Offseason Topics of Discussion

[CoachMack219]

59 minutes ago, temptation said:

Guy says best HS DB and you wanna act hurt and bring up the NFL.

Of course he has “heard” of Woodson but maybe he never “saw” him play.

Geez.  You Fort Wayne guys can find outrage anywhere.

Seen was the form of "to see" used by crimson. No need for us Northerners to get riled up now! Lol hell, the best HS players I have seen with my own 2 eyes are...

1. Jaylon Smith, FORT WAYNE Luers 

2. Tyler Eifert, FORT WAYNE Dwenger

3. Drayk Bowen, Andrean

4. Kenneth Grant, Merrillville

5. JoJo Johnson, Morton/ Merrillville

That makes JoJo Johnson the best High School DB that I have seen with my own 2 eye balls. I do NOT think JoJo Johnson is better than Rod Woodson simply because sentence 1 is true, for me. He's just the best these eyes have seen. 

See Fort Wayne, the NORTH REMEMBERS 😂, no need to be upset! Lol I'm sure there's someone down South who has seen a more impressive 5 than my 5 (maybe not?) but this is the best these eyes have been able to see and the top 2 are Fort Wayne fellas. 

[Justasportsfan]

 

2 hours ago, CoachMack219 said:

Seen was the form of "to see" used by crimson. No need for us Northerners to get riled up now! Lol hell, the best HS players I have seen with my own 2 eyes are... 

Jeff Samardzija-Valpo

Anthony Spencer-Luers

Trai Essex-Harding

Jack Kiser-Pioneer

Nick Zachery-Sheridan

[23andCounting]

33 minutes ago, Justasportsfan said:

Jeff Samardzija-Valpo

The only time I saw him was the last game of his high school career where he was held to zero catches. 

John Goodman and Sewlyn Lymon are at the top of my list. Those two looked like men among boys at the high school level. 

[Coach Nowlin]

5 minutes ago, 23andCounting said:

The only time I saw him was the last game of his high school career where he was held to zero catches. 

John Goodman and Sewlyn Lymon are at the top of my list. Those two looked like men among boys at the high school level. 

Why did Lymon have to go to NICKS.....   ugh....

Tiller famous line,  Lymon is so good, we gave him #1 not in 1 but 2 different recruiting classes......

John Goodman, name blast from past, excellent player.  

 

My best players I have seen person:  Not in any particular order (guys I had to coach against) 

Nick Zachary 

George Karlaftis 

Drayk Bowen 

Daniel Wodika (QB and Mr. Football from West Lafayette) 

LB Kiemerier from Luers ( Purple Nurple's Son)  he was more devastating then Fresh/Soph version of Jaylon Smith ) 

Danny Anthrop LCC 

Jake Kiger ( pleasure to coach him) 

[23andCounting]

11 minutes ago, Coach Nowlin said:

Why did Lymon have to go to NICKS.....   ugh....

Tiller famous line,  Lymon is so good, we gave him #1 not in 1 but 2 different recruiting classes......

John Goodman, name blast from past, excellent player.  

Lymon had the world at his fingertips, NFL talent all the way. What a shame. 

I don't believe Goodman and Kelly had a good relationship. I think John would have prospered at IU. 

[Justasportsfan]

12 minutes ago, 23andCounting said:

The only time I saw him was the last game of his high school career where he was held to zero catches. 

Ouch, doubling him with a guy who was 6-4 and runs a 10.6 had alot to do with that. I thought he had more than a few, along with a punt return...moved liked he was on skates..the year before it was an on going "you got mossed" clip...over and over...and over again.

[First_Backer_Inside]

Anyone wanna make a list of the best players they played against while in High School? I'll go (in no particular order)

Jack Kiser - Pioneer

George Karlaftis - West Lafayette

Jackson Anthrop - LCC

Coy Cronk - LCC

Matt Desomer - Andrean

Some would say it was an honor, I called it multiple ass kickings that I took.

 

[23andCounting]

18 minutes ago, Justasportsfan said:

Ouch, doubling him with a guy who was 6-4 and runs a 10.6 had alot to do with that. I thought he had more than a few, along with a punt return...moved liked he was on skates..the year before it was an on going "you got mossed" clip...over and over...and over again.

His team hammered Snider his junior year. I wasn't present for that game. His senior year ended at Spuller going up against a 5'8 DB who held him to zero catches. The snow in the second half may have had an impact. That was the only time I saw him at the high school level. Saw him plenty at Notre Dame though, fun to watch. 

[Justasportsfan]

16 minutes ago, 23andCounting said:

His team hammered Snider his junior year. I wasn't present for that game. His senior year ended at Spuller going up against a 5'8 DB who held him to zero catches. The snow in the second half may have had an impact. That was the only time I saw him at the high school level. Saw him plenty at Notre Dame though, fun to watch. 

They moved the db to safety and slid over a WR to cover him with bracket coverage..I was at the game as well..maybe have some old film..the game was at Wayne, not spuller...

