I don't understand what people think makes playing a difficult schedule the best option.

 

Take the Adair v. Etown game. Everybody said Etown was too fast for them. So, if Adair had of played South Warren, John Hardin, Trinity, X, and Male, would they have been fast enough to compete more with Etown?

 

I don't get this notion of you have to test yourself to see how good you are. And, if I recall correctly, Adair was picked 4th or 5th in their district last season. When they played Monroe, everyone picked MC to win. Because Adair was terrible. When they won, it suddenly meant that MC was awful.

 

This isn't just about Adair, this is about how people treat historically bad schools. When they're bad, of course they are. When they're good, calm down they aren't that good.

 

If Adair beats Union, everyone will pick Caldwell. And of Caldwell smashes them, people will point out that it means Adair was awful, even though I've seen plenty of running clocks in the state finals.

 

High school football is all about talent being coached well enough. If you don't have talent, you won't beat many people unless you can brilliantly out scheme people. Period. Tough scheduling is an invented metric used to determine what teams are good and what teams are bad. It doesn't make you better, it just shows who you can and can't beat. It doesn't mean you'll beat tough teams eventually, it just let's others know you're level, which they probably already knew anyway.

Take the Adair v. Etown game. Everybody said Etown was too fast for them. So, if Adair had of played South Warren, John Hardin, Trinity, X, and Male, would they have been fast enough to compete more with Etown?

 

I don't believe anyone is suggesting they play those teams - that would be ridiculous. I know they play Caverna, Taylor, Metcalfe, and Russell because they are local and probably provide a good gate. And I don't really fault them for it. But they aren't good. That doesn't mean Adair is a bad team. It just means it is really difficult to project how they would do against a team like Elizabethtown or Caldwell.

I don't understand what people think makes playing a difficult schedule the best option.

 

Take the Adair v. Etown game. Everybody said Etown was too fast for them. So, if Adair had of played South Warren, John Hardin, Trinity, X, and Male, would they have been fast enough to compete more with Etown?

 

I don't get this notion of you have to test yourself to see how good you are. And, if I recall correctly, Adair was picked 4th or 5th in their district last season. When they played Monroe, everyone picked MC to win. Because Adair was terrible. When they won, it suddenly meant that MC was awful.

 

 

 

High school football is all about talent being coached well enough. If you don't have talent, you won't beat many people unless you can brilliantly out scheme people. Period. Tough scheduling is an invented metric used to determine what teams are good and what teams are bad. It doesn't make you better, it just shows who you can and can't beat. It doesn't mean you'll beat tough teams eventually, it just let's others know you're level, which they probably already knew anyway.

 

It's about not seeing something you have not seen before and being able to adjust to game speed.

 

Prime example:

In 2014,

If you take Belfry's 10 Fastest 40 times and took Central's 10 Fastest 40 times Central probably has 8 of the 10 fastest kids of the group. In that game though Belfry handled their speed with relative ease and at times even appeared the faster team.

 

Due to scheduling Henry Clay in the regular season, as well as past experience playing Central before, Belfry was able to adjust their game plan accordingly and account for that speed and how to handle it.

 

It's also about testing your team through adversity on a big stage. Outside of Etown, the only team that Adair did not blow out was Metcalfe County. The best teams get their weaknesses exposed in the regular season so they can adjust and address them. Why does Central play Manual, CAL, and St. Xavier? They know that those are good teams that are well coached and will expose blindspots they may have.

 

Why does Belfry schedule and travel all the way to Cabell Midland, WV... one of the Top 150 schools in the country and nearly 3X their enrollment... and subsequently lose BAD? Because that game exposed flaws in Belfry's Defense and blocking schemes that they wouldn't have had against a mediocre team like Letcher Central. It also gave Belfry a playoff atmosphere in front of 7000 people or so, for the guys who were playing who did not see the field in the State Finals this is valuable.

 

The bottom line is steel sharpens steel. Think of it like training for a marathon. When you first start a 2 mile run is fine... but if you have never ran 15 miles...let alone 23 miles... and all you do is run 2 miles, when it is time to run a marathon you aren't going to be acclimated for the distance. On the other hand, if you are maintaining longer runs and in your training you push yourself to 15 or 20 mile runs... by the time the marathon comes you can probably reach your goals.

I don't believe anyone is suggesting they play those teams - that would be ridiculous. I know they play Caverna, Taylor, Metcalfe, and Russell because they are local and probably provide a good gate. And I don't really fault them for it. But they aren't good. That doesn't mean Adair is a bad team. It just means it is really difficult to project how they would do against a team like Elizabethtown or Caldwell.

 

Yep!

 

Using my marathon analogy you can't expect Adair to go from jogging a mile to running 23 overnight.

 

With that said these teams all would have made Glasgow better while still helping their confidence.. all while not having to drive 4 hours:

 

Glasgow

Wayne County

Allen Co- Scottsville

Barren County

Franklin-Simpson

Greenwood

Somerset

Russellville

Southwestern

Danville

North Laurel (this one would have benefited both teams)

 

 

Instead:

Their 6 non-district opponents combined for 18-32 record and none finished in the Top 2 of their respective Districts

I really think the Boyle County/Waggener game will be better than people think. Especially with a large majority of people already talking about Boyle County/Central. Waggener lost to Central 21-6. I think this first round game has the potential to be a dandy.

I don't believe anyone is suggesting they play those teams - that would be ridiculous. I know they play Caverna, Taylor, Metcalfe, and Russell because they are local and probably provide a good gate. And I don't really fault them for it. But they aren't good. That doesn't mean Adair is a bad team. It just means it is really difficult to project how they would do against a team like Elizabethtown or Caldwell.

 

This.