5A Bowling Green (0-2) at 5A Scott County (2-0)

These two historically strong programs have only met once on the gridiron even though they have scrimmaged each other over the past several seasons.   In those scrimmages though, to me, it was much more about trying to get as many players on and off the field and maximizing players opportunities to show what they could do in the extremely early stages of the season than it ever was strategizing to win a game.  That changes for only the second time on Friday in Georgetown!

So, these two did meet in the 2000 New Image Grid-Iron Bowl at Scott County with the Purples coming away with a very narrow 7-3 win.  I didn’t have much more information on that game with the exception that Scott County Coach Jim McKee was the coach for the Cardinals back in 2000 and he’s still the Head Coach now!  That is remarkable and let me say Coach McKee is an asset to KY High School Football.  His interview on BGPs @Big Things Kentucky thread is super and you should check it out.  Have you noticed that Coach McKee wears a tie more than just about any coach (except maybe the late Coach Haywood did) I’ve seen in the last 10 years at least.  Why?  I think it’s one of the ways he shows respect for the game.  And I certainly appreciate that old school mentality. 

Lastly, I did in fact look up that 2000 game and I’ll report on it probably Monday to keep this thread moving!

Scott County Cardinals Information

Scott County, at least under Coach McKee, is known for running their version of the Wing T offense.  And they run it extremely well.  But according to reports, it seems this season they have added an offensive wrinkle with some spread offensive sets.  WOW!  That has to be exciting for most Cardinals fans.  And will more than keep all defenses on their toes when facing the Cardinals this season.

The Cardinals are breaking in a new QB this season as 4-year starter Andrew Hickey graduated last May.  The new Cardinals QB is SO Charlie Ellison.  Super talented JR RB/DB Timmy Emongo returns and does a little bit of everything for the Cardinals.  He is a D1 talent for sure.  Another one is 6’3” 205 lbs WR/SS JuJu Harmon, who transferred in from Western Hills High School. 

The Cardinals outclassed the other Cardinals from George Rodgers Clark 42-6; then went on to defeat their in-county rival Great Crossing 42-21.  Against GRC, Scott County churned out nearly 400 yards offense on the ground.  I don’t honestly know a ton more, except Scott County is very well coached and will be prepared for this game.

Bowling Green Purples Information

The Purples come into this game on a two-game losing streak to start the season, which hasn’t taken place since 1985.  So, to say the Purples are in unfamiliar waters would be fair.  I don’t feel many sympathy cards coming my way, so the Purples need to toughen up now.  That would seem to start on the Oline, where BG simply has not seemed to click fully this season.  Then at QB well Deuce Bailey isn’t staring this week, and we knew it would be a drop.  So, hoping we start our trajectory back upwards right here in Georgetown.  SR QB Jaxon Strautman has started both games thus far, but FR QB Anthony Davis came in at halftime of the St X game and gave an undeniable burst of energy to the Purples offense and I look for that to continue.  BG played St X even in the second half and was much more competitive than they were in the first half.

Defensively, BG was solid especially in the second half when all the points scored by the Tigers was a safety and the BG offense fumbled giving St X the ball inside the BG 5-yard line.  Great effort by the Purples D.  But in several ways, this Scott County game will be a bigger challenge.  We’ll see.

Game Preview

The first two things that come to mind for this game both have to do with Bowling Green’s defense.  Playing the Wing T offense, which Scott County does better than anyone else in the state, presents a challenge that they have not likely seen since the last time they played Scott County, which was a scrimmage back in the 2024 pre-season.  So, BG will likely be pretty rusty on playing this offense.  The second thing is BG defensively will have to be prepared to play Wing T and/or spread on any given play.  That’s a nice wrinkle that Scott County has added.  So, it’s going to be a challenge for Coach Strode and the Purples defense.

For the Purples offense, it simply has to continue to improve.  BG is a work in progress, and it likely evolves daily.  I look for that to continue for a while.  BG is also really banged up.  Can they get anyone back for Friday?  Simply don’t know.  BIG challenge for the Purples up in Georgetown!

For Scott County, they just do what they do.  This isn’t Coach McKee’s first rodeo.  They will be prepared, and I expect a great game on Friday Night!  Looking forward to seeing my first game in Georgetown on Friday night.

Who wins this game and why?

Scott county has not ran a play out of spread in a real game yet. They ran two plays out of spread vs central in their scrimmage, but with their first true test being this Friday they’ll pull out all the stops and I expect at least one play from the spread.

Scott county had 460 yards of total offense last night with the highlight run going to sophomore QB Charlie Ellison on his 30 yards QB sneak for a score.

Scott county will get their chunk plays like always, but if BG can figure out how to stop the nifty fullback plays, everything gets 10x harder for the county.

On the defensive side of the ball for Scott county, they allowed nearly 300 yards of offense to crossing. Scott county was dominating the Warhawk offensive line, hitting GC’s Mr. Kentucky candidate in the backfield on the majority of his runs. It just didn’t matter as he’d turn a 1 yard loss to a 4 yard gain routinely.

I don’t expect Scott county to win this game by 17 like X did. I expect this to be a game that to the end is up in the air. I can’t pick against my cards though

scott county 35

Bowling green 24

Wonderful 88, great job!
 

Purples have more injuries (including all three starting WR’s) after two games than perhaps all of last year season. It has been uncanny

Persevere! 
 

Add to it, a Freshman QB may get the nod when Purples travel to Toyota land. Will team rally around the talented 14 year old gun slinger? I think they do. 
 

keep your foot on the gas Purples. Week 3 could be the momentum change we need. Won’t be easy. Good luck guys! 

