Somerset, coming off their bye week, will travel to Centre College to continue their district play against the Danville Admirals. What's your thoughts on this game?

A little ironic that when Clevenger comes back to coach against the school that ran him off, they can't even host him at their own stadium.  Now, water and electrical damage has nothing to do with a series of terrible decisions by Danville leadership in essentially destroying one of the best football programs in the state.  But, the irony is just a little too easy to not notice.  Somerset should have no trouble adding to Danville's current 19 game losing streak!

16 points in 7 games.  Some games against lesser competitors than Somerset will be.  The question will be whether Danville will score or not.

Somerset will be going for a 2-0 district record and a chance to possibly win it outright if Leslie loses to Breathitt County.  They've had some hiccups this year in games, especially early, but are figuring things out.  I think many were surprised at how much they beat Breathitt County by a few weeks ago.  Somerset put a running clock on Danville last year and it's hard not seeing that happen again as Danville has seemed to do worse in rematches this season.

As Paul Dean says, Danville has lots of offensive woes.  A mere 16 points in 7 games.  They were almost shut out again versus Leslie but opted to kick a meaningless FG just to get the scoreless streak over with.  It was embarrassing hearing the Danville radio guys freak out about the FG like the Ads had won the Super Bowl.  I understand being glad the scoreless streak was over but c'mon man, have standards.  I've said this all year but I appreciate the Danville defense and the effort they provide.  Even special teams is serviceable.  But the Ads don't have any offensive identity.  They might make a big gain but its quickly torched by penalties or bad snaps or trying to run east-to-west instead of north-to-south.  I think the Leslie game had the chance to be competitive but a flag killed a huge gain by Jutayvion Beasley and some bad snaps resulted in a safety, which Leslie capitalized on to get breathing room.  The Ads have also used something like 3-4 different guys at QB this year.  Last game they kept switching Naythan Doyle out with Marquis Elmore.  I don't think that provides a lot of stability.  It's like that Last Chance U season at Indy when the coach rotated through 3-4 QBs and the team was in disarray as a result.

I think we're at the point of the season where the chances of the Ads picking up a win are small.  That invites questions of whether there will be a coaching change because can you keep someone who has gone 0-22 over two years at a program like Danville?  There is talent at the middle school level but can Danville keep it in an era when talent is crossing county lines and going elsewhere?  It's not just Boyle the Ads are losing players to but other schools like Mercer.  This isn't the NFL and NCAA and I've never been one to talk about "hot seats" or anything like that when discussing high school football.  Everyone knows the pay doesn't match the hours and every situation is different.  But the offseason is going to present some tough questions to the Danville administration about what direction they want to go.  The verdict is in on the "new direction" post-Clevenger.  It.  Has.  Not.  Worked.

Danville Fan,

You've obviously put a lot of thought into what's going on with Danville and know the program.  I worked at Danville High when Sam Harp was winning championships and got to know him and several of the assistant coaches.  They were an extremely hard working group of coaches and did a great job.

I'd be interested to know some more information.  I have heard that they had good middle school teams recently.  Would you care to give us a summary of what happened to those kids?  I'm not talking about the kids names in respect of their privacy.  Maybe something like x number of starters are now at Boyle, y are at Mercer, z either quit or are academically ineligible.  It might provide an interesting perspective on what's going on there.  

I know for a fact that Sam Harp worked hard to keep his players in school, going to class, and maintaining eligibility.  He worked with parents and grandparents to try to make sure they were making good choices.  I'm not saying the current staff isn't doing that kind of thing, it's just that something has really gone wrong with that program and in most cases when you see that it's more than just X's and O's.  

Thanks

Looking forward to getting back in the booth this week to call the game for Lake Cumberland Sports. We are doing an AUDIO ONLY broadcast which you can find the link below.  Somerset, has played well of late and continues to grow. I hate that the DHS program is struggling, this game has included many good contests over the years. Somerset, if they play well, should take care of business, but that remains to be seen.  

https://lakecumberlandsports3.mixlr.com/events/3495009

Jumpers by as many as Coach Clevenger chooses!

