AG

I assumed that there aren't any Kiser or Lewellen type talents walking the halls right now. I was asking about maybe a tier or two below that, i.e. potential all-state players. It sounds like we return most of our lines though. Hopefully everyone will take their new role with pride and work hard.

Will Pioneer have any studs in your opinion?

I agree with you actually. I brought it up because I've been told this before by non-Pioneer fans. The only seasons that I've questioned whether Pioneer was actually really good or not were the 2010-2012 seasons, in which Pioneer was smashed by LCC all three seasons after cruising through their MWC schedule.

I have NJ as the favorite in their sectional. Pioneer should challenge them, but they've lost a ton of talent in the past few years. The X-factor is Pioneer coach Adam Berry. Can he do the same thing that previous coach Mike Johnson did and continue to reload, even in years when they lacked amazing athletes? Will he return to the bread and butter of the Wing-T, making sure that his team is a machine running a small but effective playbook? Or will he do something different and continue to succeed? Or was Pioneer's success in the Johnson days mostly due to the weaker MWC conference?

We will see if last year was an outlier for Purdue or if last year's success will continue.

I'm a Purdue guy through and through who has paid very close attention to recruiting in the past five years. With that being said, Purdue benefitted from two of the most important factors in recruiting - location and timing. Yes, it took some effort from Brohm and his staff to land Bell and Karlaftis, but they have been outliers. Purdue hasn't landed a player ranked as highly as either player since both committed. Yes, they've signed Milton Wright who is from Louisville and is an outlier, Maliq Carr, who has left the program for Michigan St, and Brady Allen, who has yet to play and is in Purdue's backyard, and a dozen or so of other low 4 star recruits. The only other former 4* players that have played at a high level, in the Brohm era, have been Marvin Grant, Gus Hartwig, and Rondale Moore, with Hartwig and Grant being debatable. Purdue only landed Moore because he went to the same high school as Brohm and is from the Louisville pipeline, which makes him another outlier. Hartwig also seems to be yet another outlier, as he is the highest OL recruit that Purdue has signed, by far, in the Brohm era, and was essentially in Purdue's backyard. I've read a few mock drafts for next season and I've only seen one player mocked to be drafted, and it's Jalen Graham in the 5th round. Obviously a lot can happen between now and then. I think that AOC and Wright have good chances to be drafted, as long as Wright can stay eligible. Purdue was very lucky to have signed two top 100 players in their own backyard. Outside of those two, Purdue had one other player drafted this year, a former walk-on in the seventh round, and had several UDFA free agents signed. Take away Bell and Karlaftis and Purdue goes back to their norm, which is normally one player being drafted on day 3 and a slew of UDFA being signed after the draft. Recruiting has improved quite a bit in the Brohm era, as he has been adept at recruiting Indiana, but the drafting really hasn't outside of three outliers. It's not like 5-10 players are being drafted every year now. Brohm hasn't shown that he is capable of signing highly coveted players outside of the Indiana and Louisville pipelines, which tells me that his classes would have been mediocre without those pipelines producing highly coveted players.

Minor correction. It wasn't the group that posted the reaction, it was a member of the program who commented. It tells me that even those inside of the program had little to no idea what was going on. This is a bad look by the IHSAA, but I honestly doubt that they care.

According to the rosters posted on Maxpreps, North Judson only lost 6 seniors from last years squad. I've been told very good things about this upcoming team and it will be very interesting to see if Pioneer and North Judson will end up playing one another in back to back weeks, as they are scheduled to play in week 9. Hopefully they'll be able to meet in the sectional final for a real dandy. Triton only lost 4 players from last years squad and has 53 players listed on the roster! They have a big freshman class of 16 players coming in.

North Judson will be really good and is probably the favorite to win that sectional.

Or just switch Pioneer and West Central. Voila.

There is a PIONEER FOOTBALL Facebook group that has several thousand followers and whoever runs the page made a post about being switched from 2A to 1A. Using emojis, they expressed happiness with their 2A placement and anger with their 1A placement. There's no justification for placing Pioneer in what is basically the "region" sectional other than pure laziness by the IHSAA. The IHSAA needs to release a statement explaining their actions as it is very puzzling for all parties involved.

That's definitely not very good money, especially when it requires a degree. The Indiana Department of Correction pays a rookie correctional officer better than that and the minimum requirement is a GED, a driver's license, and the ability to pass a drug screen and a background check. The work is dangerous, but I digress.

You're fine. I made the comment because several years ago there was controversy, involving Coach Burgess and Coach Barr, in which Barr was barely voted in by the school board due to several school board members wanting Burgess to be the next head coach. Then there was controversy when Barr was fired as well.

Ok. Well my post has already been deleted.

My post didn't violate any policies.

Any idea what the school board vote was?

He doesn't lurk very well though. If he was on here he would have already posted on this topic by now.

Personally I am very loyal, sometimes to a fault, but I get that from my dad, who has only held two very unglamorous jobs for the past 40ish years. If I had been a D1 athlete, I would have chosen Purdue, probably regardless of the sport, unless I hadn't been recruited there, and then my goal would have been to eventually play for Purdue. With that being said, despite the fact that I tend to pick something and stick with it, through thick and thin, I am all for the transfer portal. I think that giving athletes more flexibility and choices is a great thing.

Campbell is that receiver, IF he stays healthy. I'm hoping that the Colts will draft Bell, a speed receiver, and a TE. Bell can always replace Pittman if Pittman becomes injured or demands far too much money, and we all know cheap Ballard can be. Ashton Dulin is a pretty fast receiver too if he ever develops. I just don't see the point in skipping Bell if he's there because he's just been so darn productive at every level, dominating with his route running and hands. I'm not sure if Bell will be as productive as a pro due to his lack of speed, but barring injuries, I really don't see how he won't be productive, since he's been extremely productive at every level so far, without a doubt. I'm a Purdue diehard and I am really rooting for Bell, so I'll be overjoyed if he's drafted by the Colts.

Yes. Your point?

Wentz didn't even play in the playoffs that season or the last three games of the regular season. The Eagles were good enough to win without Wentz. Ever since then he has been damaged goods and lacks the clutch gene.

Pioneer achieved something similar in 20-21. Although the football team was short of making it to the 2A state finals by eight points, the girls volleyball, basketball, and softball teams all won state titles. The girls three-peat was the first of its kind in Indiana.

How likely is Ballard to trade for a WR now that the FA market is looking pretty thin? I'm not against him signing MVS from the Packers and drafting David Bell.

I like the Matt Ryan trade. He will actually play behind a good offensive line in Indy and I think that he has at least 2 more years left in the tank. If he doesn't, the Colts can release him next season and face zero dead cap money. His TD-INT ratio wasn't fantastic, but his completion percentage was 5% higher than Wentz. He also had 3 4th quarter comebacks and 4 game winning drives, while Wentz had zero of either. Ryan also threw 4 percent less bad passes and his on target percentage was 5% higher. Ryan is much better than every single free agent QB and it only cost the Colts a third rounder. Wentz is damaged goods and doesn't possess the clutch gene. He also didn't seem to be as committed as he should have been and also had possible attitude issues.

I don't follow the MLB all that closely anymore, but it always confused the heck out of me as to why one half of MLB allowed DHs and the other didn't. The entire league needed to either allow DHs or not allow them, IMO. Honestly I was never a big fan of watching pitchers, with sub .100 batting averages, attempt to bat anyway.