crimsonace1

It's the exact same offense and defense they have run for eight seasons. The basic concepts have never changed. You might throw it more when you have a QB and a bunch of receivers, or might rely more heavily on the run when you have a 10,000-yard back, but the structure of the offense has not changed and is run at every level down to middle school.

"Uneducated and frankly stupid" is par for the course. New Palestine DOES NOT RECRUIT. Nobody "poached" anyone from any school. The east suburbs of Indianapolis (especially the MV/NP areas) are rapidly-growing suburbs, and in the case of the player being referred to, it was an opportunity to move the family business closer to Indianapolis (and closer to home). That was very well-documented in the Muncie paper. Nobody from New Palestine even knew they were thinking of coming until they moved and enrolled.

As soon as I saw this thread topic, I knew our forum's "let's take today's ridiculous hot take that has no basis in fact and throw it against the wall" poster had started it. New Palestine was a historically good team the last two years. Last year's team also had 20+ seniors and graduated the state's career rushing and scoring leader, three of their top four receivers, an OL/DL who is now playing in the Big Ten, and their *entire* secondary. It's a mid-4A-sized public school that is 4-1. It was pretty widely known they'd be rebuilding a bit after graduating that much last year. Add to that, they've dealt with a number of injuries that has decimated their depth. Despite that, they're 4-1 (and they held a 3:1 yardage advantage in last week's game, but the opponent is much improved and they were very opportunistic). The JV is 5-0 and has won its games by a combined score of 152-20, both junior high teams were very successful and NP has one of the largest elementary leagues in the state. One three-game stretch is not enough to start claiming the program is "in decline" when it's not.

Every student's choice and decision is different. I'm sure nobody's going "darn, I really want to go to a large school and have an opportunity to practice every day on a Big Ten program and suit up every Saturday for a Big Ten school. I may not play a lot, but I want to give myself an opportunity at a world-class education at a school that has my major, but some noisy throw-crap-against-the-wall-and-see-what-bad-opinions-stick message board troll thinks I'm hurting Marian's program by doing so, so I had better not go to IU." Thinking about walk-ons, understand that in-state tuition at IU, PU & BSU is significantly less than in-state tuition at most smaller (private) colleges, EVEN WITH financial aid. I'm a big supporter of small-college football, but also an IU alum. Success at all is not mutually exclusive. IU bringing in a few more PWOs *does not* have that much of a ripple effect on the D2/D3/NAIA schools in-state, as some of those would likely walk on at FCS Indiana State (which has 60 scholarships, not 85 as a D1 school would) or Butler (non-scholarship, but more flexibile with financial aid than a D3). St. Francis & Marian are *often* in the NAIA title game. UIndy has made runs in the D2 tourney. Franklin was in the final eight of the NCAA tourney a decade or so ago and has made a couple of trips to the final 16.

Indiana small-college football is doing pretty well even though IU, PU and BSU all receive walk-ons. Marian & St. Francis are NAIA national powerhouses and IWU's program is growing, mostly with Indiana kids. Wabash is often in the running for the NCAC title & is often in the D3 Top 25. DePauw has been at that level in the past and I anticipate will be there again. Franklin has turned itself into a national player at the D3 level under Mike Leonard's tutelage (and I expect that to continue with Alan Hensell, who has hit the ground running this winter at FC). UIndy is often in the D2 national tournament.

Northwestern isn't a public school, therefore it cannot be a "public" ivy.

Johnny Football will have a degree from a world-class university that's the only Public Ivy in Indiana, while also having had the opportunity to be part of a Big Ten football team? There's a lot more to college football than the 11 guys on the field at any given time. IU's PWO program is opening up opportunities for student-athletes, and while many PWOs never see the field, some become scholarship players, team captains and more, but all have the opportunity to pursue a degree from a world-class university. I'm proud of my IU degree and the places where it has led me.

And ticket/concession sales. Those are the lifeblood of an athletic department.

