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Bloomington South 23 Bloomington North 7 (End of 3rd) The North Cougars have the ball at the South 3 yard line and a 4th down when the 4th starts. South stuffed the running back for a loss and took over on downs about their 4 yard line.

Bloomington South 23 Bloomington North 7 (3:44, 3rd) South had a TD pass called back for another holding call and they kicked a 45-yard FG.

Bloomington South 20 Bloomington North 7 (7:25, 3rd) North got on the board with a kickoff return for a TD after South's TD.

Bloomington South 20 Bloomington North 0 (7:41, 3rd) South Panthers took the opening drive of the 2nd half on a fairly long drive to bump the lead up.

Bloomington South 13 Bloomington North 0 (half) This score could easily be 27-0 at the half if not for all of the penalties called on South's offense. By my count, South was hit for 8 penalties in the first half, 7 on the offense and a PF on special teams. North cannot move the ball against South's defense. South was hit for 10 penalties for 120 yards against TH North last week.

Bloomington South 13 Bloomington North 0 (2:14, 2nd) South scored on a long pass play to put a little bit of a distance from North. The PAT was blocked. South defense has played great and has kept North in check. Penalties on the offensive side have kept the score down.

Bloomington South 7 Bloomington North 0 (6:09, 2nd) South finally overcame penalties to score the first score of the game. South had the ball to start the 2nd qtr, and was hit with two straight penalties on the first two plays of the qtr and punted. They held North to a three and out and got finally got the TD after a long pass play put them deep into North territory.

Bloomington South 0 Bloomington North 0 (end of 1st) North had the ball to open the game and missed on a 38 yard FG. South, which has had a major problem with major penalties in the first three games, had three holding calls on their first possession of the game. They overcame the first two holding calls and drove into North territory, but the third holding call was too much to overcome and they ended up punting to North.

I was trying to make a donation thru PayPal but ran into some problems with that, so I got a donation in the snail mail headed in your direction.

It's my understanding that both New Castle and Shelbyville are moving to the new Hoosier Legends Conference.

The Bull Dogs have a strong o-line and a really good QB, so that goes a long way toward developing another RB or two to replace Prescott, as well as new starting receivers. CN usually has quality athletes to step in for the departing players.

I'm not running any kind of pick-em games this season, but I will be giving my view of the CI games from week to week, with my pick being in boldface. If anyone wants to weigh in on these games, please have at it. I don't see any of the games being very competitive this week. Maybe the Col. North @ Roncalli game will be close, but that looks like a game that the Bull Dogs could easily roll past the Royals. Bloomington North @ Bloomington South Both teams could be without their starting QBs this week and the starting QB for both teams did not play in the Terre Haute games last week. North's QB John Bargen suffered an undisclosed injury in their game with Mooresville and then reaggravated it during practice, sitting out the game with Terre Haute South where they were limited to just 91 yards total offense. WR receiver turned LB, Luke Freel, filled in at QB for that game and he was 7 for 20 passing with two INTs. South starting QB Duncan Combs also missed the Terre Haute North game with an undisclosed injury and may not be available for the game this Friday. Backup QB Jonathan Winstead, who also starts at WR when Combs is under center, was 6 for 9 for 62 yards and had one INT. Winstead didn't have to do much with South's o-line and running backs do most of the damage in that game, and the running clock at the start of the second half, made that game end quickly. South is too deep with quality talent at most positions, so I don't see a thin Cougar team from an experience standpoint, challenging them. The only thing that I would be concerned with is that the Panthers have committed way too many major penalties in the first three games of the season, and couple that with turnovers, those factors could possibly keep this game somewhat close. Harrell's site prediction: Bloom. South 35 Bloom. North 21 Columbus North @ Indy Roncalli Roncalli has been down by their standards the last couple of seasons, and are 10-12 over those two seasons. They are 1-2 so far this season and their two losses are against quality opponents. Their lone win was against FW Dwenger by a score of 3-0, a score you don't see very often in high school football. I think Col. North will probably roll over them, and like with South, penalties and turnovers being possible equalizers for the Royals. Harrell's site prediction: Columbus North 28 Roncalli 17 Pike @ Southport Pike enters the game at 0-3, just like Southport, but that is where the comparison ends for these two teams. Pike has played the tougher schedule, and Southport has been shutout in their first three games. Southport will probably battle Terre Haute North later on this season for the only win by either team this regular season. I see Pike rolling over the Cardinals in an easy call for their first win. The only question mark for this game is will the Cardinals score any points. Harrell's site prediction: Pike 38 Southport 7 Terre Haute South @ Terre Haute North The TH South Braves (2-1) are coming off a 23-0 shutout of Bloomington North which was without their starting QB. TH North Patriots have been bludgeoned in their first three games in an 0-3 start to the season. The South Braves have a least a dozen transfers from the TH North squad and have the better running back in Tyisaac Corbin. The North Patriots have a thin roster with some two-way players, so I don't see them hanging with the Braves. I see a blowout coming in this game. Harrell's site prediction: Terre Haute South 38 Terre Haute North 21

