hockentucky

They should base it on how large of a crowd they draw and I would place my bets on a lot of CovCath followers being at Ryle making for a pretty well attended opening game for the Raiders. Should be an interesting game as well.

Geez, did we kill the thread? How about some more fodder... If Antonio Andrews ends of Mr. Football I'd be quite surprised. He has stats but he is not some sort of super-athlete. There are other kids that are just as good if not better. The season will flush them out. As a for instance, I remember some pretty impressive early-season rushing yardage stats coming from an RB from one NKY HS last year. The stats were flat-out amazing. All-America numbers. I thought I would be witnessing Shaun Alexander II, but not. Not even close. But it just goes to show that stats don't tell the whole story. Good kid. Over-used. Not particularly fast (probably 4.7 at best.) Not very big. Not durable enough for what he was being asked to do. Poor coaching judgement to put too many miles per week on that little sports coupe. Season ends earlier than expected. Not surprisingly 'no looks.' Mr. Football kids need to be considered as stand-alone athletes and not based on how good their supporting cast is. Look at what Miles Simpson did last year. Now that was impressive! IMO he carried that team on his back. If he can repeat that performance he is probably 'the man.' As for QB's, there are bound to be a couple of surprise kids that emerge showing dramatic improvements versus a year ago due to growth and maturity. Even Bardo might be one of them. Unfortunately not all the best QBs play for the very best team (although most play for pretty good teams) so how well they show will vary. Since it will never be a level playing field interested scouts will sort through that facts and make their decisons. We all have to remember that there are enough quality HS players coming out of OH, FL, TX, GA, IL and CAL to fill the rosters of every D1 team. Heck, didn't even mention NY, MI or IN. We are a small player. Being a kid from KY will require some VERY special talents to get serious consideration. Boys that aspire to and are capable will be found -- and watched pretty carefully. Let there be no mistake that speed, body mass and football IQ/skills are the three main ingredients the 'watchers' will be looking for. If a kid only has 2 of the 3, it puts a heck of a lot of pressure on the other two. For you players, the time to prove that you 'really' are fast, strong and make smart decisions is upon you. Hopefully you have done your homework. Let the best team win!

Is Bardo faster than Collinsworth? Based upon what I am reading here, one might come to that conclusion, but I seriously doubt it. Watched Austin run the 100m, 200m and 400 all spring, with the 100m being a pretty good predictor of 40-yd times. Based upon his Milesplit results, Austin is probably about a 4.65 40-guy. Bardo would have to be able to 'blow his doors off' to be running a legit 4.5. It takes an 11-flat 100m runner to lay down a 'real' 4.5, and I haven't seen any of those in NKY carrying the ball in years. Running faster than that requires some serious wheels which would place you on the winners podium at the state track meet. No one from NKY was standing up there this past spring. Certainly Bardo can run, but lets get serious! I don't care what college coach is running the stopwatch, they are probably giving the guy a generous impulse start. Lets get rid of the hype! (or show us the money!) Good thing for Will is that running a 4.5 is not necessary to be a successful D1 QB. He has the right size and if he can beef up to take a few hits from 300-pounders running 5-flats, then he's golden. As for the QB at St. X, he's probably projected as a slotman or corner.

Elliott Simpson Collinsworth Quainoo Eubank Pugh yes, in that order

Ryle has several underclassmen who will be able to step up and fill the open spots in 2009. Ryle's defense became very junior over the course of 2008 due to injuries to guys like the Murray bros. Although this probably cost Ryle a playoff run, it also provided some young men the opportunity to learn and develop that wouldn't have had that opportunity otherwise. Offensively it is always about developing the O line, which will be the primary focus. They have a large pool of potential candidates and some very impressive returners, like Tate Nichols. At skills, they probably have the best all-around returning talent in NKY. What do they need to get better in 2009? Consistency in scoring. Maturity and size/strength improvement will naturally occur because of the teams youth and should allow their offense to carry the team in 2009. I would expect a lot of exciting high scoring games from them. As for comments on Conner Hemple and Caleb Lonkard at QB, both are capable athletes. If Caleb were Conner's size or had 4.7 speed, then there might be something to talk about. If Conner can develop more speed and agility, he could become the Miles Simpson of QBs. Dedicated off-season speed training or a Springtime of chasing teammates Kiefer Eubanks and Luke Boggs around the track will get him there. Ryle staff will find a position for the durable, but smallish Lonkard so he will not be wasted. Even though he is small, Lonkard is clearly a tough guy based upon his recent 130 lb wrestling success. The real question is freshman Travis Elliot. Is this kid for real? Is he a freak of nature or what? Will he continue to grow? He's listed at 5' 11" 190. Could he carry Ryle over the next year or three as Simpson has SK this year? A 15-year-old bench pressing 400+ pounds? That's ridiculous (but true.) He has a great football IQ, has good speed, a great work ethic and a thick, durable body that loves to hit and punish. He looks like a natural Oklahoma Wishbone/Option QB candidate from the 80s, and perhaps is Ryle QB material if groomed in that direction. If Elliot can run a legit 4.7 at 205 lbs within 2-years he can play fullback at D1 level. 4.6 would put him in tailback country. 4.5 with moves puts him on TV Saturday afternoons, even if he doesn't gain a pound. I think Travis Elliot is the one to watch.

