Purple88

Campbellsville Russell Prestonsburg North Laurel Highlands N Dakota St 56 Points

That's A LOT of points Coach!

Certain schools have had Cheerleader 1 in the pressbox calling the PA. I would say most I encounter don't however.

The US Grand Prix was like the Jerry Seinfeld episode where he has the girlfriend that is hot one minute and the next, she's ghastly! There were moments that were the hot girlfriend and very entertaining: 1. The lap 1 chaos of the Sprint Race and moreso, 2. The great on track battle between McLaren Lando Norris and Ferrari Charles LeClerc. But there were more ghastly girlfriend moments of just hanging out and turning laps and saving tires IMO. PART OF THAT was the fact that the Hard Tyres (1 of 3 selections available to all teams) were garbage. What do I mean by that? Well, the hard compound tyres warm up really slowly and if you don't gingerly do that they tend to overheat quick and cause drivers to slip and slid all over the track with no grip. Exactly NOT what any driver wants. That played out very early in the race. So, what do you do about that? Well, the prevailing line of thinking was to save your medium compound tyres (which were likely the best option on the track) and run them as long as you can until you come into the amount of laps left in the race that can be covered by the soft compound tyres (which are fast tyres, but eat up the good rubber more quickly). So that means you aren't racing as much as you are babysitting the rubber hoping to get to the end and then push on the soft compounds. That's great in theory, but if you aren't planning to do that and you don't have new soft tyres to go to then you are up a creek without a paddle and I think we experienced some of that yesterday in Austin. What I will say was a HOOT was the pre-race coverage with all the celebrities interacting with the F1 drivers. I enjoyed that. Also, the pre-race Martin Brundle pit lane walk is one of my favorites as well, so that was fun. And in many ways more fun than the action on track unfortunately. BUT, the drivers' championship (the one to crown the World Champion) is suddenly up for grabs IMO. Leader McLaren Oscar Piastri hasn't driven really well in some time. I personally think his team has hamstrung him with the "so-called Papaya Rules" and favored more marketable teammate Lando Norris now in second just 14 points back. AND don't look now, but the reigning world champ and clear best driver Max Verstappen is now only 40 points back with 5 races to go! BUT as of this post: Verstappen has been called to the Stewards Office over the US Grand Prix and what is reported "Failure to Follow Instructions of Relevant Officials". And this is today so this is important in the standings. We'll see. But if this holds, Verstappen will be right there the rest of the way IMO. GREAT Day for Ferrrari! It was Lewis Hamilton's best race of the season IMO. Really strong. And Charles LeClerc drove his crankshaft off trying to keep the faster Lando Norris behind him. Plus, they out strategized McLaren, which they rarely if ever have done so this season by selecting the soft compound tyres to start the race. That allowed LeClerc to get around Norris at the start and give him a chance at 2nd place. He ended on the podium in 3rd but still great effort! Verstappen wins, Norris in second, LeClerc in 3rd, Hamilton in 4th, Piastri way down in 5th, George Russell in 6th; great day for Yuki Tsunoda in 7th; great day for Nico Hulkenberg in 8th (that guy can drive man!); Ollie Bearman - great job to get 9th and the silver fox Fernando Alonso getting everything he can out of a poor car IMO in 10th (the last points spot). Quick turn now to the Mexican Grand Prix this coming weekend! Tune IN!!!

MNH went from playing for a 50-50 chance at a 1 seed to a clear underdog this Friday and almost certain 3 seed after last week. For Apollo, I said earlier this year that they were going to upset someone this season. Turns out that was Madisonville. Looking at their schedules, I think an argument can be made that Apollo is the second best team Madisonville has played. And an argument can be made that Madisonville is the 5th best team Apollo has played. Schedules matter.

Sorry to hear of the Pulaski QBs injury. Hope he can make it back this season. He is a senior as I understand and I’m sure has put a lot of effort to get here. Best of luck to him.

Not as shiny a game as was once envisioned, but still an interesting game. I expect Owensboro to be too much in the end. But I do expect Madisonville to upset with the way they played against and perhaps overlooked a very underrated Apollo team in their loss last Friday. Will this account for anything? I'm not sure. Madisonville needs to put on the Scott County game plan and just execute. 4 yards and a cloud of dust all night. I just think Owensboro is too talented offensively. But so was Tilghman. And it's at Madisonville which is a very tough place to play. I still like Owensboro, but I'm not sure of the score margin.

Happy Birthday TP! Finally, an easy bus trip in district for Tilghman!

