Bac ... I think every ranked team in 1A has played games with key players injured and still got wins.

 

I will agree but how many season ending injuries? Hazard has out right now 4 kids to season ending injuries. 1 kid who had knee surgery the week of the Letcher and is suppose to be back for the Pikeville game and its possible he may not be ready. 3 out of the 4 are arguably the best and fastest kids on the team. The good thing only 1 is a senior. But I am sure senior Cade Fletcher hopes for no back and he gets to finish. Hazard had a starting Corner go down in the Prestonsburg game and I saw him at our local festival the Black Gold and he was on crutches so that could be another blow to them. Hazard has a quite a few and I'm not sure any Class A team has more.

I'll be watching this game closely, right now I just don't see Paintsville being able to win. If they do win, they may be better then some have thought.

I'll take Bourbon Co by 12.

I'll be watching this game closely, right now I just don't see Paintsville being able to win. If they do win, they may be better then some have thought.

 

Thats what I have been thinking Ram. Right now, I am just now sold on Paintsville, Pikeville, and Raceland being very much better than each other. All three are top 5 teams, but I am not sold that Paintsville and Pikeville are very much better than one another. Reason being, is neither team has done anything incredibly impressive against solid competition. I think Raceland has played the toughest over all schedule but lost two games to the best teams on that schedule. I think a healthy Raceland, plays within 2 TDs of Ashland and beats Valley by a TD, Davidson is still not at 100% and there are other kids that have been playing through some minor issues as well. I think both the BGP top 5 could beat each other on any given night. This game is a chance at making a big statement for Paintsville because up to this point, after Pikeville taking a thumping from Belfry and Raceland's tough loss at Valley, I think all three are neck and neck with not one of them being a clear favorite. Raceland underachieved in the first few games, but since, has started to put things together. Im interested to see what Paintsville can do this week.

On the Paintsville rankings, impact of beating Bourbon County issue, here is some food for thought.

 

calpreps.com projection

 

Bourbon County 35 Covington Holy Cross 34

 

So which outcome impacts rankings more - a win by Paintsville over Bourbon County or a win by Beechwood over Holy Cross?

Paintsville's opponents combine record 5-18

Bourbon County's opponents combine record 8-10

 

For fun:

Beechwood's opponent combine record 6-11

 

Question: Does opponent record play a factor in how each of you evaluate a team and thus determine an outcome on a prediction thread such as this? Is this an irrelevant stat or does it say something about the program's you are playing and whether or not you are getting better and/or worse? Just curious as to what others think about this metric (no underlying message intended).

In a more detailed sense maxpreps has the schedules:

Paintsville -6.6

Bourbon 10.9

Beechwood 10.0

In a more detailed sense maxpreps has the schedules:

Paintsville -6.6

Bourbon 10.9

Beechwood 10.0

 

That is quite a big difference between the teams when one is a minus and the other two are at or above 10. But does this have any relevance in your opinion (picking your brain here) when doing a comparison ranking.

 

Personally I think it does, and would guess others probably do as well. Just curious.

It does for me factor in a great deal. I am leaning Paintsville in close one despite their schedule though.

Absolutely strength of schedule impacts it for me. You can't just go by records. Covington Catholic's record is bad and their team is good. You have to look at opponents, who opponents played and how they did in those games even if they lost.

Absolutely strength of schedule impacts it for me. You can't just go by records. Covington Catholic's record is bad and their team is good. You have to look at opponents, who opponents played and how they did in those games even if they lost.

 

I agree. Look those teams up that Paintsville has played last year. They can't help how things have shaped up this year. Sheldon Clark is much improved but I thought that was there only give me game.

Preseason, Paintsville's schedule seemed legit to me. But, Frankfort had had injury problems, Williamsburg wasnt defensively what people thought they would be, Ridgeview (VA) wasnt as good as anticipated, and Sheldon Clark is weak. Really, the only team that was solid or good they have played is Pikeville. But their intent was to play better competition to prepare then for the district and further, I dont think the schedule has done that despite their efforts.

 

Same deal with Pikeville. So I am still kind of lost as to how good either of them really are. Couple that with Raceland looking god awful in the first two weeks and struggling with turnovers against Greenup County, I still have no clue what to make of the east. This game will tell me something, how Raceland looks this week will tell us if they can have any consistancy in offense, as for Pikeville, they are good, but they dont have anyone left to show us just how good they afe unless Hazard rebounds from all the injuries.

Preseason, Paintsville's schedule seemed legit to me. But, Frankfort had had injury problems, Williamsburg wasnt defensively what people thought they would be, Ridgeview (VA) wasnt as good as anticipated, and Sheldon Clark is weak. Really, the only team that was solid or good they have played is Pikeville. But their intent was to play better competition to prepare then for the district and further, I dont think the schedule has done that despite their efforts.

 

Same deal with Pikeville. So I am still kind of lost as to how good either of them really are. Couple that with Raceland looking god awful in the first two weeks and struggling with turnovers against Greenup County, I still have no clue what to make of the east. This game will tell me something, how Raceland looks this week will tell us if they can have any consistancy in offense, as for Pikeville, they are good, but they dont have anyone left to show us just how good they afe unless Hazard rebounds from all the injuries.

 

Hazard may get senior Cade Fletcher back for this game. Hazard could not stop the run last year but defending the pass this year is the problem and the run defense seems solid as they have faced some solid backs. Eager for that Pikeville vs Hazard game.

What if a team below them added more to their resume after winning this week while the top ranked team didn't add much to their's?

 

Because it is hard to tell how good a team is even if who they are playing against is a weaker opponent. Look at what Mayfield did in 1A. They are in the middle of nowhere and played a rather weak schedule every year (struggled but won almost all games every year) and yet come the time to play big time games in playoffs, they completely dominated.

Because it is hard to tell how good a team is even if who they are playing against is a weaker opponent. Look at what Mayfield did in 1A. They are in the middle of nowhere and played a rather weak schedule every year (struggled but won almost all games every year) and yet come the time to play big time games in playoffs, they completely dominated.

 

Mayfield did not play a weak schedule. They played a very strong non-district schedule.