Final.

Congratulations to Belfry and Good Luck next week.

There was a glimmer of hope in the first half for Russell, but the pick-six before halftime broke them. Belfry has owned the Devils over the last 15 years or so. Several meetings in the playoffs, all blowouts.

Belfry bounced back well after a tough week last week against Johnson Central.  It's not that Russell didn't play well, they did.  Belfry just had the advantage with the running game, as Russell's run defense was not up to it.  This game went from 14-14 to 28-14 pretty quick at the end of the first half, including a pick 6 with about a minute left.  Then the Pirates got the ball first after halftime and scored making it 35-14 and you could see the change in body language for the Red Devils. 

The QB was good for Russell as long as he wasn't pressured, and when Belfry changed it up on D and tried to pressure him, it made the difference.  Two players for Russell that really stood out was the kicker/punter, #33 Totten and the big WR #2 Carson.  Both of them really are talented and were fun to watch.  I wonder if either have college offers. 

The injury bug is still wreaking some havoc on the Pirates, hopefully that will improve some this week.  Belfry's head coach had to sit in the pressbox for this one as he is nursing broken ribs.    They played without the top back, Dre Young, who was injured last week.  Several others have nagging ailments.  And of course their 2 OLB were lost for the season early on.  The Big Red did get a boost with the return of Neal Copley who played quite a bit of LB and RB in his first game of the season.

Shoutout to Caden Woolum.  The Jr RB ran for a little over 300 yds and a handful of touchdowns on 16 carries.  This has been a fun season to watch him develop into a very good RB (and DB).  Caden filled in last year for the Pirates at QB and led them to a state title, but that wasn't his natural position.  He is just an athlete.

Looking forward to the trip to Putnam next week, it is always a big time matchup between these two.

Go Pirates!

Congratulations to the Pirates, they are turning it on the right time of year, something they have done many times.  

Tough season for Russell.  Uncharacteristic and something that, luckily for them, doesn't happen very often.  I have confidence they will bounce back in 2023 and be more of the Red Devils we are used to seeing.  

Thinking back to when McGlone was still at Russell, and, obviously, Haywood was at Belfry:  They both had a similar philosophy, about one thing for this particular topic, but they had several similarities. 

Both didn't seem to put a great emphasis on the off-season and pre-season (Not saying they did nothing, just not as robust as some programs).  They commonly started the season off a little slower than you expected.  But, they both hit their stride at mid-season and, commonly, in the post season.   

I'm not sure what the best pre-season approach is, but those two showed there was more than one option. 

1 hour ago, Ram said:

Thinking back to when McGlone was still at Russell, and, obviously, Haywood was at Belfry:  They both had a similar philosophy, about one thing for this particular topic, but they had several similarities. 

Both didn't seem to put a great emphasis on the off-season and pre-season (Not saying they did nothing, just not as robust as some programs).  They commonly started the season off a little slower than you expected.  But, they both hit their stride at mid-season and, commonly, in the post season.   

I'm not sure what the best pre-season approach is, but those two showed there was more than one option. 

Coach Haywood is really good at seeing the big picture, and pacing the team to peak at the right time.  That is one if his biggest strengths as a coach, IMO.  I miss some of those matchups with McGlone's Red Devils, and there were many.  That old single wing was tough to defend and they ran it very well.

Good to read your posts, Ram!!