CoachJ

Morehead's a whole different issue than Murray or EKU because they're prohibited from giving football scholarships even though they're FCS. It's not an issue of Ky kids not CHOOSING to go to Murray or EKU, often they're told to walk-on instead of being offered scholarships --even though an out-of-state FCS school is willing to offer. My assumption is they're wanting to use their scholarships to get a Florida or Georgia kid to come while hoping the in-state kid will be willing to walk on (gets lower in-state tuition, gets to use KEES money, etc.).

Thank you VERY much for posting this (I was wondering about RJ specifically--along with the other Ky. kids going to TN and IL FCS schools on scholarship). RAM--this is exactly what I was referring to by noting the number of Ky kids going on full-rides to OUT-OF-STATE FCS schools. Why is it Illinois, SC, and Tennessee FCS schools think Ky kids are good enough to offer, but they aren't maybe getting offers from EKU or Murray? I take vanloads of Ballard kids to Illinois U. every summer to their camp that has all the Illinois FCS schools' coaches there evaluating. My hope is that Ky. HS coaches blanket S. Illinois, E. Illinois, W. Illinois, UT-Martin, Wofford, with film & recruiting profiles. Maybe if they have 3 or 4 Ky kids do very well while there (like many have in the past at Wofford by the way) the in-state scholarship FCS schools will start offering and stop expecting our good kids to walk-on at their schools. So good luck to RJ...and PLEASE keep us updated on here how successful he is down there.

Ballard's Rollin Green & Cory Hardin commit to Morehead State today while on their official visits.

Definitely the most important thing to take away. Great point. It's staggering the number of my freshman players each year that, when asked by me, think they're going to eventually get a full-ride to college. I know it's a downer to them, but one of the first lessons I go over in our pre-practice classroom sessions are the stats that show how UNLIKELY that is to happen.

Your other post seem to imply that D2 is somehow comparable to FCS & a step above NAIA. In terms of total eventual cost out of pocket to a kid, D2 & NAIA are about identical. FCS gives full-rides; D2 & NAIA give Partial scholarships. So--nothing against the great NAIA & D2 programs we have (many of whom do a great job combining small football awards w/ a kid's financial aid package to get their cost down a lot)--but I want more deserving Ky kids to get full rides. UK & UofL are BCS schools in tough conferences & must recruit/offer from a national perspective, so I get that not many of their scholarships will go to Ky kids. So that leaves WKU, EKU, & Murray. Out of the 3, WKU seems to be the only one committed to building around in-state kids. EKU & Murray are FCS--so if we have several Ky kids good enough to get offers at OUT-OF-STATE FCS schools like IndSt, S Illinois, UT Martin, then--if they didn't even offer those kids--why are they good enough to play for those FCS programs & not the 2 in-state? My hope is those out of state schools sign many Ky kids & have good success because of them--maybe that will inspire EKU & Murray to have more of an in-state focus to their recruiting each year.

While nowhere near the same kind of state as Ohio or Florida due to population, I see that there are a good number of FCS (1AA)-ability players in this state -- including, unfortunately, some who ended up on the NAIA/D2 list. What REALLY jumps out to me is we have a good number going to out of state 1AA's like Southern Illinois, UT-Martin, Indiana State, etc. Am wondering how many of those got offers from EKU or Murray? And how hard those two schools -- both of which only signed THREE Ky. HS football players -- recruited those Ky. kids now heading out of state?

I have not been told anything related to realignment from anyone at Ballard or anywhere else (our approach is we play who they put in our district so rumors of things like this don't really matter to us). But I think talk of this is still a little premature. I've been told the rationale for putting those 4 teams in the same district was due to the similarities they all possess on one thing: Male, Manual, X, and T are the only 6A schools in the state that has an unlimited draw from all of Jefferson County (the rest of us have a limited 'resides area' from which our students come). There is nothing going on with JCPS to change that set-up that I know of, so someone told me until that changed, the 'super-district' likely wouldn't either.

It looks like of the full-scholarship schools, WKU by-far signed the most Ky HS football players (10). Anybody have an idea of how many offers EKU & Murray made to Ky kids?

Kudos to you, Ram, for doing this. Well-deserved attention for a lot of good kids. Football's the toughest sport there is. To be willing to continue that on at ANY level deserves recognition.

Had a great group of seniors at Ballard this year. In addition to Will Bush (WKU)... * Lyndon Rowe (RB) will be a preferred walk on at FCS Georgia State. * Michael Deleon has committed to NAIA Lindsey Wilson. There are two of our guys likely headed to Morehead and two others likely going to Ky Wesleyan (both seem to be putting a lot more emphasis into recruiting Louisville this year). I won't divulge those names because they're still yet to finalize their decisions until after they find out the exact amount of academic scholarship money they'll receive. Got three others who are working to increase their scores on this Saturday's ACT but will definitely play somewhere next year -- we've contacted many JuCo's and Prep Schools all over the country to try and get placement if they don't qualify. I'll report out where they end up when that time comes.

