Fla_rock

I was able to attend Trinity's first game of this tournament and had it not been for the coaching they would have won by 20. Trinity had a 16 point lead in the second half playing high pressure defense and running their offense. At some point in the second half they stopped pressing the ball and started passing up open shots on offense. I was impressed most by Charles Foster (?) the starting point guard, that young man was everywhere on the court.

Any injury updates regarding the Rock QB'S, and will either be able to go on Friday? Interesting situation where the Rocks at the JV level still had the starters in late with a big lead. The only thing I can think of for this to occur would be the coaches looking for something. I recall something similar happening in a varsity game back in 2000, the coach wanted to let the O-line play together for a couple more series becuae of inconsistent play in the previous game and earlier in that game. Hopefully something like that is the case.

Can somebody who attended the JV game give us a game report?

Get used to hearing about Bonnafon, he is a stud.

Coach Beatty was still pretty fired up after the first half, I wouldn't expect any letup after the half.

I'm fairly certain that Bob(Beatty), Andrew(Coverdale) and especially Bob(Maddox) won't allow the players to get big heads. They have all been here before.

I also believe that the youth programs are a huge difference. Here is Fl the youth leagues are just as important to the communities as the HS teams. I was amazed by the level of coaching and play at some of the leagues. There were coaching staffs that had 5-6 coaches and the coaches are generally in contact with the HS coaches about what they are looking for. Even going beyond the leagues they also have the all-star teams that continue to practice together and then go on to play all-star teams from other cities. It is all very big, I have only been exposed to the Louisville Catholic School league in Ky but I cant imagine that there are other areas doing anything similar to what happens down here.

My question is whether this is a case of several team upping their game and distancing themselves from the pack, or other programs actually falling off and being worse than they were. If the first is true then this may just be a barometer pointing to an increase in the level of play throughout the state of Ky moving forward, there are generally going to be early adopters who benefit from new techniques and schemes before the masses catch up. If the later is more accurate, because it probably is a combination of the two, then this may be a result of the recent lower level trend of not keeping score or playing to win. Given the recent moves in Ky football to let everyone in the playoffs and increase the # of classes, i would be prone to believing that "participation trophies" are a primary culprit. As I said it is probably a combination of both factors, teams like T, H, and others taking their programs to the next level and other teams losing the competitive edge that would have made them more successful. Also I think coaching has a major part to play.

Interesting article on Maxpreps today. Couple Trinity players (Wright and Quick) getting some attention from them for Junior of the Year. http://www.maxpreps.com/news/KYQyS-9iEeC-rAAmVebEWg/maxpreps-national-football-junior-of-the-year-watch-list.htm

I have heard several people talk about the speed of Manual, does anybody have specifics? Positions, stats, how they fared playing against Trinity previously?

I don't see Trinity making the leap to #1 at the end of the year simply due to the superior competition the teams from Fl, OH and TX will play on the way to a championship. I believe a top 5 finish is certainly attainable if Trinity wins out, but finishing #1 way be simply out of reach. Similar to TCU and Boise not having a realistic chance to be #1 unless everybody else losses. I would hope that this is not the case, be fear it may be. It doesn't matter if St. Eds beats DBP and Moe beat St. Eds and then we beat Moe, a lack of respect for Kentucky football is prevalent in these national polls and given the lack of big time talent coming out of KY historically who can blame them?

New ranking are out for several sites, Trinity maintained it's #2 ranking in Rivals 100, #3 in Maxpreps top 25, and moved up to #4 in USA today poll. I know that it is not an accurate system and the team is not concerned with it, but I think it is great. I deal with a lot of noise here in FL about KY football and having a team like Trinity that has played the schedule they have and won the way they have really quiets them down. Several of my friends down here ('Bama, UF and FSU fans) are already on the trail of Quick, Hatcher, Wright and Dawkins. They are going to be pursued hard by some big time schools. On a completely separate note, who does Trinity have coming up for the O-Line next year? I'm thinking that could be the Achilles heel for this team next year.

I believe that the difference is speed combined with execution and size. In order to compete with the athletes that Trinity can put on the field you have to match them in all three of those aspects. There is also the schemes that need to be accounted for by Trinity's offense. They employ a very diverse offense. They can line up with 4-5 wideouts and spread the ball around to multiple playmakers or put in 2 tight ends and pound the ball with 2 very good rbs. It's an offense that you can slow down, but it's very hard to stop.

I hope that you have had time to watch the replay, I was watching the streaming video on Wazoo and the ball came out well before the goalline. I was actually questioning the rule g on the fumble by Mattingly to get the ball down there. It looked as though the ball came out and hit the pylon. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't that have resulted in a touchback T ball on the 20.

some brief stats: Wright - 17-23 - 252 yards Quick - 2 carries 19 yards, 36 yards passing w TD 155 yards 2 TDs on 8 catches Dawkins - 21 rushes 131 2 TDs Mattingly - 105 after half 94 1 TD rushing 143 yards passing Trinity St.X first downs - 10 3 offense - 449 304