I haven't heard anything on that. I'm not close to anyone that is with the program or even the parents of the players, and they probably know where AD JR Holmes has approached things on this issue. I posted earlier that back in May, Holmes mentioned the HHC as a possibility, but I don't know if the schools in the HHC are warm to the idea, and I don't know if the HHC requires a unanimous vote for that to happen. It makes sense to me that Col. North and South would be a good fit for the HHC. South plays a lot of HHC schools in basketball and also often has one of those schools on their football schedule like Col. East. However, they replaced Seymour with Center Grove (yikes!) on this year's football schedule.

It didn't surprise me that TH-South beat the North Cougars, but the shutout was surprising. North had a big turnover of players from last season and is thin in experience at several positions. They seem to be a team that will run hot and cold on the season. They did beat BNL after the Stars had knocked off Martinsville by a wide margin which kind of indicates that they are going to have an up and down season. They have Bloom. South this Friday and I will be surprised if that game is close even with the rivalry aspect to it, since South is much deeper at most positions on both sides of the ball. One area that South needs to cleanup is with the penalties and they have had a ton of them, especially of the major category, in the first three games. Against TH North, they had 10 penalties for 120 yards. In the Bloom. North game, North had just 91 yards total offense in the game. It was 6-0 TH South at the half, and the Braves used their running game, a little over 300 rushing yards total, to control the second half.

After being so rudely interrupted, here are the CI standings through Week 3. As expected, it sure looks like the conference championship game will be the South/Col. North game on Oct 3rd in Columbus. It also looks like Southport and Terre Haute North's game will decide who gets the only win on the season for those two teams. Both teams, with new head coaches, look dreadful so far in the season CONFERENCE INDIANA ALL TIMES EASTERN CONFERENCE ALL GAMES W-L Pts OP W-L Pts OP Streak Bloomington South 1-0 49 13 3- 0 129 47 Won 3 Columbus North 1-0 54 0 3- 0 155 14 Won 3 Terre Haute South 1-0 23 0 2- 1 76 67 Won 2 Bloomington North 0-1 0 23 1- 2 43 71 Lost 1 Southport 0-1 0 54 0- 3 0 133 Lost 14 Terre Haute North 0-1 13 49 0- 3 28 139 Lost 6

The last time I checked, and it's been a couple of years, nine states had the shot clock in high school basketball. As it's been pointed out, NFHS rules are followed just about everywhere for football.

