zoneblitz24

Darren Bowling in the hire. Former coach at Union City High School. Resigned from there to go to Olive Branch in Mississippi for one season.

I didn’t mean that the 4 I listed were the best coaches in West KY just that they had head coaching experience. I asked earlier who some of the best coordinators were in the area that Murray should consider because I do not believe that you should hire somebody just because they have head coaching experience. Experience doesn’t matter if it was bad experience lol. Some people prove to be better coordinators than head coaches.

This is why I named the 4 best coaches in the area that aren't current head coaches that would be leaving a head coaching position for Murray. The only problem is most of the guys named except for Gregory and Duncan (health reasons) were let go from their previous positions as head coach either for lack of wins or for some other reason that isn't known to the public. A school can absorb the loss of coordinator if you are teaching your assistant coaches correctly where when one guy leaves you have a replacement in mind already. Either way its a tough spot for anybody to walk into but the decision needs to happen fast.

I think the list of names that would be first on Murray call list are some of the guys with head coaching experience in the West KY area that wouldn't have to move their families to take the job. I would say Colby Lewis, Lance Gregory, Johnathan Smith, or even Steve Lovelace since he has moved into the Paducah area to be the DC at Paducah Tilghman. After that I believe they would have to look at the applicants who have applied which are possibly coordinators at schools in the area which I don't know who are considered the top guys in that regard or who is a young coach that is on the rise. Would a guy like Steve Duncan be interested in doing an interim year to buy Murray some more time to hire who they want? The thing is they didn't just lose a head coach who called the offense they lost the DC as well so really you are hiring 2 important positions on short notice.

Not hearing a lot out of Murray on this one. I know there are a few guys in West KY with head coaching experience who are now assistants that Murray would probably target 1st but are there any coordinators in the area that might be good fits for the program?

Seems this is really starting to move fast. Would they go ahead and consolidate the sports teams even if the new building isn't completed? Is that even allowed to take place?

Who is the RB that might be enrolling there?

Hold on now you can't go dissing on a Zebco 202. Caught a lot of fish on that set up! But you are right if you are a program that has history of winning and you want to get it back then you are going to have to spend the money to make it happen. If you are not willing to then you will continue to settle with what you have.

Trust me there is under the table money but those places are few and far between but the top schools have boosters who are willing to cover some expenses for a head coach. Trigg easily is a #2 seed in that district with the right person in place but the coaching stipend is extremely low for somebody to take the job. I do believe the head coaches there get 10 extended days on their teaching contracts which helps but only getting around $6,500 for being a head coach of a football program ain't attracting to many quality coaches unless they are desperate for a job. I did find that Trigg has an assistant athletic director position so if they offered that title with the stipend and the extended days you may get some guys to go after it.

You are correct Warren Central has not helped themselves out with some of the decisions being made recently as far as coaches but the creation of South Warren was when the talent decline began. Yes they have been successful in basketball but they also have had several transfers join the basketball team in recent years. They may have a 4A enrollment but half of that high school does not speak English and are from other countries so the actual number of kids who even know what American football is compared to other 4A school is much smaller.

The creation of South Warren has been the death of Warren Central plain and simple.

Hopkins County teacher pay is really low but Madisonville has a higher coaching stipend than Trigg Co so it makes them close to even. My point is not many guys are going to be willing to move their family and take a pay cut for either of these jobs. Especially if their wife is a teacher as well and her district is paying more than these two jobs cause then you are losing even more money.

When you look at the pay for the Trigg and Madisonville jobs they aren't exactly great. Its not even the coaching stipend that is poor but the teaching pay. There are a lot of coordinators out there that would be taking a substantial pay cut to take either of these jobs. Both jobs I believe are good jobs and are excellent landing spots for a coordinator looking for that 1st opportunity but getting somebody who works for a larger school system that pays better to take them will be tough. At the end of the day money talks and when a guy talks to his wife and says "Honey I want to apply for this job but its going to be a $6,000 pay cut." I can probably tell you what the answer might be.

Now I'm not saying that 0-3 isn't a possibility because on paper most people would pick Mayfield, PT, and McCracken over Graves but I am saying that Graves seems to get very little respect in far West KY and always seems to pull off a much better season than expected.

Those years they also opened with Murray who was picked to beat them almost every time.

Seems like this is said every year about Graves but they always win a game or two that they aren't supposed to. They always play Mayfield, PT, and McCracken in the 1st couple weeks of the season and it helps come district time.

I am praying that my comment is not taken seriously lol.

Championship winning coach from Georgia who was just let go by Valdosta High School. Now if I could possibly think of a hire that would not be a splash but potentially a EXPLOSION it would be that one lol.

Rush Propst about to make the move to the Bluegrass state?

Kids are staying in Kentucky more now because UK and UL are much better at football than they have been in years past. I also believe that the state of Kentucky is producing more D1 talent in the last 10 years than ever before. There are still several kids who get overlooked by the 2 Power 5 schools in this state and a few still go somewhere outside of the state of Kentucky but they have been better signing in state talent. WKU under Brohm had a roster made up of a lot of Kentucky kids who had been over looked by UK and UL and they were pretty dang good. I think that may have opened some eyes to the in state talent.

Financially its almost always makes sense to consolidate schools. That puts all of the tax dollars going into the same pot and you only have 1 high school to staff and pay utility bills on. This would really make for one heck of a football school in Western Kentucky. The county has produced Power 5 players every single year for as along as I can remember. If you already share a football stadium that cuts out a few million dollars already. For those of you who haven't seen that stadium you are missing out.

Almost all the people listed have been run out of jobs except for a few cause they couldn't win games. I get that experience as a head coach is a good thing but what if its bad experience? Every head coach was a coordinator at some point before somebody gave them an opportunity. Nothing wrong with hiring a young coach who may bring some energy back into a program if he has been under a good head coach and in a program with some success.

I feel like this thread got hijacked a little bit. I don't really think you can blame Owensboro for their schedule. You don't get to choose your district and not being able to play the Evansville schools hurts them. The fact that they went out and put St. X on the schedule says they aren't afraid to go play somebody and why should they be they are pretty dang good. You also have to play the local games for the gate money because lets face it most high schools sports teams don't exist without football and basketball gate money coming in. Also everybody does need to factor in the RPI formula. Owensboro had the top RPI last season and got FD to come to their place so I don't see anything wrong with what they are doing. Seems to be working and if it ain't broke don't fix it.

The defense last season returned 3 starters and finished the season 9th in 5A in scoring allowed. They were a little more bend but don't break but gave up only 18 points a game. There was a funny game against Ohio where they gave up a lot of points and Owensboro had 3 TDs in the 2 meetings that were scored on special teams and a fumble return. Take some of those away any they really didn't give up a lot of points. Now the offense did help as they were able to keep the football away from people but I would say for a defense that was extremely young and inexperienced they performed pretty well.

That could be huge for Graves if true. They return almost the entire defense except for a couple starters I think. If the right pieces return on offense they could be a pretty tough out for teams.