Franklin renews its oldest rivalry in the 75th meeting between the Wildcats and the Russellville Panthers. The two teams have met every year Franklin-Simpson has played football, though the series has not been as competitive recently. Franklin has won 23 of the last 28 meetings, including five in a row. The last competitive game was in 2014 (a 21-20 Franklin-Simpson victory), and this year looks to be a complete mismatch. The Wildcats have won six in a row and are 8-1 on the year with their lone loss coming to South Warren. They have put a running clock on their last three opponents. Russellville is just 4-5, and have only 31 players on their roster. With a loss here, they will have to win their region in order to avoid their first losing record in 14 years. How bad does this get?

This one will probably be a running clock by halftime or shortly after. Russellville usually always pops a big play or two in this game because they always seem to have some athletes that can go all the way at anytime.

 

This game is at Franklin this year but I love going to Russellville and watching this game at Rhea Stadium. Twenty years ago, FS beat the Panthers at Russellville 40-0. I couldn’t tell you all the scores in the series off the top of my head like that, but that one was special. I took my wife and my two young nephews to the game. One of those boys wound being a captain of the FS squad in 2010. My wife was pregnant and a week overdue with our daughter at the time. She started going into labor in the fourth quarter. Guess my girl wanted to watch the game too. We dropped the boys off at my brother’s house and headed to the hospital and the rest is history. My daughter is twenty years old now and this game will always make me think of her.

This game is always a fun one. The 2016 match-up at Rhea Stadium will always be my favorite. The stadium was packed to the brim to watch 2 undefeated teams go at it. The Franklin Section was standing room only it felt like and while it was eventually a blowout for FS, it was a pretty fun game to be at and watch.

Franklin starts the running clock early to mid 2nd quarter!

FS in another blowout! Hopefully the starters are out after the first qtr. and no one gets hurt. Running clock by the 2nd qtr

4A Franklin has kept this traditional game with 1A Russellville...

 

But dropped the traditional game with 5A BGHS.

 

:idunno:

FS would have given the mighty purpled a run for their money the last three years and probably would have beaten them two out of three of those. Most of those Franklin people are South Warren fans anyway. SW is the NEW BG in 5A. All the good players want to go to SW. #idunno

FS would have given the mighty purpled a run for their money the last three years and probably would have beaten them two out of three of those. Most of those Franklin people are South Warren fans anyway. �� SW is the NEW BG in 5A. All the good players want to go to SW. #idunno

 

No offense, because I believe Franklin is a solid 4A team... I just don’t see any scenario that they beat BG in any year of the last three.

 

But, only way to find out how they stack up is for FS to schedule them. The burden lies squarely on them.

 

As for this game, I’ll say FS with a running clock in the second quarter.

If FS is going to keep playing South Warren, they might as well play Bowling Green again. FS hasn’t beaten BG since 1999 when they did it twice. After that the gap between the two programs became quite large. I know that FS wanted to drop the series, but I wonder if BG wanted to drop it as well in order to schedule a more competitive game for themselves. I don’t know about it from BG’s perspective.

 

As far as the Russellville-FS series goes, it has been more competitive in recent years than the FS-BG series was when it ended.

I don't know if Franklin could beat BG, but these last couple seasons, I think Franklin could give BG a good game. I'd rather play BG then watch Franklin beat up on teams like Monroe County. FS already plays WCentral, WEast, Greenwood and South Warren, might as well add BG to the mix.:idunno: