Bobref

Tayven Jackson has committed to Tennessee. https://www.knoxnews.com/story/sports/college/university-of-tennessee/football/2021/04/28/tayven-jackson-tennessee-football-commit-recruiting/4876197001/

You can say what you want about Bart Curtis. But one thing for sure: he is as hard-nosed, old school, as you can get. He backs down from no one.

This is the logical next step for the “cancel culture.”

And that’s the same position they’re looking at for Bowen.

So, what prepares the team better for the tournament? Playing the same (good) teams year after year? Or having to scout, plan and adjust for teams you don’t see regularly, thinking that they will be worthy opponents, but not really knowing that when you schedule several years in the future? It would seem to me that the latter would be preferred, since that is probably what you’re doing in the upper levels of the tournament.

But it’s not irrelevant to his development as a whole person. I know this is a football site. But for the love of God, can we quit expecting (demanding?) that high school kids act like professionals? I don’t care if a kid is the #1 5-star recruit in the nation. If his coach and parents aren’t reminding him that he’s one injury away from becoming just like everyone else, and preparing him for a life outside of football, they’re doing him a disservice.

That, and St. Joe got bad. Those schools (and Penn) carried the NIC thread. Come to think of it, Penn people’s posts have also tailed off, in proportion to their on-field struggles.

My understanding is that they’ve done it plenty in the past for basketball, but never for football.

Nope. Won’t work. 10-1 Out-of-State Contest Limitations The address of out-of-state schools participating in a Contest against a member School as well as the site of such Contests must be within Six-hundred (600) miles round trip travel from the Indiana state line and shall be sponsored or co-sponsored by a member high School.

So, what have you got against the mighty Eagles of St. Edward, who (pre-pandemic) traveled more often and farther than all those teams? Back in the day, St. Edward and Cathedral were both run by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and were referred to as “sister schools” (which I thought was odd because the faculty was primarily Holy Cross brothers). They often traded faculty. They played a home and home series just a few years ago. It would be great to renew that. The rest of your proposed matchups are OK, but anything involving IMG will run afoul of the ill-advised “travel rule.”

I Still one less than the number of fatalities in Ted Kennedy’s back seat.

Abolish the longest running high school football rivalry — The Battle for ‘The Old Leather Helmet” — in the state? Find another way.

An offensive guard can wear any number. A fullback can wear any number. A player can play any number of positions wearing the same number. No one has to “report” anything. The number a player wears has nothing to do with the position he plays. It only affects his eligibility to catch, bat or muff a legal forward pass.

Yes, on plays that do not involve scrimmage kick formation.

Not true. Under the high school rules, any player can line up in any position wearing any number. However, numbers affect eligibility to catch a forward pass. Only offensive players numbered 1-49 or 80-99 can legally catch, bat or muff a forward pass. There are also numbering requirements on the offensive line. But they don’t affect any player’s ability to wear a particular number. Also, can we move this topic to the Officiating sub-forum? I think that’s the better place for it.

You’ve got to walk before you run.

