Colonels_Wear_Blue

So the kickoff team is going to be lining up on the receiving team's 40 yard line, and the receiving team will have all of their blockers lined up 5 yards away on the 35 yard line, and none of the people at the 40 yard line or the 35 yard line until the ball is touched by a returner. The kick landing zone is between the goal line and the 20 yard line. So if a kick is caught by a returner at the 5 yard line and returns it straight ahead (shortest distance between two points is a straight line). And lets say that that the kickoff team manages to advance, lets call it 10 yards forward with the kick return team trying to impede their way. So that puts the tacklers from the kickoff team at the 30 yard line while the returner has had 25 yards of running to get a full head of steam when they meet. That's a lot of kinetic energy on impact. Granted, these rules DO reduce the number of people who are have 10+ yards worth of space to run before impact on the kickoff play, but man oh man, this seems really hazardous to the kick returners' health.

I'm a tiny bit bummed for the loss of surprise onside kicks, but I couldn't even guess at the last time I recall that happening in the NFL. The flip side of that is that the increase in kickoff returns is likely going to add to the number of exciting big kick returns, the number of fumbles on kickoff returns, and things like that. This is another example of the NFL appearing to completely abandoning their concerns about concussions and CTE from 10 or 15 years ago, though. Kick returns are the singlemost likely football plays of the game for a concussion to take place....and here the NFL is, trying to encourage them to happen.

I'm entertained by the fact that when the impact of concussions and CTE were first really coming to light, the NFL bans having any additional helmets other than those properly fitted to a player at the beginning of the season, openly saying that it's in interest of protecting players heads/brains. Then the marketability of alternate uniforms is realized. The NFL can make hundreds of millions based on having alternate uniforms, the ticket sales and viewership that drives up to see them, the additional advertising sales money that's made, and the additional clothing sales that happen. So they capitulate and allow for an alternate second helmet. And now here they are allowing for a THIRD alternate helmet.

Just saw that Kristy Orem is stepping down as AD and girls hoops coach at Pikeville. She's been their AD since 2016, if I'm not mistaken. It will be interesting to see who they hire to replace her, and whether or not there is any attempt to change anything at Pikeville or if the new AD just steps in and keeps things rolling as they have been.

Matthew Taylor has headed to take the boys job at Shelby Valley after 4 years in charge of the Cougars boys program. Letcher Central is now open.

Per WYMT. Was head coach at Letcher County Central for the past 4 seasons.

Still at 51 jobs that have come open, and down to 4 jobs that remain to be filled. 1.) Harlan 2.) McCracken County 3.) Nelson County 4.) Pike County Central

Eric Perry resigned on October 30th. So that's 188 days without a head football coach. That's over half of a freakin' year. Bonkers.

Smith is a 2005 Frankfort grad, and played tight end at Johnson C. Smith University for 2 years before exiting football and finishing out his college career at Western. He served a stint in the Army before joining the football coaching ranks. I believe he has generally worked in the IT department for school districts, which is an interesting alternative to having someone who's "in the classroom". Per @J. Peterman in the open job thread: "Joshua Smith was an assistant at Sayre this past season. He has had couple of stints at Frankfort as Def. Cord. Was at Shelby during their last semi-final run. Had a short stint at KSU with Coach John L. Smith Played college football at school in North Carolina. Played for Foley at Frankfort."

From the renderings and reporting I saw, they're building the new school between the Unseld Learning Academy and Thomas Jefferson Middle School off of Poplar Level Road. Three story classroom wing, and then a separate wing for what appears to be two gymnasiums. I didn't see any plot plans, so I'm not sure what the plans are for an athletic stadium, but it appears that they are building the school on the current site of the (very dilapidated) baseball and football fields for Thomas Jefferson Middle School.