ATLCat

I would say very, very slim unless there is like a game broker already working to put it together. Boyle would probably need to be putting out feelers right now if they were interested. You have to think that Texas doesn't wrap their State Championships up until near Christmas time. The logistics are a mess because some teams may have an extended layoff or a potential game won't coincide with school schedules. There was a thing called the GEICO State Champions Bowl Series a couple years ago but I don't think it is happening still. The only thing Boyle has going for them is Mater Dei is the consensus favorite to win another National Title with two Top 10 wins including Bishop Gorman already. They do not play IMG or Duncanville, TX. If either of those programs wanted to take a chance at unseating Mater Dei, having an extra game against an undefeated and potentially Top 30 National Team could be lucrative. Duncanville is a public school like Boyle, but we know how Texas prides their football. IMG would probably be the most likely target if they think they can finish undefeated. The way that "school" works is more conducive to playing an extra game and they have a lot to gain by staking a claim as a National Champion or at the very least getting potentially one more game on TV.

It don't work that way. Boyle may win by 60 the rest of the year and drop just due to the level of competition. The best team left on their regular season slate is Frederick Douglass. FD is currently the #521 team in the Country. Most of these teams in the Top 25 will probably have 4-5 games minimum against teams ranked higher than FD in their regular season schedule. Boyle's best hope if they want to finish Top 10 Nationally is see if they can schedule a post Championship game against another State's Top Champion. If you can find a team like a Bishop Gorman, St. John Bosco, or IMG they might be interested since those big prep schools really care about winning a National Title probably more than a State Title. Boyle would probably have to agree to travel and get some sponsors lined up. If you can beat a Top 10 team with National notoriety for a second time then I think that plants them in the Top 10. Just to give you an idea though about the National Championship moniker, every team that Mater Dei (CA) beat last year finished in the Maxpreps Top 250. DeSoto (TX) had 6 wins against teams who finished in the Maxpreps Top 100 and 10 wins Against Top 500 teams. Bishop Gorman NV finished 12-0 and ranked #4.. they had 6 wins against Top 50 teams and 2 wins over teams who finished Top 10 Nationally.

Great game. Belfry cannot stop the JC ground game and JC can not stop the Belfry passing game.

LOL Think of 6A like restaurants that serve steak Trinity is the highest end steakhouse. Male and X are really nice steakhouses. Let's call Longhorns your generic middle of the road...there are a LOT of Longhorns in Kentucky 6A football. Yes, it may be middle of the road compared to a fine establishment like Jeff Ruby's... but it is still a really good meal. The low end is low though... Warren Central last year was more like ordering a steak from the local dive restaurant where they pulled that sucker out of vacuum sealed pack in a freezer. Straight up sirloin at a seafood or wing spot. I am not sure 4-6 GRC is a Longhorns experience, but they sure are more palatable than the 8.00 Sirloin at Shaky's Wing & Things Restaurant LOL. Let's call GRC a Bourbon Street Steak from Applebees. Inconsistent, a little bit of mystery, but generally pretty filling.. maybe nothing you brag to your friends about but it gets the job done. HAHA

This is a water line mark game for Belfry to see if they are starting the year in the contender or pretender category of 3A. GRC is a solid middle of the road to top of the back of the pack 6A team. When Belfry was cooking in their most dominant form they would beat teams like Henry Clay, Tates Creek, and Bryan Station with a level of comfort. I don't expect Belfry to be at that level, but it is fair to say that this is the type of team you need to be able to beat (even by a thin margin) if you want to be viewed as a team capable of competing for a 3A title. Let's put it this way, if this was CAL, Central, or even LexCath playing GRC I think they would be the favorite.

I won't say the natives are getting restless in "Johnson Central"... ... but there may be a few murmurs stirring in the shadows. I am not sure I see Pikeville running away this one because Johnson Central size negates some of Pikeville's biggest strengths they usually have, but I will say I would be a bit surprised not to see Pikeville win.

