NE8_Fan

This year SHOULD be a 3 Horse race with defending champ Leo, Norwell and East Noble leading the pack. My thoughts are:

1/1A: Leo/Norwell:  I only say this because I believe defending champs have earned the right to be considered favorites until someone knocks them off there perch.  With that being said, that very well could come in week three for Leo.  Norwell UNDOUBTEDLY returns the most talent of all the NE8 teams this season.  Best lineman in conference (Bolyn), check....best RB in conference (Graft) check, best returning defensive unit (scoring), check.  BUT....Norwell's achilles heel in the past few years has been the Lions and they have had a VERY difficult time putting points on the board against Leo.  Will that change with a completely new staff and offensive/defensive system for the Lions? Lions lose possibly the MOST talent to graduation in Livingston (WVU), Allen (Rutgers), Sheron (Davidson) and Crawford (Illinois St).  They will need to replace their defensive line and 3/5 of their offensive line.  They do return , I believe, the #2 lineman in the conference in Colin Butler as well as Lb's Baker and Holcomb, DB/WR Zeisloft and, possibly their most important piece 2 way starter Ethan Crawford.  This guy, though,  is not sold on the Lions being successful in a spread offense right away. There may have been a reason the Lions ran a power running attack under Coach Sauder the last few years.  Who's their QB is a question that needs to be answered and answered quickly.  NE8 title implications get much clearer after week 3.

3. East Noble:  The Knights will ALWAYS be in the race for a conference title based on their coaching staff and consistent talent level coach Amstutz develops in Kendalville.  He is an offensive mastermind when it comes to finding holes in a defense and putting his offensive playmakers in a position to make plays.  This year he will need to find new playmakers for his 2nd year QB (Brazel) to get the ball to. The Knights lost a LOAD of offensive talent in Zolman, Munson, Carrico, Christian and bigs Hood and Charles.  Some new faces will need to grow up fast with back to back games against Leo and Norwell in weeks 5 & 6.  Expect East Noble to be very much in the conference race going into the week 6 matchup with Norwell.....

4. New Haven: The Bulldogs will, more often than not, have some of the most athletic teams in the conference still feeding off the closing of Harding and absorbing the majority of those kids.  They may also have the top overall player in the NE8 this year in Mylan Graham who has absolutely blown up on the recruiting trail this spring/summer.  Their most glaring weakness is their offensive and defensive lines.  If they EVER want to be a serious title contender these areas MUST get better for the Dawgs.  A new QB (NorthSide transfer) could help the post Jakar Williams era and keep the aerial attack a threat for Coach Booher's team this year.  New DC in coach Mullen could add a little fire/spark for this year.  Big Match-up with Leo in week 4 looms early.

5/6.  Columbia City/Dekalb:  these spots could be interchangeable in my eyes.  Columbia City has been a team on the brink for more than a couple years now While Dekalb has been up and down but, I believe, they return the best QB in the NE8 in Tegan Irk.  Col City enters the post Gregory Bolt era, which has felt like 10 yrs, into a new running attack scheme resembling Coach Adamson's wing T attack at Eastbrook...makes sense since Coach Fox has history there.  Biggest question mark is how will the Eagles incorporate young stud receiver Statton Fuller in this run heavy scheme? Expect the Eagles to get better in their new run first schem scheme in its second year.  Dekalb's Irk will have able bodied WR Donnie Wiley to throw to along with Logan Motoya (50 ypg).  Mitch Snyder returns in the running game (60 ypg). The Barons return their top 3 scorers but graduated their top 3 tacklers.  Dekalb is a program to keep your eye on in a couple years with successful classes on the horizon....

7.  Huntington North: this is a program that HAS to get better isn't it?  New facilities on the way and a more than able leader in Coach Prescott the Vikings seem to have good numbers and size on their roster the last few years.  Losing top RB last year to Luers definately didn't get the season off to a good start.  They lose, well, they lost alot in their top 2 rushers and receivers and dual threat QB.  Could be another long season for the Vikings.

8. Belmont: Coach Hall begins his 3rd season at the helm for his alma mater Braves.  The Braves return top rusher Issaac Bodkins in their triple option attack. but graduated QB Ulman who ran the option.  They did steal a win from Dekalb last year and may steal another win this year from someone over looking them.  Nevertheless, I just can't see the Braves making too much noise if any this year.

10 hours ago, FlyingHigh said:

This is a bit of a ridiculous statement. Luers had some amazing players, but Eastside was the better team. This was clear to anyone who watched that game with unbiased eyes. SAC fans need to swallow their pride and accept the fact that there are non-SAC teams in NE Indiana that could compete with the top teams in their conference. The non-SAC schools that could compete with Luers, etc. change from year to year, but they're out there each year.