[23andCounting]

5 minutes ago, Justasportsfan said:

the game was at Wayne, not spuller...

Same thing, lol. But yeah, now that I think about it, it was Wayne. For some reason it's easy to get the two confused :). 

[PDB26]

1 hour ago, Justasportsfan said:

Ouch, doubling him with a guy who was 6-4 and runs a 10.6 had alot to do with that. I thought he had more than a few, along with a punt return...moved liked he was on skates..the year before it was an on going "you got mossed" clip...over and over...and over again.

Wait, wait, btf used to be out here saying Samardzija was taken out of that game by a plucky little Snider corner in single coverage for 48 minutes. Although after this most recent crash out it’s starting to make sense.

[crimsonace1]

14 hours ago, Komets2727 said:

Guess you never heard of Rod Woodson from Snider, you know, an NFL Hall of Famer

I saw a lot of Rod Woodson in college, but never saw him in HS. 

Finch was the best one *I* had seen in high school. 

[psaboy]

Found this interesting.

The Top Ranked Football Players of All-Time from Indiana High Schools

[First_Backer_Inside]

26 minutes ago, psaboy said:

Found this interesting.

The Top Ranked Football Players of All-Time from Indiana High Schools

Only lists guys who played in the NFL. While it is a good list, I guarantee there were players from different schools on there that were not the best football player to come out of their given schools. 

[Justasportsfan]

1 hour ago, PDB26 said:

Wait, wait, btf used to be out here saying Samardzija was taken out of that game by a plucky little Snider corner in single coverage for 48 minutes. Although after this most recent crash out it’s starting to make sense.

We all loved that corner, and Id hate to contradict a legend..the guy who i saw cover him was the starting QB next year, he played WR all year yet during this game played Defense. The scrappy corner got a pick late, yet he played safety during this semi state contest and ran 12.4 in the 100m...he needed help and grace from God..the year prior they did the same yet both guys got torched..it made Samardjiza's highlight tape...a couple of times..

[Justasportsfan]

37 minutes ago, psaboy said:

Found this interesting.

The Top Ranked Football Players of All-Time from Indiana High Schools

Witherspoon and Eloms...never would have guessed...Eloms had blazing speed!

[PDB26]

16 minutes ago, Justasportsfan said:

We all loved that corner, and Id hate to contradict a legend..the guy who i saw cover him was the starting QB next year, he played WR all year yet during this game played Defense. The scrappy corner got a pick late, yet he played safety during this semi state contest and ran 12.4 in the 100m...he needed help and grace from God..the year prior they did the same yet both guys got torched..it made Samardjiza's highlight tape...a couple of times..

Yeah we had to do the same his senior year. Probably got the idea from Snider, wouldn’t be the first time Penn tried something on defense after seeing Snider do it. 

[Justasportsfan]

12 minutes ago, PDB26 said:

Yeah we had to do the same his senior year. Probably got the idea from Snider, wouldn’t be the first time Penn tried something on defense after seeing Snider do it. 

And vice versa..the black and gold have to stick together! The games from 03 and 04 can attest to how similiar the programs were.

[23andCounting]

2 hours ago, psaboy said:

Found this interesting.

The Top Ranked Football Players of All-Time from Indiana High Schools

Good stuff. Might be able to use that for some interesting off season topics.

[temptation]

2 hours ago, 23andCounting said:

Good stuff. Might be able to use that for some interesting off season topics.

I’ll start.  Just a quick glance but shocking that Carmel only has FIVE guys on this list?

[psaboy]

13 minutes ago, temptation said:

I’ll start.  Just a quick glance but shocking that Carmel only has FIVE guys on this list?

Who from Carmel may they be missing?

[Justasportsfan]

Thought Grant from Merrillville made it a couple years ago after leaving Michigan..also wild that Grossman Jr was an LB b4 his son was the qb..I'm shocked not as many CG guys as I thought..

[psaboy]

4 minutes ago, Justasportsfan said:

Thought Grant from Merrillville made it a couple years ago after leaving Michigan..also wild that Grossman Jr was an LB b4 his son was the qb..I'm shocked not as many CG guys as I thought..

Isn't Grany a rookie? List may not have the 2025 players on it, just a guess

[temptation]

3 hours ago, psaboy said:

Who from Carmel may they be missing?

Not necessarily saying they are missing anyone just surprised that a school with that much success combined with its size is behind so many other programs.

[BDGiant93]

On 12/3/2025 at 10:13 AM, crimsonace1 said:

The only uniform policing I care about is are the numbers clearly contrasting from the jersey (and that means purple-on-black or gray-on-white DO NOT COUNT. That's not enough of a contrast) so they can be seen from the stands and press box. 

I have joked with Mike Kirschner, Jason Simmons and Russ Mann over the years that I'm going to sneak into the locker room and dispose of the Ben Davis black jerseys with purple numbers. Purple and white are great colors. When the black pants or those black jerseys get mixed in, that's not Ben Davis to me...and it's annoying to broadcasters, PA announcers or anyone who needs or wants to see jersey numbers. That's my two cents anyways.