CCHFC

Because coaches are competitors and winning 5 titles in 6 years at 4A (if Boyle wins again this year) with a chance to go compete with Male against better competition might be appealing. Not saying I think he’d be interested, just asking a question.

Is this something Justin Haddix would be interested in? Maybe wishcasting here, lol.

Haddix/Boyle’s offensive staff does a great job on shifts and motions. They would line up and get the defensive strength with Cov Cath’s best DL(Lind) and edge (Pitzer) set and then shift and motion to the weak side and run right at the much smaller and non future college players. Then physically overwhelm the edge (who is a nickel on the ball vs condensed formations) and the back is running on the safety. Recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, you can’t use a Jimmies/Joes argument as a coach when you refuse to play your 6’4 220 pound recruit who was big and athletic enough to get offered by an SEC school prior to his sophomore year. Extremely frustrating to not have a chance to compete athletically out there.

Cov Cath gave up almost 1000 yards rushing the last 2 games of the season. Not great!

I think Owen is closer to 6'1 than 6'4 but yeah....would have loved to see those guys on the field more together. I thought Clukey looked really good vs. Cathedral too when he played! Oh well, I think the team will be very good next year.

- Boyle had too many more quality players. LB 24 was all over the field and RB 4 tempo’d his runs exceptionally well. Linemen 54, 74 and 53 and WR/DB 6 were all very good not even including the next guy. - Driver is such a monster and so clearly future NFL. Pitzer is going to go play FBS and he physically didn’t have much of a shot when they matched up. - Even if they hadn’t stalled out in the red zone the first 2 drives, Cov Cath had no chance of getting any stops…goes without saying. - If you play with a 5’9 165 pound edge defender, you are going to get killed on the ground vs good teams. Bad coaching to not have your 6’4 220 D1 athlete out there who is able to physically compete. - Dylan Gaiser and Cash Harney deserve a shout out. Two extremely tough players and two of the better guys to play at Cov Cath. - Highlands lost? well it’s not all horrible tonight ?

Despite the results, I'd go: 1. Ryle - If Verax threw it better, I think they might get by X and T and win 6A. Really good team. 2. Highlands- With Brody Cook back, I think they're better than Cov Cath. If the guard who went to Anderson didn't transfer, they'd be 1 and would be heavy favorite in 4A. Not having a super dynamic RB or WR (and some occasional questionable coaching) makes them beatable though. 3. Cov Cath - I think they win tonight vs Boyle, but are 1 or 2 bigger bodies short of being as good as the top 2 teams when healthy. 4. - Cooper - Really quality team, but Scott County might win 5A. (Big gap) 5. Beechwood - You should not lose to a 2A team with Tyler Fryman, Emmett Queen and Nathan Pabst on your roster. (Grand Canyon) 6-10. Everyone else. Lloyd making a run in 3A would be cool and their QB is nice.

Is Ryle healthy? They should win this if so. I thought they had a really nice team when Cov Cath played them early in the season. Big on the offensive and defensive line, a super fast QB and difference makers with Savage, Lee and Gay.

He's not perfect, but I think Eddie does a really nice job. He makes it simple on the QB with easy completions on screens underneath but also on the shot plays a lot of them are gameplanned and 'called' where I really don't think the QB is reading it out. For example, get in a certain formation to get a certain coverage and then throw it to this player on a double move or out of the backfield. We don't do a lot of true drop back with Harney, but there is mostly good stuff. For example - a big one this year is we'll get in 3x1 and have the single side X run a speed out or curl, if that is not open there's a 3 receiver 'levels' concept working across the field that the QB works back to. Run game is a lot of trap, either from the guard or the TE on the end man of the line of scrimmage. We've also had a bunch of success with speed option (unsure if that is called or an alert by the QB vs some of these 5 man fronts) and QB iso/draw and maybe even some QB duo. Power without the puller and the back is kicking out the end man on the LOS. On offense - outside of just having better players on the line of scrimmage, I think teams that heat them up can give them fits as I'm not sure the 'hot' answers are always built into the progression for the QB that aligns with the protection. The good news for them is the current QB is athletic enough to make a free runner miss and then the defense is in trouble when that happens. Live by the blitz, die by the blitz. There was a few year stretch where I thought they got a little lazy on what they ran, but overall I think they do a great job. The gameplan vs Boyle last year where he broke out essentially the shotgun version of their unbalanced short-yardage package to pull off an upset was an all-timer.

Great post. I think there are many guys coaching on Friday nights that are better than guys on Saturdays and Sundays but did not want to pursue that life or could not break in due to nepo/who you know.

None of the top 4A teams are "great" by their standard, but all pretty good and pretty equal. After watching some of the Highlands and Douglass games, I think Cov Cath gets this done on Friday by 3 to 7 with my blue tinted glasses. I think Harney and Gaiser are better and more athletic than the guys who Boyle will have touching the ball 35+ times (it's harder to throw in the rain to your future Sunday player at TE for Boyle). Harney also looks closer to 100% to me after getting banged up a bit in the middle of the season. Coaching feels equal to me with two really good staffs. Boyle probably has a slight edge on the line of scrimmage with 74 back for them, but they looked much smaller than Highlands (I was pretty surprised Highlands didn't pull away in the 4th with multiple chances to do so). Respectfully - a big edge at QB to Cov Cath, add in the conditions in their favor to get +1 in the run game with the QB (looking like rain) and I think they get it done.

I agree with this. I could not believe Highlands lost that game considering how much better I thought they were on the line of scrimmage and at QB.

