players along with some seasoned veterans returning at key positions, namely at QB, receiver, and running back. Three tall receivers are good targets for senior QB Gennicks. Gennicks is the leading rusher as well, taking one 96 yards last week at North Vermillion. The first two games were running clock games and the varsity offense put up 106 points in the four quarters they played while the varsity D allowed 13 points. Monrovia is much improved so we'll see if the Mines are deserving of the high rankings they have in the polls. On a personal note, I didn't travel to the first two Miner games but I will be in attendance at this week's game, marking the 85th consecutive season I have attended Linton Miner football games.

No, I really don't know how Kelly got the nickname "Spike" and really don't remember how long it took for us to travel the 234 miles to South Bend from Linton but I do remember the difficulty we had getting home. Our bus carrying the band members broke down in Plymouth, Indiana, not far from SB. We had to spend the day in Plymouth while the bus was being repaired. We finally got home late that evening. As a band member. I recall we spent a few Saturdays during the summer selling "Band Tags" for 50 cents each downtown in Linton to raise enough money for us to make the trip and stay overnight in a South Bend hotel. That trip and the 1946 football game was a memorable highlight of my time at LHS.

I was surprised and pleased to see the fine biography of Coach Spike Kelly. I suppose I am the only GID poster to have attended games when Kelly was one of the coaches. Being a lifetime Linton Miner fan, I experienced the difficulty of my team playing against the Sullivan Golden Arrows when Spike Kelly was there. Our series with the Arrows began in 1904 and Linton dominated the early years winning 15 of the first 19 games. As the article states, Coach Kelly came to Sullivan from Clinton in 1931, which BTW is my birth year. Clinton was also a Linton opponent in those early years. Linton defeated Sullivan and Coach Kelly in his first three years, the last being 27 - 0 in 1933 when, in the undefeated Wabash Valley Champion Miners only allowed 6 points all season. However, the tide turned in 1934 and Linton never defeated Sullivan again until 1945 when in the annual Armistice Day game, The undefeated Miners won 22-0 at Sullivan. That was after Spike had gone to South Bend Riley. I fondly remember that game as a HS freshman. The following year, the Miners opened the season against Kelly's No 1 ranked South Bend Riley team at South Bend. That was quite a trip from Southwestern Indiana to South Bend in those days. I went to the game as a member of the LHS band and along with the team, stayed overnight at South Bend. The game was a big deal for Linton and a great number of Miner fans made the trip. I recall there was a light rain throughout the game. Kelly's Riley team defeated the Miners 13 - 6. Along with the loss, Linton's all- state running back (he was called a halfback in those days) suffered a broken leg, ending his senior season. So, Spike Kelly's record was 10 - 3 against the Linton Miners.

Linton usually has 45 - 50 players on the roster. Linton is at the bottom of 2A in enrollment. They play a full middle school and JV schedule.

Unless I missed a week somehow, I think Linton has to play at Tell City tomorrow night.

… and it seems like Sullivan always plays a bad game against Linton.

Holy Cow ! I wasn't aware of what the Miners were getting into. I wonder if outgoing AD Charlie K got us into that or New AD Clayton is responsible. Oh well, we probably can get out of it in two years. Seriously, I think that game will be a good matchup for both teams and could turn out to be a good rivalry. BTW, I remember when Rockville was actually a juggernaut back in the days when they were a six-man football power.

Linton isn't going to take anyone lightly. The Miners are still just getting everything together. The coaches are working to get the right people in the right spots. Also they haven't had a full squad the last two games. I think they will be close to full strength this Friday, although a couple are still out with injury. The potential is there for lots of improvement. As for the ending of the Southridge series, I'm not sure who dropped whom. I rather think it was a mutual agreement.

IDK, Mark. I've just given it up. I try but I get no response. Can't even keep a topic on page 1. Right or wrong, we're ranked number 1 in 2A on Sagarin, but who cares.

Agree. I was shocked this morning to see my Linton Miners ranked No. 1 in 2A. Yes, the Miners are pretty good and have 2 good wins but I was surprised at that ranking and with our nemesis Mater Dei at 6th. As Footballking indicted, It's pretty meaningless at this stage of the season.

Sullivan week is always a big week for the Miners. This will be game number 107 in the series that began in 1904. The series stands at Linton 53 Sullivan 51 with 2 ties. This should be a great game as most of them are.

Since Miner fan Tom Dawson, aka, ITISWHATITIS, has unfortunately lost his long battle with cancer and can no longer start the Linton Miner game thread each week, I thought I would fill in for him at least this once to start this new season. Tom used to go by USNAVYRET. Back in the day when the Linton team threads sometimes got a bit more "contentious" than they do nowadays, Tom could be sort of abrasive at times. I'm sad that he's gone and I'll certainly miss him. He moved to Linton from Ohio and had a son that played for Linton several years ago, He had resided in Bloomington for the last several years although he remained a staunch Linton fan and went to most games when his health permitted. Linton has never beaten Southridge but they have a good shot at getting a win Friday night. Southridge graduated most of the starters on both sides of the ball. The Miners return almost everyone from the 8-4 team last year. In last years opener at Southridge, Linton had no offensive punch and lost 28 - 0. Linton moved the starting QB to WB and promoted the Soph backup QB to starter and responded by beating a good Sullivan team the second week. I'm thinking this this will be the best Miner team since the undefeated !A championship team of 2016. The big question is can the be good enough to beat Mater Dei in the 2A Sectional. They never have yet. We'll worry about that later.

I don't know if you've heard anything about this but it appears we have have a new kid that should help the Miners on the line. I had heard that a family was moving here from the northern part of the state with a big kid who plays football. I don't know from where exactly. But I was at the field Tuesday evening to watch the scrimmage with Southmont. I didn't stay very long. Too hot for me and I was tired from mowing my lawn. Anyway, there was this big kid with the Linton squad. I had heard he was 6' 4 and about 250. He's every bit of that. Legs like tree trunks. Trabant seemed to be giving him some individual coaching. I don't know what grade he's in either. He's got fairly long, blond curly hair. Really looks good in his uni. I hope he's a player. We need all the help we can get. As for the scrimmage, as I said I didn't stay long but the Miners had the first set of downs and moved the ball well and went down field for a score. On Southmont's set Linton was stopping them without allowing much yardage. For what's that's worth. And for what it's worth I'm now in my tenth decade of watching Miner football. 100 seasons of the bottom of the pit to the top of the mountain and everything in between.

I think the Miners should have a spot in the top dozen. They've got almost everyone back and should be pretty good. But, alas, Mater Dei looms ahead in the Sectional as usual.

It's an annual affair with top teams. I think Heritage Christian is also there and another but I don't know who. Linton Played Triton Central last year and lost by ten. That played a large part in the Miners beating Triton Central in the tourney.

First year was 2019 for the mercy rule.

I have to preface everything I post with "I could be wrong" but I don't think the 35 point rule was in effect in 2018.