After last season, the Panthers had three assistant coaches leave the program after their loss in the semi-state. Coach Johnson had an OC and QB coach lined up to be hired when the school system put on a hiring freeze. Here's an excerpt from an article on Moriarity. Johnson hadn't even considered the possibility until Moriarity reached out. "With our budget situation, it put us in a bind," Johnson said. "But I didn't even think about it. He'd been out five years and he's building a house. It wasn't even in my realm, but I know how hard it is to find a lay coach who can do the kind of job that we want. "I didn't really ask him. He just kind of told me, I’ll do it. It’s just ingrained in who he is, that the thought of doing that just excited him." Moriarity, now 70, was in the middle of building a comfortable retirement for himself and his wife Gail following his hall of fame career. It included a lot of golf. That plan also included a new house next to Foxcliff Golf Course in his hometown of Martinsville, where he wouldn't have to go far to get in another round. But that connection to South was never fully severed after the reins were handed off to Johnson, his longtime assistant. Moriarity is a substitute teacher at South, and he followed the Panthers' football team closely through last year's playoff run. It ended with a tough 27-13 semi-state loss to Decatur Central, a game that was tied with less than three minutes to go. "(Johnson) was my assistant for 12 years, and they're family to me," Moriarity said. "And to sit there and watch that semi-state game, I felt the pain. But they had this really good team coming back." Johnson hadn't even considered the possibility until Moriarity reached out. "With our budget situation, it put us in a bind," Johnson said. "But I didn't even think about it. He'd been out five years and he's building a house. It wasn't even in my realm, but I know how hard it is to find a lay coach who can do the kind of job that we want. "I didn't really ask him. He just kind of told me, I’ll do it. It’s just ingrained in who he is, that the thought of doing that just excited him."

I honestly am not qualified to comment on what Castle has going for them this season, but in these scrimmages, teams usually are pretty generic in their play and don't show much in their play designs. Curiously, is it that they were fundamentally unsound in their play in the scrimmage or what? I have somewhat of an interest in them since Bloomington South faced them in the regional last season and they may meet again this season in the regional.

That may be behind a pay wall, so here are the rankings. Class 6A football preseason top 10 Ranking Team Record Votes Prev. ranking 1. Brownsburg (15) 0-0 158 - 2. Westfield (1) 0-0 128 - 3. Center Grove 0-0 124 - 4. Lawrence North 0-0 114 - 5. Crown Point 0-0 93 - 6. Warren Central 0-0 65 - 7. Hamilton SE 0-0 60 - 8. Fishers 0-0 42 - 9. Decatur Central 0-0 33 - 10. Ben Davis 0-0 17 - Others receiving votes: Carmel 14, FW Snider 6, FW Carroll 6, Columbus North 4, Elkhart 3, Avon 3, Penn 1. Class 5A football preseason top 10 Ranking Team Record Votes Prev. ranking 1. New Palestine (12) 0-0 156 - 2. Cathedral (4) 0-0 128 - 3. Merrillville 0-0 115 - 4. (tie) Bloomington South 0-0 85 - 4. (tie) East Central 0-0 85 - 6. Warsaw 0-0 72 - 7. Lafayette Jeff 0-0 67 - 8. Concord 0-0 53 - 9. Plainfield 0-0 41 - 10. Valparaiso 0-0 31 - Others receiving votes: Castle 16, Bloomington North 7, Whiteland 6, Floyd Central 4, Terre Haute South 1 Class 4A football preseason top 10 Ranking Team Record Votes Prev. ranking 1. Bishop Chatard (10) 0-0 149 - 2. Heritage Hills (5) 0-0 140 - 3. Mishawaka (1) 0-0 111 - 4. East Noble 0-0 110 - 5. Martinsville 0-0 81 - 6. Roncalli 0-0 76 - 7. Evansville Reitz 0-0 64 - 8. Greenfield-Central 0-0 46 - 9. FW Bishop Dwenger 0-0 30 - 10. Danville 0-0 22 - Others receiving votes: Brebeuf Jesuit 14, New Prairie 11, Leo 10, Columbia City 8, NorthWood 7, Greenwood 3, Mt. Vernon 2. Class 3A football preseason top 10 Ranking Team Record Votes Prev. ranking 1. Evansville Memorial (5) 0-0 143 - 2. FW Bishop Luers (7) 0-0 129 - 3. Gibson Southern (3) 0-0 116 - 4. Lawrenceburg 0-0 86 - 5. Mississinewa 0-0 70 - 6. Evansville Mater Dei 0-0 57 - 7. West Lafayette 0-0 49 - 8. Garrett 0-0 44 - 9. Cascade 0-0 43 - 10. Maconaquah 0-0 39 - Others receiving votes: Knox 29, Tri-West 24, Guerin Catholic 21 (1), West Noble 10, Southridge 8, Batesville 7, North Harrison 2. Class 2A football preseason top 10 Ranking Team Record Votes Prev. ranking 1. Adams Central (15) 0-0 158 - 2. Lutheran (1) 0-0 125 - 3. Linton-Stockton 0-0 119 - 4. Brownstown Central 0-0 98 - 5. Andrean 0-0 95 - 6. Laf. Central Catholic 0-0 85 - 7. Lapel 0-0 60 - 8. Heritage Christian 0-0 28 - 9. Triton Central 0-0 19 - 10. Eastbrook 0-0 13 - Others receiving votes: Monrovia 12, Paoli 12, Western Boone 12, Bluffton 8, Alexandria 6, Eastern (Greentown) 5, Northeastern 5, Centerville 3, North Posey 3, South Vermillion 1. Class A football preseason top 10 Ranking Team Record Votes Prev. ranking 1. Providence (14) 0-0 158 - 2. North Judson 0-0 136 - 3. South Putnam (2) 0-0 127 - 4. North Decatur 0-0 85 - 5. South Adams 0-0 75 - 6. Carroll (Flora) 0-0 65 - 7. Milan 0-0 54 - 8. Madison-Grant 0-0 51 - 9. Springs Valley 0-0 47 - 10. North Miami 0-0 32 - Others receiving votes: Pioneer 13, Frontier 11, Triton 7, LaVille 6, Sheridan 6, Forest Park 2, Knightstown 2, Riverton Parke 2, Tri 1.

