ryanparker

I think the Russell QB has looked pretty good so far throwing the ball. I hope they have a good plan in store for the Musketeers. I'm just as concerned, though, about Russell's ability to stop Greenup. Russell is a pretty young team defensively facing a senior-laden Greenup County squad. Russell's top 6 tacklers in their first game were 4 juniors and 2 sophomores. The leading tackler was a sophomore. I hope they can slow down their running attack.

The power running game of Greenup County exposed a possible Ashland weakness. However, I think Ashland fans will have to wait until the Ironton and Johnson Central games to truly find out if Coach Hart has the problem fixed. Raceland doesn't bring a power running game into Putnam Stadium this Friday. Instead, they present a completely different challenge with their spread offense and terrific QB. It would surprise me if they vary from what they do best offensively by trying to grind it out on the ground against Ashland, but I trust Raceland's coaches will do whatever they feel gives their team the best chance to compete with the Tomcats. Offensively, I think they'll put the game in the hands of QB Tyler Farley. They'll just need to be creative with buying him enough time to complete short routes against the speedy Ashland defense. I know he's a good QB, but he'll have to be a great QB to pick apart Ashland. Can Raceland stop Ashland? Greenup couldn't. Apparently Mason County couldn't. The Ashland passing game is at least equal to Raceland's coupled with perhaps a better running attack to go along with it. The question for me here would be does Raceland lay back keeping the receivers in front of them and allow Ashland to move the ball down the field methodically hoping for the Tomcats to make a mistake? Or does Raceland bring big pressure and risk giving up quick TDs? I thought Greenup might have the personnel to get to Ashland's QB, but apparently they didn't. I don't think Raceland has the personnel to do so. I'm glad I don't have to pick what to do against this Ashland team. When Ashland scores a lot this Friday, I can just log on and say I would have picked the other option. :-) Raceland is going to have to score and score a lot. Farley's numbers are going to need to be tremendous. I can see them possibly getting the ball to Reed on offense a little and seeing what he can do with it as well, but this is Farley's game. Ashland has handled QBs and offenses like this in the past. Wasn't Waverly a QB driven passing team last season? I look for Ashland to win this one, but I hope Raceland keeps it close and makes it entertaining. Either way, it might be the longest game of the weekend with as much as both these teams pass the ball.

I suspect Greenup will try to run it straight at Russell and challenge them to stop it. From the way everyone is describing Greenup's new rushing attack, putting all 11 in the box might not be enough. Sounds like Russell may need some Greenup penalties and turnovers to slow down the Musketeer running game. That's quite possible, though, as Greenup is sure to be over-amped for this one and has shown the propensity for both in the past. I'm sure we'll learn a lot about the heart of this year's Russell players in this game along with the next 2. This 3-game stretch with Greenup, Ironton, and Ashland should prepare the Devils for anything else that is to come their way this season. If nothing else, they'll be ready for the ice baths after this is over. If everyone's assessment of the Greenup offensive line is correct, though, then Russell is going to need to find ways to match scores against Greenup like Ashland did until the Musketeers start making mistakes. I'm encouraged they've shown the willingness to go to a shotgun spread formation early this season. Watching them beat their head against the wall with outmatched personnel running the Wing-T against the likes of Ashland and Ironton the past couple of years gets a tad frustrating. QB Patrick Cooper has looked pretty good in the preseason scrimmages and first game throwing the ball. The question is how will he respond throwing the ball while running for his life at the same time? Will he make good decisions? We may find out Saturday. Obviously, Justin Davidson will be his number one target, but I suspect Greenup will be keying on him. A couple other Russell receivers may need to step up for the passing game to be successful. From what I've seen, they have a few capable players that could fill this role so all is not doom and gloom for the Devils. This is, of course, assuming Greenup proves they can stop the Wing-T running attack in the first place. I also wouldn't discount the possibility of special teams playing a role. Lest we forget that last year's Russell-Greenup game was supposed to be a good game as well. That was before Travis Jones broke Greenup's will to win by taking a kickoff back for a TD and then returning a punt for a TD. The game was over just like that. Of course, I realize Russell doesn't have Travis Jones on the field any more and Greenup has apparently been pumping iron relentlessly since last season. So that being said, I look for this to either be a close Russell win or Greenup by a blowout. Either way, it will be a great atmosphere for an intense high school football game come Saturday night. In my opinion, the overall key to the game will be Russell getting positive momentum early on with either the first score or a Greenup miscue. If they do, that might be enough to put some doubt in the minds of the Musketeers. If Greenup gets it going early on and gains confidence, though, then I suspect Russell will face a difficult uphill climb the rest of the night.

