Boilernation

What's even funnier is the Bears still don't have a reliable RB and Bucky Irving was taken less than 5 picks after Taylor.

1. C'mon Temp, ignore the records and get Crown Point out of the 5 spot. Somewhere around 10-15 is more accruate based on their complete lack of skill talent. 2. Bring back the weekly HCC and MIC predictions. Thanks!

Hobart is VERY good this year. Big, tough, and not reliant on running the ball. 4A north should be very entertaining with Hobart, Mishawaka, Leo, East Noble, etc. Maybe Lowell sneaks in with the new coach from New Prairie. We'll see how they fair soon against Andrean and Hobart. Possibly South Bend St. Joe as well.

What's the story on him this year? He's not even listed in Elkhart's WR stats on Maxpreps.

I hope Buz goes easy on his former team but there's only so much you can do when you're playing a JV team. Crown Point by whatever they want the score to be. Agreed. Week 9 is likely the only chance for LaPorte or Portage to get a DAC W. 42-14 sounds fair. LC's offense will relish the not seeing Crown Point on the other side of the field. Big Porter County rivarly game. Valpo doesn't have a lot of talent is going through a down year. Not sure that's enough for Cheese Town to take advantage of. I'll take Valpo by 6. City's D was torn apart by Jeff so i would expect Merrillville to do the same. Not sure what to think about the City offense here. They showed up late against Jeff and late again last week against Valpo. They still have some playmakers and speed at WR even though they lost that D1 prospect to the portal and Chicago. QB is up and down. Can make big throws here and there. I really like your 35-17 prediction. Great chance though for French to get. statement win in the Duneland and finish 7-2.

Slightly changing topicc, any chance Warren Township talent starts heading accross the county line and not to the neighborhoods that feed into Mt. Vernon. I don't know much about the housing developments and population trends down there. It's clear Brownsburg really took off when demographics started changing and Wayne Township type of talent started moving west of Raceway Road.

I don't see it. Let's just celebrate the Pirates if they can break their O'fer string in Semi-State. The Bulldog lines of Crown Point completely manhandled and abused Merrillville. What do you think will happen if they ran into a Kyle Ralph coached line? Complete domination. 2019 Valpo showed The Region what you need on the lines talent wise and skill wise to compete with an elite Kyle Ralph team. This Merrillville team doesn't have it and having some speed at the skill positions won't do much. I would LOVE to be wrong and see the Pirates win state, but I'm afraid Temp is correct and 5A is a lock for New Pal at this point. Kyle Ralph is THE man.

I think I underestimated how good Green Bay is and how much Detroit's offense would love to run the score up on Johnson. Word out of Detroit is they got sick of hearing about how they would decline without Johnson. I definately didn't underestimate how much of a liability Braxton Jones is at LT. Apparently, Darnell Wright is becoming one as well at RT. Both lines pretty much suck. Good thing Poles used his first 2 draft picks on guys that get basically zero targets. At least he drafted a RT that can't beat out Wright and isn't capable of switching to LT. Like a sucker I'll be dialed in on Sunday hoping it's the start of the turnaround.

How many IHSAA sponsored sports do MIC teams play that will be completely dominated by Center Grove and Carmel? I don't blame Carmel and Center Grove at all for jumping on this opportunity as they were not getting invited to another conference. The MIC can do what they want, but a lot of current voting members just voted for a majority of their athletic department to be competing for 3rd place finishes. They certainly have the right to make that decision.

How is it better for everyone involved? Carmel and Center Grove's AD Departments? Sure. It eases their scheduling. Current MIC athletes? Not so much. Playing for 3rd place in conference across a majority of male and female sports.

Portage is indeed horrible. Lost way too many players to the portal. They're reaping what they sowed by firing Richards. Merrillville's JV will be getting some good minutes on Friday night.

No. Not at all. I'm really surprised the MIC welcomed them back. Ignoring the racial comments made by certain representatives of the MIC when the first split happened, only a few football and basketball programs in the MIC can compete with Carmel and Center Grove. Why not stick to OOC scheduling as it's currenty happening as opposed to eliminating any chance a majjority of your athletic departmnet has at winnign a Conference title?

