CoachJ

From what I can gather... EKU signed 5 Kentucky kids. S.E. Missouri State signed 3 Ky. kids (all from Louisville). Murray State signed ONE Ky kid out of the TWENTY-EIGHT they signed. UT Martin signed one Ky kid. Tennessee Tech signed one Ky kid. (UT-Martin and Tenn. Tech signed as many Ky kids as Murray State did.) I'm sure there are other Ky. kids who signed with other FCS schools...if you know, would you please post here? Thanks.

Omardrick Douglas (Ballard HS - 6'3, 210 DE/OLB) signed letter of intent w/ SE Missouri State.

On the plus side of 4 teams making it... * #1 seeds get a game vs. a #4 seed which basically allows the equivalent of a bye week but you DO get to play. I personally HATE having to play a game after an open date. ...the down side: * Won the district two years back and played an opponent in 1st round we eventually beat by a lot. Plan was to play the starters for about a quarter and a half to keep them sharp. Unfortunately, lost one of our best RB's to injury on 2nd play of the game. I'm for 3 teams making the playoffs b/c I think the 4 vs. 1 games get out of hand and it seems right to reward district winner with an off-week late in the season to heal up (similar to what NFL does). However, not sure all coaches of district winners would want two weeks off before a playoff game.

What solves the transportation problem for schools not having many their size near them is to go to CONFERENCES which are based on geography rather than DISTRICTS. This, however, does involve having to use a computer system that assigns points for wins (maybe even close defeats?). You would get points for every win and points for every win of every opponent you beat. Teams you beat and their wins would be assigned a coefficient based on their size -- so if you beat a 6A team you could get 1.6 points whereas beating a 1A team would only give you 1.1 points. Sorry--I'm sure there's a better algorithm out there to use than that, but it's just an example. I could even see giving a lower class team points for even coming CLOSE (within 7 points?) to beating a higher class team. That would be to encourage teams not to just schedule lower class teams thinking easier wins is the only way to go. Your 'Conference' would consist of maybe 25 schools in close proximity regardless of size. The KHSAA would assign each school to play the 5 (or 6 or 7) schools closest to them in size possible within that geographic radius. If a smaller school with a very strong program (like Belfry, Central, etc.) would rather play larger schools in their conference than those assigned by the KHSAA they could do that as well per an agreement with said school. This is probably the way they do it in Ohio. I know there are times with this system a team will go 9-1 or 8-2 and not make the playoffs, but I'm sure that just means they tried too hard to get wins by scheduling teams that end up with few wins rather than playing stronger teams to which they might lose.

Guru--Curious where you saw this...looked on the "news" at khsaa.org but can't see anything football-related since November 2015. Am very interested in whether they'll go back to changing the 6A playoff matchups like previous to this year. I'd assumed they were sticking to same set up as other classes but another coach told me he was sure that was a one-year thing.

And they are non-scholarship in football (though they still compete at the FCS level against scholarship-granting schools).

Yes. FCS schools (and NAIA/D2 as well) as a whole have that option...doesn't exist in FBS.

I coached in the Border Bowl its first year (2008) and I can assure you they had to pay the $300 that year...and I'm pretty sure it's stayed the same amount every year since.

I can...since I'm on my lunch break. School by school decision in JCPS about whether coaches teach a full load (I do), so it varies. I think more head football coaches in JCPS teach a full load than do not, but I know some don't. If a college coach comes to my school to talk to one of my players, I'll get a call about it from the office and as long as I don't abuse instructional time it's no issue for me not to get a call from the office and for them to be brought up to my class. I try hard to get those coaches to come at the end of the day though. Cell phones today solve a lot of the issues some coaches used to have in this area. It's just like anywhere you coach...some places are more understanding about the time and other demands of a football head coach than others and will try to help you balance your life. Others believe every member of the faculty should have the same schedule teaching-wise or it's not fair.

GCHS -- I got your DM about wanting that off-season overview, but need to EMAIL it to you; can't send a Word attachment through BGP.

Great team--I know the amount of work that goes on to get to the best players possible at each position, so much appreciation to the committee for your time watching film, etc. Will say as the only surprise that none of Male's or Trinity's OL or DL on there. Thought they--along with the Dorsey kid from Manual--were some of the most impressive big guys I've ever had to prepare for. Wondering if maybe they weren't nominated? I'm not criticizing the committee--they may not have gotten to see film on them. (Also, want to be careful not to take anything away from those OL/DL on the team. I saw many of them in person at State Finals or on film--watching Jackson and Young on TV in Army All-America game as I type this--and they are QUALITY players. Just wondering if those Male/T/Manual guys were nominated too I guess.)

Great point. Heck, I'd say getting out-of-your-district student-ATHLETES might be the #1 correlative factor among the schools who have traditionally been mainstays in football in each of their classes for the last 30 years. I'd be interested to see a list of all the "perennial power" schools who from 7th to 12th grade pretty much gets only kids districted to their school.