Oh I agree! I truly meant nothing negative. As an impartial observer, he just made me smile/laugh a lot of times during the game with his enthusiasm. I'm not being sarcastic at all when I say he should be the color commentator on "Ram Radio" if it ever comes about. I'd tune in.

One lighter note from the game...if Raceland ever does get their own radio team and broadcast, I think I know who the color commentator should be. Raceland's PA announcer has to be among the most entertaining in the state. I've got to attend Raceland games before on occasion, but for whatever reason I never noticed him quite as much as last night. He was really on top of his game. He's the type of PA guy I'm sure Raceland fans love and opposing fans love to hate. Among the highlights I recall: - introducing the Rams when they ran onto the field as "you mess with one, you've got 'em all...here's Coach T.J. Maynard and the boys of fall" - welcoming fans to "historic" Ram Stadium for the first game "on the road to Bowling Green" - shouting into the mic at levels of excitement I can't describe for every positive thing that happened for the Rams (I can't really do this justice...you'd need to actually hear it) - leading the cheer in counting off the "world famous" Ram presses as the cheering squad did pushups after a Raceland score - congratulating the "undefeated" Lady Rams volleyball team numerous times (I had to look online to learn they're 7-0 with 13 games/tourneys STILL LEFT on the schedule) I left after the lightning delay and listened to the rest of the game on the Boyd County radio broadcast. Apparently, they drew the shortest straw in the press box and ended up being seated right next to the PA announcer. :-) I thought his enthusiasm on the live mic over the PA was something else. Thanks to the radio broadcast, I got to hear him off the mic as well. Needless to say, he's definitely Raceland's number one fan. Thankfully, the Boyd County broadcasters handled his comments graciously and even joked with him at times about his homerism. In any case, all of the above is meant as a compliment to the guy. I hope it's taken that way. His style of announcing was very entertaining and I just wanted to point out a radio broadcast with him on it might be a popular choice on the dial for Raceland fans and non-fans alike.

I completely agree. In my opinion, he's the best QB around here. I think it's a smart move for Raceland to basically put the outcome of the game squarely on his shoulders.

He was good. As another poster pointed out, he did throw 3 interceptions as well, though. Whether or not you blame him for the interceptions, I would take them with a grain of salt because Raceland runs an offense like the Hal Mumme-led Kentucky Wildcats. I would expect Farley to have big numbers this season, sometimes positive and maybe even sometimes negative.

Congratulations to Raceland on the win. The game was sloppy thanks to injuries, penalties, turnovers, a rain storm, and a lightning delay. Tyler Farley is definitely the face of the Rams this season. They'll go as far as he takes them. Boyd County has some work to do.

The Russell Red Devils visit the Greenup County Musketeers in game 2 of the season for one of the biggest annual rivalry games on either teams schedule. Russell (1-0) comes off a 35-6 victory over East Carter while Greenup County (0-1) comes off a hard fought 44-28 loss to Ashland. The Devils shut out Greenup last year 37-0 and have won the last 9 in a row in the series between the 2 schools. Greenup County's last victory over Russell came in the year 2000, when current Raceland head coach T.J. Maynard led the Musketeers to a 21-13 win over his alma mater. Will this be the year Greenup breaks the streak and defeats the Devils? Will Russell carry on their dominance of the Musketeers? Thoughts? Predictions?