If BG keeps the freshman QB as the starter they win 28-21. Otherwise, another slow start, and a likely 2 TD loss for the Purples.

Do I feel confident in the Freshman QB going on the road against a good program in Scott County? No, but I do think if the Cardinals believe they’ll just be one dimensional offensively and line up and try to bully the Purples they’ll be in for disappointment. It’s an interesting game and pivotal for the trajectory of both teams moving forward. I’ll take Bowling Green in a very close hard fought matchup, the defense or special teams will create a score that will be the decider.

Purples 24 Cardinals 21

13 minutes ago, TheBallCoach said:

Do I feel confident in the Freshman QB going on the road against a good program in Scott County? No, but I do think if the Cardinals believe they’ll just be one dimensional offensively and line up and try to bully the Purples they’ll be in for disappointment. It’s an interesting game and pivotal for the trajectory of both teams moving forward. I’ll take Bowling Green in a very close hard fought matchup, the defense or special teams will create a score that will be the decider.

Purples 24 Cardinals 21

Scott county doesn’t need to bully BG to win, they just have to make BG think the fullback has the ball one time too many, and put more points on the board than their opponent. 

1 minute ago, Scottcountyred said:

Scott county doesn’t need to bully BG to win, they just have to make BG think the fullback has the ball one time too many, and put more points on the board than their opponent. 

They’re too well coached for one dimensional football to be the reason they get bombarded. Purples front 7 is tough.

42 minutes ago, TheBallCoach said:

They’re too well coached for one dimensional football to be the reason they get bombarded. Purples front 7 is tough.

Easier said than done. If they stop the fullback then emongo gets the ball on a sweep, if you can stop that but your corner bites down too early, after a couple times seeing that on tape they’ll fake the sweep and hit the fade. 
 

What makes Scott county so hard to stop even being one dimensional is that they have 3 or 4 wrinkles to every motion and formation. You truly have no idea what they’re going to run until it’s already halfway through the play.

Theyre more than happy to let the full back run it 8 times in a row if it means by the 3rd quarter you’re collapsing on the full back and leaving outside runs to running backs or tight ends open.

1 hour ago, Scottcountyred said:

Easier said than done. If they stop the fullback then emongo gets the ball on a sweep, if you can stop that but your corner bites down too early, after a couple times seeing that on tape they’ll fake the sweep and hit the fade. 
 

What makes Scott county so hard to stop even being one dimensional is that they have 3 or 4 wrinkles to every motion and formation. You truly have no idea what they’re going to run until it’s already halfway through the play.

Theyre more than happy to let the full back run it 8 times in a row if it means by the 3rd quarter you’re collapsing on the full back and leaving outside runs to running backs or tight ends open.

In my experiences if the talent is equal which I’ll stand firm that the Purples defense can match up with just about anybody in the State, that sort of scheme just doesn’t work. I understand the motions and overloading formations can be tricky but at the end of the day you need movement at the LOS for it be effective, thus bringing on my bullying comment from earlier. Wise man once told me the last man with the pen always wins, but when they run the ball 42 times against Crossing and only let the Sophomore sling 4 passes it’s hard to believe Coach McKee has confidence in his Quarterback to make throws of substance.

1 hour ago, TheBallCoach said:

In my experiences if the talent is equal which I’ll stand firm that the Purples defense can match up with just about anybody in the State, that sort of scheme just doesn’t work. I understand the motions and overloading formations can be tricky but at the end of the day you need movement at the LOS for it be effective, thus bringing on my bullying comment from earlier. Wise man once told me the last man with the pen always wins, but when they run the ball 42 times against Crossing and only let the Sophomore sling 4 passes it’s hard to believe Coach McKee has confidence in his Quarterback to make throws of substance.

Agree to disagree. I wouldn’t say Scott county runs the wing T in a fashion that requires them to overpower their opponent. It’s all mental. Once a play works for Scott county, they’ll run it until their opposition figures it out, the moment they think they got it, McKee will reach into his book and find a play designed to work around whatever the opponent is doing to stop that specific play.

If you come up to Georgetown and watch the teams play you’ll be surprised how hard it is to know who has the ball if you aren’t familiar with the plays. BG’s Scout team can’t do much to help the starters either, 4 days of running the plays in practice can’t do much justice to 10+ years of running the plays like the Scott county boys.

Purples gave up 195 rushing yards against St. X so they will have to better against the run against Scott County who are the run specialists. 

I wanted to highlight a junior running back for the cards who had his breakout game last week at crossing.

Nick Ranson killed the warhawks on power runs at the halfback position.

Ranson totaled 13 carries, 122 yards and a touchdown, that’s 9.4 YPC.

if he can continue his hot streak into this Friday night the Purples will have their hands full between him, emongo, Owen’s, waye, and having to worry about Harmon at wideout!

BG gets back on track in this one 28-14.

The article below was printed in the Park City Daily News (BG's newspaper) for the only Bowling Green vs Scott County football game to date.  But the article was written by Josh Underwood from the Georgetown News-Graphic, so I'd say this is the only article of the game.  

It does a good job going through the happenings of the game and it must have been a pretty exciting game to not be settled until the final seconds of the game with BG making an interception in the end zone thwarting the Cardinals final efforts to try to win the game from about the 4-yard line.  And the Purples narrowly prevailed that day in 2000 7 to 3.

I think it could be another very close game this Friday!  Looking forward to coming to Georgetown to watch it!

The_Park_City_Daily_News_2000_08_27_18.pdf

Massey ratings favor Scott County to win this game. I think it's going to be close and either team could win.