4 hours ago, TheConch said:

2018 Covington Catholic Team.

After 15-0 2017, they followed up with a 14 wins upon finally falling in the state championship game to South Warren in finishing 14-1, which then was followed up by a 15-0 2019 season as well. 
 

They ended up losing bc the running back was trying to get that extra yard and fumbled, correct? I was listening on my way back from Louisville. Heart breaker for the Colonels.

4 hours ago, BEChargers said:

Ok, more off season discussions.  It can be your school or just a team that you watched a couple of times.  But the question is....what is the best team you ever saw that did not win a state title.  Let's limit it to teams that made at least the semifinals.  I know there are others, but just for this discussion let's keep it to 4th round or better teams.  

Good grief... next time, just start a thread.... "Who wants to go down memory lane and rip out their guts?"

 

Lol. Just teasing you!   ? ?

38 minutes ago, ChiefSmoke said:

1996 was my first season at Mason, and Dayton gave us our first loss. Kicked our tails good. At Paris, we played Dayton in the first round of the playoffs, 1993. We got them, but they gave us all we wanted. Tough, hard-nosed players.... a reflection of their top-notch football coach, Dan Ridder.

1992, 1993, & 1994.. we (Paris) were in a district opposite of NewCath, Beechwood, Bellevue, Lloyd, & Dayton. They were all good. We were able to get them all but Beechwood. The Tigers won the state title in 1993 & 1994. That dang Greg Hergott & Mike Yeagle! Lol. Throw in Berger, Lubrecht, Huth, Wulfeck.... know I am leaving out some names... good grief... excellent football teams. Mike Yeagle was ahead of his time. Everyone else, their formations gave you a great indication on the play they would run. Mike, was in the double slot run and shoot set. Horizontally and vertically, he could attack the entire field. 

I believe Dan Ridder is an all time underrated coach in NKY. His Dayton teams were ready and willing to rip our heads off.

Can I go with the 1986 NewCath Breds? First ever Mr Football in the great Frank Jacobs. Lose an absolute heart breaker to the Mayfield Cardinals 21-20 in OT while going for the win. 

1 minute ago, Breds82 said:

I believe Dan Ridder is an all time underrated coach in NKY. His Dayton teams were ready and willing to rip our heads off.

Very physical football teams. 

True story, 1996, first season at Mason, we start off 2-0... which was a pretty big deal at that point. 

Getting ready to start practice, I tell my guys, "Fellas, these cats are different. They are not a bunch of choir boys."

One of my players, John Van Hook, raises his hand, "Coach, we're all in the choir."

My response....I THINK I said, "Let's get to work," But, he caught me off guard. Lol

John Van Hook became a war hero, leading his men into Baghdad. Very proud of John!

What a great story and god bless that young man. Keep up with the very insightful stories .

2 hours ago, ChiefSmoke said:

1996 was my first season at Mason, and Dayton gave us our first loss. Kicked our tails good. At Paris, we played Dayton in the first round of the playoffs, 1993. We got them, but they gave us all we wanted. Tough, hard-nosed players.... a reflection of their top-notch football coach, Dan Ridder.

1992, 1993, & 1994.. we (Paris) were in a district opposite of NewCath, Beechwood, Bellevue, Lloyd, & Dayton. They were all good. We were able to get them all but Beechwood. The Tigers won the state title in 1993 & 1994. That dang Greg Hergott & Mike Yeagle! Lol. Throw in Berger, Lubrecht, Huth, Wulfeck.... know I am leaving out some names... good grief... excellent football teams. Mike Yeagle was ahead of his time. Everyone else, their formations gave you a great indication on the play they would run. Mike, was in the double slot run and shoot set. Horizontally and vertically, he could attack the entire field. 

Thanks for sharing all you did. I definitely remember the first round game on the road at Paris in 1993, I was a sophomore playing for Dayton that year. That was the first year Dayton swept Bellevue in the regular season for quite a while. The last Dayton/Bellevue game often determined who would make the playoffs around then and before. NKY 1A football was very good back then and as far as districts go, maybe one of the toughest in the state back then nearly every year. Even with how long it’s been with the KHSAA classification system, there’s plenty of memories to think to from that time.

2 hours ago, Breds82 said:

I believe Dan Ridder is an all time underrated coach in NKY. His Dayton teams were ready and willing to rip our heads off.

He was a very hard nosed coach and knew how to get the best out of his players, regardless of talent level. I always thought that was what distinguished him as a coach and he had great assistants too. Regardless, he was underrated.

