1. Belfry at Christian Academy of Knoxville (TN)

2. Wayne County at Casey County

3. Central at Elizabethtown

4. Bourbon County vs. Garrard County

5. South Warren vs. Adair County

6. Paducah Tilghman vs. #8 Fort Campbell

7. Corbin vs. McCreary Central (10/10)

8. Fort Campbell at #6 Paducah Tilghman

9. Monroe County -- OPEN

10. Mason County vs. Russell

What would you change?

Hard to nitpick...

 

I guess here is my unofficial "3A Mid-Season Reset" ...

 

- Ft. Campbell/Paducah Tilghman should tell us a lot and potentially merit big moves.

 

I get the strong suspicion Ft. Campbell is a pretender and their best win over Christian County is looking weaker every Friday. A sizable loss to Tilghman and I am not sure they merit a ranking.

 

Tilghman, OTOH, needs this win and in a comfortable fashion. They are the most schizophrenic team in KY and a loss would further illustrate that they may not have the capacity to string together 5 straight wins come November. The PT team who beat McCracken and gave Highlands and Mayfield all they wanted should win this game going away..and in doing so solidify themselves as a threat in 3A and merit possibly jumping South Warren and Bourbon. A close win or loss could have an entirely opposite impact.

 

- Belfry has a tough draw this week against a good team playing in a "must win" game. CAK is the two-time defending State Champs in TN and are 2-4 with two of those losses coming down to the final play of the game. In order to reach the playoffs they will need to finish 5-5 and have two softfball games left that should get them to 4 wins. Their fifth win either has to be Belfry or the #1 team, TN powerhouse Alcoa. Belfry is extremely banged up and have 8 starters who either did not play Friday or left the game with injury/suspension.

 

- Still not sold on Monroe County, but the heir apparent to replace them is Lawrence County who has a big matchup with Pike Central. Pike Central just gave away what should have been an upset of Fairview. Lawrence County's best win is against Raceland and a win over PC would give them a better resume than Monroe County for sure (if it already isn't better since Warren East cannot be considered a quality win now). The bigger significance of this game is the winner all but clinches the 2 seed in District 8. District 7 is historically bad and the 2 seed will be the unanimous favorite to reach the Regional Finals... the 3 seed most likely has to travel to Belfry in Round 2.

 

- South Warren went from "trendy favorite" in the West to "pretender" in one night. Their defense is obviously Championship caliber, but only managing 3 points against a Daviess County team who came in averaging allowing 23 points per game was an eye opener. South Warren was already fighting criticism from a very weak schedule that features only one winning team, 5-1 Etown, but a loss to a team historically perceived as a lower tier program certainly has given the Warriors a negative makeover.

 

- Wayne County was able to fend off Corbin legitimizing both programs as teams to keep an eye out for. Wayne should have no problem finishing the year undefeated while Corbin should be heavily favored to win out and enter the post season 9-1. This would set up the most intriguing second round matchup in the state with Corbin traveling to Central who can basically wrap up their 1 seed this week.

 

- Russell is a team flying way below the radar, but who is hard to get a gauge on. Their 4-2 record features 4 wins over "not very good" teams.. but their 2 losses are the even bigger question. A one point loss vs. Ashland appears to be impressive, but noone can say for sure exactly what kind of team Ashland has. The Tomcats had made a statement by crushing Ironton, OH (a team who had crushed Russell a week before the Devils pushed Ashland), but then witnessed Johnson Central beat Ironton like a JV team. Mason County puts their undefeated record on the line as they play the Red Devils for what should be the District Title this week.The Royals need a quality win and won't have another chance until Week 1 when they play a very surprising Scott team.

 

- Bourbon County was the dark horse contender to challenge for the 3A Title and had been impressive on the season destroying anything in their path. Unfortunately the Colonels met a major set back as Senior QB Dalton Pope suffered what appears to be a season ending injury. Pope was perhaps the top QB in 3A averaging 306.8 all purpose yards per game and accounting for 5 TD's per contest entering last week. In addition, RB Brent Holman may miss potentially the rest of the season as well.. Holman accounted for nearly 160 all-purpose yards per game. The injuries couldn't have came at a worse time as the Colonels essentially play their District Championship game against Garrard County this week.

If there is a better poster on 3A football than ATLCat I don't know who it is.

Gracias... but let the record, and the regional contests for that matter, show that beyond 3A I am not to be trusted HAHA

If there is a better poster on 3A football than ATLCat I don't know who it is.

 

I second this. He knows his 3A Football!!!

What an Awesome breakdown of 3a football!!! Great job!!!