Frozen Tundra

The radio broadcast of the East game said Seymour was up 34-7 on Madison. Not sure what point of the game that score was but I'm thinking they said halftime.

Unbelievable effort. I was so wrong about my prediction but I'm completely ok with that. I think Pickerington Central might be a bit overrated but their defense is one of the best I've ever seen. This was a great momentum-builder going into conference play next week.

I really think it's going to be ugly for us. I just want to get through it without injury and move on to HHC play.

Week 3 Predictions I'm 14-1 after two weeks. My beloved Olympians let me down to keep me from that perfect record. Oh well. The conference schedule begins this week as six of the eight teams will battle their HHC foes. On the contrary, Columbus East and Floyd Central finish out their non-conference schedules. Jennings County (1-1) at Bedford North Lawrence (0-2): The Stars haven't looked good after two weeks so you'd think that this would be a golden opportunity for the Panthers to capitalize. Alas, Jennings County still has some work to do after surviving a shootout with a lowly Brown County team last week. BNL will find their offense this week and their defense will have a less challenging time when they attempt to stop a weaker opponent. BNL wins. New Albany (1-1) at Jeffersonville (0-2): This may be a better game than I originally thought. The Bulldogs are coming off a game in which they got thumped by a good Castle team whereas the Red Devils gave Seymour a battle before falling. The question, though, is whether or not Seymour is any good. Regardless, New Albany has won the last three games in this series vs their Louisville metro rival and I think it continues. New Albany gets the W. Pickerington Central (OH) (1-0) at Columbus East (1-1): The Olympians are coming off a game in which they were dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball by Columbus North's huge lines. It only gets worse as the Tigers' lines are even bigger than North's. Since East's rise to prominence in 2004, they have only lost by 20 or more six times (four times to Cathedral, once to Columbus North, and once to Whiteland). Unfortunately, I think we're about to add a seventh as Pickerington Central ranks fifth in Ohio Division 1 football and is listed as #67 nationally by Maxpreps. Folks, it's going to get ugly and I just hope nobody gets hurt. The Tigers get the lopsided win. Seymour (2-0) at Madison (0-2): The Owls beat South Dearborn 30-26 in week 1. South Dearborn beat the Cubs 34-0 in week 2. 'Nuff said. Seymour rolls to an easy victory. Vincennes Lincoln (1-1) at Floyd Central (1-1): The Alices are a pretty decent 3A school. They were 9-2 in 2017 and 8-3 last year. The Highlanders are a team on the rise but haven't hit their ceiling yet. This is a very tough game to call and I think it could go either way. However, I'm leaning 51/49 towards Vincennes Lincoln. If this game was later in the year then I'd pick Floyd Central but I think the Alices are slightly better. We'll see if that two hour drive affects them at all but Vincennes Lincoln is my pick.

I was at that game. Today's PC crowd would've lost their minds over the things we were chanting. lol

The student section has been embarrassing to me for almost a decade now. We literally have one of the quietest in the state and opposing student sections that are 1/10th the size of ours manage to be louder than ours. Makes sense that Newell is the culprit and that really disappoints me. Glad to know the students don't actually suck but are merely restricted. It's just hard for me to sit there with a quiet student section knowing how ridiculously loud and over-the-top we were back when I was a student there in the mid-2000s. There were a few times we even got in trouble for taking things a wee bit too far. Lol. @Olympian06 can confirm this as well.

We COULD play that game but this scenario will never happen. Neither team is Jennings County or Madison so neither team is crying for a handicap.

Conference play officially begins this week so I guess I'll go out on a limb and try to predict the order of the conference standings. It's important to note that the following games won't take place this year: Columbus East vs Jennings County Floyd Central vs Madison BNL vs New Albany Also, if you didn't already know, last week's game between Seymour and Jeffersonville won't count as a conference game. Therefore, everyone will play six official conference games this year. Having said that, here's my HHC prediction. 1. Columbus East 6-0 2. Floyd Central 5-1 3. New Albany 4-2 4. Seymour 3-3 4. BNL 3-3 6. Jeffersonville 2-4 7. Jennings County 1-5 8. Madison 0-6 My prediction of the losses for each team should be pretty self-explanatory if you look at the teams I have finishing above them. The only ones in question are Seymour and BNL who I both have at 3-3. Based on the results of the first two weeks, I'm predicting Seymour to beat BNL. Have at it, boys.

The things I've heard about Kyle Ralph and the things I've seen him say and do have me feeling like even I'd run through a wall for him. Bob Gaddis of Columbus East is the only other coach I've said that about but, the difference is, I got to know him. Never met Kyle Ralph but I just have the utmost respect for him and his teams. I know this isn't popular with some people but I root for New Palestine and defend them to the haters whenever I come across them.

Some MIC fans weren't. I think that might have changed now.

Yeah. No disrespect to Snider but I need to see them play a few more games before I put them that high. At the moment, I'm not so sure they're even ahead of Dwenger. Maybe Carroll is a very good team this year but I still think Dwenger is the measuring stick in the SAC.

I had them winning last year but losing this year. Losing a QB and some other key players I thought would hurt them. Didn't matter. That program is incredible.

Some MIC fans were still not taking New Palestine seriously. A few Center Grove folks I work with didn't respect them after New Pal's win last year because they said Center Grove "wasn't prepared" or "didn't take them seriously". Ever since that loss last year they pointed to this year's game saying New Pal will finally get the regular season loss coming to them because they "just can't hang with the big boys".