No offense to East Carter, but I don't know right now because I haven't seen them play the types of teams they're going to have to play to be successful this season. To my untrained football scout eye, though, I think there are probably about 8-10 line players that can rotate in and out without a huge dropoff in level of play and about 8-10 skill position players that can do the same. The only question I would ask is exactly what level of play they're playing at. We'll find out in the coming weeks. The one player on the field who stood out as being someone I wouldn't want to see go down is QB Patrick Cooper. He looked very good both running and passing the ball and I don't think Russell scored again after they replaced him. The score was 35-6 at halftime.

Good article and photo gallery on the game at http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/x254024771/Russell-starts-football-season-on-familiar-note?i=0

Something that confuses me about Ashland is their lack of a kicker. The radio crew tonight even commented about how they were squib kicking the kickoffs. They have a good soccer program at Ashland. I would think they could find a kicker from there to come out and kick on Friday nights. I understand they succeed against our area teams more often that not when they go for 2, but if they are serious about trying to compete with the Northern Kentucky schools who can match them athlete for athlete, is going for 2 every time really that good of a strategy?

I did expect Greenup to have an alternate strategy, particularly with how good I've heard their QB is at throwing and how good their receivers are this year (Stringfellow, Hamilton, Hampton). Maybe they do have another style in the bag of tricks but just didn't use it this evening? The clear advantage that Greenup had over Ashland was power. If they had tried to spread it out on Ashland, then the Ashland's speed advantage had may have come into play a little more.

Granted I wasn't there, but it really sounded like the fumbles determined the end result a lot more than the system.

This one was a little worse than I expected. I think it was a combination of Russell being a little better and East Carter being a little more inexperienced than I expected. Russell has a lot of young players on the field. I still don't think this game answered any questions I have regarding how they are going to fare against better competition. The game was actually over somewhere in the middle of the 2nd quarter. While the starting unit was in, Patrick Cooper looked good at QB. Justin Davidson looked good at receiver. Russell's line isn't really as small as advertised. They have a few big guys they played at the same time who seemed to do a decent job. On defense, sophomore Troy Huffine was impressive in his first start. He played fast and with a lot of aggressiveness. Again, though, the pass defense needs work. As I said, though, it's hard to tell what Russell really has after watching a game like this. What I can say more than anything is that Coach McGlone is one of the classier coaches around. He doesn't run up the score. Replacements were in during the 2nd quarter. Patrick Cooper didn't really see many series, but did look good while he was in there. Russell steps up in competition quickly, though, with Greenup, Ironton, and Ashland coming up the next 3 weeks.

I listened to this one on the radio via the always entertaining Dicky Martin. He said Ashland's defense was just plain awful, but surely Greenup had something to do with that. It sounded like Greenup overpowered Ashland up front with a bigger and stronger offensive line racking up huge yardage on the ground. Their running back Marsh obviously has some serious breakaway speed, too. However, Ashland was still too fast and skilled across the board on offense for Greenup to be able to stop them. The end result came down to Greenup making a few errors by putting the ball on the ground. I still think Ashland is very very good. I just now think Greenup is pretty good as well. It sounds like each team does what they do very well. Like I said, if Greenup can eliminate the turnovers, they will be a tough out for anyone this year. To use the cliche, the game was much closer than the end result. Congratulations to Greenup on a good showing and congratulations to Ashland on escaping Greenup with a win. I have a feeling both of these teams will win a lot of games this year.

