Boilernation

And now we enter "Hip Gate". This season is such a disaster.

The listings currently say WJOB will stream the Andrean and Hobart games. I'm hoping Summit City Sports follows Dwenger to stream that game. I'll be all set from my cozy living room in Hamilton County.

53rd and Broadway is the border of Gary and Merrillville. Andrean is definitely in Merrillville. I haven't been there in a while, but isn't Hammond Bishop Noll in worse shape than Andrean? I think Andrean has 4 factors they benefit from: 1. NWI is either the 2nd or 3rd largest metro area in Indiana. I believe the metro population (excluding Illiniois) is higher than metro Fort Wayne, but I'm not sure. Just like Indy and Chicago, a large population base means a lot of Catholics. And a lot of those Catholics will send their kids to a Catholic HS 2. Andrean is more centrally located in Lake County than Bishop Noll is. it's also easier to get to for Porter County residents. 3. Andrean is a great option for people from Gary who don't want to send their kids to a Gary public or charter school 4. Andrean competes at a high level in Baseball, Football, and Basketball. That will attract good athletes. In fairness, I do think it's a little ridiculous they're playing basketball and football at the 2A level, but I'm also in favor of a multiplier being applied to Private schools.

Why am I not surprised you named a Martinsville QB? In no particular order, it's likely the QB from Homestead, LN, or Gibson Southern. Homestead's QB is going to be a Top 100-150 basketball recruit, so we won't know where he could have played football. I've seen highlights of LN's QB and that kid has a very, very, elite skillset. I would be surprised if he couldn't pick his destination. I haven't seen Gibson Southern's QB, but he is very highly rated for a Sophomore.

Well, that’s a shame for Noblesville. The sledding won’t be any easier for him in the Greater Miami with Colerain, Mason, the Lakota’s etc.

I'm listening to Kap & Co. and he has Jeff Dickerson on. JD believes they might just shut 10 down and get surgery on his shoulder, let him rehab, and see how he looks in the summer/training camp. I wouldn't be surprised if this happens. I don't know if it's that easy regarding the play-calling. The O-Line is absolutely dreadful. And even when Mitch is rolling out and finding time he can't hit an open WR. At this point when he does hit a WR in the hands they drop it. This offense has become unbelievably bad. Shame on me for looking forward to watching last nights game, staying up late (Eastern Time), then reading 20-30 minutes of twitter bashing from Chicago/National media. I could have saved myself the anguish of a brutal Monday morning in the office by going to bed at reasonable time and checking my phone this morning to see the inevitable Bears loss. On a side note, wouldn't any competent NFL GM have a slew of kickers visit Halas Hall this week to beat out Eddie? He has to be the worst kicker in the NFL.

They did against Warsaw last week. One is the passing QB and the other is the option QB. Merrillville's lines are huge. The O-Line is anchored by 6'7 320 Minnesota commit Martes Lewis at LT. He looked like Michael Oher in the BlindSide last week pushing around the much smaller Warsaw front 7. The D-Line is anchored by 6'4 335 So. DT Kenneth Grant. They have a lot of speed at WR that they try to get in the open field on sweeps and short passes. 6'0 Northern Illinois recruit Jeremiah Howard is a deep threat at WR. He has great hands and leeping ability. I've seen quite a few Merrillville and Carmel games. Merrillviille might be able to hang around for a quarter or so like Homestead did. But, similar to Homestead, if Merrillville can't break through offensively it will get ugly very quickly. I don't think the Pirates can stop the Carmel running game. The one thing I really liked about Homestead is they have a legit D1 caliber QB and stable of tall and talented ball catchers. Carmel held them to one TD. Merrillville's downfield passing game isn't close to being as good as Homestead's, so I'm not very optimistic regarding the Pirates ability to throw the ball on Carmel. My guess is Carmel by about 20-30.

Talent gets developed in Indy and Ft. Wayne. There's talent in Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond to be developed. I'm not sure why it doesn't happen annually as opposed to those areas putting out 1 or 2 D1 recruits every 5-10 years. I'm sure socioeconomic play a factor. Looking at Indy, there are huge differences between Warren/Ben Davis/Lawrence vs IPS schools.

No doubt, Center Grove it'st the program all of the smaller 6A schools should try to emulate in some fashion. But, Lawrence itself is a very large distracts compared to the normal non-Marion County Township. It's entirely possible that LN, more so LC, have benefited from being the school football players in Lawrence Township find a way to attend. I doubt HS kids feel defeated before they got off the bus. I just think the reality is that there are a lot of 5A/6A schools that don't have the depth to compete with large MIC schools. Look at Merrillville, demographically they're very similar to Warren Township. You don't think it benefits Warren to have nearly double the kids Merrillville has?