After re-watching this one: - I don't think Belfry is a legit title threat. Hope I am wrong. The defense still is shaky, think they are better than last year but they are going to struggle to stop teams with elite speed or a capable passing offense. Secondary should have looked better with their experience level returning. Lots of fundamental issues like losing leverage, losing the ball, and grabbing at the body. More on the LB's below. Offense has a lot of promise and a lot of good things to like. Lots of ability to make plays in space and you have to honor the Belfry passing game. The knock on the Offense is you have to be able to grind out yardage against a very good defense in the playoffs and Belfry simply doesn't have that back that can get the forward lean to pick up a 4th and 2 with the game on the line when he is hit at the LOS. - Breathitt has really good young talent and that QB has good moxy and an accurate arm. I think the off-season accident really was unfortunate because they are probably 2 or 3 experienced players from being a team who can win a few playoffs games. - Breathitt has always played with a chip on their shoulder and an almost "arrogance", when you are loaded with talent that translates... when your talent and results aren't there it comes across as egregious and reckless. The past two years they have made numerous mental mistakes that give the impression of being undisciplined. I would have hoped they saw the lessons of this and how it hindered their progress last year but they still just insist on playing a brand of football ripe with late hits they hope don't get seen. - Chase Varney looked good and looked improved with his feet. He made some beautiful throws right on the money that the receiver just couldn't reel in. -OLine dominated at times but it was kind of odd that they looked a lot better when it was more complex assignments than the basics of just getting push or creating a running lane. The line was fantastic at pulling and blocking the option, counters, and even pass protection. The straight dive and midline stuff though yielded at times a surprising lack of push. Part of this is the lack of that downhill power back, but I was surprised to see how easy Breathitt was able to win the LOS and get penetration. The bright side is unlike having the lack of a power back, this is something you can improve and fix. - Belfry's defense as mentioned wasn't exactly impressive, but the silver lining was that I felt pursuit looked a lot better and it felt like the LB's who struggled with getting stuck on blocks were doing a much better job at getting clean to have a chance at making solid tackles. Now there were still a ton of missed tackles, but at least in their defense it was less plays of reaching for an arm tackle and more plays where they were hitting the offensive player and just not wrapping up. - I like Belfry's placekicker. He was pretty consistent last year and looks even more consistent this season. The kicking game/special teams are always an x-factor to Belfry's successes and failures. Kickoff coverage is still a cardiac arrest waiting to happen but the actual kicking game and the return game looks to be an improvement.

Should be a solid year for 3A. Lawrence County, East Carter, Rockcastle County, and Adair County all have a legitimate case for being a Top 10 team, goes to show there should be some good parity in this class with everyone presumably chasing CAL's tracks.

Hearing really good things coming out of Pond Creek. Belfry returned most of their bodies on the line of scrimmage. Traditionally when Belfry returns a veteran line they get good results. Having most of their Front 7 on Defense back is really big as well. Belfry was very young and very vulnerable on Defense the past few years. Having the ability to be a year wiser, stronger, and bigger should bode well. Belfry has some potential playmakers at the skill positions around Varney at QB, but this is where they are the youngest and smallest. If these young playmakers develop Belfry will be a team capable of a deep playoff push assuming their OLine remains healthy. I like Belfry 48-20 in this one.

Asked around, here is what I was told in the order I was told: - Belfry looked really good. Have almost all their line back. Dominated the LOS. - "Lost track of the TD's Belfry scored, it was a lot." - "Either Raceland has fallen off far from last season or Belfry has gotten a lot better.... or I guess it could be somewhere between? Probably is somewhere in between but Belfry definitely looked a lot better" - Belfry's backs all looked really good and the younger Woolum (J.B.) is going to be a star, "Then again, hard not to look good with the holes they were running through." - Varney looked like a seasoned pro at QB. Does things you don't expect a Belfry QB to do. Threw a couple TD passes. If the line and running game forces teams to play Belfry the way teams have had to play Belfry in the pass... "Look out. He is the perfect QB to make them pay." - Defense looked a lot better. Probably more about Raceland here, they really seemed young and lacked playmakers athletically. Still they (Belfry) played more confident and aggressive than the last two years. - "Two names to remember are J.B. Woolum and Dante Davis. Both Sophomores... both can be special on both sides of the ball." - Perry Central will be a better test. Raceland's needs a lot of reps it looks like, they weren't ready for the season to start and needed the scrimmage to be a scrimmage. Perry Central should be able to challenge Belfry's defense to see if they have improved or not and Perry Central's defense should at least throw some wrinkles with blitzes and stunts.