Unless you're a fan of the opposition...then he will likely be more of a nightmare to watch! :-)

Your description of Ashland's offensive threats doesn't leave much hope for Greenup stopping them. How do you think Greenup might go about trying to stop the Tomcats? I still think the best bet would be to bring a lot of people and make the QB complete passes under pressure. Of course, keeping the ball for 8 minute drives as you mentioned would help as well. Honestly, I'm just trying to concoct some reason to believe that Greenup can make this a close game.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what each team's game plan will be going into tomorrow night's game? I look for Ashland to throw the ball quite a bit with the experienced QB and athletic receivers they've got. They can easily run out of the spread formation as well, though, because it gets Rogers (I think he'll be their primary runner this year?) into space where he can utilize his speed. Does Ashland have a power running replacement for Alber this year? He was quite an effective runner last season because Ashland could spread the defense out so much. It left fewer guys there to try to tackle him and sometimes 11 were actually needed. :-) I think Greenup needs to bring a lot of pressure and get hits on the QB early and often so as to make him as uncomfortable as possible. Of course, this strategy would leave the door open for big plays which the Tomcats are more than capable of. I don't think Greenup can cover all of the weapons that Ashland has for very many seconds, though, so bringing extra guys from different places and getting to the QB is the only option IMO. I look for Greenup to try to control the clock with their running game. Many have said that Greenup's line is twice as big, strong, and experienced as they were last year. Well, this will be the time to prove it. The only thing I see they could do to negate Ashland's overall team speed would be to line up and run it straight at them so the speed doesn't really come into play. However, I've heard Greenup has a QB this year that can throw the ball and he's got a big target in Hampton. Mixing in some quick passes over the middle might be enough to keep drives alive here and there. I'm sure Ashland will stack the line of scrimmage, particularly early in the game, in an effort to stop Greenup's running attack.

I will concede the fact that LCA is as tough of a district opponent for Raceland as Johnson Central is for Ashland. However, you must admit that Raceland has it A LOT better than Ashland in the first couple rounds of the playoffs. Raceland gets the relatively weak district of Berea, Campbellsville, Williamsburg, Clinton County, and Lynn Camp to draw an opponent from. Ashland gets a district where the 3 seed had a record of 4-6 last year but still came to Putnam Stadium and beat them 41-14.

That was a good post. Sounds like you should give the pregame speech. I think you summed up what I am looking for Greenup to prove. Show the community that all the offseason talk isn't just talk again. Win or lose, make Ashland have to work for it.

That it is. Much to the chagrin of the rest of our local schools, it seems like the Tomcats are doing the best they can to try to field a team that might possibly be able to compete against Highlands. While they'll probably forever remain leaps and bounds behind Highlands, they've distanced themselves quite a bit from the other teams in Boyd and Greenup counties. In my opinion, none of Ashland's games should be close this year with the exception of two, Ironton and Johnson Central. Ironton is going to be seeking revenge on their home field, but I would think that Johnson Central should be Ashland's primary target this season since Johnson Central seems to dominate that series. It is good to see Ashland ranked in the top 10, though. They deserve to be.

Russell does not seem to have many big players. I don't know how talented they are. I'm prepared to find out as the season goes along this year. I watched their Maroon/White game and watched them scrimmage Spring Valley (WV). The running plays from the Wing-T didn't seem to work very well against Spring Valley. They did, however, manage to move the ball via the run and the pass from a shotgun spread formation. It will be interesting to see if they actually mix this new set in during real games. Their pass defense looked like it needs a lot of work. Their run defense seemed respectable. I don't think Russell has a player for opposing defenses to key on this year because they all look similar. I suppose it could be said that they should have a more "balanced" attack this year. There is no Travis Jones who comprised about 90% of their offensive production last season. As for the East Carter game, I am picking Russell because it's a home game and quite honestly, I can't recall East Carter ever beating Russell or even coming very close.

I, too, think Ashland will win. In my view, it will be a big surprise if anyone from our area can come within a couple TD's of Ashland this year. Just like last year, it's tough for Greenup to have all these lofty offseason accolades and expectations only to have to start their year playing the best team on their schedule. If Greenup does hang with the Tomcats, they will certainly put the area on notice that they just be might be for real this season. If they somehow beat Ashland, then the sky's the limit for the Musketeers.

Thoughts? Predictions?