Butkus

I think you make a good point regarding state wide rankings (which mean nothing) regarding Lex Cath's win over Russell in 2000, but if you have ever played a Russell team at Russell in the playoffs you would understand what a huge win that was. That was a very young Lex Team that year also, with the Doss kid at QB just a sophomore. I think if you look at the context of the win from the perspective of the program that Lex Cath has now also, it might not seem huge, but that was right at the point when they were winning those types of games as their program climbed the ladder bringing them to where they are now. With all that taken into consideration and looking at it from the perspective of where their young program was heading, it was a huge win. I only brought it up because of the very fact that not many people would look at it as an upset, but taking all of these things in consideration, it was maybe not the biggest upset in the history of Ky high school football, but in the context of what it meant in the building of the Lex Cath program it was absolutely huge. I would venture to say, many a program have gone into Russell hoping to use them as a stepping stone on up the ladder to prominence in Ky high school football and have gone home with their tails tucked between their legs! Ole Ivan and those boys can flat do that to you!

Lexington Catholic as a #4 seed in 1997 when they went on the road to #1 seed Rockcastle Co. for a win in the playoffs and then went to Danville to beat Danville in round 2 of the playoffs on the last play of the game. I believe those two wins on the road were the type of upsets that got the program where it felt it could compete with anyone. They went on to have some other great upsets, such as, Boyle Co. in 1998 & 2004, St. X. in 2003, Male in 2001, Riussle in 2000 playoffs when they were the #1 seed, Beechwood in the mid 90's, and Henry Clay in 1996, and of course Highlands at Highlands this year. Those are just some of their wins as they climbed the ladder over the past 15 years. You pick the biggest upset of the bunch. Speaking of those upsets over those 15 years, I was listening to a documentary of John Wooden's career at UCLA and I noticed that it was his 15th year when they won their first title and his program wasn't starting from scratch. Funny how some think it took Lexington Catholic a long time to win one. Of course, those are the same people who complained that UCLA had an unfair advantage of some kind.

Lexington Catholic has always done well in these types of competitions as opposed to their own meet and the state meet. Reasons being: #1 they only lift their upcoming team and do not compete with seniors as they have to compete against in their own meet and the state meet. (this district competition did not allow current seniors to lift, so all was equal from that standpoint) #2 when the meet involves explosive lifts such as power clean or squat they always perform well because that is the type of strength development they emphasize. The brute strength, but non-explosive lifts, such as the dead lift are not their thing, so they never do well in their own meet or others like it. They have attended some competitions in the past that also included vertical jump and 40 yard dash and they were usually at or near the top in these competitions, even when seniors competed for other schools against them. Explosiveness and speed are what they try to develop to carry over to the game field.

Chuck Amato and Marc Trestman will be in the Burke home this evening and at his basketball game against Covington Catholic tonight.

Everyone knows that LC went into offensive maintenance mode after Burke's injury early in the game at Highlands and also after recognizing that Highlands could not score on LC. What you saw that night was no reflection on what Burke does when it is full throttle. That was just game adjustment due to injury and due to the staff letting their defense win the game without taking any unnecessary risks. And yes, Burke is one tough son of a gun, both physically and mentally.

Purplehaze, I bet it probably was Coach Sphire who visited your lockeroom because he ended up coaching for 2 years at WKU with Coach Jimmy Feix as a grad assistant. He feels that his two years coaching at WKU as a young coach were invaluable in preparing him to be a head coach, and I know he has great respect for Coach Feix as a person, a coach, and as a mentor.

Did no one recognize that Lex Cath's offense went into game-control mode rather than all-out assault mode in the Highlands game, once they realized that Highlands offense was hard pressed to score on Lex Cath's Defense? It also afforded them the opportunity to limit their offense in order to keep Burke from taking unnecessary shots on his knee once the flow the game became apparent. I just bring that up because it seems like everyone is excited that Highlands "held" their offense to 17 points, instead of taking into consideration that Lex Cath backed off of their normal go-for-the-throat offensive approach since it was not needed. This observation is in no way a knock on Highlands defense, just an observation about the game and how it unfolded being a factor in the final score. The final score may not necessarily be a true assessment of Lex Cath's offense vs Highland's defense.

Over the course of the program, offensive systems have been adjusted to fit the ability of the players. In fact, if you look back prior to spread-the-field scucess they have had, Lexington Catholic was one of the leading rushing teams in the state for 3 or 4 straight years. Will they get smacked around a little bit early by the likes of St. X and Scott Co. while the make the necesarry adjustments to their schemes, possibly, but they will have a plan.

Hard to believe an offense can rack up almost 600 yards in a playoff win against a team like Cov Cath and not be nearly as precise and be clicking as they can. It was not really a sharp game by Lex Cath offensively, and I feel this is attributed to the lack of competition they have faced the last half of the season. Playing poorly and winning as they did, should help them this week. They really needed a competitive game like they had against Cov Cath to get their sharpness back and to get the little things ironed back out as they had them in the first half of the season.

Family: I know Cov Cath won last year, but didn't the Lex Cath boys know them out of the playoffs the previous meeting? I think that is when these seniors were Freshmen? I am pretty sure that is right?