Cover Corner

Horton from Belfry is the best player in the region and it is not even close. QB from West is a stud athlete no doubt about it, but Horton is a D1 caliber defensive lineman.

I will be shocked if this game is close. There is a huge gap in talent in the two districts. Lawrence would have rolled in district 5 IMO. I expect the Bulldogs to win this one going away by third quarter and think Lawrence faces Belfry in the regional finals. Lawrence: 48 Fleming: 14

Those stats are mind blowing. Hard to even wrap your head around them.

Russell wins big. I think this Devil football team is very average and they had some AWFUL PLAYCALLING in the Raceland game but Pike Central is way down and should be little trouble. Devils: 42 Hawks: 14

West will have no trouble with SC. SC is way down and pretty bad. If the Burchett kid can play he may have a couple of long runs as West was not a great tackling team the games I saw them, but the QB from West is way to athletic and will have several highlight runs. Congrats to the kids from Olive Hill. They deserved to win the district and get a couple of home playoff games.

What is the deal with Workman?

I think you have to fire coaches based on performance. Now the coach should be able to retain their teaching job provided that they are meeting the requirements for that portion of their duties. Bottom line is coaching high school athletics is a secondary position. Your base position is normally teaching and in some cases your outside employment. If you are unable to perform a portion of your duties (coach at a level seen as appropriate by the school district) you must be relieved of the duty. Sometimes these responsibilities come with decent pay checks and those checks expect results. Entitlement is a HUGE problem in KY and America. Performance is and should be the deciding factor.

So he feels a victory over a team that lost to Boyle (Central Hardin) is as strong as a victory over a team who beat Boyle (Lex. Cath)? That is a stretch of epic proportions. Point is he is hanging his hat on beating below average 6A schools yet neither South Warren or John Hardin has a win as strong as the victory JC has on Lex. Cath. Now I would not be surprised if either of those teams were to beat JC or Ashland in the state championship if they played, but his arrogance about the schedules is absurd in my view.

Asked for a quality win and got a close loss. Stretch much?

Same could be said about South Warren the past couple years

You are comparing a middle of the road 6A to middle of road 2A. That is not the comparison. It is Lex. Cath (a top tier 3A) to middle of the road at best 6A schools with losing records. All due respect but you are giving to much credit to school size.

Then name 1 world beater that anyone out West has beaten with a better quality win than Boyle Co on their schedule.

Then you are also missing my point and wrong. Quality football teams are quality football teams regardless of size. Give me Lex. Cath and Belfry over any of those 6A schools John Hardin has a win over any day of the week. I would also say the same for GW and Ironton. The size of a population in a school does not make quality football opponents. Quality teams do. Based on your thought process Seneca would be better than South Warren, Johnson Central, Ashland, and John Hardin since they played 6 schools with a size of 6A.

Mike drop

Boyle is not ranked #1 in AAA. They didn't even win their district.

I don't know who you are talking to but after looking at John Hardin's schedule I am less than impressed. John Hardin has wins over 6A N. Hardin (3-6), Meade Co (2-8), and 4A Warren Central (3-6). Combined record of 8-20. Losses to 6A PRP (5-4) & C. Hardin (6-3). Both of those losses are to good teams but the other games are by no means murders row. I would argue Johnson Central who beat Lex Catholic (Same team that beat Boyle mind you) and plays Belfry played two better football teams than any win John Hardin has. Losing to bigger teams does not always make you better. Ashland has beat George Washington (WV) and Ironton (OH) two teams that are as good if not better than any win John Hardin has. Just because they are not some of the weaker 6A schools does not mean they are not quality wins.

The way people talk on here I am surprised they are even having the playoffs. You would think they would just give the trophy to South Warren. LOL On a serious note there are 3 teams that I think are the heads of the pack (Ashland, Johnson Central, and South Warren). There are several other teams that that could play spoilers (Scott, Wayne, Mercer) if one of the first three mentioned do not play their A game. I expect a fun playoff and hope either Johnson Central or Ashland come out of the East and take care of business in Bowling Green.

Ashland lost to the #1 ranked team in the class as the #3 ranked team by 1 point and you expect them to drop? PLEASE I would argue if Ashland was in any other district in the state in Class AAAA they would be district champs (That includes South Warren as I don't think they have played a player nearly as good as Baler all year). They have played JC so often the past few years the coaches know each other better than their wives. Ashland has beat George Washington a very good WV team and DESTROYED an Ironton team that played Beechwood very well. So Shelby gets a bump from beating a sub 500 Collins team?

I keep hearing about this supposed GREAT South Warren defense. Maybe best in the state. PLEASE The best defense in the state rests with Male or Trinity I am confident of that. South Warren has had a GREAT season so far and it may be even more special for them by the year end, but please quit pounding your chests like you have done something. You have played an average schedule but not a murders row by any stretch of the imagination.

A big rivalry game between two programs each with good history and tradition. All the makings of a classic, but this year both teams are very average. I expect Russell to win. Being at home and they have Conley, but wouldn't be surprised if Raceland was to take this one. Neither school can be happy about how the season has went, but a win here would help each feel a little better. For what it is worth I still think it doesn't matter who wins. I see both teams dropping the second round of the playoffs. Russell to Lawrence at home and Raceland to Paintsville on the road.

Being from Grayson I would love to see East get another win but I don't expect to see it. I watched East vs Boyd and they can't open field tackle anyone in a phone booth. East is much improved from a coaching standpoint than they were a year ago, but the execution is still a ways away. East has nothin to play for. Fleming is holding out hope of a home playoff game. I expect Fleming to win but hope I am wrong. Good luck to both.

Couldn't agree more. If you are not familiar with the team's wins over GW and Ironton may not seem like big wins, but anyone from the Tri-State area knows that those are quality wins over two solid football programs that even in down years would compete for a district title in KY.

Tates Creek is surely athletic but I don't see any way that their team speed is any better than Ashland's especially on defense. The Tomcats close distance on defense as well as anyone I have seen in the last couple of years. They also have 2 legit studs. I would be surprised if Tates Creek beats Ashland. I do think Tates Creek can win if Ashland helps them (turnovers, penalties, poor coaching decisions), but I think if both teams play well Ashland wins by 2-3 scores. Baker will be to much and look to end his high school regular season in a big way. Good luck to both. Hope everyone is injury free. Ashland: 35 Tates Creek: 21

That is why Ashland had fewer penalties and fewer turnovers. No doubt Ashland had some mistakes that I would think are not the norm, but I still feel like JC played as bad as possible and Ashland dominated the game and lost. Ashland laid an egg but it was based on play calling and in game decisions not by the players o the field. Central laid an egg based on players. I would not count on it happening again if these two teams play again. Ashland fans sure are sore after another loss to JC. You think they would be used to it by now.

You think Ashland's defense caused delay of games? It caused missed exchanges? You are giving a lot of credit to a defense there. Ashland is a very good defensive team. I already mentioned their awesome team speed but I don't see how you can think that the multiple delay of game penalties were caused by the defense. So I guess JC's defense caused Ashland's guards to each pull the wrong direction and hit each other in the middle of a play. Or the back to back false starts. Or the QB opening to the wrong direction. A great job by the JC defense by having Love use his timeouts early in the 2nd half. Really paid off. Bottom line is I see this as a bad loss for Ashland. Don't know if they will catch the same breaks if these two teams play again. Also as I have stated wouldn't be surprised if Ashland wins, I just think Baker will have to blow up and pack the Tomcats. Very capable of happening, just think JC had multiple non-forced errors and still won.