5A Bowling Green (3-5) at 5A Grayson County (4-4) This will be the Cougars and the Purples 10th all-time meeting with BG winning the previous 9. They started playing each other when Kentucky went to 6 Classes in 2007. They played 4 straight years until Grayson would move to 5A District 3 (teams closer to Louisville) after the 2010 season. They would get reshuffled together again in 2015 and play 4 more times ending when Grayson would move over to 5A District 1 (Owensboro’s District) in 2019. They resided there (District 1) for 4 years and now with South moving up to 6A and Ohio County playing no district this year; the Cougars land back in 5A District 2 again. Those 8 games for Grayson County came at a tough time, as Bowling Green had strong teams during that timeframe. Grayson County Cougars Information (TP94 Rating: 13.88) Head Coach Bryan Jones is in his 7th season in Leitchfield and has done a really fine job building the Cougars program. The Cougars record since Jones has been the head man is 39 and 25. The past two years they have hosted playoff games going 10 and 2 in 2023 and 9 and 3 in 2024; very respectable records. And all teams hope to host a playoff game; do they not! IMO, they have had good enough teams to take the next step to the Regional Final Round but just been unlucky. In 2023, they lost their starting QB Kolby Chaffins to injury in the 2nd Round game vs Fairdale and just couldn’t find traction after Chaffins went down. Then in 2024, fell to a solid North Bullitt team at home, but Grayson clobbered North Bullitt 34-7 on the road earlier in the season. On the negative side, what happened to stud JR RB Kadin Hanshaw? Really talented guy and one minute he’s there and the next he’s “no longer with the team”. That’s tough when you are limited in the skills department. They only have 10 seniors on the team. That’s tough from a leadership standpoint. On the positive side, this is a really young team! While they only have 10 seniors, they have 50 on the roster. AND I was at a pre-season Middle School football event that Grayson participated in they had a lot of kids there. So, Coach Jones just needs to keep grinding here. They should be able to keep grinding and compete with the rest of the district not in purple and gold IMO. We’ll see. Bowling Green Purples Information (TP94 Rating: 69.73) In their 37th meeting, the Purples took down the Gators of Greenwood by the closest margin they have ever had in a 17-14 walk-off win over a determined well coached Gators squad. I haven’t seen the stats for the game yet, but BG wasn’t able to get a sizeable lead early and allowed Greenwood to hang around until the second half and it nearly resulted in the first Gators win of the series. Congrats to Greenwood on a good game. For Bowling Green, holding penalties were the biggest issue as multiple times they negated big gains, which I think would have resulted in points for the Purples, but instead made BG punt and kept GW in the game. SR WR Travey Barber came back for this game, and he had a TD and looked really good. FR QB Anthony Davis played well, but also has more learning to do, which most FR QBs do. SR RB Trey Graham had a great game for BG with some clutch runs late to get BG in position ultimately win the game. BGs defense played well overall. They did get worn down mid 3rd quarter but rose to the occasion on 4th and 1 late in the game to turn the Gators over on downs with about 1:30 to play on the GW 42-yard line. BG marches down the field and SR Kicker Oliver Gonzolez hits a 27-yard Field Goal as time expires for the 17-14 win and projected District Title. Was this more Greenwood getting up for this game and playing their best game of the year or was it more BG sputtering and not finishing drives to win more comfortably as has been in years past? Maybe a mix of both. I’m not sure. But the focus will be on Grayson County now to officially sew up the District Title and then an entertaining game at a very good Franklin County squad. Game Preview Grayson County earned a significant 30 to 12 win at home over Warren Central last week to likely earn the #4 seed in 5A District 2. While that likely means a trip to Rash Stadium Week 1 and a tall test, it allows the Cougars to continue to get that playoff feel and continue to practice into November, and I think that’s a big deal. Congrats Cougars! For the Purples, this is an opportunity to improve execution, especially offensively and get more reps for Davis and Barber to improve chemistry. BG has to continue to improve from where they have been this season. This evolution is what BG has done on many campaigns to be a very tough out later in the playoffs. Still a lot of work to do here. Who takes this game in Leitchfield?

