Trinity just hung a loss on Elder this weekend, last season Highlands beat Cinti. St. X., the season before, the Birds narrowly lost to Colerain, and in 2007 they beat D1, talent laden Trotwood. Parity is slowly coming between Ohio and Kentucky football. The best Kentucky teams used to be just a Harbin cash cow to the large Ohio teams, now, or in the near future, those Ohio teams may have to think twice before crossing the river looking for Harbin Points Gold.

I don't know if that loss to Colerain could really be described as narrow. HHS lost by 16 points and the game's outcome was never really in question. I would describe that loss as respectable (as opposed to the loss HHS suffered to Colerain back in 2005), not narrow.

I think the whole point behind this thread, which has turned into more of Highlands fans defending the greatness of their program (which no-one is denying), is that Highlands is one of the top teams not only in N Ky but in Ky overall, and Withrow is not a top 15 team in Cincinnati and it was a close game. I think it does show that OVERALL Ohio football is still ahead of Ky football. The top 3-4 teams from each side of the river may be able to compete with each other, but teams that are not top 10 in Cincinnati, much less all of Ohio would still give the top 3-4 teams in N Ky a good game. You start matching up #5 in N Ky vs #5 in Cincinnati, it will GENERALLY not be close.

OK. OH big school football is light years ahead of Ky football. If that's the premise of this thread, then I don't really see any debate to the contrary.

Ohio football is much deeper then Kentucky Football. Although if you give me the top 5 teams from KY Ill put them up against the top 5 from the Greater Cincinnati area. The gap is slowly decreasing and I think UK's successes have a direct correlation.

...and I think UK's successes have a direct correlation.

And...I'm lost. What?

 

Are you trying to say that some sort of perceived improvement in the football program at the University of Kentucky is decreasing the gap between the level and depth of play between Ohio and KY?

 

Help me here.

 

-CardinalsFan

Ohio football is much deeper then Kentucky Football. Although if you give me the top 5 teams from KY Ill put them up against the top 5 from the Greater Cincinnati area. The gap is slowly decreasing and I think UK's successes have a direct correlation.

 

Define successess? Finishing fourth in the SEC East year after year?

Three teams in Kentucky now could compete with Ohio teams-Trinity, Louisville ST. X, and Highlands and that is it. I'm not saying they would even do all that well, but at least they wouldn't embarass themselves.

You need to be careful when analyzing HHS vs. Withrow and applying it to other Ohio schools. Withrow may not be a top 15 team in Cincinnati, but they have a LOT of speed, and it's pretty disciplined at that. HHS generally struggles against teams that can match their overall team speed & play with discipline (remember Bryan Station?), while they may not struggle as much against teams generally regarded as better than Withrow who aren't as fast. If you don't have speed all over, you have to be REALLY big to get up on Highlands.

You need to be careful when analyzing HHS vs. Withrow and applying it to other Ohio schools. Withrow may not be a top 15 team in Cincinnati, but they have a LOT of speed, and it's pretty disciplined at that. HHS generally struggles against teams that can match their overall team speed & play with discipline (remember Bryan Station?), while they may not struggle as much against teams generally regarded as better than Withrow who aren't as fast. If you don't have speed all over, you have to be REALLY big to get up on Highlands.

 

 

That's my thinking also. Some teams just provide match up problems for other teams. Normally Highlands defeats other teams because Highlands is faster and quicker across the board at almost every position than their opponents. Highlands D line and Lbers went through and past Withrow's O line like a hot knife through butter because we were so much quicker and faster than their O line. But when they got to the QB, he was simply faster and quicker than they were and he was often able to elude Highlands defenders and then scramble and either run or buy more time to pass the ball. We came up a couple of times to stop the QB and allowed his receivers to get behind us for receptions. Great learning opportunity for our secondary. Great learning opportunity for our D line and Lbers rushing the passer. If we face a very elusive QB down the road, I think we will have learned from what we saw and did against Withrow. And I also agree with you about the parallels of Withrow and Bryan Station. I wish we'd continue to play Withrow in the future because I think it really helps prepare us if we are going to play a team down the road with a quick and elusive QB and fast receivers.

Define successess? Finishing fourth in the SEC East year after year?

 

Mex, I don't think one can logically deny that UK football has dramatically improved as of late, as has UL football except for the last several years (which is something I believe will be changing for the better under Coach Strong). They might not be finishing higher than 4th in the SEC East, but that's more an indication of the strength of the SEC than than an indicator that UK football is not improving. As UK continues to improve, it generates more enthusiasm for football amongst young kids and more kids start participating in youth and high school football. That leads in my opinion to an improvement in the quality of Ky high school football which enables the gap to decrease (albeit it slowly).