Are people going to take New Palestine seriously now or are we going to get the same old excuses?

It's a product of the long-tenured coaches at both schools. Tim Bless came to North in 2000 and turned them around from a bad team to a winner in 2003. Bob Gaddis came to East in 2001 and turned them around from a bad team to a winner in 2004. It took four years for both guys. Granted, North has had a couple of rough patches during Bless' tenure where they had 2-3 consecutive rotten seasons each (2008-2009 and 2012-2014) but they also play much tougher competition than we do. They can't reload as easily as East can. I encourage everyone, though, that you need to see the East/North rivalry at least once in your lifetime. The atmosphere is incredible and you need to get there an hour before kickoff if you want to find a seat. It's quite a spectacle.

Don't forget Madison at South Dearborn. I forgot it in my original post and had to post my picks again.

They wouldn't. People on here make it seem as if Jennings County and Madison are the worst teams in the state just because of how non-competitive they are traditionally in a weak HHC. They lead the charge to evict them. However, my point is that there are worse teams than them. As bad as Jennings County is, Brown County is much worse.

Not sure what Sagarin thinks but John Harrell has East winning 35-34.

Week 2 Predictions Feeling pretty good after going 8-0 last week but this week's games are going to be tougher to predict. Bedford North Lawrence (0-1) at Bloomington North (1-0): I mistakenly picked the Cougars to win last year based on the week 1 results. As it turns out, those same results happened again in week 1 this year with Martinsville beating BNL and Bloomington North beating Greenwood. The Stars are so young and that was evidenced by last week's beatdown. And while Bloomington North hasn't had a good season in years, I have to think they're going to get it done this time around. I'm picking the Cougars. Brown County (1-0) at Jennings County (0-1): See last year's prediction. Once again, Brown County is coming into the game with a blowout win over a bad team (Edinburgh last year, Pike Central this year) and Jennings County is coming in with a loss to Batesville. And, like last year, I'm taking the Panthers over the Eagles. It's a good thing Brown County isn't in the HHC. Almost every team would have the JV in the game for the second half against them. Columbus North (0-1) at Columbus East (1-0): One of the state's best football rivalries takes place for the 49th time. The Olympians are trying to avoid their first four game losing streak to the Bull Dogs since they lost five straight to them from 1972-1976 (East opened in 1972). North was demolished by a terrific Avon team last week but I'm sure youth and inexperience had a lot to do with that. It'll be interesting to see how healthy East RB Mark McDonald is after his third quarter injury last week at Whiteland. If he's good to go, East wins easily. If not, it could be another dandy. Regardless, I'll take East to snap the skid and bring home the Pigskin Scramble trophy. Floyd Central (0-1) at Providence (1-0): With the exception of 1995-1997, this match-up has taken place every year since 1969. The Highlanders have won six straight in the series and 10 out of the last 11. The Pioneers are a decent 2A team but they have their hands full with a decent 5A team like Floyd Central. The Highlanders are also more experienced than last year and should be feeling more comfortable with James Bragg at the helm for year 2. Floyd Central wins. New Albany (1-0) at Castle (0-1): The Bulldogs started the year off with a win last week, although it was against a traditionally weak Evansville Harrison team. Castle had the bigger test in their loss against Bloomington South. Both teams lost a lot of experience off of last year's teams but the Knights are more known for having a successful football program. While New Albany has athletes, Castle can beat you with execution. Castle gets the win. Seymour (1-0) at Jeffersonville (0-1): It's the conference game that is being played as a non-conference game. It's really hard to say if Seymour's win against South Dearborn was legit and if Jeffersonville's loss to Fern Creek (KY) was reasonable. The evidence isn't there yet to say one way or another. However, the Red Devils are on their third coach in three years and the current guy at the helm had never been a head honcho prior to this season. The Owls have a head coach who is in his third year and, while the team hasn't looked impressive during his short tenure, something has to be said for stability. His kids are familiar with him and know what is expected. Seymour gets the W.

Can someone tell me if this week's Seymour vs Jeffersonville game is going to count in the conference standings? The other six teams are only playing six conference opponents and are using week 2 for non-conference games. Seymour and Jeffersonville are each playing seven conference opponents. There can't possibly be an imbalanced schedule can there?

I had to look that one up. Never heard of BAGUBA before.

I was curious to know what schools out there use a nickname for a specific sport that differs from the nickname the school is known by overall. For example: Columbus North is the Bull Dogs but are the Bull Frogs in swimming. Columbus East is the Olympians but are the H2Olympians (or H2Os for short) in swimming. Columbus East also used to be known as the Olympi-Anns in girls sports in the 80s.

Yeah that's one I can't figure out. They played each other every year from 1989-2017. Jennings County led the series 15-14. This is just a theory but my guess is that Greensburg made the decision to end the series. If Jennings County is willing to continue playing Batesville, who has won 15 of the last 16 games against them, why would they end a series against a team they were actually competitive with? Greensburg now plays a good 2A school in Triton Central in week 2.

@DanteEstonia Here's the only article I could find. http://www.therepublic.com/2017/03/23/conference_indiana_looking_to_replace_departing_members/ I can't seem to find the one I'm directly referring to, but it talked about how North's athletic director was directing an effort to try and get Columbus East to join Conference Indiana.