CoachJ

Just saying, I see that this year (and last) CC came on like they did due primarily to one unique player, but I see some very good coaching going on as well. We made an adjustment to deal with Durham hurting us in the run game and their coaches noticed it almost immediately and hurt us based on what we'd changed. Forced us to go to a second adjustment. Many teams we've done that kind of thing against would've still only tried to do what they'd had success at doing earlier. Maybe didn't have a Division-1 caliber athlete to execute it, but they found him and it allowed them a different way to move the ball. I'm the biggest Durham fan on this board, but I just see some good coaching going on in addition to him that I don't see at a lot of programs with much better athletes at every position. This will cause Campbell County for years to come win games people don't expect them to win.

Might be some validity to this, but I REALLY see Campbell County -- though much success the last 2 years is due to Durham being a VERY unique kind of player -- continuing to have success. They are extremely well-coached and sound in all phases. Those kinds of teams tend to be solid year-in, year-out regardless of talent leaving...those programs' coaches seem to figure out how to either develop another 'go-to guy' or they build that year's attack on a system that can be successful with more 'role-player' type players.

Same exact thing was said about Tim Tebow in college. I'd always said watching him play at Florida that I'd have HATED having to try and defend what Urban Meyer did with him offensively. Now I know why I always said that. When you HAVE to defend against him running the way he can (i.e., having LB's play run first, run second, then MAYBE consider pass), it leaves receivers WIDE OPEN and thus that kind of QB doesn't HAVE to be as accurate as Peyton Manning or Drew Brees. Though, I'll say I've seen Durham make some VERY nice throws on scouting film this year (especially throwing vertical and hitting receivers in-stride). SOME 1AA school that runs an offense modeled after Urban Meyer's HAS to look at Durham.

Well, there was at least one scout at our game last night (UTMartin); he was there to watch a couple of our receivers/db's. I KNOW that by the end of it he had to be impressed with Durham. They sling the ball all over the field. As I knew going in, he was a huge match-up problem for us -- as he would be for any team. The difference this year is we saw he could throw it better than last year and his receivers do a MUCH better job running routes. Get him in a good 1AA program that throws it a lot but also has a way for the QB to hurt you with power running, qb draws, etc. and (in my humble opinion) he should take a shot at QB at the next level and not TE (unless that's what he really wants to do). ...and I told him as much after the game. I really hope this kid can stay healthy throughout the playoffs running as much as he needs to run (and I'd let him run about 30 times a game). Campbell is a beast of a team to prepare for -- and their coaching staff saw instantly what to do when we made an adjustment to stop Durham. It took us having to make a 2nd adjustment to get to where we could get a stop or two on their last two drives that allowed us to win. Good luck to both Campbell, Lickert, AND T. Durham. I'm a big fan of people who do football the right way...and this group definitely is.

I actually said a LOT more positive about him than Jason was able to fit in the article. What a weapon to have someone that big and versatile handling the ball every play. It's been one of the toughest preparation weeks we've had all year. Then, add to that they're solid at every other position... going to be a very tough one for us.

I don't care how you evaluate 'talent,' I've been watching this Campbell Co. team all weekend and they do things to give defenses BIG problems! That qb may not be prototypical, but he is a BEAR to prepare for. The receivers and DBs are just plain sound and seem to do things exactly as a coach would draw up (that is a HUGE thing when talking about teenage kids). Physical up front too. And they don't seem to be like most good teams who do well in spurts but do things that beat themselves. Honestly, maybe they wouldn't win against some teams if it were some kind of combine or something, but I'm not seeing really ANY weaknesses in this team. My bet is if they played some of the teams that beat them early on, the result would be different. As I watched them, I just kept thinking, wow, what a game to have to play right before the playoffs.

Can't figure out why Campbell Co. isn't on there. Seem to be on a roll (very similar to last year).

Got a lot of good things to say about this one...unfortunately, most of the good is about Fern Creek. They played better than I've seen them all year -- both on film and in person. They controlled the ball on offense and played defensively like I hadn't seen them play before. Definitely felt like we LOST after the game we were so out-played. Hats off to the Creekers and Joe Nichols; didn't win, but they're certainly on an up-tick. Look for them to make some waves in the playoffs if they keep improving.

Just an FYI--we (Ballard) tried to schedule VARSITY/JV/FROSH contests with Trinity for 2013/14 (had the conversation with them myself). They told me their schedule would be full due to playing teams out of state. We are playing X in Week 0 for varsity next year and will play them in JV/Frosh in a later week in the schedule. In addition, we will play Male and Manual. Our hope was to play that entire district. Things aren't always as they would seem to those outside the process. I'm sure we're not the only public school outside their district in Kentucky that desires to play the best and see where they stand.

I can't speak for the kids at Eastern who transferred from Trinity, but the two on our team had not played varsity the year prior. So immediately granting eligibility was not an issue.

I feel kinda weird posting our game result, but Gold Sunrise asked me if I'd be our 'team rep' to post reports about Ballard if nothing else was already posted. We played on Thursday because JCPS schools are out on Friday. Here's the story from the Courier-Journal: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20121004/SPORTS05/310040105/1031/sports/Quarterback-Tyler-Owen-leads-Ballard-past-Eastern-42-21?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Sports|p Eastern is a VERY explosive team. Fortunate for us, we finally put together 4 full quarters offensively and we were able to keep the ball away from their potent offense in the 2nd half.