SAC is definitely the best conference in the NE corner, but Eastside was the better overall team last year - not just the night they played - last year, period. They also beat them in 2019 and took Luers to the wire in 2020.

To say Luers should have won state is also crazy because they would've had to go through Eastbrook and Andrean just to get to LOS.

All of that being said, great preview of the conference! I appreciate people sharing as much info as you did about each program.

I concur.....Eastside didn't just beat Luers, they beat them up physically.....by ALOT.  Weather could have played a roll but bad weather or not, Luers was NOT stopping the running game of Eastside last year.  Carson Clark was great, but THE best player on that field last year resided in Butler.......

I know Fort Wayne Community School's policy is....well there is no policy.  Former superintendant basically didnt want to deal with transfer issues so all the FWCS (Snider, Northrop, NorthSide, SouthSide, Wayne) were instructed that they were NOT to challenge any transfers within the district.  Hence, the strong (Snider) stay strong and the weak stay weak.  And then there's always Dwenger and Luers to choose from as well.

On 6/3/2022 at 10:09 PM, BTF said:

Traction AP is the new name I believe. Great program that develops athletes. Do they still complete in the IMG 7 on 7 National Championship?

Yes....my mistake, they are and have been AP traction for a few years now

Class of 2024 WR Mylan Graham (New Haven) went to the OSU camp without any offers and comes home with an offer from the Buckeyes. Athletic, fast receiver who trains with same athletic training organization as Austin Mack (Luers, OSU, NY Giants, SF 49ers) in AWP out of Fort Wayne.

Would still love to see some type of SAC/NE8 yearly matchups.  Something that would pair up similar level  teams.  Some good matchups could be:

Wayne vs Huntington North or Belmont

SouthSide vs Dekalb

Northrop vs Leo (especially now)

NorthSide vs New Haven

Dwenger vs East Noble (the Knights already have Snider lined up)

Concordia vs Columbia City

Luers vs Norwell

These, to me, could be very entertaining matchups talent/coaching wise.

Leo actually learned the T offense from a school (actually a couple different ones) in Michigan.  They started running it back in 2007-08 I believe and ran it heavily in 2010 and 2011 when they won conference, sectional and regional titles.  Eventually went away from it due to personnel.

2 hours ago, SAC_Insider said:

👀

Adds a whole new level of interest now.....

1 hour ago, FlyingHigh said:

I like that idea, but I get the feeling that a lot of Bellmont/Decatur people would rather get spanked in the NE8 in football than have to play AC every year because it's embarrassing to lose to their smaller county rival. They dropped AC from their schedule for Heritage.

They'd compete in the ACAC, as it's a weak conference, but they would still lose a few of those games. I just think that community has some odd competitive preferences when they can't come close to competing with other local schools.

I'm sure that the coaching staff would gladly play the ACAC schedule, though. These decisions have to consider all sports - not just football. Bellmont would do very well in the ACAC all-around.

Not sure how much picking up Heritage will do for them as I'm sensing a resurgence for the Patriots under Coach Kolkman and expectations are high in that program for next year.

Belmont (NE8) move to the ACAC and Angola (NECC) move into the NE8

On 5/17/2022 at 7:18 AM, HHF said:

Was there some dissatisfaction with the prior staff due to lack of offensive creativity?

There has been complaints about the offense because its not "flashy" or mainstream (i.e. spread), but you know what it did?  It WON.  21-3 the last two seasons and 2 outright NE8 conference championships as well as appearances in back to back sectional finals (last 3 years actually according to Harrells).  Averaged over 40 pts/game last season and set school record for rushing yards and scoring in a season.  The full-house backfield offense has worked for them.  The games I've seen them play the offense has been fast, deceptive and physically dominant.  The defense was also very good which, to me, go hand in hand with that style of offense.  When you can control the pace of the game with your offense, you keep the opponents offense off the field and your defense fresh.  Those with short term memory also forget that when Leo last won back to back sectional and regional titles, they ran the same full house backfield offense.  Yes they also ran some spread too but they had a stud QB and a stable of receivers then.  Yeah they made an incredible drive during the East Noble sectional game this year (game of the year in my opinion) but some of that drives success had to come from catching the Knights off guard. How much does anyone think Coach Amstutz prepared for  any form of passing attack??  Great job by the kids AND the coaching staff for keeping that in their back pocket but some of that successful drive had to come from the element of suprise.  People wanting "change" be weary, the same success in the win/loss columns can change with offensive philosophy.  I, personally, think they made the BEST choice with Coach Doerffler!  Things will obviously be/look different next year, but to hear so much bashing of Coach Sauder's staff and offensive philosophy is absolutely ridiculous and uncalled for!  139-42 career record, only losing season was his 1st on the job.  Looks to me he made pretty darn good decisions for the Leo program IMHO.  Last 10 seasons the ONLY program with a better winning percentage in the Ft Wayne area is Snider (.810 Snider, .793 Leo) per Harrell's site.  That's pretty good company.

