Lysander

I’m just happy to not see “Temptation” show up at the top of my Gridiron Digest page for the last 2 days. Not that I have an issue with “Temptation”. I likely agree with him more often than not. Still…just how much $ do you guys need to make this thing stick? Not being disrespectful. Serious question. Some of us here might have a Shekel or so to help (not myself of course…..not that I’d admit to it, anyway).

Yep. Definitely.

I'm thinkin' yeah...maybe.......this year. Sounds about right.

This is killing me. The worst part is that Chatard is playing a MIC schedule and might well have a losing season....and then play Roncalli in Game 1. They are NOT #8 in 4A. My general feeling is that outside of Roncalli, 3A still remains a better class overall these days.

Yep. I didn’t point out THE 300 intentionally…..being as subtle as a hammer. Check the whole “Horatius at the Bridge” thing too. I’m all about Classical history.…..and I will never not love these kids. They are all special….regardless of season.

Believe me, I’m a BIG, BIG fan of GS (recruitin’ Catholics that they apparently MUST be to pull off that win) and am rooting for them to get their long-deserved blue rings - but check Guerin’s record v. Columbus North before you place that crown. CN is generally a win vs. the Circle City Conference 3A teams (4A Roncalli excepted).

Dang…flipped my reading on this result (and ultimately got it wrong even then as to the score). Thanks for correcting me. With that, I am thinking New Pal is much improved and much closer to prior form. Even so, I think it’s one of the more important games to identify just how teams stand.

Please offer up your best Week 2 games but I will offer the Brebeuf v. New Pal game as incredibly interesting. 5A New Pal defeated 5A Decatur Central (#12 All Classes 2020 as a 5A team) 31-21. 3A Brebeuf defeated 4A Chatard (#6 All Classes 2020 as a 3A team) 24-19. I’m thinking we will get a great overall measure of the strength of both of these teams and their relative classes.

Every metric the prior 2 years would have Chatard winning this game. However closely. Tightly contended games. Warren Central’s 1,800 boys v. Chatard’s 300 boys (admittedly Catholic with their, errr….apparently inherent advantages per DT…..I guess) would tend to still favor the 1,800. Even so, I don’t expect the Chatard kids to “go gently”….it’s against their nature. There’s no such thing as a “good night” at Chatard.

I’ll never write off the Trojans. This group is faced with perhaps the most difficult schedule in the history of the Trojans. Whatever the result this year, I will never doubt their resolve or their commitment. I hope like heck the school maintains this level of schedule because I want to see even more kids at Chatard that welcome a Warren Central game just as much as they do a Cathedral or Roncalli game. This game is likely a dogfight the last 2 years with Sagarin giving Chatard the edge those 2 years. This year, the Trojans are huge underdogs…. I’m anticipating some major adjustments vs Warren Central….and some smoothing out in game play with all the new starters. No doubt Warren Central (with roughly 1,900 boys) will be much more talented (much like Merrillville last year) vs. a school with 300 or so boys (just to put these things in some perspective…). Err….can still say “boys” in this age of “self-identifying”?

Yep, Brebeuf deserves all the props they can get. Brebeuf looked great but it’s going to be hard to say just how good Brebeuf is until we get some measure of Chatard which might be difficult in the context of the next three “Murderer’s Row” of games they are facing (Warren Central, Cathedral, Roncalli). With that, Chatard seemed to play Hamilton Southeastern roughly equally, so I was a little surprised at how the Brebeuf game played out….despite Chatard looking tiny against HSE as well. So even in what some might consider a “down” year I was a little surprised (to keep it a bit in context, the last couple of years featured Chatard teams that may well rank among the best Chatard teams that have been fielded). Yeah……”yikes” is the word that occurs to me as well. I think Chatard’s teams these last couple of years play this game tightly with Chatard having a slight edge….but this is a different year.

That sounds like the mantra at the time but it’s been a while. My understanding is that today, after expenses, about 10% goes to teachers pensions and most of the rest goes to offsetting the lost tax income from when auto licensing fees where reduced.

Many years ago, back when Indiana first set up its State Lottery, I had found myself representing probably the two most influential Indiana based Democrat lobbyists as regards their commercial real estate requirements. At the time (late 80s), the Democrats controlled state government (yes, there was a time). Because of that these two lobbyists represented the two likeliest outside vendors to run it and I found myself ultimately representing the winning lotto vendor when they were selected by the state. I always found some irony in the fact that we knew from all of the studies that the state lottery system was/is basically a tax on the poor but it never seemed to bother them. I’ve often said that I was the first lottery winner because of that deal. But you are right, once the government got into the gambling business, all bets were off so to speak (pun intended).

I wonder the same but it seems to be a fact.

Yeah…I tend to follow this line of thinking. Personally, I hate gambling in all its forms (I’ve never even bought a lotto ticket personally….let alone bet on sports) and would prefer to keep it as far from HS sports as possible - even incidentally. To a point, every time folks predict scores here they are doing it to an extent. With that, you have Harrell’s page and, frankly, the Indy Star each week predicting scores. Still, it bothers me more than a little to see it here but, in the end, I’m not sure you prohibit it. Edit - I do have a ton of sympathy with DT’s view on this, though, but I think that this bridge was crossed a long time ago.

This isn’t new information. It’s been stated here on the GID only about 1,000 times yet DT fails to mention it as the real CYO advantage. BTW, if there are 8 different North Archdiocese CYO teams in Indianapolis, they likely run 8 different offenses….none of them being Chatard’s. This isn’t Center Grove. Coach Doyle isn’t even allowed to speak to CYO kids or parents individually let alone direct what offenses they run. As some background, let’s also add that Chatard is lucky if they get 30-40% of their own CYO kids since they generally split them with Cathedral, Brebeuf, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North, North Central, and even Guerin. But again, like other posters, I’m not really covering any new ground in saying any of this - yet DT seems oblivious to it.

Man, you are really dating yourself…..and me as well.

Truth be told, I was mushier after the experience.

Love that reference. It also dates a few of us by knowing it. …leavened by a pinch of goose poop.

It’s funny, Westfield is No. 3 in 6A and No. 5 in 3A per those geniuses at AP. 3A is just a beast!

Errrr……3A #5 Westfield? Fake news? BTW, I could totally see the AP doing this….they are that bad. For the record, I have GS as the favorite in 3A this year.

I could (and would) do the same but my wife can’t. She will, quite literally, drive around the city for at least 2 hours a day making phone calls from her car because she can’t stay at home.

Same here. Thank God my better half somehow tolerates me…..and doesn’t own a firearm.

TRUE but….it’s COVID. My better half has been working from home for 17 months as a pharma manager…..and she is supposed to generally meet people daily. Heck, we’ve been in Florida 3 of the last 12 months.