https://www.si.com/college/notredame/recruiting/notre-dame-recruiting-elite-indiana-linebacker-drayk-bowen Notre Dame In Hot Pursuit Of Elite Indiana Linebacker Notre Dame is making a hard early push for standout 2023 linebacker Drayk Bowen, one of the nation's best linebackers Merrillville (Ind.) Andrean sophomore linebacker Drayk Bowen is one of the top prospects in the entire Midwest for the 2023 cycle. The 6-2, 215-pound athlete has picked up offers from the likes of Notre Dame, LSU, Michigan, Oregon, Michigan State, Purdue, South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Arkansas over the past two months, so the talented defender's stock is rising all across the country -- and fast. On St. Patrick's Day, Notre Dame reached out to Bowen as part of the Pot of Gold initiative. During the virtual call, both head coach Brian Kelly and defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman told Bowen that he's one of the program's top targets on defense for his class, and he's a good fit given his proximity to campus as well. “They just say they are going to build something great there, which it already was great to begin with,” Bowen told Irish Breakdown. “With the addition of Coach Freeman, it's going to hopefully take off. They said they are going to recruit the best in the country and they want to get over the hump [and start] beating Alabama and Clemson.” On the field, Bowen is a menace that gives opposing offensive coordinators fits with his speed, instinctive nature and size at outside linebacker. That combination of physical traits helped Bowen produce 80 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, five sacks and four forced fumbles as a sophomore, and he's currently ranked as the No. 3 outside linebacker in his class and No. 61 overall player in the country by 247Sports.com. While a hot commodity as a football recruit, Bowen is also receiving college interest for his work on the baseball diamond as an infielder as well, and that's given him an opportunity to check out a few schools despite the ongoing dead period. “I've been down to Indiana for baseball, so I got to see their campus,” Bowen mentioned. “I actually went down a month ago and got to go look around the campus at Notre Dame. I really liked how it felt when you got on campus, kind of the historic part of it. It was really cool. You can watch the movie Rudy, then you get to go see the campus and see the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus. It was really cool.” At the moment, Bowen is one of only six linebackers in the '23 cycle to hold an offer from the Fighting Irish, and he's already a big fan of the program. Notre Dame is one of several schools that Bowen has weekly conversations with as he navigates the recruiting process with other schools such as Virginia Tech, Oregon, Oklahoma State and South Carolina on the list too. Given how much closer Notre Dame is than any of those other schools, the Fighting Irish are likely in good position with Bowen at this point. And when Notre Dame does try to persuade Bowen to stay close to home, Freeman has talked about playing Bowen in space at the Rover role at the next level. Playing that type of position would put a pinnacle on Bowen's athleticism and quickness, but he's been busy working over the offseason to be faster and stronger by the time he steps on the field this Fall. “A lot of the time I will work on my explosiveness out of breaks and cuts and starts, then we have a dome right by my house, so I'll go there and we'll do seven-on-seven stuff,” Bowen said of his offseason regiment. “I'll get in pass work, pass drops. We have a bag at my house, so I've been doing bag work in the back yard. Then today I went to the track at my school and started working on my 40 time.” “Most of our seniors are returning, and a lot of the sophomores and 2023s that are going to be juniors, a lot are returning and will provide a foundation to build on for the younger group.” Recently, Bowen has been studying film, predicting plays, learning formations and focusing on the mental side of the game so that his physical talent can shine in 2021.

Rivals says there is a better than even chance he’ll end up at Notre Dame. But a lot can change in 2 years. At 6’2” and 215, does he project as an outside LB, or strong safety? Is he still growing?

I’m not accusing you guys of this, but the “it don’t mean a thing unless you get a blue ring” mentality really chaps my @ss. This is a fascinating story on so many levels. I am really looking forward to seeing how it plays out. Buzz has really assembled an all star staff, sort of on the model that made Michigan City relevant in the conference. I guarantee you, life just got significantly tougher for Valpo and Merrillville.