11 hours ago, XStar said:

So if Engle is such an upgrade, they should still be able to beat Andrean this year even if they also had an upgrade.  

Naahh…….Andrean beats Eastbrook, should they face each other, by 2-3 TD's...imho

On 10/25/2020 at 1:22 PM, southend said:

Interesting about the Bulldogs. Does the East Allen school system have transfer rules? I know the Ft. Wayne system is open. The district line for New Haven used to butt up with R. Nelson . Back in the day,  kids on or close to that line ,some would enroll at either school. For various reasons.

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East Allen does have boundaries.  If i'm not mistaken, though, you can choose what high school you want to attend before 9th grade but then transfer rules apply after that if you decide to change schools within district.

9 hours ago, jakone said:

Do what's best for the fans. Greed corrupts and destroys.

Disagree with this ADAMANTLY.  Do what's best for the KIDS.  High school sports is about them.  If the fans are true fans, they'll travel to watch.

1 hour ago, Pigskin Pete said:

How did it end?

Leo made better halftime adjustments and Northridge fell apart at the seams.......but I'm sure they will blame the refs.....smh

12 hours ago, CTP said:

Match ups I’m excited for week 1: Leo at Northridge and Columbia City at East Noble

Leo at Northridge: Leo has proven to be a tough team for several years. This is one of their best teams they’ve had. Junior class is extremely talented (although what happened to #33 Mason Sheron??). They are strong defensively and offense is solid. Northridge is going to give them everything they have. They are a little banged up and coming off a tough loss vs a very good Mishawaka team. As an NLC fan, I’m hoping they learn from their mistakes and take Leo down the wire. My prediction — Leo scores at the end to make score look worse than it is: Leo 24, Northridge 14. 

 

 

Mason has been out after an off season surgery.  He was just recently cleared to return but must get in his 10 practices before he can compete.  Won't be available until sectional championship if Leo should get that far.

Fort Wayne/NE Indiana top players to be considered:

Duce Taylor, QB Ft Wayne Northside: thru 5 games; 89-145, 1651 yards, 20 TD's, 2 INTs with 2 rushing TD's. Hurt by the fact N Side is sitting at 2-3 on the year and likely not getting out of the sectional with Dwenger there.  Stat machine.

James Arnold, QB South Adams: thru 5 games; 71-101, 1396 yards, 18 TD's, 2 INT's.  4 year starter for 5-0 #2 ranked team in 1A.  Should have a great post season run, BUT being in 1A hurts historically.

Mason Englert, WR Ft Wayne Carroll: thru 5 games; 35 catches, 835 yards, 11 TD's receiving, 12 TD's total.  Top receiver in area on a very good 4-1 6A Carroll team (IFCA #6).

Dwenger @ North side......the Legends come crashing back to reality....as much as it pai me to say it, the Saints are THE class of the SAC this year.  The Legends, imo, fall into the 2a/2b spot this year. BD by 21

Luers @ Wayne......Luers in a close one.  Just can't see a win in the SAC for Haydock except maybe South. Luers by 7

Carroll v Snider....I can't believe it but I think its gonna happen, Snider starts the season 0-2.  Too much firepower for the Chargers (more than the Legends have imo). Chargers by 17

SouthSide @ Northrop....a wealth of coaching knowledge for the Bruins is paying off.  But at this level its more about the Jimmy and Joes, not the X's and O's....and the Bruins have the advantage their too.  Bruins by 30

Homestead @ Concordia.....kinda torn by this one.  I think losing Goode has been grossly understated, the kid was a STUD.  Spartan offense is nothing near same without him.  Concordia D is SOLID......upset alert....Concordia by 1

I'm in

Leo is at Warsaw Sat morning....10 AM start....fans will be allowed I understand...limited to a set number though I believe

SAC in Fort Wayne has their games streamed on Youtube on Summit City Sports

4 hours ago, DT said:

Good points.  I wonder if GK had great numbers because he had no help on that PU defense.

 

 

Man I will never get trying to downplay one kid in an attempt to boost another.....smh

Dwenger over Wayne easily.....35-7

Carroll over Luers in a good one.....24-14

Concordia over South, good game for Concordia to grow their new defensive scheme......35-14

Snider over NorthSide, rooting for Brevard to continue changing the culture at NS but this is Snider.....42-14

Homestead over Northrop, if Homestead is a real contender in the SAC, they need to put away Northrop early to show it.....49-21

Any coach would have to be a paying member of the IFCA to get a vote.

What kind of offense/defense can the NE8 expect from Huntington North under Coach Prescsott?