1A Tournament Discussion

[JQWL]

37 minutes ago, foxbat said:

It's interesting that folks seem to be saying this, but it's not accurate.  Only seems that way because the traditional idea that ALL privates have ALL the advantage and dominate, especially in 1A is a little more nuanced than a bumper sticker.

Still a few remaining in 1A:

• Providence (9-0 currently) - Still in it.  May have a shot, but more likely than not to be eliminated by South Putnam if not earlier. 
• Greenwood Christian (7-3) - Just got eliminated last week in first round by Eastern Green, a public school.
• Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian (1-8) - Just got eliminated last week in first round by North Miami, a public school.
• Faith Christian (2-5) - Not eligible for post-season.  Given that they lost 68-0 to 3-7 Clinton Central, I'll go out on a limb and say, if they were eligible for post-season, they would have been eliminated last week.

Also some homeschools that are in there, but not eligible for tourney and would last long if they did.  A couple of charters in there too.  Bowman's 0-10 and eliminated in first round by 3-7 North Newton who has two of their wins courtesy of Bowman.  Irvington Prep is 0-8 including a first-round exit, 60-0, at the hands of now 5-5 Clinton Central. 

I do think it is important to point out that Greenwood Christian and FW Blackhawk are in it's 2nd full year of playing varsity football and both just played in their first post-season.

[foxbat]

Coming out of the North, I see NJSP or Madison Grant, with Carroll being the spoiler.  Some folks have said Pioneer, but I just don't see them having the staying power through regionals.  On the South side, I think it's South Putnam's to lose.  Maybe Providence has an outside shot of playing spoiler, but South Putnam is just so big and I think, should they meet, SP starts pulling away in the 3rd if they don't shock on the front end.

[foxbat]

4 minutes ago, JQWL said:

I do think it is important to point out that Greenwood Christian and FW Blackhawk are in it's 2nd full year of playing varsity football and both just played in their first post-season.

Very true, but I'm more than happy to wait to see if they attain a high performance level and would not be interested in bumping either one of them into 2A until they've had proven performance.

 

[BendNotBreak]

4 hours ago, Jays said:

My apologies, I should've titled this Lutheran and other private schools.....

Apology accepted... 😄

 

As they should be.  Not to make this about a recycled topic, but no privates should exist in 1A.

[CoachPatch]

On 10/25/2024 at 11:28 PM, hondo17 said:

Can anyone tell me the story on Taylor? I know #12 missed a good portion of their season but how did they barely beat Blackhawk and North White. 

New Coach, New Offense, Change in culture..... Just now starting to figure it out.  The Team is also very young with only 4 seniors...... 2025 is their year.  Taylor has been pretty good all year defensively, the offense is just now starting to catch up. 

[BendNotBreak]

25 minutes ago, CoachPatch said:

New Coach, New Offense, Change in culture..... Just now starting to figure it out.  The Team is also very young with only 4 seniors...... 2025 is their year.  Taylor has been pretty good all year defensively, the offense is just now starting to catch up. 

Major Kudos to Taylor... to never give up and win that game with NEG yardage.. is a MAJOR feat... something even Bud Wright has Never seen.... speaks volumes for that program n those kids...

[Daniel_Bragg]

5 hours ago, Lemmy said:

How did they barely beat the Sheridan Blackhawks?  Sheridan is down a little but is still a pretty good team that will probably win their sectional.  That was a really good win for Taylor.  As far as North White, I don't know specific details but my understanding is they had some mistakes in red zone and blew some assignments on defense that made game closer than it should have been, but ultimately that was game 1 with new coach so not a true picture.  

It's worth remembering that the game was played in a hurricane.  That being said though, Sheridan never seemed to be interested in playing on that night.  They were the only team in Hamilton County playing on that particular Friday night, and I've heard the only reason they played, was because everyone else in the conference were playing their games.

It was INCREDIBLY unsafe for both teams to be playing that night, but Taylor wanted it more, and got it done.

[First_Backer_Inside]

13 minutes ago, Daniel_Bragg said:

It's worth remembering that the game was played in a hurricane.  That being said though, Sheridan never seemed to be interested in playing on that night.  They were the only team in Hamilton County playing on that particular Friday night, and I've heard the only reason they played, was because everyone else in the conference were playing their games.

It was INCREDIBLY unsafe for both teams to be playing that night, but Taylor wanted it more, and got it done.

It was a fun game to watch, not great football played, but was fun to watch for sure. It's amazing how low the score was, but yet how much of the game was played inside the goal line and twenty.

[hondo17]

1 hour ago, CoachPatch said:

New Coach, New Offense, Change in culture..... Just now starting to figure it out.  The Team is also very young with only 4 seniors...... 2025 is their year.  Taylor has been pretty good all year defensively, the offense is just now starting to catch up. 

Thank you! I was really impressed w a lot of their kids! As I was watching the game I noticed both teams play a lot of younger kids. Taylor w Juniors and sophomores and Winamac with a lot of sophomores and freshman. As a Winamac fan we saw a lot of lumps this past year but 2025 should be better and 2026 and 2027 should be really good ones! 