 

To argue that the improvement in quality of college football in Ky has no effect on the quality of Ky high school football would in effect be arguing that the success of UK basketball has had no impact on the quality of Ky high school basketball over the years. Which is an argument that I'd have a very hard time agreeing with.

I'm still not getting the reference to quality of Ky High school basketball in these threads. How are we coming up with Ky bball is anything more than Ky football nationally? It's not.

You need to be careful when analyzing HHS vs. Withrow and applying it to other Ohio schools. Withrow may not be a top 15 team in Cincinnati, but they have a LOT of speed, and it's pretty disciplined at that. HHS generally struggles against teams that can match their overall team speed & play with discipline (remember Bryan Station?), while they may not struggle as much against teams generally regarded as better than Withrow who aren't as fast. If you don't have speed all over, you have to be REALLY big to get up on Highlands.

 

I agree with the speed factor, this is Highlands' bread and butter, they condition year round to out run you. Also, don't forget the size on the line factor, Bryan Station and Withrow created problems thre as well. Highlands isn't going to have 3-4 300lb kids on the line.

 

Withrow has lost to back to back state champs in the last two weeks, Winton Woods and Highlands. They would win a lot of games in KY.

Mex, I don't think one can logically deny that UK football has dramatically improved as of late, as has UL football except for the last several years (which is something I believe will be changing for the better under Coach Strong). They might not be finishing higher than 4th in the SEC East, but that's more an indication of the strength of the SEC than than an indicator that UK football is not improving. As UK continues to improve, it generates more enthusiasm for football amongst young kids and more kids start participating in youth and high school football. That leads in my opinion to an improvement in the quality of Ky high school football which enables the gap to decrease (albeit it slowly).

 

To argue that the improvement in quality of college football in Ky has no effect on the quality of Ky high school football would in effect be arguing that the success of UK basketball has had no impact on the quality of Ky high school basketball over the years. Which is an argument that I'd have a very hard time agreeing with.

 

I don't see where KY basketball is any better than it was a few years ago. We still get swept by IN every year, and if you take our state champ against Indiana's or Ohio's, we won't win that either.

 

I agree w/ you that any success by UK is a good thing for Kentucky high school athletics. I dont' agree that we've narrowed the gap on Ohio's big boys. If you discount La Salle, NKY teams have beaten 2 GCL teams. CovCath beat Moeller in '92 and Highlands beat St. X. Our # 4 team still got smoked last week by probably the #8 team in Cincinnati. SK just got trounced by Middletown and they're in a battle just to make the playoffs. I think that the players in KY are better than they were 20 years ago, but so are Ohio's. Now, if you want to say that UK's success has raised the participation level of more rural schools and that KY-OH schools are competitive when you compare like size schools (in the smaller divisions) then I'd definitely agree w/ that.

I agree with the speed factor, this is Highlands' bread and butter, they condition year round to out run you. Also, don't forget the size on the line factor, Bryan Station and Withrow created problems thre as well. Highlands isn't going to have 3-4 300lb kids on the line.

 

Withrow has lost to back to back state champs in the last two weeks, Winton Woods and Highlands. They would win a lot of games in KY.

 

It wasn't the size of the Bryan Station & Withrow d-linemen that bothered Highlands the most, it was their speed. HHS has shown consistently over the past few years that their lines can handle considerable size mismatches, but speed & quickness deficits have hurt them.

 

There's no doubt that Withrow would win a lot of games in KY. They're a very good football team, and despite what I heard leading up to the game, I think they've improved since last year. I felt sorry for those kids Friday night - having played the way they have only to be 0-3. I doubt any of them are lurking around here, but if they are - keep up the hard work, it will pay off.

It wasn't the size of the Bryan Station & Withrow d-linemen that bothered Highlands the most, it was their speed. HHS has shown consistently over the past few years that their lines can handle considerable size mismatches, but speed & quickness deficits have hurt them.

I remember whatching the Highlands-Cincy St. X game on TV last year and they showed a graphic about the size mismatch between St. X's offensive line and Highlands' defensive line, and yet HHS' D-linemen (most notably, one player in particular, Cam Dierig) were frequently in the Bomber's offensive backfield disrupting plays. I think it's more about the speed than the size, as ft bronc pointed out.