6A Daviess County (4-4) at 6A South Warren (8-0) The Panthers will travel down the Old Green River Parkway to take on South Warren for the first time as 6A district foes. But this will be the third time these two have met on the grid-iron! They first met in 2013 in South Warren’s third varsity season. The game was at Daviess County and the Panthers would come away with an 8-3 nail biter! SR QB Luke Bailey scored the winning TD for Daviess County! That was the only regular season loss for South Warren that season, as they would go all the way to the Regional Final round (3rd Round) of the playoffs and fall at a good Paducah Tilghman squad 8-7. They would also meet in 2014. This time at South Warren with the Spartans coming away with a 23-12 win. QB Ryder Litten accounts for all 3 Spartan TDs – running for 2 and passing for 1. The Spartans would go all the way to the State Semi-finals in Coach Brandon Smith’s first year as the head man for the Spartans. South would fall at a fine Central squad 16-14; while Central would go on to fall 14-7 to a stout Belfry squad in the 2014 3A Finals! Good times! Daviess County Panthers Information – (TP94 Rating: 36.95) The Panthers are led by SR QB Garrison Barker with 900 passing yards and 6 TDs with 6 INTs. SO Ridge Roberts leads the Panthers rushing attack with 118 carries for nearly 700 yards and 11 TDs. The top Panther WR is SR Jace Hunt with 27 receptions for 450 yards and 5 TDs. Defensively for DC, JR Parker Higginbotham leads all tacklers with 83 on the year with 1 sack, while SO Treyson McRath has 4 INTs on the season out of the Panthers secondary. South Warren Spartan Information – (TP94 Rating: 87.45) South comes into this game after another dominating performance against struggling district mate Central Hardin by a 49-0 score. The Spartans are led by JR QB Camden Page, who has over 1,300 yards passing on the year with 14 TDs vs 4 INTs (not including the Central Hardin game). And he hasn’t thrown an INT since the Greenwood game back around the first of September. SR RB Kayden York continues his fine play with 92 rushes for 510 yards and 11 TD. SR Jake Carter leads the WR group with 41 catches for 566 yards and 5 TD. Defensively, South is one of the top teams around. They are led in tackles by JR LB Takyon Darden with 44 tackles and 3 sacks. Game Preview I was going to say Daviess County is the second-best team in this District, but Meade County had other ideas, as the Greenwave found a way to upend Daviess 21-20 at Daviess County to earn their first win of the season and are in position to earn the second seed in their district if they can beat winless Central Hardin next week in Brandenburg. But goodness it’s a Grand Canyon from first to the rest of this district. Not much else to say. While I think South could come out sleepwalking for a moment early, once they wake up - South Big!

That's a big win for Meade! Congrats! Did that win earn them a home playoff game? If it did, that is a low bar to achieve that with one win.

Tip of the hat to the Gators! They outplayed BG IMO. But couldn’t make it stick. For GW, Chaney is a beast and a very underrated RB. The GW defense aim My battles all night. Greenwood was well coaches and VERY Hungry. BUT to get a win in this series, you have to convert that 4th and short. Plain and simple. For BG, The defense played well in the 1st half, then got worn down due to be out there ALot. But they rose to the occasion when they needed to. The BG offense had a lot of problems and while GW certainly caused many of them, if BG can’t reduce their holding penalties they won’t be around long. Those penalties negated big plays. So that is number one to fix. I love Anthony Davis, but he is still a FR and will make mistakes. He made some great throws tonight and some plays he needs to improve on. He isn’t alone. SR RB Trey Graham had perhaps his best game as a Purple and may have saved the day with his tough running. And SR Kicker Oliver Gonzales had the biggest kick as a football Purole after winning the soccer region tournament the night before. This game proves to me if you don’t come with your best effort you can lose and BG nearly did. I feel bad for the GW kids, but tip my hat to them out of respect. On to Greyson County!

Great game! Tremendous job Greenwood! BG lot of work to do!

BG 26 yard FG is good! Great Ballgame! Final BG 17 GW 14

BG Timeout GE 26 yard FG coming.

BG 2nd and 7 at GW 10 Graham runs for a couple. Last BG Timeout at 0.1 seconds. BG to kick

2nd and 7 Complete to Wilson. At GW 13 Clocl running. Graham for 3 Timeout BG 24.2 seconds to olay 2nd and 7 at the GW 10 14 all

Trey Graham for 15. Trey Graham for about 3 2nd and 7

Purples at GE 43 1st and 10 1:46 to play. 14 all

GW 4th and 1 Purples Hold!

GW 3rd and 4. Run for 3 4th and 1

GW at GW 34. 14 all 1st. Run for a few. 2nd Chaney for a few

4th and 2. Didn’t get it. GW ball with 3:57 to play

BG Timeout 4th and 2 coming at GW 34 4:05 to play.

BG 3rd and 7. Pass to Barber. Just short of first down 4th and 2