GAME RE-CAP: A lot of points left on the field by us. We drove to the 1 and fumbled the ball on a muffed handoff. We dropped a wide open Slant route in the 2nd quarter that would've likely would've been a TD (ended up turning ball over on downs). Unlike last week against Riverdale (easily, the least-disciplined and least-physical performances I've ever seen one of my teams display) a tough week of practice working on toughness paid off as our defense played extremely well forcing 7 turnovers (3 fumbles and 4 picks). But again, the fact that we only scored 27 points with all those turnovers forced is just more an indictment of our poor execution on offense. Seneca played an interesting scheme defensively that gave our guys some problems until they corrected them in the 2nd half. Watching the film shows that we could be a pretty good team offensively IF we start better recognizing things the defense is doing to us. ...but that may be a BIG "if." ** And I made an error on the stats I called in that you see above...we had TWO lost fumbles, not one.

Much more heavily weighed. Colleges know that stats and highlight films can be skewed by level of competition you play against. They constantly tell me they need to see the kid PERFORM in person, not just 'see' him on a visit. That means they want him in their camps, combines, etc.

Last poll IS the only one that matters. Pre-season polls are for chest-thumpers and teams who know that's the last time they'll get noticed once what REALLY matters takes place.

Well deserved. VERY good running back -- have always thought he was under-rated (as is Wright).

Hoping to at least get a chance. But you're right, they're very explosive and would be tough to stop for any HS.

^^ This. I've NEVER gone into a scrimmage with a team with a new coach or someone we hadn't played before who did not tell me exactly what kind of offense/defense they ran. For games after all, we all willingly exchange at least 2 previous games with each other. And I agree with the earlier post about giving the other team your playbook. Andrew Coverdale presents at every clinic he can in the winter, he writes books about his offensive approach (including detailed diagrams and blocking rules), and you can even download the whole Trinity playbook on scribD. Doesn't mean you know WHAT he's going to call when he calls it.

I actually had a well-intentioned parent one time tell me he'd be driving past one of our opponents known to allow community people in to watch practice and wouldn't mind posing as a fan there to get me some information. I politely told him we already had all we needed from film and that doing such a thing wouldn't be very professional for me. He basically said, aw shucks, coach...everybody 'round here does that kinda stuff.

Campbell was young and seemed very well-coached to me last year. Don't know much about Boone or Ryle, but I'd have thought they might be the favorite up there this year.

Just spent several days there for our football camp (GREAT hosts, great facilities, great people). From what I was able to see, there's a LOT of energy around the program, the coaches are working their tails off, boosters are committed, the AD really wants to see football succeed, and I even saw their good RB running hills on his own at 6:30am -- not common for a kid that age who's being told how good he is. Got some really good linemen too. One in particular--only a freshman--already appears to be varsity-ready at a young age (name is Cox I think). Am looking forward to seeing how that program takes off.

By the way, TC was VERY well-coached in their system and looks like they have some weapons. We were down by more than one score at the half and had to make a major adjustment to start stopping their offense.

Sorry not to have responded before this got all controversial (have been away at FB camp for last week), but the kid with the dreads (not sure the #) had a good game against us. I wish we'd had our top receiver (Cam Lewis) there to get work against him -- he was away that day at an AAU bball tourney. Cam's about 6'3 and physical & I'd like to have seen how he did against a top DB.

We won the final game (and it was against PIKEVILLE--who had some very impressive and YOUNG kids--not Pike County). ...and I'm with you; even though we do this 7on7 stuff fairly well, I'm VERY MUCH looking forward to some hitting to go along with the ball-skills.

Originally Posted by CoachJ: We've had maybe 20-25 D1 coaches come through Ballard. Have told all of them they're crazy for not offering Dawkins -- best 'burst' of any RB I think I've seen in HS. PERFECT for these spread systems that utilize a one-back set and mixes Inside and Outside Zone. Originally Posted by hoosierbirdfan: This post about knocked me out of my chair,and no I haven't been drinking. As anyone can plainly see you are "all about the kids". How often does a high school coach point the D1 recruiters at their school to persue a D1 player in another rival school? I bet it doesn't happen very often, if at all. Your post speaks volumes of the kind of person and coach that you are. I have never met you and wouldn't know you if I bumped into you, but your my kind of coach and Ballard is fortunate to have you . Have a great season. --------------------------------------------------------------- I appreciate you saying those words. I really do appreciate kids like this one (and several others at other schools I've told college guys about) who seem--from everything I've heard--to be great not just on but off the field too. And trust me, I'm nowhere NEAR the only HS coach that does this. I remember being very appreciative to Bob Redman (who college coaches REALLY trust) for going out of his way to promote one of our players (DeVante Parker). I'd never been shy to tell college guys in the past who I knew might be under-rated, but Bob doing that for DeVante really encouraged me even more. It's nothing special...it's just the right thing to do if the kid deserves it. But thanks!

Have had his crew twice...can tell he takes officiating VERY seriously and does HS games with same intensity/care as though they were Sunday afternoon games. Get well soon.