This is in all likelihood the last season for Conference Indiana. After this season, Bloomington North will be off for the Mid-State Conference, while both Terre Haute schools will be off to the Sagamore Conference. Who knows where Bloom. South, Col. North, and Southport will wind up. Four schools will have new head coaches, and they are Bloomington North, Southport, and both Terre Haute schools. Bloomington South and Columbus North appear on paper to be the front-runners for the conference championship, and they are the only schools with returning head coaches. I'm clearly bias as a supporter of Bloom. South and I see them taking the championship of the conference, and I have good reasons for seeing that happen. Bloomington South: The Panthers welcome back hall of fame coach Mo Moriarity, who comes out of retirement to be the OC and QB coach this season. South had 94 players report for practices in grades 10 through 12. I didn't get the numbers for the freshman class. The Panthers return 20 of 22 starters and seem, at least on paper, as having good depth at just about every position on both sides of the ball, but you don't win games on paper. Along with the 20 returning starters, the Panthers had at least five transfers coming in that will play a big part in the rotations. South can afford some injuries to just about every position with talented players ready to step up. They have one of the better offensive backfields in the state in 6'6 jr QB Duncan Combs and sr RB Braylen Townsend who ran for 2,149 yards and 25 TDs on 347 carries, and incredibly, he had no turnovers on the season, while setting a school rushing record for the season. Combs will be backed up at QB by athletic jr Jon Winstead who will also see a lot of action at the WR position. Towsend will be backed up by Bloom. North transfer sr RB/KR Shaun Cooper who shared the RB position at Bloom. North last season, and he is considered a dangerous kick returner. Jr RB Hayden Clark backed up Townsend last season and ran for a hair under 5 yards a carry and he will also see some carries out of the backfield. Sr 6'5 TE/WR Jalen Williams, a South Florida commit, transferred from Bloom. North at the beginning of the second semester last school year, and will be a big target for Combs. Returning wide receivers had a combined 164 receptions last season with sr Sam Giles leading that group. South returns four of five starters in the o-line and according to Coach Johnson, they were extremely strong in the scrimmage with Lawrence Central this past Friday. Coach Johnson said after the scrimmage that his interior o-line is the best he has had. On the defensive side, South returns nine starters and added to that with Bloom. North transfer sr OLB Ross Ogden, a Northern Illinois recruit. The Panthers will have some speed off the edge and at a very deep linebacker position. Jr. Derrick Willis, a transfer from Texas, will the in the rotation off the edge. In addition to the DE end position, South has several other DL returners with experience and added Bloom. North transfer Zion Tooley to that group and he will be part of the DL rotation. Sr ILB Ian Quick will lead the deep LB position and he had 126 tackles from last season, and a team-best 80 solos. Among the defensive backs, South welcomes back jr Qunicy Braham and jr Rylan Stikeleather and Stikeleather will be a major player on the basketball team this season. An area that I just don't know about is the kicking game. South lost K/P Bryce Taylor to graduation and he is on the IU roster this season. Season opener: Home to Columbus East Columbus North: They are the defending conference champions going 5-0 in conference play and finishing the season at 8-2. The Bull Dogs had some significant losses through graduation, especially at the skill positions on offense, but they usually have some quality athletes ready to step in to fill the void, and most observers believe they will be strong again despite the losses. They return dual-threat sr QB Asher Ratliff who is small but extremely cat-quick with speed. Based on what I saw, the Bull Dogs return four of five starters on the o-line, which is huge when you are breaking in new running backs and receivers after they lost a quality running back in Gino Prescott and their top three wide receivers, plus what I believe was a starting TE. North's top returning receiver is Morgan Knapp who had 15 receptions last season for 161 yards. North added transfer TE Parker Elmore, whom I believe sat out last season, and he is an IU recruit. On defense, the Bull Dogs by my count, lost six of 11 starters with the front seven particularly hit hard. North, which played a 3-4 defense, lost all three of their D-linemen and three of their four linebackers. On the other hand, their secondary looks to be particularly strong with returning starters off a strong defense last season, with both corners and three experienced safeties that are back. Season opener: Home against Whiteland Bloomington North: The Cougars are on their third head coach in as many seasons after Anthony Lindsey surprisingly resigned this summer after posting an 8-3 record in his only season. Their new head coach is former Perry Meridian