8 hours ago, BuckNut said:

Looking forward to getting back in the booth this week to call the game for Lake Cumberland Sports. We are doing an AUDIO ONLY broadcast which you can find the link below.  Somerset, has played well of late and continues to grow. I hate that the DHS program is struggling, this game has included many good contests over the years. Somerset, if they play well, should take care of business, but that remains to be seen.  

https://lakecumberlandsports3.mixlr.com/events/3495009

 

Somerset 42-0.

NFHS Video:

https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/danville-high-school-danville-ky/gam2197394844

On 10/14/2024 at 10:46 AM, 24Rocks said:

Danville Fan,

You've obviously put a lot of thought into what's going on with Danville and know the program.  I worked at Danville High when Sam Harp was winning championships and got to know him and several of the assistant coaches.  They were an extremely hard working group of coaches and did a great job.

I'd be interested to know some more information.  I have heard that they had good middle school teams recently.  Would you care to give us a summary of what happened to those kids?  I'm not talking about the kids names in respect of their privacy.  Maybe something like x number of starters are now at Boyle, y are at Mercer, z either quit or are academically ineligible.  It might provide an interesting perspective on what's going on there.  

I know for a fact that Sam Harp worked hard to keep his players in school, going to class, and maintaining eligibility.  He worked with parents and grandparents to try to make sure they were making good choices.  I'm not saying the current staff isn't doing that kind of thing, it's just that something has really gone wrong with that program and in most cases when you see that it's more than just X's and O's.  

Thanks

Sorry for the late reply.  I don't have raw numbers on some of the things you asked and am not privy to ineligiblity for academics (doesn't seem to be an issue on this end as the only players Danville has had sitting out are due to unsportmanlike conduct calls this year).  However, Danville has lost at least 7 prominent starters from the last few years' teams to Boyle County.  Noted ones would be Sage Dawson, Demauriah Brown, and Paul McLure.  There were several more as well.  There have also been about 3 that have been lost to Mercer, including Braidin Baughman, who was Danville's best player last year.  People see the chaos that has engulfed Danville and they have voted with their feet.  Its awful to see.

You add that talent to Danville now or in recent years and the team is definitely not 0-18 over the last 2 seasons.  At worst IMO they are making the round of 8 in the KHSAA playoffs.

I've said this before but Clevenger had some down years after the state title win but was retooling with a lot of talent.  People who followed the team expected this, especially since LCA and Somerset emerged as a powerful 1-2 punch in the 2A ranks and Danville was trapped playing one of those schools in the old, awful "play in your district for the first 2 rounds" playoff format.  I'm confident that if he had stayed, Danville would've been making some deep 2A playoff runs with the guys listed above.  Not only that, but Kelvin Turner's kid was coming up too and there were other alumni kids in the wings.  But all that got short circuited.

There will always be talent walking the halls at Danville, especially at the lower grades.  Keeping them is what the Ads first challenge is and will probably play a role in what happens in the offseason.

Somerset kicking to start the game, Ads will be receiving.

Somerset does a squib kick.  Trinden Sellers (so.) falls on it at the Ads 36.

Admirals first drive

1st & 10 - Naythan Doyle (fr.) tries a 20-yard pass to Sellers but it falls incomplete.

2nd & 10 - Screen pass to Sellers 5 yards behind line of scrimmage goes for a no gain.  Bad snap on the play but Doyle did something with it.

3rd & 10 - Doyle tries to throw a slant to J'Kaivin Walker (jr.) but it goes through Walker's hands and falls incomplete.

4th & 10 - Kaleb Wilcher (sr.) punts it to the Somerset 35, where it is fair caught by Kris Hughes (jr.)

Briar Jumpers first drive

1st & 10 - 12-yard run for a FIRST DOWN.

1st & 10 - Hughes runs for 5 yards.

2nd & 5 - Hughes gets a 7 yard gain to the Ads 42.  FIRST DOWN.

1st & 10 - Sweep play goes for negative five yards.  Flag is thrown against Somerset for a personal foul.  Ball taken back to Somerset 43.

1st & 25 - 5-yard run by Hughes.

2nd & 20 - Hughes rushes back into Admiral territory to the Ads 46 for another 5.

3rd & 15 - Somerset flagged for 5 yards.

3rd & 20 - (7:23 left in the 1Q) Pass by Josh Bruner (sr.) to Corban Cimala (so.) is incomplete.

4th & 20 - Anderson Ruble (sr.) punts.  Ball is downed at the Ads 21.