I saw some pics of the field from NWI Times coverage and I see plenty of green. Most of the snow was off the field by 6:30. It's not like they were playing in West Lafayette/FW Luers level field conditions.

Let me guess...you were convinced your hometown heroes were winning State after beating West Lafayette and Pioneer? Also, 5959 Broadway is in MERRILLVILLE, not Gary. Second, have you seen their school and facilities!?! What money do you think they have? 🤣

Agree about their D and Cathedrals inability to convert in the red zone. Plus, no disrespect to Speagle, but a number of RB’s could have gashed the Cathedral D with the way New Pal’s O-Line was destroying the Cathedral D-Line in the 2nd half.

Lawrenceburg has some nice facilities, especially the new basketball arena. Did the casino help fund those? You in the Cincinnati this weekend? Munster to Lawrenceburg is quite the hike.

Regional bias. Picking Hobart to roll a solid East Noble club and thinking Merrillville can hang with Carmel? Regional bias. My guess is Carmel over Merrillville by at least 20. Could be 30. Zac Wells took better Merrillville teams than this down to Carmel and got embarrassed. Carmel’s D is too good and they have a very solid running game this year. The other games will be within 10 points either direction. My gut is telling me Hobart and Valpo win thrillers and Eastbrook pulls away late to beat Andrean.

I love Region football, but it’s probably a gimme for Carmel. Their defensive front 7 has a handful of D1 recruits that will not be pushed around by the Ville O/Line. Carmel’s O-Line will be too much for the Ville to handle. They have a very big D1 recruit at RB and some other good runners. It’s not easy stopping them when their O-Line is controlling the line of scrimmage. Carmel’s secondary handled a very good passing attack by Homestead. Throwing wobbly jump balls to Hughes won’t work in this one. On the plus side, Hobart, Andrean, and Valpo all have very legitimate chances of making it to Indy.

Yeah, I chuckled a little when people were crowning Cass after beating West Lafayette and then Pioneer in Sectionals. Andrean at the 2A level is kind of a joke. Similar to basketball. An NWI collection of talent against small rural communities? I’ll give Andrean the edge most of the time. Next week will be tough. Eastbrook is a consistently dominate program. They‘ll give Andrean all they can handle.

Homestead was toast the minute I saw the size of Carmel’s O-Line compared to Homestead’s front 7. Homestead’s D could only handle it for a bout a quarter in a half. I enjoyed watching the Homestead offense.m this year. Great group of skill talent.

Merrillville Carmel Ben Davis Center Grove Valpo West Lafayette Harrison Bloomington South Hobart East Noble Mt. Vernon Evansville Memorial Mishawaka Marian Indianapolis Bishop Chatard Danville Heritage Hills Eastbrook Western Boone Evansville Mater Dei Lafayette Central Catholic South Adams West Washington Indianapolis Cathedral Andrean North Vermillion

They came to LC in '90. In '91 they beat Portage in 2nd Round 13-12 in Mishawaka, won Sectional's at Valpo in the game mentioned above, beat Crown Point in Regionals, and lost to Penn in Semi-State. I was at the Portage game as a 7th grader. Man, that was brutal weather that week as well. It's pretty crazy though, at least to me, that Penn and Mishawaka didn't meet each other until SEMI-STATE. It's not like 5A was just a 32 team class back then.

I haven’t even lived in Indy for 20 years. Didn’t WC put in brand new bleachers around 2005 with the current visitor side being the original home side?

the current home side that was put in, what, 10 or so years ago?

Especially when the district invested $$$ in very large new stands.

Does that really matter when you 10 fans in attendance?

It’s official! Russ Radtke will be making an appearance back in Lake County next weekend as upstart Craig Osika looks to put the Brickies back into Semi-State, which was an annual tradition for over a decade. Radtke has his boys emulating the old Radtke led Griffith Panthers as the New Prairie players crowded the 50 yard line during warmups to stare down Plymouth. The Brickie Bowl is a relic of the past. Time for a new era of Brickie football at The Brickyard.

And as usual Warren had about 300 fans in attendance for a key playoff game at home. Are they no longer the Pride of the Eastside? Im hoping someone can knock off Carmel in the North. I would prefer to not see another all MIC final.