That's likely for a 260-day contract (as opposed to 183 for teachers) and a LOT of night-weekend hours. You're putting in 60-80 hours/week pretty consistently from August to May. For teachers with more than a few years' experience, that would likely be a pay cut (especially once hours are factored in).

Most schools require an admin license - and at the very least, a teaching license, extensive HS coaching experience and working on admin license - to even be considered as an AD.

As someone whose job it is to come up with words to describe what he does on the football field each week, i've run out of superlatives to describe his play. Speed and power. Humble. Hard working. Strong. As an IU grad, I'm very excited to see what Charlie is going to do for the Hoosiers in the next four years. His records: 10,867 yards, 175 touchdowns, 1,054 points - are mind-boggling. When Brett Law set the scoring record 30 years ago, they were such crazy numbers, nobody thought they'd be touched. Seeing him do what he did is just incredible. He's the only RB in state history to rush for 3,000+ yards twice. And one of his teammates, Kyle King, got 21 votes, as well. Charlie's a great kid. Very humble. Just works hard, lets his play do the talking, keeps working, asks questions, wants to get better. He ran for 3,300+ yards last year while learning a new offense and getting in sync with a new line,. I'm very happy for him.

5A: New Pal, Valpo, Cathedral, Dwenger would almost undoubtedly have been the top 4. NP-Cathedral met in the regional, Valpo-Dwenger in the semistate, NP-Valpo in the State Finals.

There are no good reasons to remove opportunities from student-athletes for the sake of a dumb talking point. Only 12 can be on a basketball team. Football has 11 on the field at any given time.

Neither program was particularly strong in the years before the consolidation and Anderson's population has been in steady decline for years, but basketball rules the roost in Anderson. And while they were both pretty strong basketball schools, football took a back seat (although Highland had a couple of decent teams in its last years). However, a lot of Highland athletes went to Pendleton Heights and Yorktown rather than Anderson.

The reason why urban schools are closing is because people have been moving to suburban schools for 50 years. Suburbanization has been the cause of urban schools closing, not the effect. A closure of a school might accelerate some suburbanization - as, especially in places like Anderson and Muncie, people had emotional ties to the closing school (Highland, South Side) and thus moved their kids to suburban schools (I noticed this a lot when Anderson Highland closed and a number of Highland kids ended up at Pendleton Heights and Yorktown), but that was a special situation with a very, very deep-seated rivalry that made the IU-Purdue rivalry look friendly. Hamilton Southeastern's enrollment is very, very close to that of Indianapolis Public Schools (HSE 22K, IPS 25K) and will probably exceed it soon. HSE was a 1A-2A school 35 years ago.

You can go run your own site, since you are never going to run this one.

Why are you so strident in your nonstop belittling of the accomplishments of a high school student, which has been full of inaccuracies and speculation based on a tiny sample size and a "I have to be right so I'm going to drill my point until you all agree with me" desire to argue. Two things: D1 is more than P5. It's actually even more than FBS. Also, learn how to spell the kid's name if you're going to spend nine pages trying to tear him down and question his decision-making. "Wear and tear." Spegal was getting, maybe, 20 carries a game most nights. The people who ACTUALLY WATCHED HIS GAMES (which you clearly have not) can tell you this. Age? Why would a teenaged high school football player whose age is not abnormal for a high school senior scare off recruiters? If you're the "content creator" you seem to think you are, you'd at least do a little bit of research and get your facts straight rather than believing wild rumors. If anything, the lack of P5 offers likely has to do with measurables - he's 5'11 and doesn't have 4.5 speed and thus got pigeonholed as fullback, but he's a football player. He has tremendous sense, he's incredibly strong, has tremendous vision, is hard to tackle and he'll be a solid player for IU. I would be shocked if he doesn't earn a scholarship during his time at IU. I'm confident most readers understand where you're coming from: that your opinions are based in nothing close to facts, and that anything you write here should be taken about as seriously as people who call into sports talk radio. But "content" or something. It's content in the way Cheez-Wiz is food. Sure, it's content, but it's not quality and you feel worse for having consumed it.

