Purple88

It really does G!

BIG Congratulations to Purples head man Mark Spader! Very nice recognition! The Purples are 61 and 22 over his 6.5 years at the helm with 2 state championships (2020 and 2023); a state finalist in 2022 and deep runs all but 2021. Congratulations Coach Spader!

Belfry Frederick Douglass South Warren Ryle Pulaski County

So I thought the biggest thing with RPI is simply to win no matter the opponent. Which is a flawed concept to start. How are so many teams with losses above teams with no losses?

Great game here! If this game were down in Graves County, I would take Graves County. Since it's at Rash, I am leaning Red Devils. But it just feels to me that Graves is lurking and circled this game. They would prefer not to go to the District 2 Champ in Week 2 and rather host Week 2. This is a HUGE game for 5A District 1 right out of the gate. And while I think Madisonville is certainly in this race, their defeat at Ft Campbell makes this game feel more important to me. Against a VERY good OCath team, Owensboro actually outgained the Aces 478 yards to 446 yards. QB Delacey played pretty well throwing for over 300 yards with a TD and an INT. Hampton had just over 100 yards rushing and a TD with 3 guys with at least 5 catches on the night and near 100 yards a piece. They picked up one fumble and an INT. But they faced a team with an exceptional player and just came up short. Graves comes in off 2 beat down games after coming up short against a great Tilghman team and a young Mayfield team. SR QB Kaden Gregory has played well in the early season throwing for over 600 yards with 8 TDs vs 2 INTs and he brings a little dual threat element with over 110 yards rushing on the year and 3 more TDs. Denis Marrs leads the Eagles on the ground with over 440 yards and 6 TDs. The Top 2 WRs are good ones in Lincoln Acree (17 catches over 300 yards and 4 TDs) and Ty Cavette (10 catches nearly 200 yards and 2 TDs). What is impressive for me on Graves is through 4 games they are within 20 yards of being dead even on rushing vs passing yards offensively. That is tough to prepare for. Again, really tough to pick this one. Playing at Rash is a tough obstacle. Good luck to both teams!

Man, the races just keep getting better! At least for me anyway! Yesterday was a great race in Baku, Azerbaijan (located on the Caspian Sea where Iran and Russian come together). But a quick word on Saturday's qualifying. The big story was Lando Norris the strong McLaren driver was out in Q1 (the first of 3 stages of qualifying) due to an extremely unlucky very short yellow flag on his final Q1 lap. He was near Ocon who had a problem, and the stewards brought out the yellow flag for about 15-30 seconds, but unfortunately for Norris, he was the next driver on the track and had to lift off the gas to avoid penalty. This caused him to end up 17th on the grid. A real blow to McLaren. Further review of the incident was critical of the stewards as many said a white flag, which means all other drivers are to exercise caution, but DON'T have to lift if they deem it not necessary. I like Norris and he's on my Fantasy Team, but I can't fault the stewards for erring on the side of caution here. Just an unfortunate break for Norris and McLaren. The Ferrari's were strong with LeClerc on Pole and Sainz in 3rd with Norris's teammate Piastri in 2nd. Red Bull was 4th and 6th, but Perez outqualified Verstappen for maybe the first time of the year. Mercedes definitely on the back foot in 5th and 7th. On to the race! Pole sitter Charles LeClerc with Ferrari got off the line well and led the field through the first few corners and eventually broke the 1 second barrier to get out of the DRS (drag reduction system) support for a driver following within 1 second. A real important task and he extended the lead to as much as 6 seconds. But when Piastri (in second place) chose to pit on Lap 15, the races strategy with car set up would play out. Leclerc and Ferrari had to cover Piastri's pit to not get undercut (a strategy a trailing car will implement to try to pass a car in front by pitting a lap or two before the car in front. This takes place because you exit the pit on new tyres and can go faster is the theory behind it.). LeClerc covered the undercut and did not get passed, but a couple things were going on behind the scenes: 1. McLaren opted to set their car up with less downforce. Downforce is the rate at which the angle of your wings (both front and rear) are set to push the car downward. The more downforce the less speed on the straights, but the better speed you can carry into the corners. CRITICAL! This meant that the McLaren's had more speed on the straights and Ferrari has more speed in and out of the corners. 2. Tyre wear is ALWAY critical for F1 competitions, so car and car setups are more advantageous for a particular compound vs another compound. In F1, all team have 3 tyre compounds available to them and all teams MUST use at least 2 compounds for EVERY race. So, strategy is key here. All teams near the front of this Grand Prix chose the Medium compound tyre to start. Ferrari were flying on that compound, which McLaren did fine, but not as well as Ferrari. So, guess what, when they changed tyres, this switched and McLaren was really flying on the hard compound tyre, while Ferrari struggled just a bit. A key moment in the race happened on lap 20 when Piastri used DRS along the long straight stretch (one of the only places to pass in Azerbaijan) and dove inside of Leclerc to pass for the lead. Leclerc really didn't defend very much at all here. I think it surprised him a bit and he thought he could just pass Piastri on the straights next go around. But what happened was #1 and #2 above came into play and he just couldn't get it done. This plus Piastri defended much better than Leclerc a few times to hold the Ferrari off. Behind the 2 leaders Serio Perez, the maligned #2 Red Bull had a great day and lurked in 3rd position about a second off the leaders just hoping for a chance. Well, with Piastri and LeClerc battling as hard out as they did; they sort of fell back into Perez's lap with about 5 laps to go and he was in the mix as well. Additionally, Leclerc's teammate Sainz was charging to this group in 4th. And when Leclerc's rear tyres lost substantial grip, Piastri's lead started to grow and the second through 4th drivers would have an epic battle on the next to last lap. Perez tried desperately to pass LeClerc on the long straight stretch going into turn 1, actually got ahead of the Ferrari, but was positioned off the racing line. So, he had to hit the brakes, and when he did Sainz jumped on the chance and vaulted to 3rd. He had so much momentum, he tried to overtake his teammate in second. He got alongside Leclerc, but he too had to break. On the ensuing straight, Sainz instinctively followed his teammates patch (which vered slightly to the left towards the middle of the track) trying to get his tow down the stretch, but Perez was coming back and alongside Sainz at the same time and they made contact, and both hit the wall. The race stewards made the decision that it was simply a racing incident, and I agree with them. The race finished under yellow. It was a shame because both those drivers (Perez and Sainz) drove very good races. So, the podium was Piastri in first; Leclerc in second and George Russell in 3rd (a clear benefactor of the crash). Lando Norris who started all the way back in 15th made it up to 4th place and he passed his championship rival Verstappen to do it. It was a great day for Williams as well as Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto both earned points. Colapinto took over for American Logan Sargent and has done a phenomenal job. Just like Oliver Bearman in Kevin Magnussen's Haas who came home in 10th and in the points. Man, there was a lot in there! On to Singapore! One of the coolest (not literally, it's so hot there right now, they have to run at night) venues of the season with the night race being a visual spectacle to see - lights and all! Check it out next week!

