wabashalwaysfights

Honestly, if Taylor keeps this up and DOESN'T win MVP they may as well just rename the award... it would be a slap in the face to anyone who actually pays half a millimeter of attention to football... The Colts continue to be an unbelievably pleasant surprise. Honestly, I thought the ceiling for this team was about 10-7, now it looks like they will be more in the neighborhood of 12-5, maybe 13-4...

A TE as OROY would be a long shot, but consider this: Dart has really only had what, a 2 maybe 3 week heater? What happens if he is only "meh" the rest of the way and the Giants win only 4 or 5 games? The narrative quickly becomes that it was all flash in the pan and we move on. Now of he continues to even remotely ball put then yes, the odds are that it goes to him, but I'd like to see a couple more games before I crown him. Same goes with Skattebo quite honestly. If Dart falls back to earth but Skattebo continues to ball out, then it probably goes to him in all honesty. Not to say Warren wouldn't be deserving (he would be) but that would be the reality.

If I'm being completely honest, I am unsure of what his history was prior to North Vermillion. My understanding was that at one point he was coaching in Missouri, but please do not quote me on that. I really got to know him while coaching track several years ago. We would talk a lot of football and it was clear that not only did he know the game inside and out, but that, as you said, his players loved him because they knew how much he cared not just about them on the field/in the ring but as people.

Agreed. Coach Blank was one of the best.

My understanding is that you would only take the penalty on the succeeding kickoff if it were a dead ball foul, but I may be mistaken.

So far, so good through 6 games. The next 5 look a little more difficult, but not impossible, the last 6 look really difficult though. The Jags and Texans twice, which neither has looked unbeatable, but playing them that close to one another is tough. The other two sandwiched in between are the Seahawks and 49ers... I'm thinking by the end of the season we're looking at somewhere in the 10-7 to 12-5 range? Probably at least one loss in those last four division games, one between Seattle and San Francisco, and at least one loss in those middle three games. Either way, I think they win the division and host a playoff game, which would be sweet.

Thank you. Travel may be an issue for some schools with as few schools as there are, it seems like most of those are in the southern part of the state, but it seems fairly spread out.

This is 1000% true. Do we know currently how many schools are participating in 8 man?

Potential replacements that have been brought in? I've looked around just a little and haven't seen any reporting yet, though I'm sure they've started looking.

Admittedly I have not watched the clip you posted so the answer to my question may lie in there, but why would he have a civil suit against Fox Sports? Against Sanchez, 100%, but I'm not sure how you could spin this into a suit against Fox Sports.

I understand the premise here, but just for context: the 4 schools you list above (Jeff, Harrison, McCutcheon, and WL) are in the Lafayette metro area for lack of a better term, but are spread across 3 different corporations. Very different, at least to my understanding, with what is happening with the Terre Haute schools.

Simple, but effective...

Summer scrimmages can be a good indicator for where you are at as a team and good for experimentation, but as far as those being a fix to the "beefing up" your schedule idea they are a bit more problematic. They are far more controlled than actual games are (typically either a set amount of time or plays on offense and/or defense), have no special teams elements, and in many cases you don't have all your athletes because of family vacations and the like. Again, they have their purposes, but in terms of really "testing" your team, that is debatable at the very least.

"Beefing up" ones schedule is not nearly as simple as it would appear. Sometimes simply getting an opponent, any opponent, is a small miracle. When programs can do it, "beefing up," it obviously is ideal: see Seeger picking up West Lafayette years ago when they were in their hey-day in the early 00s, but sometimes it is simply not possible. Part of this is due to the way conferences have gone to scheduling: the WRC now, like the old Sagamore did years ago, has gone to a format whereby all of your non-conference games have to be in weeks 1 and 2. I am not entirely sure of the rationale for this, though I could hazard a guess, but the result is that schools become limited in their options for those non-conference games.

A really interesting look at the evolution of the modern spread and how it relates back to a lot of these older concepts... Who Actually Invented the Spread Offense

I feel like the Colts are all in on Jones having a Darnold-like bounceback year, which after the smallest of sample size does look promising, but I am certainly not going to hold my breath... What to do with Richardson though? That is the question...

