Boilernation

I'll die on this hill, but I think Poles has a bright future in the league. Sure, he's made some bad moves, but the guy has a very solid pedigree form his experience at Kansas City and he's young. He didn't draft Fields and he was kind of forced to hire Flus. Remember, Flus had has final interview with the Bears before Poles was hired. He inherited a complete dumpster filre from Pace and has built up a solid amount of draft capital. I'm willing to give him a few more years. Though it's in his best interest to get rid of Flus and bring in an offensive minded coach that can develop whoever is QB1 next year.

Hahaha. Too funny. Just as it seems the Chicago Parks Department has finally figured out how to maintain the grass at Soldier Field they can't properly secure the stadium.

Possibly. Though some with deep enough pockets should be intrigued about the prospect of owning the Bears and the potential of the land in Arlington Heights. I'm sure it's a long shot. Considering Virginia's age I think it's fair to say she doesn't have much time left. Hopefully, some family infighting occurs and they sell. I would think the NFL would love to see the Bears with new ownership. From what I read it was the NFL who told the Bears they should consider buying the Arlington Heights land when Churchill Downs Inc announced they wanted to sell the property.

You never know. The kids haven't generated any substantial wealth in business outside of the Bears. It's possible they could sell to realize that wealth once Virginia passes. Lucky for them, as long as Gerry Reinsdorf still owns the Bulls and Sox, the McCaskey's are somehow still not the worst owners in Chicago.

Officially rock bottom, I hope. A loss was inevitable. Being down 34-0 at the Half and Fields playing horrible after a week of running his mouth to the media is franchise not moving forward. Don't forget the Bears have Carolina's #1 pick. At this point the Bears could be line for picks 1 and 2. Let's just hope Williams or Maye don't pull an Eli Manning and refuse to play for the Bears.

McAfee only mentioned Williams home being raided. If I'm Williams, and no raid really happened as his lawyer keeps saying to the media, I would sut this crap out of McAfee and that Zaghloul dude. Nonetheless, I agree that bad news is snowballing with the Bears on several fronts. But, I'll give Poles credit for taking the podium and starting off by not deflecting or sugar coating. He was blunt and immediately said they Bears were facing a lot of adversity and they would fight through it together. He's young, he's made some poor personnel choices, but the guy is showing that he can lead. There has to be a reason he survived multiple regime changes in Kansas City with promotions each time. I'm looking forward to seeing if they can turn this crapstorm into something positive and build momentum as the season progresses.

How reputable is that site and the guy reporting all of it? Rapaport and Courtney Cronin (Bears beat reporter for ESPN Chicago) both dismissed the rumors. Ryan Poles in his own press conference said there was no reaid on Halas Hall and commented that it was health related. The guy breaking the news, Jon Zaghloul, has no history of breaking news. I don't know what to think. I'm leaning to believing what's being reported by those with legit contacts at Halas Hall vs. random guy running a You Tube site.

Aldridge: He was either injury plagued at Notre Dame or the classic example of the myth that a late bloomer will skyrocket in the recruiting rankings to sell clicks. I swear he went from 3 star to 5 star the day LSU offered and then all of the big boys started offering. I would be surprised if he had 100 total rushing yards at Notre Dame Banks: He was obviously an unbelievably QB at Ben Davis that was virtually unstoppable. He was like Vince Young at Texas. Just give him the ball enough and you're not losing. But, what really stood out to me, was the way he shut down Jeff Samardzija in the 5A State game. Jeff could have easily played in the NFL after Notre Dame but wisely choose the MLB route. And he was no slouch at Valpo. He was only a Junior in that State Title game, but he was tearing apart teams during Valpo's road to the RCA Dome. It all came to an end when Ben Davis put Banks across the LOS from him. I don't know enough about Banks to know why he failed to make the NFL. A lack of work ethic and dedication were always the common rumors. I remember him being a pretty solid WR at Tennessee. Shannon: See my opinion on a different post Finch: The true miss. Started as a True Freshman on a very solid Florida defense. The story was an injury set him back, Florida wanted him to switch to LB, he didn't like it and transferred to IU. I remember IU's coaching staff taking heat for not playing him and they basically said in a polite way that he wasn't mentally prepared. Rumors of an extremely low IQ always followed this kid around. Physically, he was definately on a trajectory for the NFL before things went south in Florida. Robertson: Similiar to Finch. Physical specimen. Mental midget.

Agreed. I always thought of Shannon has a great HS RB whose insane numbers were more a product of his environment, i.e, 2 NFL OL and Cathedrals offense as a whole. I honestly forgot about him. Wasn't he a move in for his Senior year because dad took a job with the Colts? I think it's easy for him to go unnoticed because he was only in Indiana for 1 season and played on an absolutely loaded CG squad.

And had a roster stacked with NFL WR's and OL that made making reads easier on him. I hope the kid can turn it around, but that clip you showed from the Tampa game is what it is. He hasn't shown the the ability to find the open WR's

On the plus side, Darnell Wright is looking like an absolute stud.