Is Ballard's top WR back from injury? If not, I'll take GRC. If he is, then it should be close.

Good Luck to St X! Hope you guys pull that one out!

Great game here! Both these teams are lurking in the 5A race this year. The winner will certainly have a leg up in the RPI battle as well. Like some above, I really think it could go either way. Good luck to both teams! And no injuries!

Murray cost me the Pick 5, but I'm happy for them having a good squad this year. Seem like a 2A Darkhorse to me.

6A Manual (4-0) at 5A South Warren (4-0) Streaming: - Sporting Times (stfanclub.com) One of the better games of the week across the entire state this week right here! This will be only the second meeting between these 2 teams. Manual and South are opposites/have differences in many ways including: 1. School formation (South Warren opened its doors in August 2010 and this is its 15th varsity season) (DuPont Manual opened its doors in 1892 and this is it’s 132nd varsity season). 2. Head Coaches Tenure (South Warren’s Brandon Smith has been at South since the 2014 season and this will be his 11th season at South Warren) (DuPont Manual’s new Head Coach Keith Eckloff has been Manual’s head coach about 2 or 3 months). 3. Manual offensively runs the ball about twice as much as they pass it through 3 games of stats (94 rushes vs 50 passes); which South Warren is more balanced rushing 3 times for every 2 passes roughly (95 rushes vs 62 passes). These teams are similar in many ways too including: 1. BGP Poll Rankings – Both teams come in highly ranked in last week's polls (South Warren #4 in the 5A Poll and Manual #3 in the 6A Poll). 2. Both teams have stingy defenses. South especially against the run (only giving up roughly 200 yards through 3 stat games) and Manual especially against the pass (only giving up roughly 160 yards in the air). 3. Both teams have aspirations to make strong runs in the playoffs and both teams have tough districts to compete in. Manual will face St Xavier on October 11 for a big district match; not to mention “The Old Rivalry” game at Male at the end of the regular season on November 1. South Warren has the big rivalry matchup with cross-town rival Bowling Green in their district on October 18. Huge games for both teams! DuPont Manual Crimsons Information Manual has played remarkable well this season considering they have a brand-new Coach and likely have implement Coach Eckloff's system, which I'm sure is different from last season. That is hard on players and coaches alike to make all that gel really quickly. Most expected Manual to handle 3A Central and a struggling Central Hardin squad (which they honestly struggled to do at home). But FEW though Manual could take down a well-regarded and deep Frederick Douglass team. And that's exactly what the Crimsons did winning 35-28 at Historic DuPont Manual Stadium! The Crimsons are led on offense by SO QB Kaden Mack (21 of 44 with 300 yards 4 TDs and 1 INT) and JR RB Gerian Traynor (47 carries for 203 yards and 4 TDs rushing and another 10 catches for 170 yards and 2 more TDs via pass receptions). Defensively, the Crimsons are led by JR DE Devin Allen (26 tackles and 2 sacks), SR DB Aiden Blakey (16 tackles) and SR LB Cameron Jesse (12 tackles, 4 tackles for loss and a sack). Manual playing good ball right now. South Warren Spartan Information South Warren went to Ft Branch, Indiana (just north of Henderson, KY) and came back after being down 2 scores early to forge ahead late and hang on dodging a 54-yard FG attempt as time expired to win 34-31 and remain undefeated on the season. SR Leader and QB Bryce Button throws for nearly 300 yard and 3 TDs vs 1 INT. Was told this was a really scrappy game and at the end of the handshake line 2 coaches had to be separated. That happens in football sometimes; does it not! I know South is looking forward to getting back and playing at home in this game coming Friday evening. Game Preview This is a tough game to call. I thought Manual would have been defeated by Frederick Douglass. That didn’t happen. I though South would win most if not all their games thus far as the teams they have played are pretty safe to this point. Manual challenges that, as the Crimsons defeated South last season 38-35 in a whale of a game. I look for this one to be very similar. South playing at home is an advantage similar to Manual playing at home last year. I think these are pretty evenly matched teams. I’m going to switch the end result from last year on this one South Warren 38 Manual 35 What say you?