Anyone who has been around the WRC for the last 10-15 years would recognize and tip their cap to what RP has done in that time frame and would need no explanation and would certainly not need to ask this question... please pay attention to reality...

The only appropriate historical response... thanks to DK and the whole admin team!

High risk, high reward. We pulled if off flawlessly once, and I do mean exact to the way I installed it, possession on the opponents 40. We did however get several botched fielding attempts that we recovered. But, teams caught on and coached their kids up; touché.

I always want to keep kids safe on the field and understand the intent of the rule completely. That said, what we called a "sky kick" did not involve bouncing the ball off the turf at all. Bear in mind, we were really only able to do this effectively for a few years when we had a solid kicker, but the set up looked something like this: the kicker would kick the ball as high in the air as he could, aiming for approximately the opposite 40 yardline, aiming for somewhere between the numbers and the sideline. Again I emphasize, he would not bounce the ball off the turf, just kick it straight up in the air off the tee. The purpose was to either catch a team bailing early and cover the ball, force them to botch the fielding of the kick and generate a turnoved that way, or force the opponent to fair catch the ball and we just take the field position hit. It was high risk for us because of the likelihood of a kick our of bounds (which did happen some) and the field position we would give up. And it was pretty good for us: we forced a few turnovers and forced teams to game plan out kick off team more, which was kind of the point. We even saw several teams in our conference copy cat us, which since imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, I took as a compliment. We even had a team beat us at our own game twice in one game on the same kid: frustrating for us, but good on them. When the new rule got put in place, I asked why we were not allowed to perform that type of kick and I was actually told by that crew the exact opposite of what has been relayed here. He said, if your kicked one hops it and it goes that high you're good. We tried that later in the year (not nearly as effective by the way) and was told what has been relayed here, much to my great confusion. We took it out of the playbook at that point, but I have continued to chat officials up about it just as a curiosity. I've had guys tell me that this type of kick is illegal under any circumstance, bounce or no bounce, I've had guys tell me it has to travel a certain distance down the field, I've had guys tell me it is 100% a judgement call, I've had guys tell me that it technically doesn't break the rule but violates the "spirit of the rule." And here's the thing: I'm good either way, I just want to know whether it's legal or not. It seems to me that the "spirit" of the rule, as Bobref indicates, is "this type of kick (bounce or no) is too dangerous, so we want it out." That's fine, I disagree, but that's fine. Then just do what the UFL does: NFL style kickoffs and 4th and whatever to retain possession in the 4th quarter only. As I've said, the NFL style kickoff is difficult at the 1A level, but I suppose some kind of adjustment could be made.

At the 1A level especially, the NFL rule is DOA. Kickers at that level tend to be very inconsistent from year to year. Personally, I've coached kids ranging in ability from 5 yards and in to can barely keep a basic squib kick in bounds. Not that I dislike the NFL rules, I agree with you that it has grown on me, but this one is just not possible. Your first two proposals are fine I suppose, but I have a completely separate issue on kickoffs altogether which honestly makes me a bit apathetic about the original post and that is this: can that state please, please clarify the "pop-up" kickoff rules? I believe I have sought explanation on this issue here before, but that is not what I seek here. In this case, I just want the IHSAA to clarify the rule and put it in language that is easier for officials to convey. Since this rule was put into place some 7 or so years ago, I have asked about 10-15 officials to clarify it for me and I have gotten as many explanations back, including, hilariously enough, multiple explanations from the same officiating crews. Personally, I have never come across a question where I have not been able to find something resembling a consensus, and honestly, it's hugely frustrating. Apologies: I don't mean to hijack this thread, but it's kickoff related and has driven me nuts for years at this point.

Hey now...

This is a former student and player of mine, a real good kid. I'm not suprised that he's giving this thing a full go and, unfortunately, that some jack wagon would take advantage of his good nature.

The man had demons no doubt, but he has to be considered one of the best owners in the NFL, and considering the history of the Colts and the way they ended up in Indianapolis, that's saying something. Rest in peace.