King of Kentucky

You are correct, sir.

I left a link, but Bluegrasspreps.com took it off claiming it was advertising. I don't know what my $20 fee was for. Anyways, I spoke with Lucas today and he confirmed that he left by his own choice.

There as been some talk on the Lexington Herald Web site on how Lucas may have been forced out. However, it is clear that he left by his own choice.

Story on Cincinnati.com about the achievement

What side would Dixie be on? Ryan Wilson and Korey Klei would be solid. Other Simon Kenton players - Jordan Hansel and Austin Baldwin. I would really like to see Brandon Roller, Markel Walker and Nick West play one last time. I feel that all three are quality players that are deserving of some more D-I looks. NKY has a lot more talent than usual in its senior class. I wonder if we see some scouts out there this year. Will this be at Ryle?

I wish I could tell you. However, I would probably get some angry coaches. I agree though, Holmes has a great team and shouldn't be ranked outside of the top 5. However, I can see debating which team should be No. 1. Scott County has a lot of talent.

I can answer that, as the person who counted them up. For whatever reason, there quite a few ballots that ranked Holmes in the bottom half of the top ten and some coaches omitted them entirely. I don't know if it makes a difference, but when I sent out the questionnaires I asked the coaches to rank the top ten teams in the state and not the top 25. So that being said, I don't know if the coaches who left Holmes out of the top ten thought they should be ranked somewhere 11-25. However, Scott County, on the other hand, consistently received 1st, 2nd and 3rd place votes.

Haha. I don't which one is technically more accurate. I guess whichever has your team ranked better. All I know is that I put the CoachesAid one together, so I know that it is accurate (has far as counting the votes). Not all the coaches took part in the survey, many claimed that they didn't feel comfortable enough ranking the top ten teams in the state. However, most were comfortable ranking their regions (which I didn't use in the CoachesAid poll). Judging by the first-place votes in the other poll, the "Courier Journal" shows a much larger sample size. However, discussing this with coaches personally it is hard for me to imagine that they were able to compile so many votes. That being said, I don't know if they combined the region polls with a statewide poll. Also, it isn't clear if the Courier Journal put it together or if it is the official statewide poll. If it is I don't know where to find it.

Not sure if this has been posted anywhere. Coaches' Poll - source Courier Journal Coaches' Poll- source CoachesAid.com

The blog is having some issues or at least on my end. If you are having trouble - check for updates here

You all are too quick

Ryan Ernst is blogging this game at cincinnati.com. Here is the link of the blog

He has offers from Oregon, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, Middle Tennessee State, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

Nice.

Big win for JC. They must playing much better than they were in the beginning of the season.

Ricky Buckler was fantastic and had more than 300 yards rushing before the fourth quarter even started.

It might be a little late, but here is a live blog from that this game.

I know the state did away with the bye, creating Week 0 this year because the KY playoffs were so long. However, wouldn't be nice if we could pair up the state champs with one another the following week...for example 1A champ will play 2A champ, 3A champ will play 4A champ and 5A champ would play 6A champ. I know it would never happen, but it is a fun idea.

Game preview If anyone is interested.

I have actually spoke with Dale Mueller (HC at Highlands) and Bryson Warner (HC at Ryle) in the past about this series. They both say that their teams have trouble scheduling quality opponents. That is the main reason. It also didn't help when Holmes went to 4A this year - creating an extra hole in Highlands schedule. According to Warner, another reason he did it was to improve his team. He will tell you, "to be the best, you have to play the best." So to summarize, Highlands needed to fill a spot and was having trouble doing so and Ryle wants to use the Bluebirds as a measuring stick for success.

Saw this later. This is a much better example.

You can't compare scores. That is where it gets silly. Trinity didn't play its starting quarterback at all against Elder and rushed him back against Cincy St. X. I was at the Highlands game - and I thought it was that close. Sure the Bluebirds had a lot of turnovers in the redzone, but Cincy St. X also made a lot of mistakes. The Bombers also didn't play their star running back in the second half and ran a screen pass on every down. I don't want to take away anything from Highlands. They played the game of their lives and Cincy St. X did not. You could play that game more than 1,000 times and never get the same result. Not saying Highlands would lose them all or win them all. Once you see a team (let's say Lafayette) beat another (let's say Henry Clay) doesn't mean that they are better than every team that they have played (Lafayette beats Henry Clay, but losses to Boone County - Henry Clay losses Lafayette, but beats Simon Kenton - Boone County beats Lafayette, but losses to Conner 42-12 - Conner beats Boone County, but losses to Simon Kenton 56-14). - Do you follow? Anything can happen in high school football. If you say that Cincy St. X beating a banged up Trinity team at home means that Highlands will automatically beat the Shamrocks by more points, than that it is silly. I still think Highlands would beat Trinity, however I would love to see a Highlands/Louisville St. X matchup. Granted it would only be fair if Will Bardo could play...because then there will be another debate.

My bad. How did I forget about Grubbs. I even wrote a story on him in the summer. Great kid. He is going to do well at RT at Miami.

Don't get me wrong - Highlands is a great team. However, they only have on D-I player right now in Austin Collinsworth - no one else has an offer. If I were a college coach I would offer Will Bardo (to play cornerback) and Brandon Roller, but listing off people who played well in one game doesn't make any of them D-I players.

You are right. Thanks for the heads up. I contacted the person who wrote the story and it is now corrected. Pretty wild finish.