#5 Franklin-Simpson vs. Hopkinsville (4A Quarterfinals)

Thoughts?

This is the regional final matchup that most everyone thought would happen since the end of last season. Just figured it would be at Hopkinsville with them as their district champ. The Tigers finished third but have been playing very well since losing to Logan County in the regular season.

Franklin-Simpson has steadily improved throughout the year. Good running game and good run defense. Main question marks are in the passing game. FS has shown the ability to pass but haven't needed to very often. Pass defense was not good early but has shown a lot of improvement. Hopkinsville will put that to the test Friday night.

Mistakes will be the key. If Hopkinsville makes a lot of mistakes as they have done in some games this year, FS will run away with it. If the Tigers are efficient on offense and don't turn the ball over, it's anybody's game. I expect FS to have the advantage in the lines and Hopkinsville may have a slight advantage in speed. I think FS will win by about 2 touchdowns, pulling away late.

What has Hoptown done differently for this major transformation to take place?

Hoptown must have thrown the ball well against Logan Co. I think it will be a great matchup with the Tigers air attack against the ground and pound FS running game.

What has Hoptown done differently for this major transformation to take place?

I'm sure they've made adjustments, but the transformation has come in part from a much easier schedule. They started the season with four losses to teams ranked in the top ten of their respective classes. Their win streak has included wins over Calloway County (winless), Hopkins County Central (2-9), Greenwood (4-8), Warren East (6-5), and Logan County (probably overrated in hindsight).

Hopkinsville is obviously inspired by the loss of a teammate and they have a team that looks capable of beating Franklin-Simpson. But simply judging them by their recent run doesn't give us enough data to say much about the source of improvement.

I feel for the Tigers and the loss of their teammate, but I think Franklin Simpson will prove to be too much on Friday night. Unless Hoptown can slow the Wildcat rush attack, I do not see them being able to throw enough to win on the road.

Franklin-Simpson defense the last seven games:

Rushing yards allowed: 108, -62, 8, 86, 35, -17, -5

Passing yards allowed: 27, 0, 72, 51, 0, 29, 7

Points allowed: 19, 7, 0, 14, 6, 6, 6

I feel for the Tigers and the loss of their teammate, but I think Franklin Simpson will prove to be too much on Friday night. Unless Hoptown can slow the Wildcat rush attack, I do not see them being able to throw enough to win on the road.

88! Why do you think the cats will prove to be to much? What will be the Key factors in this game that makes you think FS wins? Macdon gave some powerful last seven games stats, but the competition wasn’t very stout either. Hoptown seems to have things turned around, but their competitors over the last several games aren’t much to write home about either... outside of LC and their schedule wasn’t brutal... Breakdown this game if you would.

Madisonville beat Hoptown 35-20.

FS 62 Madisonville 6

That's all I've got at 11:05 PM

I have some statistical comparisons coming in the AM. Includes every game for both teams.

Hopkinsville Offense

Yards gained/rushing attempt: 2.9

Rushing attempts/TD: 17.0

Total Rushing Yard/game: 78.8

Yards gained/passing attempt: 8.4

Passing attempts/TD: 11.5

Total passing yds/game 160.8

Total Offense/game: 239.6

Hopkinsville Defense

Yards gained/rushing attempt: 3.8

Rushing attempts/TD: 27.4

Total Rushing Yard/game: 140.2

Yards gained/passing attempt: 4.9

Passing attempts/TD: 29.6

Total passing yds/game 96.6

Total Offense allowed/game: 236.8

Franklin-Simpson Offense

Yards gained/rushing attempt: 8.2

Rushing attempts/TD: 7.8

Total Rushing Yard/game: 293.1

Yards gained/passing attempt: 9.3

Passing attempts/TD: 6.5

Total passing yds/game 60.2

Total Offense/game: 353.3

Franklin-Simpson Defense

Yards gained/rushing attempt: 3.7

Rushing attempts/TD: 25.3

Total Rushing Yard/game: 101.8

Yards gained/passing attempt: 4.7

Passing attempts/TD: 18.5

Total passing yds/game 58.5

Total Offense allowed/game: 160.3

Two teams in the AAAA Region 1 Championship started the season a combined 3-9.

The word then was "They are not who we thought they were."