When I was a little kid playing baseball in the backyard, my brother would be Mickey Mantle. But I would always be Willie Mays. Yesterday, Baseball Digest presented it’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement award to “Say Hey” Willie Mays, as MLB’s greatest living player. Of course, he is more than that. Willie Mays was the greatest baseball player that ever walked between the white lines. The term “5 tool player” was coined for Mays, who was the first player who could hit for average, hit for power, run, catch the ball, and throw. “His glove was where triples went to die.” He was Barry Bonds without a head the size of a watermelon. He’ll turn 80 in 2 weeks. That means most of the people on here know of him only by what they’ve heard in passing from old-timers like me. But as his longtime manager, Leo Durocher, said “If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases and performed a miracle in the field every day, I’d still look you in the eye and say Willie was better.” https://www.mlb.com/news/willie-mays-earns-baseball-digest-lifetime-achievement-award Say Hey! Mays earns Baseball Digest award NEW YORK -- Willie Mays is the greatest living baseball player, and no one is going to argue with that. Leo Durocher, Mays’ former manager in the early 1950s, was spot on when he described Mays as a five-tool player. Mays spent a career frustrating his opponents with his fancy basket catches in center field, while his speed made Road Runner look slow. “The Say Hey Kid” stole 338 bases and had unmistakable power; he managed at least 30 homers in 11 seasons and at least 100 RBIs in 10 seasons. Runners had to think twice before challenging Mays’ arm as well -- just ask Cleveland, which couldn’t score on a deep fly ball hit by Vic Wertz in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. People talk about Mays’ over-the-shoulder catch on that play, but he often talks about the subsequent throw that prevented Larry Doby from tagging up and scoring from second base. What Mays has accomplished on the diamond was recognized on Thursday, 48 years after he played his final baseball game. Baseball Digest presented Mays with its inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award. The new award -- the game’s only such honor to be presented annually on a national basis -- recognizes a living individual whose career has been spent in or around Major League Baseball and who has made significant contributions to the game. The selection was made by a distinguished panel of 12 longtime MLB participants and observers via independently submitted votes. The voters included former Major Leaguer Harold Reynolds, Pirates play-by play voice Greg Brown and Mets executive Jay Horwitz. “Baseball Digest was honored to cover and celebrate Willie Mays for the duration of his incredible career, and we are equally honored to celebrate an entire lifetime of contributions to baseball,” Baseball Digest publisher Norman Jacobs said in a statement. “Just as he thrilled us during a Hall of Fame playing career that spanned four decades, Willie has exemplified the best qualities of our game and our country in the nearly 50 years since his retirement.” Mays will make his fourth appearance on a Baseball Digest cover. He has previously appeared on the covers of the September 1954, February 1966 and May 1971 covers. “I never worried about personal awards. I worried about winning. But to be honored with this Lifetime Achievement Award, that’s a great honor, especially with all the other great names [considered],” Mays said in a statement. “All deserving. It’s a sports award, it’s a baseball award, but it’s much more. It’s about all the things you do. For me, it’s about helping kids and making sure they’re taken care of, because so many people took care of me in my life.” With recommendations from the voting panel, a preliminary list of 23 candidates for the inaugural honor was compiled. After an initial vote, the list of 23 was cut to six finalists: Hank Aaron, Roland Hemond, Willie Mays, Rachel Robinson, Vin Scully and Joe Torre. From these six finalists, each voter selected three names, with votes then tabulated on the following basis: 3 points for first place, 2 points for second place and 1 point for third place.

It’s only going to get worse. I’ve been hobbled with a walking boot lately, and I’m undergoing surgery Tuesday that’s going to have me essentially housebound for the foreseeable future. And Netflix and Amazon Prime can only take you so far.

No apology necessary. We are basically of like mind.

Don’t forget all those sweet looking old ladies with their babushkas who reminded you of your grandmother ... until they opened their mouths. Then you’d think you’d stumbled into a meeting of the longshoremen’s union.

The average annual wind speed of Chicago is 10.3 mph. The average annual wind speed of Buffalo, NY is 14.68 mph. This from the Wikipedia entry on Highmark Stadium, where the Bills play: Buffalo, by virtue of its position downwind of Lake Erie, is one of the nation's windiest cities, and as a result, Highmark Stadium is difficult for kickers, with swirling winds that change direction rapidly. This is exacerbated by the stadium's design. The field is 50 feet (15 m) below ground level, while the top of the upper deck stands only 60 feet (18 m) above ground. The open end lies parallel to the direction of the prevailing winds, so when the winds come in, they immediately drop down into the bowl, causing the stadium's signature wind patterns.

I’m sure you’re right. But Royal Center is smack in the middle of agriculture country. Doesn’t anyone there have an idea how to grow a decent crop of turf grass? 😂