Cov Cath averaged almost 16 yards per play, had 5 touchdowns of over 29 yards and barely won this. Goes to show how good and unique JC’s offense is. The difference in athleticism once Harney and Gaiser got in space was the big difference to me along with JC’s inability to throw the ball. If they were able to even be a C level team throwing it the game might have looked a little different at the end of the first half along with the end of the game.

A couple keys to winning tonight imo: Every coach says this, but Cov Cath needs to start fast - falling behind 13-0 like last year to a ball control offense is a dangerous way to play. Take the ball to start and load up the opening 15 with designer shots/specials and aggressive coaching. JC - they have to stay ahead of the sticks. If they are in a bunch of 3rd and 4th and mediums to longs, it’s going to be a long night for them. Should be entertaining!

I'd be pretty surprised if Cov Cath got killed on the ground. Elder, Ryle and Highlands are all decently bigger on the lines, plus Cathedral is similar, if not bigger. The only time I felt Cov Cath got beaten up on the ground was Ryle and their OL...but: - That was the first game of the season - The have an IU commit at RB, plus another good sized future college player at RB and an extremely fast QB that can threaten the C gap on pulls and boots. Throw in a good scheme that highlights their strengths and that's a nice recipe for success. - Highlands was around 4.2 YPC and Elder's RB (led the GCL South in rushing) had under 5 YPC and a long of 14. 28 to 14 sounds about right to me.

How do JC folks think their team compares to previous ones? Also how was the game vs Boyd County so close? I know transitive property in sports does not always apply but 21-14 as opposed to a non-competitive running clock is a big difference in the only common opponent.

I would not be shocked to see Mason Fields on the FBS level in a couple years. He's a very talented player. Extremely underrecruited IMO.

I think many of you are in for a rude awakening with how actual testing and recruiting works. Football will always be an athletic traits sport and standards are in place for a reason. Tommy Castellanos might crack 5’10 at his pro day. It’s not like Bryce’s dad is 6’4 or mom is 6’0. Getting to a legit 6’1 would be a win for him. Pat Bryant checked in at 6’2, 204 at the combine and ran 4.61 after going for a shade under 1k yards and 10 TDs in the Big Ten at Illinois. He was a 3rd round pick and scored a TD vs the Cowboys last weekend. No, Bryce is not faster than him now, please be serious. https://www.mockdraftable.com/player/pat-bryant Boston College accepted a QB commit from a local kid the January of his freshman year. Take 5 minutes and do research before being so arrogant. https://247sports.com/player/ramar-thomas-46154814/

Playing Division 1 football is very hard. There is a 0% chance a 6 foot non-elite athlete at QB has a committable FBS offer heading into his sophomore year of high school. Is he going to be really good? Yes. Is he going to look like Vince Young on the varsity level like he did as a freshman? After seeing his parents, very unlikely unless he hits an unexpected growth spurt to give him that same size advantage.

- Armstrong played one of the best games you’ll ever see anyone play and was clearly the difference. Highlands also has a bunch of quality players. - With how physically developed Bryce is and looking at his parents, I think it’s far more likely he’s close to maxed out athletically than he is to develop into some 6’3+ big time recruit. His floor is very high as an awesome high school player though, but I don’t think he’ll make them unbeatable as a junior and senior. - Cov Cath has some really good future multi year starters: Carson Grainger (TE), Kiyan Miller (RB), Jamir Kirtley (DB/Slot), Parker Payne (Edge), William Van Auken (OL) these guys plus Brandon Smith is a great class to follow up the current sophomores. Plus I think the Cov Cath QB can match or outplay the Highlands guy the next 2 years. The next 5 games or so should be battles.

On the roster yes, but not those positions is what I meant to say. In the JV game Kiyan Miller outran the Moeller defense and then trucked some kid at the goal line on a 60 yard screen for a TD. We’ve had some good RBs, but no one that can do that as a freshman athletically. We’ve had a lot of good players, but no one at WR/DB that is playing as much early as B Smith. I don’t think we’ve had an FCS player or higher at those position under Eviston that stuck there (Coldiron moved to TE at Miami after playing WR in high school). IMO adding those guys in to a normal Cov Cath class is how you go from really good to great and over the hump.

Cov Cath is much deeper than they usually are and should be extremely good the next two seasons. Guys like Jason Fedor (Jr WR/DB) would be starting on varsity most seasons instead of tearing up JV for the 2nd year in a row. 3+ TD wins over Trinity at the freshman level and Moeller on JV is no joke. Having players like Brandon Smith (WR/DB) and Kiyan Miller (RB/LB) enroll as freshman are the types of guys that Cov Cath typically doesn’t get and can get you over the hump against really good competition in future years.

I don't think Harney has had his same burst since the long TD run vs Beechwood. Hopefully that is able to get back close to 100% by the time the Johnson Central game comes. If the team ends up winning a ring, Harney and Gaiser with the ball in their hands in space will be the main reason why. He's got to get back close to 100% to rip off 4 in a row in the playoffs against very quality competition.

I thought they had a lot of good high school players, but were missing the D1 difference makers that the teams that have beaten Cov Cath this year have on their roster. For example, Elder without their QB and linebackers probably lose to Cincy X by the same score these guys did.

- This is a really nice win, even if the QB got knocked out. Cathedral has well coached older team that has definitely been in the weight room. - I thought the DC from Cathedral was very good and gave Cov Cath fits with pressure packages. - Funny enough special teams was not good, but their good kicker missed a couple kicks and we got an extra 2 point conversion since they jumped on the PAT. -Cov Cath should running clock the next 3 opponents plus a bye week before the gauntlet starts vs Johnson Central. Hopefully some time to get healthy.