Somerset's best team that came up short was probably not one of the 5 State Runner-Up teams, but a Semi-Finalist.  The 1984 team went undefeated until they ran into Newport Catholic.  The Jumpers had been rated number one, not only in 2A, but number one overall in the Lit Ratings, as well as being nationally ranked by USA Today.  But the Breds came into Somerset and shut down the Jumpers high powered offense to avenge a loss in the semi-finals the year before.  It was a wet field that night after a week of rain and that helped contain Somerset's backfield duo of Tony Massey and James Fletcher.  But the NCC defense played great with future Mr. Football Frank Jacobs and I think Jeff Brady.  They went on to beat Fort Knox the next week.  I was a freshman on that Somerset team, so that one still stings a little bit. 

 

12 hours ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

I watched that game, immediately following the 3A championship between Cov Cath and Bowling Green.

Two of Trinity's three scores came on big plays, starting with an 89 yard return for touchdown on the opening kickoff, and then with a 56 yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter after both of the players in position to make tackles for Boone County were tripped up by the turf monster. Boone County had a more than legitimate shot at beating the Rocks. Trinity's offense spent most of the game on their own side of the field, while Boone's offense spent most of the game on Trinity's side of things.

Final score was 21-7 Trinity. Take away those two "oops" plays by Boone County, and you'd have had a nail-biter of a game. And I personally think Boone would have definitely won, had things gone to overtime. Obviously they didn't have that opportunity, though ?

The other score was on a screen n go from probably 30-40 yards out. 

1999 Pikeville Panthers. 
They lost the first game of the season to Boyle County (which happened to be the first of Boyle’s 47 consecutive wins from 99-02). Pikeville didn’t lose again until the state semis when they went on the road against Beechwood. I think Pikeville was up by two scores in the 4th quarter, but couldn’t hold on to the lead. Beechwood went on to beat Hancock County pretty handily in the state title game. The 99 team was a great football team and come up just short of winning it all (in my opinion). 

I'm gonna slide this in because I feel like - although one round outside of the rules - it is the greatest team to come up short in the last 30-35 years. 

1992 Covington Catholic (12-1) - defeated in 3rd Round by Highlands, 14-7, on a muddy field after a night of storms drenched Wooten Field. A stunning upset by the Tom Duffy-led Bluebirds led by the great John Schlarman, Corey Scarlato, and Adam Crawford. 

CovCath defeated the Birds, 42-21, at Highlands during the regular season, had just completed a 10-0 regular season, and breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs. KHSAA officials, media/pundits, etc all believed the Colonels were such locks to make the state finals, they actually pre-published state programs with QB Adam McCormack's picture on the cover.

That Colonels team - that has been talked about often on here - included senior standouts McCormack, Chad Cogswell, Jude Hoffman, and Mike Hild. Youngsters adding to the impressive team were guys like Rick Woolf, Matt Rabe, Mitchell Jobe, Pete Wehrman, and steamrolling linemen Ben Belbot and Andy Halloran.

To this day, I still can't believe that game went the way it did. I was on the field and still think about that game often. 

19 hours ago, GBR said:

I will say the 1993 Prestonsburg team that lost in the state championship to my Mayfield Cardinals. They were huge and really good. In the semis they beat Danville at the Admirals house. I think they stopped a record that Danville had going of consecutive wins. Sometimes you are good, and sometimes you are lucky. We needed some luck to beat those boys that day.

I was going to mention that Danville squad in 1993.  They lost that heartbreaker to Prestonsburg and on the other 9 times Danville would have won in a 10 game series.  

Those Ads beat the 4A Runnerup by 14 I believe and the AAA Runnerup in a rout.  In that run from '91-'94, most will tell you that '93 was the best team.  

13 hours ago, Carl Spackler said:

Somerset's best team that came up short was probably not one of the 5 State Runner-Up teams, but a Semi-Finalist.  The 1984 team went undefeated until they ran into Newport Catholic.  The Jumpers had been rated number one, not only in 2A, but number one overall in the Lit Ratings, as well as being nationally ranked by USA Today.  But the Breds came into Somerset and shut down the Jumpers high powered offense to avenge a loss in the semi-finals the year before.  It was a wet field that night after a week of rain and that helped contain Somerset's backfield duo of Tony Massey and James Fletcher.  But the NCC defense played great with future Mr. Football Frank Jacobs and I think Jeff Brady.  They went on to beat Fort Knox the next week.  I was a freshman on that Somerset team, so that one still stings a little bit. 

 

For Somerset, I would add the '82 team with Stephens, Neikirk and Sexton.  They beat Corbin handily but lost to Boyle by 1 and had to stay home from the playoffs.  I believe if they would have won they would have taken AA that year.  

1974 Harrodsburg.  (I think)

Lost to Heath in the Class A semi-finals.  Bo Yeast in the backfield.  Enough said.

'76 and '77 teams were also capable losing only 1 regular season game in the 2 seasons.  Lost each time in the Regional Finals to Frankfort.