Since then the two are combined 12-0 with the closest game being Hopkinsville's 21-7 win over Warren East. The Tigers were never really challenged in that game.

Both teams had gaping holes to fill to start the season. Hopkinsville's inexplicable mid-season losses to Logan Co. and Madisonville seemed to be directly related to a lack of focus. Four field goals against Logan to go along with empty trips into the red zone and six turnovers in the Madisonville game. That put the pre-season District One favorite in the third seed position. A tragedy seemed to bring everything into laser sharp focus for the Tigers. Now they look like what was expected early on.

FS struggled early. Two of three games to start the season ended with running clocks against FS. Franklin-Simpson was not to a point where they could hang with a seasoned veteran team like E-town. SW's passing game exploited a glaring weakness in the FS secondary. The Meade County game gets a paragraph all to itself (see below). Gradually the defense learned where/how to line up. The DB's learned to defend without pass interference. Dion Pearson returned to anchor the DL. The revamped offensive line became the physically dominating group they needed to be. The result is we have the showdown for the Region One Championship all expected back in August.

88! Why do you think the cats will prove to be to much? What will be the Key factors in this game that makes you think FS wins? Macdon gave some powerful last seven games stats, but the competition wasn’t very stout either. Hoptown seems to have things turned around, but their competitors over the last several games aren’t much to write home about either... outside of LC and their schedule wasn’t brutal... Breakdown this game if you would.

Fast,

This is a really interesting game. It is a game that many of us predicted back in the Preseason to be the competitors in the Regional Final. However several factors caused this season to take unpredicted turns to get to this exact point, as follows:

Franklin Simpson (9-3) lost 3 studs among others including Jackson Caudill, Josiah Roby and Cole Kirby off an undefeated 2016 regular season team. Seems like a good thing to do was to just do it again. But the Wildcats faced extremely talented early opponents including Etown, South Warren, and to a lesser degree Meade County. But since that 24-21 tough loss to Meade, the Wildcats have been sharpening the saw. I would direct you to our good friend @macdon 's post #7 as a direct correlation to this effect!

Hopkinsville (6-6) lost the heart and soul of their team from last year in a difficult manor for QB Jalen Johnson and WR Shorty Cager. Add a BEEFED UP schedule and the implementation of a new coach and coaching staff is more than enough on its own. However, I feel a rallying cry was galvanized by the loss of EJ Austin. They have now won 5 in a row and are not the team of the early 2017 season. They have speed and talent and playing with a real purpose, which is a testament to the new coaching staff.

Turning to tonight's game, it will be played at Shadetree Stadium in Franklin in front of a big crowd. That is a big advantage for Franklin - I don't care who you ask. I don't look as much at macdon's post #10 as that takes too much of the earlier versions of these teams into account (although I appreciate Mac's efforts to compile this as it is a signficant effort). What matters to me right now with these specific teams is their efforts last week.

Franklin blitzed a very good Madisonville squad with an above average rushing attack 62-6! 2 of the 3 talented RBs for Franklin got a combined 6 carries (ie. they didn't even get used and they blew the Maroons doors off!).

Hopkinsville traveled to Cinderella Logan County and just played determined football right out of the gate and never let up in a 43-8 victory. Hoptown passed for 169 yards and rushed for 32 yards in that game. Their defense gave up 55 rushing yards on 29 attempts and 35 passing yards on 11 attempts on the game. That tells me the Hoptown defense was locked in and making plays and setting their offense up in great field position!

With ALL THIS said, I just don't feel Hoptowns defense will be able to lock in on the Franklin rush attack like they did the Logan County rush attack (i.e. Hardy - by himself). Plus, I think Franklin will be very effective with play action tonight. Hopkinsville will have to run the ball some to be able to win. I just don't think they will be able to do that enough on the Wildcat D to get that done. Plain and simple....

Could Hoptown win, yes, but they will have to win the turnover battle and run the ball for at least 100 yards on the night to do it. That's a 25% shot. The 75% shot is for Franklin to control field position and the clock on the ground and to make a few big plays up top off play action to win the game.

P88 Prediction: Franklin Simpson 28 Hopkinsville 13

Meade County v. Franklin-Simpson

I have one more rant in me today.

