ATLCat

Short kickoff and good field position again, 1st and 10 at UC39 for the Braves.

Belfry won't chase the points. XP is good 6:54 in 1st 8-7 Union County

Ace Caudill sweep takes the 18 yards TOUCHDOWN BELFRY.

First big hole for FB and Austin scoots to the 18. 1st and 10.

Woolum converts a 1st but flag flies. Belfry wingback with an unnecessary tug. 2nd and 6 after penalty.

Union daring Belfry to run outside. 8-9 in between the tackles. Belfry converts on another 3rd Down with the option to UC34.

Mis-read on the option on 2nd Down.. Belfry converts it on the 3rd Down.

Belfry scrimmages from their 39.

Busted XP turns into a 2 point conversion. 8-0 Union

54 yard Touchdown Run by Fletcher.

Johnson takes the short kickoff and returns it to the UC47.

He is IMHO the rightful and worthy winner. He is a special player that checks all the boxes you want. The issue for Quisenberry is I am convinced half the voters for this award don't watch a full football game until Finals weekend. There is a chance that some very special talents with monster stats have a chance to catch the eye of the voters and now Quisenberry cannot be among them.

DING! DING! 1991 Pike County Bowl Belfry 21 Fort Campbell 14

Nope.. see above.. Belfry has never played a Warren County school.. but you are getting closer still. HINT 5: A good chicken noodle soup or tomato soup may be helpful in your arsenal. Andy Warhol would certainly suggest it.

ACS and Belfry have never met and ACS also does not have a State Title let alone multiple, but you are getting warmer geographically... Believe it or not Belfry has never played a team from Warren County. HINT 4: If you just want to stroll up and see those title trophies.. you might want to get some clearance first.

Belfry has played Owensboro Catholic, Owensboro, Franklin-Simpson, and Paducah Tilghman all from Central Standard Time in the State Finals.. but they have not played them in the regular season. Only one team fits this description. HINT 3: Though they have never met in the Finals or the Playoffs... this team does have State Championships in their trophy case as well.

Good guess but Somerset is still Eastern Time Zone. HINT: It is a good bit further west than Somerset HINT 2: The game was not played at Belfry

Almost 6000 yards this season for Corbin. Should be a dandy.. I still like the playmakers at Tilghman to get the job done, but I could see this game having plenty of big time plays being made on both sides.

IMHO, the two most egregious examples of what's wrong with the RPI system have been put on full display in Class 3A this year: 1. Central beats CAL head to head to win the District. Central challenges themselves with a difficult non-district schedule. Central's reward? Travelling to CAL in Round 3. 2. Belfry having to log 16 hours of drive time in a 24 hour window in the Semi-Finals because a CPU thinks that the victories one team had are the slightest of advantages.

Brings up a good point... If you take away the State Finals appearances in Bowling Green, Belfry has never played a game in the Central Time Zone. The furthest West Belfry has ever played a Non-Championship game has been at Louisville Central and at DeSales. Belfry took a heavy handed loss at Central in the 2017 Regional Finals and Belfry upset DeSales in the 2019 Semi-Finals en route to a State Title. Now for some trivia: Who can name the only team hailing from the Central Time Zone that Belfry has played in a regular season ballgame?

Yep.. I have no doubt Tilghman will get plenty of points. They are loaded with talent and it is talent that has been playing together for a while. Where I think Tilghman's "Cottonelle" schedule rears its head will be on the defensive side of the ball. Corbin can play and Elam is a bad dude. Corbin's execution on offense will be unlike anything Tilghman has seen on their schedule this season and Elam makes plays. Last year Tilghman had not seen a big boy defense that played a sophisticated level of defense until running into CovCath. You could tell they were knocked on their heels and needed to adjust. Corbin is the offensive equivalent of CovCath's defense. I still trust Tilghman to win at home with their veteran stars... but Corbin will push them to their limits.

I think a lot of points get scored. I think Tilghman scores the higher percentage of them. Tilghman by 42-35

Not necessarily. Isaac Dixon (Belfry) wasn't heavily recruited nor was Daniel Thomas (Bell County). Both just were dominant High School players who put up eye popping stats and carried their teams on their backs during their Senior campaign and had massive games when the rest of the State was watching. Both also checked the lifetime achievement box as well. The biggest hurdle for Johnson is concentration of votes. I feel like Dixon and Thomas benefitted because there was a good number of votes coming from EKY and both guys were very well known, heavily respected, and coming from programs that everyone kind of knows. I felt like almost all the EKY voters voted alike on a consensus candidate. I don't know if there are many votes in WKY or if as many people are familiar with his good works. In addition, I could see Martels Carter or Jack James taking a few votes away from those voters if Tilghman makes their own Finals push. You also have Atwell doing his thing at OCath that Johnson must compete with. Johnson's path probably begins and ends with reaching the State Finals and having a major performance there.

I think judging by who each team played and how they played them.. I like CAL.. but I think LexCath definitely has a chance in this one. I'll say CAL by 10-12 points.

He plays a true QB position and not just a Wildcat. Union's bread and butter is the read option and designed QB power and counter. He is a capable passer, especially when defenses are on ice skates and petrified of his running ability. As a result, when he passes there is usually a strong chance of success because play action will be effective and in designed routes they are sure to see one on one coverage because Safeties are sitting on the run game. He reminds me of a Lynn Bowden type of player. Ultimately, I am not sure his passing would be super effective if a team is confident enough to jam receivers and break timing and can devote a Safety to spying the routes they try to hit... but this is much easier said than done. The way Union is running the ball teams are just trying to play the run and take their chances on an inaccurate pass at this point.