South Warren 49 Highlands 14

[JellyRoll]

On 8/21/2022 at 2:29 PM, Killowatt59 said:

Those are definitely not out of state powerhouses.  And Hendersonville beat them last year.

They like to pad the win column. A lot people don’t pay attention to the schedule so it makes them look a lot better to a lot of people.

They pretty much dodge all the big schools unless they can’t avoid it like District or Playoff games.

But it’s working at least some what.

Gibson won their state championship in Indiana last year and Hendersonville went deep into the playoffs. If you want facts, since SW moved to 5A in 2017 they are 5-4 vs BG and have 2 state championships vs 1 for BG so yeah, i'd say whatever Brandon Smith is doing there is working.

 

[Killowatt59]

1 hour ago, JellyRoll said:

Gibson won their state championship in Indiana last year and Hendersonville went deep into the playoffs. If you want facts, since SW moved to 5A in 2017 they are 5-4 vs BG and have 2 state championships vs 1 for BG so yeah, i'd say whatever Brandon Smith is doing there is working.

 

Give me a break. Gibson Southern is a 3A school in a 6 class system. And a public school at that.  

And they lost to Hendersonville which lost 4 games that year who is a D-1 class 6A school in the public division in THSAA.

 

[JellyRoll]

1 hour ago, Killowatt59 said:

Give me a break. Gibson Southern is a 3A school in a 6 class system. And a public school at that.  

And they lost to Hendersonville which lost 4 games that year who is a D-1 class 6A school in the public division in THSAA.

 

Funny, you have nothing to say about the head to head. Props to BG for playing St X and Boyle but isn’t the goal to win your District, region and hopefully State?

if those are the goals then who you play outside of that doesn’t matter. Some will say playing a tough out of district schedule prepares you for the playoffs. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. 
 

But I promise you this, no one cares if you play those teams if you get bounced in the 2nd rd. And no one cares if you play cupcakes all year if you go on to win a state championship. 
 

Whatever SW is doing is obviously working. Anyone who argues that is either blind or green with envy. 

[TheBarber]

15 hours ago, JellyRoll said:

Funny, you have nothing to say about the head to head. Props to BG for playing St X and Boyle but isn’t the goal to win your District, region and hopefully State?

if those are the goals then who you play outside of that doesn’t matter. Some will say playing a tough out of district schedule prepares you for the playoffs. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. 
 

But I promise you this, no one cares if you play those teams if you get bounced in the 2nd rd. And no one cares if you play cupcakes all year if you go on to win a state championship. 
 

Whatever SW is doing is obviously working. Anyone who argues that is either blind or green with envy. 

Maybe scheduling isn’t as easy at SW as it is BG?? I know whatever South is doing, it’s working. 

[Purple88]

16 hours ago, JellyRoll said:

Funny, you have nothing to say about the head to head. Props to BG for playing St X and Boyle but isn’t the goal to win your District, region and hopefully State?

if those are the goals then who you play outside of that doesn’t matter. Some will say playing a tough out of district schedule prepares you for the playoffs. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. 
 

But I promise you this, no one cares if you play those teams if you get bounced in the 2nd rd. And no one cares if you play cupcakes all year if you go on to win a state championship. 
 

Whatever SW is doing is obviously working. Anyone who argues that is either blind or green with envy. 

I don't see anyone saying what South is doing is not working.  Coach Smith is one of the best coaches in the State.  But it is fair to critique the schedule that South plays, as that's what we do on this site.  From where I see it, even though South and BG schedule differently, they have both been successful at making their version work and win championships.

To get into the facts about the series between the two, I start with a direct quote from Coach Smith (published in the Bowling Green Daily News) the week before the first game between South and BG, which stated "I (Coach Smith) am the reason it's taken this long for this game to happen."  You can take that alot of ways.  I take it as refreshingly honest, as he has meticulously directed his program to be what it is today.  Remember BG won 5 of the 6 5A championships prior to 2017, so playing BG back in this time when South was 4A (but some of those years they easily had 5A numbers) likely wouldn't have been a great outcome for South at that time.  But that is debatable, especially 2015.  Even so, Coach Smith knew that and directed for the long term, where he's having alot of success now.