Crown Point is going to steamroll through the Duneland and likely Penn again. I just think someone like Carmel or a Hoosier Crossroads team is going to be an AWFUL matchup for Crown Point if they get past Regionals. The Bulldogs have been killing the north with their lines. I don't think it's working again this year. It's likely Crown Point loses their advantage on the lines at Semi State unless they get Zionsville or Harrison. They took a step back in the passing game this year now that the QB is at Miami(OH). Trevor Gibbs is basically their entire offense. The 6'4 Indiana recruit is used all over the place. TE, H Back, RB, Wildcat. Feels like rinse and repeat from last year in terms of results. And the offense was arguably more dynamic last year.

From a local perspective, why Loyola and not Carmel? The Ramblers are very yound and inexperienced this year. They were VERY lucky to get ou tof Demaree with a W. Merrillville, in typical Pirate fashion, was their own worst enemy in the 2nd half when they could have put Loyola away. Credit to Loyola for finding a way to win, but I think that game showed the Northsiders have a lot of chinks in their armor.

So, on the plus side the All 22's indicate Johnson's offense works here and created a lot of open receivers for Caleb. Bad news is Caleb is either not pulling the trigger or wildly irratic when he does pull the trigger. Really hoping Johnson and J.T. Barret can fix it.

Dude is a winner. Love him. I think Bears fans would love him as the local kid.

Everything looked precise. No issues coming out of the huddle and getting plays off. Very minimal amount of penalties. No turnovers. Caleb got the ball out quickly and was throwing with anticipation and precision. Couldn't really ask for more against Buffalo's backups. I really liked what Johnson said after the game about Caleb starting to stack good practices/game on top of each other. He said he and Caleb are very transparent with each other and he'll tell Caleb when his performance in practice isn't good enough. Caleb has said the same thing as well. I would expect to continue to see Caleb stack good performance as they're going to start scaling back the offense. Johnson said himself they were going to turn the fire hose on in camp to throw everything at Caleb. I think it's fair to say at this point we have a coaching staff that knows what they're doing and is very transparent when it comes to talking about defeciencies.

Leave you feelings at the door. Wow! This coaching staff doesn’t mess around. Moved Wright and Jones to 2nd string in practice reps yesterday. Icing on the cake was OL coach publicly calling out Wright for not being consistent and reverting back to bad habits. Could just be mental, but he seemed to be indicating Wright isn’t in the best shape stamina wise.

Based on the data I've seen roughly half of the enrollment is Asian and Hispanic. No offense to those fine communities, but that's not a great recipe for football success, espeically when a majority of that cohort is likely from Burmese origins.

Good insight here from DJ on the accountability Johnson brings to the table. Johnson ripped into Burden today and kicked him out of a drill.

I can see Crown Point using the 6'4 235 Gibbs at RB as a wrinkle considering they like to run power sets. Surely they have to have another RB they're planning on using as RB1. I figured Ehrlich would be their biggest loss from offense last year. He was a 4 year starter as a varsity QB and MAC recruit. He ran that offense very efficiently.

I remember Johnson telling the players in attendance at his first presser to be ready to be uncomfortable. That's exactly what they're doing to Caleb.

I'm going with Center Grove at #1. HSE might be too low now that they have the QB from Lawrence Central. How many starters does LN have returning? Especially from that swarming defense. I know they return the WR who will be a highly coveted recruit. The little tidbits I hear from those who have seen Crown Point indicate the Bulldogs could be taking a major step back.

Wow...that is an interesting perspective. Didn't even consider the Patriots would have only 38 guys on their varsiy roster. I couldn't imagine playing OL and DL the entire game. That has to be tough. Having Ruxer at TE and Goldsberry at QB will definately help. They are rated #1 and #3 in the State for 247's composite rankings. For the record, anyone in Indiana who claims to be a HS football fan that hasn't heard of Heritage Hills is just a casual. Concord lost their speedster RB to Purdue. I'm not sure they're returning anything that would indicate they're a Top 25 team.

Those children still have teammates and coaches they're bailing on. Expecting a 17 or 18 year old to have a little bit of decorum isn't that far fetched, imo.