head coach Brett Cooper. Everything has changed for the North players to include new alignments, new plays, etc. Not many players that were starters return because of graduation and at least four of their better players transferring to the southside of town at South, and I didn't get the roster size at the start of official practices. The Cougars will be a little smaller this season, but they do have some speed on the roster. At QB will be transfer 6-5 sr John Bargen, who replaces the graduated Dash King. Bargen comes from Dunlap, IL (a Peoria suburb) and has a reputation of being a dual-threat QB with a strong arm and enough speed to effectively run with the ball. Coach Cooper is moving last season's top running back, Noah Ferree, to LB with jr Brayden Johnsn and soph Carter Matthew taking over the running back duties. North will be starting three new wide receivers, and they lost three o-linemen, so they can't afford to be hit by the injury bug at key offensive positions. The o-line will be undersized. On defense, North is switching over to a 3-4 defense. Coach Cooper said "pound for pound if everything plays out, this is probably the strongest D-line that I've had play within the structure of this defense. If they can impact play, we have a chance to be pretty special." The LB position appears to have some depth and has some speed and athleticism. They also have some depth in the secondary with some speed and quickness. Joe Luther returns to do the kicking and he didn't miss an extra point last season. The new punter is soph Blake Davis. Season opener: Home against Mooresville. Terre Haute South: The Braves have a new head coach in Greg Barrett and he takes over for a squad that had just two wins last season, going 2-7. South's roster was fortified by the transfer of about a dozen players from TH-North to include North's top two QBs. TH-North had just two wins last season so I don't know just how much of a difference these transfers will make this season. The Patriots had just short of 80 players report for the opening official practice, and reportedly they added some transfers to that after school started. On offense, the two TH-North QB transfers will probably be battling it out for the starting job after the Braves lost their starting QB from last season. The Braves have a solid group of three wide receivers returning to go along with TH North receivers that transferred. They also have a pretty good RB returning in sr Tyisaac Corbin who had some big games last season. The Braves have three returning o-linemen. I don't have much information on their defense, but they do, according to sources, return several starters on defense as well as some TH-North transfers. They weren't really all that effective on defense last season as a unit, so we will see how this season goes. I don't see the Braves improving all that much from last season, but a new coach, new schemes, etc., etc, and some added transfers, who knows how things will go. Season opener: At home against Plainfield Terre Haute North: The Patriots also have a new coach in Aaron Edwards and they are coming off a 2-8 season. They lost quite a few players from last season to go with the dozen or so players that transferred to TH-South. They had about 60 players report for practice after school began so depth might be a problem for them this season. Wide receiver sr Jarrett Cottrell was moved to the QB position. Their receiving corps is really thin and inexperienced, and they will be led by sr Kaden McGrew, who ironically transferred to North at some point from TH-South. I really don't know much about their o-line, but from what I've read, they will be short-handed at that position with jr Dauston Chesshir being the leader of the group. On defense, the Patriots will be thin and will have several players going both ways. OL jr Dauston Chesshir will also play on the defensive line. LB Jackson McDonald ranked second in the state in tackles last season as a junior. If the Patriots are hit hard by the injury bug this season, they will be in big trouble, and maybe they are in that position without the injuries at this point. Season opener: At home against Northview Southport: This is the one team that I know the least about and haven't seen much information on, so this will be limited. The Cardinals also have a new coach in Sean Little and he has limited experience as a head coach with an overall coaching record of 9-13. The Cardinals last winning season was in 2019 at 7-4. Since then, they have had a record of 4-44 over the last five seasons to include three 0-10 seasons. Last season was the third of their 0-10 seasons. I really can't comment much on their team makeup because of the very limited information I have, but they are going on offense to what has been described as a "power spread" attack. It' sounds like they will be playing two QBs and you know what they like to say "if you have two QBs, you have none." Based on what I've seen, they do have quite a bit of experience returning on both sides of the ball, but when you go 0-10 in the previous season, you wonder just how good that experience is going to be. Season opener: At Franklin Community High School