Agreed, but I still have hope in Warren and Poles to turn it around. Poles has some learning to do on his FA acquisitions as Claypool and Davis are looking like busts. I heard on a Chicago sports podcast that Warren was visibly pissed after the Bucs lost and let it be known how pissed he was on the flight back from Tampa There was no FBI raid The DC has been away from the team for health and family reasons. Nothing nefarious. I think Fields doesn't fit the direction the Bears want to go and they're giving him one last chance to figure it out as they've built up enough draft capital and the '24 draft has Williams and Maye. Fields can't sit in the pocket and find the open read. It's discussed ad nauseum on Chicago sports radio how many times per game the All 22 Film shows him missing wide open WR's when he's holding onto the ball or throwing check down passes. Some WR's were visibly unhappy during the Tampa game. He may not feel comfortably, but the Bears may not want a QB that's running all of the time and can only throw on bootlegs or by getting out of the pocket. At least CJ Stroud actually looked like a competent QB on Sunday. Honestly, it's surprising some of those names even threw a pass in the NFL. Of course Krenzel was with the Bears.

Brownsburg Crown Point Mishawaka New Haven New Palestine Gibson Southern Lawrenceburg Knox Centerville Fountain Central Eastern Hancock

Ha...You're right. It's UAB. I would be surprised if they do. Not a knock on them. Michigan is just on a different level. If Rutgers is truly improved they should be able to take at least 3 of their next 4 after Michigan No. They have no QB. Hard to run all over the SEC when nobody respects your passing game. This is a pretty good draw for Ole Miss. Catching Alabama at the assumed perfect time in Tuscaloosa, LSU and Arkansas in Oxford. They should be undefeated heading to Auburn. Win that one and it gets real interesting for the Lane Train as they would have 2 home games before heading to Athens. Agreed. Hartman is the real deal Seems like a given. Love the turnaround this guy has had since leaving Bloomington. That I did not know. Should be a blood bath then.

Yeah, 2 way playmaker who will be in the NFL. That late hit on Hunter was a blantant cheapshot. Not sure how the Colorado State player wasn't ejected. I would be shocked if Colorado can come out of Autzen with a W. Here's how I see the AP Top 25 matchups shaking out this week: Florida State over Clemson Oklahoma over Cincinnati Michigan curbstomps Rutgers Oregon easily takes down Colorado but the Buffs will put up a fight UConn hangs with Duke and the Blue Devils pull away in the 4th quarter Miami curbstomps Temple Ole Miss by about 10 in Tuscaloosa I'm going to go with UCLA pulling off the upset in Salt Lake City. I believe Utah still isn't at full strength and Chip gets a statement W LSU beat Arkansas by about 15 in Red Stick Florida crushes Charlotte Washington State narrowly edges Oregon State at home in the misfit bowl I think Penn State beats Iowa by about 17. I want to say by about 25 but I can envision Iowa burning clock running the ball on drives that end in 0 to 3 points. Freeman gets his marquee win in South Bend and the pressure begins to mount on Day Texas over Baylor Georgia will take out their post South Carolina frustrations on a USF team that Alabama should have manhandled North Carolina narrowly over Pitt Washington will cover the 21 point spread against Cal if Penix plays midway through the 2nd half Surprised to see Arizona State getting 33.5 against USC's defense. Williams and Co. will score at will. USC's D better be able to handle ASU's offense.

Good point on his support staff. Didn't you say Harrell hasn't been able to stick anywhere as an OC?

Agree on Rutgers. After that I think Nebraska through Indiana all interchangeable. At this point I'm worried Walters is in over his head at Purdue. My daughter, who has zero interest in watching sports, could watch a Purdue game and tell you they need to stop running up the middle on short yardage situations. Defensively, is it possibel Walters shined at Illinois because he had NFL talent and feasted on crappy Big Ten West offenses?

Thank you! I was floored when I just read that reply. And I'm not sure he realizes East Central has already absolutely dominanted a Division 1 Ohio historical power that is lightyears better than New Haven. Yes, I fully believe Mylan Graham could put up huge numbers in late November in LOS. But, it's still a team game. And Graham to succeed he'll still need his OL and QB to handle East Central's front 7 and New Haven's D to handle the speed of two D1 recruits on East Central's offense. I think sometimes people confuse East Central as being a small rural community. They're essentially a rural Suburban area of Cincinnati and we'd all agree HS football in Cincinnati is very good. Irregardless, still a LONG way to go for New Haven to get to LOS.

Not a wrap. East Central is the heavy favorite.

What advantages does Carroll have over Homestead?

I don’t. It did look really close to going either way. The feed from HSE’s stream didn’t have a good angle.

Good for him. I would love to find the idiots on Facebook who said he wouldn't play a single snap at ND after last year's State Championship loss to Mater Dei. Note: I'm glad I no longer that subject myself to Facebook.

Facebook and Twitter (won't refer to it by the stupid new name) are where the idiots go to play. No 4A defense will be capable of stopping East Central in perfect weather (LOS). The North's only chance, IMO, is if someone like New Haven makes it and Mylan Graham has a field day, which he is easily capable of after watching him play. Still, complete long shot though.

5?

I'm assuming he had the 2 pick sixes. Who is looking at him? Goes without saying but Snider would probably be a lock to take 5A if Veezy didn't quit football to focus on his stellar wrestling career. Still, they're clearly the favorite to win 5A.