VF111

I mean, they had a down year... but there were at least six teams on their schedule last year better than the Cowboys...

They open with BG, so we will quickly find out how good they are.

Cooper enters a 5A where there are not the apparent grizzly bears that were there last year. Cooper was a beast in 2024, but bigger, badder beasts were in the forest. I still maintain that South Warren would have handled Cooper much in the same way BG did in 2024. But South has moved to 6A... Owensboro is without a coach or identity... BG returns a lot but is replacing their OL and QB... Scott Co. seems to be playing second fiddle in their own county... Southwestern has gone MIA... Highlands has gone down to fight with Cov Cath in 4A... Woodford Co., well, we've seen Woodford Co. in big games. All that is to say, 5A is about as wide open as it has been for a while. Cooper returns some of the best players in 5A, and one of them is their phenomenal QB. Predictions for 2025: Cooper is the best NKY 5A team but behind Ryle, Highlands, Beechwood, and Cov. Cath overall Cooper is in, at the least, the Final Four, likely the Finals O'Hara is one of the top 3 contenders for Mr. Football

Interesting question for this thread to push the quest to reach 26: With what they have coming back, Owensboro is probably one of about five teams in 5A who can be considered a real contender to win it all. How many times has a first-year-with-a-program-Head Coach won it all in KY? I don't know the answer. I'm genuinely asking if folks know of any. Also, we're not talking about first-year head coaches; we're just talking first-year with a new program head coaches. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking Dudley Hilton may have done this at Bourbon Co., but I'm not 100% sure that was his first year.

Coach Baisch would be an awesome pick! Great coach and an even better leader of young men!

St. X potentially going with a big-name former NFL player with little to no coaching experience and zero head coaching experience. It seems odd, but this feels like deja vu...

I would say that in cases of things taking longer than expected, the names that were hoped for have said, "Thanks, but no thanks." Expect a less-than-inspiring hire for Owensboro.

I have heard that because of many of the things you don't care about, there isn't the level of interest in the job that one would expect a job like Glasgow would generate... which in turn led to the discussions that you don't care about regarding the "why" of this lack of interest in what was once probably one of the five best jobs in South Central KY.

The facilities point is indicative of each district’s continuing commitment to advancing their programs. Barren has clearly put their money into advancing their program. Glasgow has, as one other put it, put lipstick on a pig. Barren very likely pays its HC and Assistants more. Word on the street is that Glasgow’s HC pay is some of the lowest in the area. Such things do not turn a tide overnight, you are correct about that… BUT, over time, it does add up. Hubris is an ugly word.

Tough year for an All State team. Tons of very good players but almost no clear-cut-best-at-their-position players. I would say Quisenberry is as close as you get and I would argue the Johnson kid from Cooper and Barber from BG are pretty close to him.

This is actually fascinating to me. What aspect of Glasgow’s facilities do you believe are better than Barren’s?

Comparing Glasgow’s facilities to Barren is comical. There is not one single aspect of Glasgow’s facilities that is on par with Barren’s. A willingness to argue the comparability of Glasgow’s facilities to Barren’s, may be indicative of what has allowed places like Barren and Hart to pass the Scotties.

Barren Co. has passed Glasgow in terms of facilities to a significant degree. It is clear that Barren Co. is invested in getting better while Glasgow appears to have gotten a little complacent.

Baring a transfer? I am curious about your assessment of BG’s upcoming JR (Dotson), SO (Isable), and FR (Davis) QBs… because all three of them have a ton of upside. Since 2011, I would say that 2014 and 2021 (Bailey’s FR year) are the only two years BG has not had a pretty high production QB (you could argue 2019 and 2020, but Conner Cooper took them to the Semis and then a State Title). BG will be fine at QB would be my guess.

Hire Glaser back...

Owensboro is teaching us a lesson: If you think your program is going to attract a line of elite coaches vying for the chance to be your new guy, I've got some bad news for you.

I just checked the BGP poll for 2025, and Cooper is ahead in the vote count by a lot...

Yes, it’s a good job. Pay is good for KY when you consider teacher/stipend pay combined. Decent facilities. You’ll always have several kids that can play. And you’re in Lexington, which in itself is a pretty significant incentive. I would say the job has more going for it than is against it.

Then he really needs to go based on a delusional mindset. 1. Nobody cares about a national schedule; 2. St. X has not had a football team in at least the last 25 years that could compete with a schedule that included multiple national powerhouses; 3. Based on the last week of how St. X has handled resignations, emails, and messaging… no, I don’t think St. X wants national attention; 4. Based on the state of X’s football facilities, X can’t even commit as a school (sans Willy W’s donation) to having the best in KY… and he wants to take on places that literally are schools to support football programs (Bishop Gorman, IMG, DeMatha, etc.)?!?

At this point, if I were a St. X parent/booster/alumnus, I think the head that needs to be called for is the President. It has become a situation with an evident loss of institutional control.

No team in Owensboro has won a State Title in 35+ years. In the last 15 years, BG and SW have won 11. There are probably 5-10 kids on O-Cath each year that could start for OHS and make them better. Owensboro CLEARLY has an issue that handicaps them that the BG area does not. You may think it’s coaching, but I would strongly state that it is the split that O-Cath causes. Also worth mentioning, there are about 21k students in WCPS/BGISD v. 14k students in DCS/OISD. That’s pretty significant. Some have said the two areas are relatively the same size. All this is to say, for OHS to pull Brandon Smith from SW, they would have to make a pretty dramatic paradigm shift in terms of their commitment as a district to football. I don’t see that happening.

Owensboro will always struggle match BG and SW because of the Owensboro Catholic impact. OC thins the talent pool of Owensboro in a way that neither BG or South have to deal with.

I was 0-2 on my Cooper/Highlands predictions. But Highlands will beat Cooper in 2025. ?

South would maul Highlands this year. Just like they did in ‘22. After seeing Cooper, I’m not sure NKY was who NKY thought themselves to be this year.

The 5A Championship was last week between BG and South. No way that Cooper team would have beat South either.