5 wins to 4 for South.  Congratulations.  Last year at this time it was 4 wins to 3 for BG.  That's a rivalry.  It's not 9-0.  

I personally appreciate South as I know they push BG to be better and I know BG pushes South Warren to be better.  So much so that the winner of 5A District 2 has won the 5A Championship 8 of the past 11 years.  That is doing something right there!  And I would also say, staying in the district, that Greenwood is likely the best #3 team in any 5A district in the State.

My last point, is that for the most part IMO the better team has won the game when BG and South has played expect for 2 times, as follows:

1.  2nd Game of the Series - November 17, 2017 - 5A Playoffs - 3rd Round at El Donaldson Stadium - 

BG won the opening game between these 2 by blasting South 43-7 and putting a running clock on them.

IMO BG came in overconfident in the playoff game and South worked much harder and came in focused and prepared and pulled a stunning upset in that game 28-21.  It was Kevin Wallaces last at BG.  Certainly, a bitter pill for BG to swallow.

2.  7th Game of the Series - November 27, 2020 - 5A Playoffs - 2nd Round at South Warren - 

South Warren won a old school slugfest earlier in this season 10-7 at BG.  With that win, South vaulted to the #1 position in 5A.  They were undefeated on the year and had only given up 34 points on the year over 6 games or less than a TD per game.  They had Ohio State signee Jantzen Dunn and largely the whole team that won the 2021 championship in tow.  Yet BG met them toe to toe and used a plethera of turnovers, most of which IMO they caused, to completely defeat South 41-24 this night and go on to their 7th Championship.  If South doesn't lose this game, do they win the 2020 Championship?  I think they likely do.  So again a very tough pill to swallow.

I go through ALL that to illustrate that I believe that South used that 2020 loss to come in laser focused in 2021 to win their 3rd Championship.  So this 2022 game will be a great matchup also even though South will be favored in that game IMO.  Both teams will be ready and it will be a great night and contest, the first ever at BG's new turf field.  See ya there!

[mcpapa]

On 8/21/2022 at 1:22 PM, futurecoach said:

Didn’t they stay the night down in that area the night before? I thought I saw someone post a picture of them leaving on Friday? If so, then it’s not like they had to travel on game day like you just suggested. 
 

With that said last year Highlands beat a down Bowling Green team, that made people think Highlands was better than what they were. This year I think it will be the opposite. Highlands got smoked last night for sure, but I don’t think they will end up being as bad as they looked last night. 
 

Their 5A district is wide open with Covcath, Cooper, and Conner all also struggling in their first games of the year. So Highlands just like those 3 teams all still have a shot at winning the district. 

My memory has declined precipitously in my golden years, but I think it was either last year or the year before that I said when Highlands was relevant, Kentucky HS football was better for it.  I was (mildly) chastised, with folks saying that HHS was indeed relevant.  They had an outside chance to win the district and a game or two in the playoffs.  It seems that I'm hearing (reading between the lines) similar stuff this time around.

Does that constitute relevancy per Highlands standards?  I wouldn't think so, but perhaps the bar has been lowered in recent years.

 

[futurecoach]

1 hour ago, mcpapa said:

My memory has declined precipitously in my golden years, but I think it was either last year or the year before that I said when Highlands was relevant, Kentucky HS football was better for it.  I was (mildly) chastised, with folks saying that HHS was indeed relevant.  They had an outside chance to win the district and a game or two in the playoffs.  It seems that I'm hearing (reading between the lines) similar stuff this time around.

Does that constitute relevancy per Highlands standards?  I wouldn't think so, but perhaps the bar has been lowered in recent years.

 

I was one who disagreed with you then, and disagree with you now. In that Highlands being relevant doesn’t make KY football better. I haven’t seen anything wrong with KY football over the last 7 years with Highlands not being as relevant as they use to be. 
 

 

[Killowatt59]

I say the more competitive teams the better. It’s basically been the Bowling Green, South Warren and Covington Catholic show for so long in 5A.

I mean obviously I’m good if BG wins it every year.  I’d like to see more teams in the mix besides those and add in Owensboro and Fredrick Douglas.

i'd like to see more of these playoff games be competitive too.