It's easier when you realize that you can really only use a grass football game field about 10-15x a year for games (5-8 varsity games, 4-5 JV games, 4-5 frosh games), which requires maintenance of a separate practice field. Maybe the band uses it once a week. At New Pal, maintenance of our grass field was very costly, as we had to regularly re-sod and re-patch, even with use only on game days. With turf, the field is in use almost every day - the baseball/softball teams use it for cold-weather practices, the varsity football team practices on it every day (which allowed conversion of one of our football practice fields to a grass soccer practice field, which allowed for both soccer teams and the V/JV and F football teams to practice simultaneously), the youth football league has its championship games there (as well as some youth all-star games), the junior high team also plays at least one game a year there, it hosts soccer games and practices, et al. Also provides opportunities for revenue generation as travel soccer teams rent the facility for practices & games. Because of turf, the stadium has become a multi-use facility that is used 250+ days a year. One interesting thing of note - a decade ago, it was rare to play a game on turf. This year, all 14 New Palestine games were played on turf (8 home games on turf + away games at Kokomo, Center Grove, Greenfield-Central, Delta, Whiteland and Lucas Oil Stadium).

This was precisely the circumstance I was noting ... I asked Jason Wille about this as it happened, and he said the success factor one-class-at-a-time rule superseded the enrollment drop, therefore Andrean went from 4A to 3A ... and would have stayed in 3A with 3 points (then, now the cutoff is 2).

Attucks is grass. I've driven by their field many times en route to Riley.

Meanwhile, take a player like a Josiah Sears - who I've also watched from high school through college and beyond. Recruited as a fullback, doesn't have a lot of offers, takes a PWO at IU, starts as a senior, scores a TD in a bowl game for IU's best team in a decade, meets his wife, has a beautiful family, has spent years as a successful coach in D3 and now at IMG Academy. Would he have been "better off" at Central Michigan or Miami? I'm not sure, but things really worked out for him. Too many people want to treat athletes and football programs as pieces on a chess board they can move for the benefit of their entertainment (or their need to be "right" on their hot takes), but these all people and communities with unique needs, unique perspectives and unique desires. I firmly believe Charlie will work hard, find a spot and be successful at IU. He may not have the "measurables," but he's one of the most driven, hard-working football players I've ever seen, and he's very difficult to tackle in the open field. I'm excited for all of the NP seniors headed off to college and seeing them perform at the next level.

Incorrect. The Success Factor remains in effect even if enrollment pushes a team up. So, if a team's enrollment pushes them into 5A (from 4A), but it also got the six SF points to move up, it would *remain* in 5A two points, even if its enrollment pushes it back to 4A.

Because certain people around here have a need to have their factually inaccurate and off-the-wall hot takes proven "right," and will go to all ends - and step on as many toes as possible - to do so.

This reminds me a lot of Josiah Sears, who was recruited as a PWO and a fullback to play for IU in the early DiNardo years (DiNardo ran a pro-style West Coast scheme that used a fullback) and ended up being a key player on the 2007 Insight Bowl team, earning a scholarship. He told me, when Terry Hoeppner came in with a spread offense, "you've got to find a way to get on the field if you're a fullback in an offense that doesn't use one." He became a reliable third-down back and a key player for IU. Charlie's build is similar to Josiah's, but he's much stronger and harder to tackle and deceptively fast in the open field. He's a very hard worker and a football player - he was a linebacker at Delta, played some NT at New Pal last year, and will do anything he can to get on the field. He'll thrive with Michael Hart and the RB room. If there's a guy I want to give the rock to on third-and-2 and say "we need two yards," it's Charlie. He's also become a much-improved blocker at NP, running a similar spread offense to what Kalen DeBoer runs in Bloomington. Stevie Scott is a power back that's two years ahead of him, and Sampson James looks like he will have a similar power-back build, but I expect Charlie Spegal will find the field at IU. One thing we saw this year - especially in the Bucket game - is that you cannot have too many running backs. You're going to take a cheap shot at a high school student and lie about his age - spreading a false rumor that a few detractors have started - expect to be called out on it.