Powerful...and 100% dead on. Thanks, David.

Thanks, Pikevillefan. Was tough not to vote for Coach Mac for overall COY, but what Smith (and Wolfe) did with their team's defenses all year holding opponents to less than a score a game was impossible to vote against.

No problem. Fortunately between the many All_State lists (another one came out today) the most deserving kids eventually get recognized.

Yes, "self-grading" is us watching each play of our own players from the previous Friday's game. Takes a lot of our Saturdays...Saturday night and Sunday more for watching the next team we are to play. I certainly don't think all coaches do things the way our staff does. But even if they don't, I'd still wager that they don't spend much time 'just watching' both teams they get scout film on. Especially on week 14 when there's no chance whatsoever you'd play any other team but the one you play next. As to my ballot, sure. I go strictly by what it asks (vote for the best you've SEEN -- I always wait til after I watch the state finals so that's why there are quite a few not from my area). To another's point, I can totally see how most coaches ONLY have guys from their area--it's not 'regional bias,' it's doing what is asked on the sheet from Jason F.). OFFENSE WR - Connor Carrico, Trinity WR - Ethan Britt, Male OL - Heistand, Trinity OL - Isaiah Arnold, Male OL - Cole Bentley, Belfry OL - Landon Young, Lafayette OL - Logan Coleman, Pikeville QB - Walker Wood, Lafayette RB - Devin Gentry, Male RB - Daric Pugh, Pikeville RB - Mason Alstatt, Lafayette K - Tyler Pack, Johnson Central DEFENSE DL - Jacob Wilde, South Warren DL - Conner Foos, Trinity DL - Cole Bentley, Belfry DL - Tony Smyzer, Male LB - Devante Colton, South Warren LB - Jake New, Pulaski Co. LB - Zach Hall, Male LB - Damon Lowe, Trinity DB - Demetrius Holt, Male DB - Rodjae Burns, Trinity DB - Bryan Cummings, South Warren P - DeSales punter (but I honestly never saw a better, more consistent punter all year than our kid -- Jake Ramsey) Top coach in your class (please do not vote for yourself) - Chris Wolfe, Male Top coach in entire state (please do not vote for yourself) - Brandon Smith, South Warren Your name and school - Mike Jackson, Ballard

When we watch film of the team we're going to play, 100% of the time and effort (many hours of our weekend which also must include grading our own players' most recent game) goes into watching the team we're going to play. 0% goes into watching the team they are playing. There are only 48 hours to get all our self-grading and scouting report on next opponent done...why would I spend time trying to see who is good on some team we'll never see? And why would he have seen 'more than one' film on SK? Only film relevant to him was their game against Lafayette since he already knew that's who he'd be playing.

Jason's right...no list is perfect. And it's a LOT of work to compile so kudos to him for what he does. The instructions say for us to "vote for the best player you've seen at each position" but very few actually do that from coaches I've talked to. Many send out emails to the coaches' list serve promoting those we feel deserve it most, but there are so many of them it would take a lot of time and effort to compare all the kids listed. There's definite 'vote-trading' that goes on between coaches who are long-time friends (and why not, since it's set up the way it is). There's also 'bloc-voting' that some parts of the state engage in--encouraging many (all?) members of their area association to vote for a particular list made up of kids from their geographical area. Again, I'm not saying this is wrong and it's perfectly understandable given the parameters of the team. Personally, I'd like to see a MERGER of the C-J All-State (easily the most historically significant), the AP (the least accurate in my opinion due to so few voters throughout the state), and the BGP (to me the most accurate b/c it gathers passionate HS football people from around the state who weigh stats, importance to team, and other objective/non-objective factors). Not sure how it would be done logistically, but I'd love to see a group of distinguished former HS coaches get together every December (at State Finals?) to watch film of nominees and give their input.

There is exactly one main reason the Wing-T has stood the test of time in high school football (and is still a winning offense in states like Florida & Georgia w/ great athletes & spread offenses all around): ...its adaptability to whatever athletes you get from one year to the next. Without completely overhauling your offense, it allows you to be an option team, run-first team, or passing team if talent dictates it. Best of all, if a class or two of less-talent comes through, you can base what you do on misdirection or option--allowing you to have success without having to win every one-on-one battle up front. Above all, I like that every D-Coordinator I've worked with always cusses it when they have to prepare.