Bloomington South just had two players commit to D-1 programs. 6'5 210 TE Jalen Williams committed to South Florida. OLB Ross Ogden committed to Northern Illinois. He was an IFCA junior all-stater last season. Both players played at Bloom. North last season and transferred crosstown to South. They are both considered impact players for South this coming season.

I'm going to do a Conference Indiana preview (last hoorah) once practices start on Monday. Bloomington South should be a stronger team, at least on paper, than their last two semi-state teams against Decatur Central. They have nine starters back on defense, and what appears to be a strong offense with some move-ins added to that. They have one of the better backfields on offense in the state with 6'6 Jr QB Duncan Combs and Sr RB Braylen Townsend, but they have a couple of question marks along the o-line. I have some added information on South that I will include in my preseason CI post. You just keep your fingers crossed on potential key injuries.

I never lost my love for high school sports and have attended Bloomington/Bloom South games, both football and basketball, ever since my graduation. A stint in the military temporarily disrupted that, but I kept up with things during that period, and started attending games again after I left the military. My nephew had three boys that were into sports at the high school level, but they were into baseball and attended Edgewood where they played varsity baseball, so I attended a lot of their baseball games when it was possible.

Yep. I graduated in '64 and it was the following football season that they entered the SCC in the fall of '64. I remember that Evans. Reitz was considered the eminent football power in the state at that time and recently had a couple of 9-0 seasons and two state championships (mythical and no class football), and Bloomington High went down to Evansville (the 63-64 season) and beat them by something like 20 points in the Reitz Bowl. We had a big pep rally in the school gym that following Monday.

He played at Evansville if I'm not mistaken.