Hopefully both teams can match up next year, have a feeling it'll be a good one! This one was pretty exciting (looking at it through my eyes) until the 4th when Taylor pulled away. 

[WWFan]

Back on topic now. Anyone see any upsets? Looks like top games are Pioneer at Carrol in north and maybe Riverton Parke at North Vermillion in South. Game went to OT in regular season. 

[CoachPatch]

5 hours ago, hondo17 said:

Thank you! I was really impressed w a lot of their kids! As I was watching the game I noticed both teams play a lot of younger kids. Taylor w Juniors and sophomores and Winamac with a lot of sophomores and freshman. As a Winamac fan we saw a lot of lumps this past year but 2025 should be better and 2026 and 2027 should be really good ones! 

Hopefully both teams can match up next year, have a feeling it'll be a good one! This one was pretty exciting (looking at it through my eyes) until the 4th when Taylor pulled away. 

Good News for the TItan is #12 Javionne Harris is back as are all the receivers, including Keyshawn Galloway who leads single A in yds per catch at almost 30 yds a catch and is 2nd in receiving yardage.

[foxbat]

21 hours ago, WWFan said:

Back on topic now. Anyone see any upsets? Looks like top games are Pioneer at Carrol in north and maybe Riverton Parke at North Vermillion in South. Game went to OT in regular season. 

You can never count out Pioneer, even when they are the underdog, but I think of the teams that Pioneer has faced, not including Knox, Carroll will look most like NJSP.

[foxbat]

On 10/29/2024 at 4:50 PM, foxbat said:

You can never count out Pioneer, even when they are the underdog, but I think of the teams that Pioneer has faced, not including Knox, Carroll will look most like NJSP.

I stand humbly corrected.

[Basementbias]

South Adams down 25 at half and wins by 10 @Tri. 

[Daniel_Bragg]

2 hours ago, foxbat said:

I stand humbly corrected.

I hadn't said anything publicly all season, because, with my ties to Sheridan, it would have been assumed that I was just being biased, but I felt like Carroll was kind of a fraud most of the year.  I did NOT, however, expect them to get the beatdown that they received tonight.

[superjay]

What the hell happened in the Pioneer vs Carroll game?  Did Jack Kiser play?

[hick]

4 hours ago, superjay said:

What the hell happened in the Pioneer vs Carroll game?  Did Jack Kiser play?

🤣 

[Muda69]

8 hours ago, Daniel_Bragg said:

I hadn't said anything publicly all season, because, with my ties to Sheridan, it would have been assumed that I was just being biased, but I felt like Carroll was kind of a fraud most of the year. 

A "fraud" in what way?  The mighty competition found in the Hoosier Heartland Conference didn't probably prepare the Cougars for a deep tournament run?

[Daniel_Bragg]

27 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

A "fraud" in what way?  The mighty competition found in the Hoosier Heartland Conference didn't probably prepare the Cougars for a deep tournament run?

A "fraud" meaning I never thought they were playing in a way that reflected their polling. Most of the year, they were regarded as a Top 3 team. Top 10, sure, but I never really believed that they were on that "top-tier" level this year. 

[hondo17]

3 hours ago, Muda69 said:

A "fraud" in what way?  The mighty competition found in the Hoosier Heartland Conference didn't probably prepare the Cougars for a deep tournament run?

Eastern a team that lost to Carroll by 2 touchdowns beat Rochester who doesn't play that bad of a schedule. 

I'm just guessing but maybe Carroll is a good team but not as good as their rankings showed and Pioneer has simply got better as the season went along and maybe Carroll having the success they've had in the past couple seasons could have came in over confident and were caught off guard on how good Pioneer is and before you knew it.. it was 22-0. 

11 hours ago, superjay said:

What the hell happened in the Pioneer vs Carroll game?  Did Jack Kiser play?

No but Micah Rans did his best impersonation. 

Edited November 2, 2024 by hondo17

[FarmerFran]

16 hours ago, superjay said:

What the hell happened in the Pioneer vs Carroll game?  Did Jack Kiser play?

Pioneer- 500+ yards of offense, zero punts, 6 first half scores, 1 second half score, 1 interception

Carroll- < 200 yards of offense,4 or 5 punts, 1 first half score, 1 interception, 2 lost fumbles

Pioneer finally starting to click on both sides of the ball.  Getting guys healthy and getting young guys confident has been huge. 

[adambetz]

Edited November 4, 2024 by adambetz

[WWFan]

Kind of surprised Milan is Favored over North Decatur 

[adambetz]

I think the Milan vs North Decatur game has the opportunity to become an instant classic. The Indians have played a much tougher schedule. It will be interesting to see how ND responds to getting punched in the mouth by a similarly talented team. In the Chargers' toughest games of the season, they got rolled by Eastern Hancock but then got a solid win over Lapel.

I've been leaning towards North Decatur winning this inevitable match-up all year, but all of a sudden this week I'm leaning towards Milan.

[adambetz]

8 minutes ago, WWFan said:

Kind of surprised Milan is Favored over North Decatur 

Think it comes down to SoS mainly. The Indians have been battle tested this year.