5A Bowling Green (3-1) at 6A Central Hardin (0-4) Streaming: - Sporting Times (stfanclub.com) (Back to Normal I hope!) The Purples head up I-65 to take on the Bruins of Central Hardin for the 8th time. This series began with a home and home contract in 1993 and 1994. Then a game in 2004; another 2-game contract in 2015 and 2016; a Rafferty’s Bowl meeting in 2018; and finally, a game in BG last season with this game this season being the second of a 2-game contract. Will be interesting to see if another contract is signed or not for next year. BG has been victorious in each of these 7 earlier matchups, but the closest game of the series was the Rafferty’s Bowl game. BG narrowly defeated Central Hardin 20-13 in the 2018 Rafferty’s Bowl. Central Hardin Bruins Information The Bruins have always prided themselves on being a physical team. And I think that can be said for this season's version commanded by new Head Coach Phillip Stockdale, formerly on a Nelson County sideline, who took over this year for long time coach Tim Mattingly. As my friend @Hardin County Preps, the Bruins just don’t have a ton of speed, and the skill positions have struggled early in the season. That along with learning the triple option offense Coach Stockdale runs has not produced a ton of early positive results. I did get to see Central Hardin scrimmage South Warren and I came away impressed with Bruin QB Caleb Irwin, who is a hard runner and difficult to bring down. But if you know he’s coming and the box is loaded then that likely spells “Long Night”, which the Bruins are in the midst of experiencing with an 0-4 record. Bowling Green Purples Information The Purples after a really disappointing Rafferty’s Bowl effort to open the season have come back with pretty solid performances vs Owensboro and vs Bryan Station at LCA. And while BG earned the running clock in the 3rd Quarter, it sure was a hard way to get there. I'm sure BG players were not up for the Apollo game, and it showed. But to their credit they continued to grind it out. I appreciate Apollo making BG work for most of the game and I know there are several things they need to get fixed prior to South Warren coming to Rockingham Lane in mid-October. And Apollo is a better team than most people think. I'll leave it at that. BG continues to be led by SR QB Deuce Bailey, who continues to make more positive plays than negative, but must continue to grind forward in this inner season schedule leading to district play. SO RB Nick Graham continues to be another bright spot on the Purples Offense and SR CJ Sweeney had a really good night back from injury. Happy for him. On defense, I felt the front 7 played really well, while the secondary just was not in synch. A piece of that had to do with a couple guys out, but still much to work on. Game Preview With Central Hardin never defeating BG to date and the 2024 version of the Bruins being winless, this simply doesn’t feel like the time for a breakthrough. I honestly hate that the first Central Hardin home game of the season and the very first home game on the awesome new turf field will be a game that will likely be a running clock against the Bruins. But I don’t make the schedule, I just report on it. A quick case in point from above, through 3 games of stats, Central Hardin has attempted 17 passes on the year and completed 4. BG knows this and will certainly load the box. I don't think there's a lot of unknowns there. I look for BG to open game fast and the BG D not let Central get anything going on the ground. It could be a long night in Cecilia!

Man this score just doesn’t look like I thought it should. Congratulations Ft Campbell!

Way to go Woodford County!

Purples get the win but they looked really lethargic. Give all that credit to a really scrappy fun to watch Apollo squad that I really like. QB Max Johnson is a very good player. Good luck to the Eagles the rest of the way. Back to work for BG! On to Central Hardin!