My first recollection of a High School Football game was the Highlands v. Bowling Green game at the old WKU stadium during the 1960 season. BG had Dale Lindsey and Highlands had the Burt brothers. So this makes 58 seasons? Never, NEVER have I seen anything that rivals Franklin-Simpson v. Meade County.

To start the game, by the time the teams had run eight offensive plays there had been 55 yards of penalties. At the end of the game the two teams combined had been penalized 300 yards. Evenly distributed. Total disruption of a very competitive game. On top of that, when the game ended they would not leave the field. They were practically in the middle of the handshake line despite instructions from administrators to get off the field. This resulted in one coach being ejected from the game...AFTER THE GAME!!. This was not an isolated occurrence for this gang. Stories surfaced of their expertise throughout the season. My greatest hope is that no one has to endure them during the playoffs.

That's my take. Done.

Fast,

 

This is a really interesting game. It is a game that many of us predicted back in the Preseason to be the competitors in the Regional Final. However several factors caused this season to take unpredicted turns to get to this exact point, as follows:

 

Franklin Simpson (9-3) lost 3 studs among others including Jackson Caudill, Josiah Roby and Cole Kirby off an undefeated 2016 regular season team. Seems like a good thing to do was to just do it again. But the Wildcats faced extremely talented early opponents including Etown, South Warren, and to a lesser degree Meade County. But since that 24-21 tough loss to Meade, the Wildcats have been sharpening the saw. I would direct you to our good friend @macdon 's post #7 as a direct correlation to this effect!

 

Hopkinsville (6-6) lost the heart and soul of their team from last year in a difficult manor for QB Jalen Johnson and WR Shorty Cager. Add a BEEFED UP schedule and the implementation of a new coach and coaching staff is more than enough on its own. However, I feel a rallying cry was galvanized by the loss of EJ Austin. They have now won 5 in a row and are not the team of the early 2017 season. They have speed and talent and playing with a real purpose, which is a testament to the new coaching staff.

 

Turning to tonight's game, it will be played at Shadetree Stadium in Franklin in front of a big crowd. That is a big advantage for Franklin - I don't care who you ask. I don't look as much at macdon's post #10 as that takes too much of the earlier versions of these teams into account (although I appreciate Mac's efforts to compile this as it is a signficant effort). What matters to me right now with these specific teams is their efforts last week.

 

Franklin blitzed a very good Madisonville squad with an above average rushing attack 62-6! 2 of the 3 talented RBs for Franklin got a combined 6 carries (ie. they didn't even get used and they blew the Maroons doors off!).

 

Hopkinsville traveled to Cinderella Logan County and just played determined football right out of the gate and never let up in a 43-8 victory. Hoptown passed for 169 yards and rushed for 32 yards in that game. Their defense gave up 55 rushing yards on 29 attempts and 35 passing yards on 11 attempts on the game. That tells me the Hoptown defense was locked in and making plays and setting their offense up in great field position!

 

With ALL THIS said, I just don't feel Hoptowns defense will be able to lock in on the Franklin rush attack like they did the Logan County rush attack (i.e. Hardy - by himself). Plus, I think Franklin will be very effective with play action tonight. Hopkinsville will have to run the ball some to be able to win. I just don't think they will be able to do that enough on the Wildcat D to get that done. Plain and simple....

 

Could Hoptown win, yes, but they will have to win the turnover battle and run the ball for at least 100 yards on the night to do it. That's a 25% shot. The 75% shot is for Franklin to control field position and the clock on the ground and to make a few big plays up top off play action to win the game.

 

P88 Prediction: Franklin Simpson 28 Hopkinsville 13

I included all games because I did a quick review of the last seven for FS and the comment was: "The schedule was easier." Tough crowd.

If I eliminate the first five games FS rushing/game is 325. Total offense is 350+

Taking out all but the last five for Hoptown gives them 120 Rushing/game and 274 total yds/game.

To me that is too much cherry picking. Hoptown uncharacteristically rolled up 241 yard rushing against Greenwood. That game stays in while FS's 469 rushing yds against the Gators gets eliminated.

I included all games because I did a quick review of the last seven for FS and the comment was: "The schedule was easier." Tough crowd.

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

I get ya!

If the Franklin Simpson defense comes to play, I think it will be tough for Hoptown to move it effectively enough to win. Plain and simple...