To your GREAT point, I believe a good football program should be about developing the WHOLE athlete. So it must be COMPREHENSIVE, well-planned, and supervised by the entire staff...this allows the position coaches to evaluate their position players all year seeing improvement and being able to rate all the guys at their position. Emphasizing they are evaluated all year long makes the players at each position more accountable and keeps them from crying that you "play your favorites" when one kid gets more chances in the first few weeks of practice to earn playing time than the one who maybe wasn't as 'present' during the off-season. The following is from the off-season handbook we developed with the help of a lot of people a lot smarter than me (if anyone would want the full overview including strength, core, agility/quickness, plyometrics, linear speed, and flexibility training you can DM me and I'll send it to you). * COMBAT/COMPETITION-training. I honestly don't care what it is between wrestling (we call it 'rasslin' since there are fewer rules), judo, or boxing (as the allowed us to do in Pikeville), but I think there needs to be an element of man-to-man, hand-to-hand combat sometime during the winter when going outside to do football-specific drills are less-likely. You will learn more about the "fight-strength" in your athletes you could ever get from just crunching lift-max numbers. Think of that player you've coached who was "Tarzan" in the weight room, but played like Jane between the lines because the strength they developed never carried over. An important element to this that has carry-over to the practice field is to REQUIRE that they fight as hard as possible to beat their teammate/opponent (just as we want them to do in pre-season practice when trying to beat out a teammate for a starting spot) but that at the end, no matter how heated it got during the 'fight,' they must fight within the rules and at the end show respect to the other. Just as during the season they must first view their teammates as competition for playing time but then see them as TEAMMATES once the depth chart has been developed. This 'fighting phase' is from January through the middle of February. As the basketball season draws to an end and we start to gain more access to the gym, this moves to more competitions involving agility and more 'group vs. group' than the earlier individual contests -- this is when we start emphasizing that the "individual fight" they developed to win battles on the mat is only important as it relates to helping their TEAM/GROUP win the overall war.

Funny. Reminds me of when I'd go out in the state and everybody assumed I played for "Corbin County."

Not sure what this means. "Grab starters?" "Between 4 and 8?" Whatever it means, the fact remains that there's a greater chance to get kids (whether they be transfers or incoming freshmen) into a school that's UNDER-capacity than one OVER-capacity. Remember, it's not the school's decision; it is the Board's decision who gets in to your school and who doesn't. If your Principal is saying they don't have room for more students, the Board isn't going to send one your way just because he runs a great 40-yard-dash.

The difference is Ballard is over-capacity (nearly 2,000 students) while Waggener isn't.

Ballard is a great head football coaching job. Kids leave academically ready for college, your teaching schedule (though a full-load) is primarily kids who are respectful and well-behaved, and there's a good number of athletes who live in the resides area. In addition the AD allows you to run your program the way you think you should (a HUGE plus) and while we all wish we had a turf field and indoor practice bubble, the facilities are adequate. However, to say we could "get who we wanted" is not the case. Because we are over-capacity as a school, if a student outside our network wanted to come to Ballard they had to submit a form to the BOARD stating there was a legitimate (non-athletic, non-academic) reason it was better for them to be at Ballard than their home school/network. And the decision about who gets in is made at the BOARD level -- the school gets virtually no say like they did in days gone by. Even if they DID get in, they'd have to figure out how to get to school (and home as well as there's not usually an 'activity bus'). We had a kid who was arguably the best athlete in the 9th grade in Jefferson County told us he'd applied and got in, but 1st day of school said he would not be coming due to transportation issues. Similar situation happened with DeMichael Jackson--now starting RB at SEMO--back in '09. In basketball it's not as big an issue because you might need to get 2-3 'out-of-network' kids per class...but football requires greater numbers so you need more like 10-12 of those kids per year. Being in district with Trinity isn't a huge negative -- got to play them eventually and I think you'll only be able to compete with them if you play them at all levels over several years so your kids and coaches learn their way of doing things. What's TOUGH is having to be cross-district from St. X, Manual, Male, PRP, and Butler. That means your first round is going to be tough--even if you win the district, the 2nd round and 3rd rounds will be against two top-3 6A teams in back-to-back weeks. Not impossible, but you'd better have linemen STACKED in all 3 of your top classes to survive (getting skilled players hasn't been an issue; getting the QUANTITY of linemen needed has). All that being said, the potential is there--we've beaten Male, got within a point of X, and a lost to Trinity by 7 when they both had really good teams. But to go from being competitive to beating the top 3, one must be willing to 'beat the bushes' and convince kids (i.e., make 13-year-olds and their daddies 'feel the love,' something admittedly I wasn't want to do) and their parents to apply, hope they get in (not automatic like in the early 2000's when Principals got a say), then figure out a way to convince them to transport their kid daily (some parents refuse to let their 14-year-old son ride public transportation--something I totally understand). Further, I would hope it's also a good job because the seeds are planted with kids who understand about working a full off-season on agility/speed/quickness/toughness, the importance of film watching, and numbers in each class above 25. Mainly it's that there are TREMENDOUS kids to work with--not to mention a great PARENT organization that has been nothing but supportive of me the whole time I've been here.

Yeah, but their COACH doesn't graduate. My guess is they'll be right in the mix.