Austin Collinsworth is the type of player that performs well beyond what someone might expect because he runs well-disciplined routes, has great hands, high football IQ and good field vision. Playing for an outstanding, nationally recognized HS program (that knows how to take advantage of and showcase his skills) doesn't hurt either. If you want to know how fast he is look at the his HS track results on KYTrackXC.com and see for yourself. Mr. Football should always go to a senior.

Of course the season is too long! It's interfering with a real man's sport:fight: Take out bye weeks and eliminate one non-conf game. If it is hot early in season, start the games a bit later in the evening. An 8:30 start time on a Friday night is no big deal.

As far as I am concerned, SK just won the 6A public school state league championship! Now its on to the Pizza Bowl where you will encounter a different kind of opponent! Win or lose, an impressive run! Congrats to the entire team on a fine season.

I've seen 'em all in NKY this year and no question Miles Simpson is the best all-around football player in this part of the state.

Does a kid have to be a senior for this award?

If it is as cold as this game, I give SK a very good chance because Simpson will be able to break loose. Boone did not exhibit much speed against Henry Clay and was unable to get outside. SK will have to be able to bottle up the middle to stop strong running Oppenheimer. Charles Quainoo must still be injured, or is now ineffective due to his previous 'high ankle sprain' injury which can't feel very good in the sub-freezing cold.

This was the most exciting HS football game I have ever witnessed -- because of the stakes, the finality of it all. I was walking toward the exit on the HC side after standing behind the goal post for a bird's eye view of Chalfant's apparent game-winning field goal. So I walked all the way down to the far end of the field to get ready to leave, but I thought I would stop to watch the kickoff from behind the other end zone. Unbelievable, so I thought the game was over again after an amazing return for TD. No way a guy that slow should run a kickoff back, but he did! Furthermore, they made the PAT, something they couldn't do vs. Ryle a week earlier in 4 attempts. Anyway, walked further toward the exit, but decided I should watch another kickoff -- just in case. After the decent return and a pass completion to about the 50, I ran back down to the far end and stood at the edge of the goal line on HC side. A critical roughing the passer 15-yard penalty against HC moved the ball to the 15 with 22 seconds left to play -- game on! A short pass completion to my side of the field to the 11, a deflected incomplete TD pass and another quick sideliner to the 8 with 6 seconds left. A rushed incomplete pass into the end zone left 2.6 sec on the clock. Last play coming up. The same quick sideline pass excuted very quickly -- almost forced into tight coverage but probably their only option. D-back plays it perfectly, has great position - long arm reaching in front of Locsak. I am certain ball is knocked down, and watched Locsak fall to the ground and roll. Too my amazement he was cradling the ball. I couldn't believe my eyes! Neither could the HC faithful surrounding me. The Boone stands erupt in the loudest cheer of the year! Many of the HC kids had already collapsed to the ground face-down in their agony after one the most hard-fought, defensively impressive games. I ran out of there to beat the traffic and noted that the officials were running outta there pretty fast too. Congratulations to Boone for hanging in there and never giving up. My hats off to Henry Clay, who has the best defense this side of KY. They just couldn't keep the O going as the frigid temps took there toll on their passing game, which was quite effective earlier in the game. It should also be noted that HC took a huge risk with a fake punt from their own 18 with only 2-minutes left to play. The pass play worked to perfection except the frozen hands didn't wrap up the ball on the wide open play with a perfect pass. Turning the ball over in short field goal range for a second try after the high snap on the FG attempt a minute earlier was perhaps too big of a risk under those conditions. In final analysis, Boone won the game with better punt return teams. Boone punt returners actually returned the punts and kept favorable field position for their team while HC's punt returners stood by and watched Boone's punts roll for massive field position losses. This ultimately led to HC's decision to try the risky fake punt giving Boone the 3-points needed for the margin of victory.

Ryle's defense put up a very gutsy fight against Henry Clay. I don't know what the play-count was, but it must have been 3 HC offensive plays for every 1 for Ryle. It also had to be 3-1 on fumble recoveries -- maybe 9 - 1! HC did most of the fumbling at first but Ryle couldn't find the handle. Then when Ryle fumbled, HC found most of those too. It was that way all night! It would not have been a good night for a Ryle fan to go to a casino. HC defied the odds. Ryle returns loaded with talented skill-position underclassmen. They just need to develop a couple of fresh O-linemen from a good group of Sophomores that were walking around wounded much of the year. They should be able to put up a lot of points. Defensively they'll need to focus on rebuilding the linebacker corp, finding an additional D-back and developing a couple of stout D-linemen.

In my opinion the two teams are pretty evenly matched. Boone 14 - HC 13.

Ryle learned a couple of years ago that the old Boone County mentality of 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust may get you to Papa John's, but it won't get you the big trophy. They appear to want to emulate Highlands multi-dimensional offense, and so they gambled during a few games earlier this season in an effort to develop their young offense into a playoff winner. This hasn't always yield a victory, however they have become more consistent and have eliminated most of their rookie mistakes. It appears they can play with anyone and have a chance to prove it Friday night.