I have no ties to Corbin, this is just my view: I think hiring Salmons is an interesting hire that can go really good or really bad in the eyes of Redhound faithful. The Good About Salmons: - He knows the landscape of Kentucky HS Football from his time at Lawrence County. He knows what football means to the Corbin community and the responsibility he is undertaking. - He knows how to run a "big" program. Cabell Midland would be one of the biggest public High Schools in KY. He has overseen facility upgrades and modernized that program in his time. He stabilized their feeder program as well and made Midland a fixture when the talent could have easily went to a number of schools in a Tri-State area. He also served as an AD in the past so he knows how the inner workings of running a program works. - He has had some highs. He took Midland to a pair of State Runner-Up finishes and a couple deep playoff pushes. He has had them ranked #1 during the year. He has pulled some shocking upsets as well. Midland plays in a region that epitomizes parity. Spring Valley, Huntington, Capital, and South Charleston all have had their moments in the sun and all are pretty consistently good teams every year. - Salmons has helped get kids to the next level. He has had a handful of kids go on to play D1 football. - His offense when he has had the pieces have been impressive. He prefers a very run centered offense, but he does it from more traditional sets such as the I, Pro, and Single Back. He still uses a fullback from time to time as well. With that said, he will maintain a semblance of balance passing as well and has no issue adapting his teams when needed to a more pass reliant offense when personnel has dictated as such. This will sit well in Corbin where even during the Peak of Haddix's success, people still grumbled about an inconsistent focus on the ground game. The Bad About Salmons: - Zero State Titles at Midland and only two Finals appearances. This speaks heavy on a couple different layers. First and foremost, WV AAA football (largest class) traditionally has some good teams, but this is not a gauntlet even the likes of 5A and 6A Kentucky (and Kentucky isn't exactly regarded as elite HS football). Midland is a massive school, the largest in WV I believe, right in the middle of probably the best and most steady talent pool in the State to pull from. Secondly, the other knock is he has had some powerhouse teams that didn't even reach the finals. The 2015 Cabell Midland team was probably the best team of his tenure. Absolutely loaded and ran roughshod to a #1 ranking and undefeated regular season... only to get beat soundly by a Capital team they had previously beat. - Something that has plagued Salmons his entire career is he will get a head turning performance when you think they are a prohibitive underdog... or get the big win in a big time matchup... but for each of those there is always a counter balance when they lose the big game or when they are the shocked upset victim. Midland has seen teams poised to make a title run get shocked in games. - His three year tenure at Lawrence County is a question mark. It was early in his career and he was in a tough spot. Lawrence was on a downward trajectory already when he took the program over, but an 0-11 season was a spot Lawrence had not experienced or fathomed would be possible. To his credit they rebounded in a big way to go undefeated in the regular season the next year and a Regional Finals berth. The third season had more highs than lows and after which he bounced for Midland. It is hard to give his tenure a passing grade, but it definitely was far from a failure. If anything it would be graded "Incomplete". VERDICT: Salmons midline is successful. With the exception of his first year in Louisa his team has never finished with a losing record. He knows how to take something given to him and find the flaws and make it better. He knows how to schedule and knows when to build for the future. These are all good qualities that would make someone feel confident at the very least, Corbin should sustain themselves as a quality program for years to come with more wins than losses and plenty of District titles. The rub is the rhetorical question "What would success be defined at for Corbin faithful?" Corbin had a potential future HOF coach on their sideline wearing the C on his polo and lost him. They saw the baseline he set was an expectation of reaching Semi-Finals and State Finals... and now they see that his baseline at Boyle County is winning State Titles more times than not. If Corbin continues to chase Haddix as their rabbit, there are very few hires in the Nation they could have made to help them meet this standard. So let's say expectations somehow get tempered and "just" maintaining an expectation of deep pushes to Thanksgiving with the possibly December game are the new bar to jump.... is Salmons that guy? His past results would suggest he gives them a shot at that expectation if they are patient, but that would be a marked progression over what his track record has suggested. It also remains to be seen how the fervent fanbase he now commands reacts to what happens if Salmons repeats his history of shocking losses or coming up short in the biggest post season games.

This change does have a potential effect on football though, all jokes aside. Been a lot of disgruntled natives and a handful of defectors that took football players off the team and out of the school because kids actually do care for the other sports they play at Belfry outside of Fall. Hagy doing double duty as the basketball and baseball coach definitely had it's fair share of critics in the Pond Creek community and even caused some to uproot to take their kids to a different school. We will see if he still coaches baseball. The good news for whoever they hire as the basketball coach is there are probably two to three players who did not come out this year that will most likely be on the basketball roster next year with the change at the top.

I don't know what to expect of Belfry. They should have a very good QB in Varney, they have Ace Caudill as a big play threat at HB, and they should have a solid OLine. Jeremiah Austin should do a solid job at FB but Belfry really needs a more physical HB to get the yards between the tackles. JB Woolum is going to be a very good football player so maybe it is him who takes the next step? Cayden Varney coming back after an unfortunate injury ended his season on a cheap shot and he could also see some reps at HB. Defensively Belfry should be ok... but I don't see a Championship caliber defense able to change teams and make them do something uncomfortable. The size and depth simply isn't there. Losing Caden Woolum and Dre Young are big holes. Woolum was not only an excellent RB but he was clearly their biggest receiving threat. You could also argue both were Belfry's best players on the defensive side of the ball as well. Belfry's LB play on the whole has got to improve immensely. They really struggled to get off blocks and struggled to get sideline to sideline against speed. You could see this in their final defeat as Daniel Thomas just grinded them to a pulp 6-8 yards at a time. I don't see Belfry being a legitimate threat for the 3A title with the program CAL has going. I would probably ticket Belfry in the 6-10 range right now.

OCath is my #1... which when you have Beechwood, Mayfield, and LCA is saying something. To return Brady Atwell is one thing all itself, but when they return basically all of their other top offensive weapons... well... if OCath wants to win a title this will be the year they need to do it.

I expect Hart County to take a step back. That was a massive and experienced Senior Class they are losing. Union County also will be hit very hard by graduation. Bell County will be a Top 10 team but losing Daniel Thomas is a killer. He literally carried that team. East Carter is a team I think we need to put a little more respect on their name. That coaching staff has turned them into a viable program. Belfry is a wildcard. If the players who were underclassmen all return they will be a Top 5 team... but it also wouldn't surprise me to see key players go to other schools and the Pirates not be a threat at all. Rockcastle County is also a wildcard. Big and talented Senior Class lost. Lawrence County and Franklin-Simpson both should be in consideration.