If we're in district with them, don't know why we wouldn't. Always played Frosh & JV against them when we were in with them in the past. Tried to schedule them in varsity the last scheduling cycle too.

Thanks.

I don't see it posted on Open Jobs at KHSAA.org?

Not disputing that you did, but just wondering in what way specifically did the NUC camp help you? I know it's probably good practice for doing combine-type events, but did it somehow cause more colleges to know who you were?

I'll be putting together the list of all one-day college-sponsored camps in Ky and the surrounding states that I send to all Ky HS coaches but those dates aren't usually known for me to start compiling it until late March/early April. As to the camps held in the spring that kids pay $$ to attend where there are zero college coaches to evaluate the talent, I heard this said by a guy who counsels HS athletes: "People holding camps and combines for High School players before June 2014 need YOU more than you need THEM!" and "College Camps are in June. Scam camps are held now by people looking to take advantage of desperate prospects and parents." I tell my players that if you can go to one of these PAY combines in the spring and be the top 40-time or height/weight at your position, maybe it'd be worth it. Otherwise, I don't see the benefit (other than getting experience doing the drills -- which high school coaches should be putting their guys through anyway!). We had a good kid two years ago get "Defensive MVP" of one of these camps. When I told a college coach that he rolled his eyes and said, "Well, he paid dearly for that little medal they gave him, but that tells me nothing I need to know."

Ohio U is FBS (they play in the MAC Conference).

Great points in the debate. Touche

I think this analogy is pretty good. However, imagine that a player makes a shot and gets fouled so the coach brings off the bench a 'designated free throw shooter.' It's the player that gets fouled and makes the shot who has to shoot the free throw. (I'm really just playing devil's advocate on all this -- blame it on having a rare snow day. The points above stating that in high school extra points are more an adventure than in the NFL are probably the best points made on this subject as it relates to the only level of football I really care deeply about.)

I know this is "an NFL thing" right now, but this would likely 'trickle-down' to the rest of us if it were to go into effect and it's something I've been interested in for a while. I've seen many creative suggestions: * TD counts 7 and team may choose to attempt a 2-pt conversion; good=2pts, no good=lose 1 point. * keep the 1pt XP, but move the try line back (to the 30 in NFL, the 20 in college, and the 10 in HS). * go for one from 1 yard line or go for 2 from the 5 yard line. Personally, I've always thought it was strange to award points for something so different than how the game is played otherwise (run or pass plays from the line of scrimmage). For the same reason I also don't like how soccer and hockey games can be decided by 'shootouts.' But the game's roots are in kicking the ball so I understand some saying kicking for points should stay in the game. Then I thought about 'the old days' when it always seemed the QB or best RB not only scored the TD's but also kicked the extra points. ...so what if the rule changed to where the Extra Point was still from the 3 yard line, BUT whoever scores the TD must be the one to try the kick? Would make a bit of uncertainty (which is what the NFL seems to want to address) and would require players to develop another skill -- sort of like how in basketball every player must (or at least SHOULD) be able to shoot FREE THROWS in addition to jump shots, handling the ball, etc. Probably would cause most to go for 2 (unless--as I've seen suggested--you're limited on how many times you can go for 2 in a game), but would certainly be something to see the 250lb. DL who just scooped and scored the game-tying touchdown HAVE to try a kick to win the game and actually toe-bash it through.

Good job to Coach Williams & the Panthers!

Very well said East Raider...on all points.

That feedback means a lot. I often wonder if it's really worth the time and effort we spend putting it on, then I get comments like yours and the one I had a college coach from a VERY acclaimed college in Indiana two weeks ago. He said that he got onto 15 kids who live on the outskirts of Louisville that he'd never have known about/known how athletic they were if not for seeing them live doing drills at our event. Now...if I could just get the other schools in LOUISVILLE to promote their kids coming and getting exposed as well as the ones OUTSIDE Louisville have!

Most of what we do to promote our kids is through hudl, but we also host a small-college combine, have individual meetings with kids, and we have one day every week of our off-season program set aside for academic/ACT/college prep work. This is striking to me though: every year I offer to have a sit-down meeting with kids AND parents to map out what they should be doing to prepare for getting recruited. I'll spend as much time as is needed to answer all questions and always offer to meet at times good for the parents--these meetings usually last 30-45 minutes. In the last 10 years I've been contacted by exactly TWELVE players' parents to take the time to meet. Chief Smoke is right -- it should be the case where BOTH have a significant role, but I often find that parents expect that the coach will be their kid's (and all their other players wanting to play in college) "agent." Some I know really seem surprised at the part of my opening season parent meeting where I stress that only about 25-30 kids in the ENTIRE STATE of Kentucky will be offered a full football scholarship and that the best hope of almost every good high school player is to get a partial scholarship (usually 3000-5,000) to a small school they'll never see play on TV that has a total cost of $35,000 or more.

Probably doesn't look like much to most, but Oldham County coming in where they did at 10-0 was huge for that school. It had been since 1984 that the team won a playoff game, had losing records 3 of the last 4 seasons prior to that. The difference: 95 was the year Jim McKee (now Scott Co) took over the program. It was his first year as a head coach.