TH58

Monday night final from Marshall Stadium.

The Shamrocks (8-1) travel to Buckner on Friday to face the Colonels (5-3). Each team is 2-0 in District play. Trinity is coming in off a 38-0 win over Eastern where the Rocks allowed the Eagles 13 yards of total offense. Oldham is coming in off a 28-23 win over Ballard. The Rocks Defense has not yet allowed a point from any of the four Kentucky schools they have played and have five consecutive shut outs going back to the Male game. Can Trinity close out their regular season undefeated in District games and with an overall record of 9-1? (The Shamrocks have an open/bye week in Week 11)

Yep. All this Trinity class needs is a QB. Strong class.

CAL has a nice program. Best to them as they move up to 4A next year. Trinity is working to try and earn a 31st state championship and keep on doing its thing.

Did CAL move up to 6A? Trinity has not played down in Class in at least the past 10 years.

If the Tigers drop this game, Coach Landis should immediately return to Georgia and begin looking for new work.

And this just in from Jason Frakes and the CJ……Trinity has outscored its three Kentucky opponents this season (Male, St. Xavier and Ballard) by a combined 151-0.

You mean the Trinity offense that has helped produce a Top 25 national ranking in multiple polls, a 7-1 record against the toughest schedule in the KHSAA and 20 TDs vs 2 interceptions. If I was Coach Cobb I might be pretty pleased with my current offense, my current defense and my current special teams.

Come on out to Middletown and support these players and coaches in person. High school football…..Friday Night Lights.

Move to either 4 or 5 classes Move to either 6 or 8 school Districts Bottom 2 teams in each District do NOT advance to playoffs Add a promotion and relegation process within the 4 or 5 classes Develop a way for 2 schools to unite and form 1 varsity football roster (ie, Western and Shawnee in Louisville) Utilize an RPI ranking system that 10 guys hanging out on the fence on a Friday football night can understand and agree it passes the “common sense” test Those things would make the KHSAA football landscape light years better.

Give me the Colonels. Even with their suspended players back, Ballard seems to be in disarray this season.

This week…49 in Kentucky. 22 in the country by USA Today. 25 in the country by MaxPreps.

They need to also drop to 8 minute quarters in addition to the continuous running clock.

My issue with KHSAA RPI has nothing to do with how it does or does not impact state championship wins. And you are correct in that Trinity (in any sport) does not schedule opponents in order to “play the RPI game”. My issue is 2-fold: Any statistical/objective ranking system that in the past year ranked Assumption Volleyball 7th in the state while they were considered Top 10 in the country, or that ranked Trinity Baseball 2 nd in the state when they were considered #1 in the country, or that currently ranks Trinity Football 49th in the state when they are considered Top 30 in the country, or that gives a 6A football team less credit for beating Archbishop Moeller than it does for beating PRP, is simply a flawed and comical ranking system. And while that flawed and comical ranking system has no post season bearing (not yet anyway) in any KHSAA sport other than football, it does indeed have post season bearing on seeding and home game hosting in football playoffs rounds 3 and 4. Not the end of the world but at least let’s call a spade a spade.

My issue with KHSAA RPI has nothing to do with how it does or does not impact state championship wins. And you are correct in that Trinity (in any sport) does not schedule opponents in order to “play the RPI game”. My issue is 2-fold: Any statistical/objective ranking system that in the past year ranked Assumption Volleyball 7th in the state while they were considered Top 10 in the country, or that ranked Trinity Baseball 2 nd in the state when they were considered #1 in the country, or that currently ranks Trinity Football 49th in the state when they are considered Top 30 in the country, or that gives a 6A football team less credit for beating Archbishop Moeller than it does for beating PRP, is simply a flawed and comical ranking system. And while that flawed and comical ranking system has no post season bearing (not yet anyway) in any KHSAA sport other than football, it does indeed have post season bearing on seeding and home game hosting in football playoffs rounds 3 and 4. Not the end of the world but at least let’s call a spade a spade.

The KHSAA has abdicated any REAL/PROACTIVE leadership related to high school football in Kentucky. A complete joke in how RPI is determined and utilized in the playoffs Too many classes Districts that are too small in number of teams No thought leadership in how to enable schools that consistently roster 20+ varsity players to combine with another like school No thought leadership in how to reduce the number of teams making the playoffs, shorten the season for everyone and enable schools that finish the season 2-8, 1-9 or 0-10 to have a different option than first round playoffs vs a #1 seed where they might travel 2, 3 or 4 hours to get best 65-0.

The Shamrocks check in this week at #49 in the state according to the KHSAA RPI. Unfortunately for the Rocks, big wins vs Anderson (OH), CBC (MO), Moeller (OH), Cincy St. X and a 7 point loss to Baylor (TN) the #8 team in the USA, cannot propel Trinity past Kentucky football powers such as Dayton, North Oldham, Russell and McCracken County. Well done KHSAA. A Cracker Jack ranking system that impacts playoff seeding and home football games in Rounds 3 and 4.

Coach Cobb and the 7-1 Trinity Shamrocks head over to Middletown on Friday for a 7:30 pm kickoff at Eastern High School. Trinity enters the game 1-0 in District play after manhandling an overmatched and undermanned (due to player suspensions) Ballard Bruins squad by a score of 73 - 0. That game saw Trinity with 2 punt return TDs and 2 pick six TDs. Coach Adrian Morton and his Eagles are 5-2 on the season, 0-1 in District play, and are coming off a District loss to Oldham County by a score of 28 - 21. Eastern seems to be an improved football team this season albeit vs a less than impressive schedule. They have wins over Valley, South Oldham, Fairdale, Fern Creek and Wayne County. Their losses are Atherton and Oldham County. Will the Shamrocks take care of business and move to 2-0 in District play?

Trinity 38 - Ballard 0. Running clock. End of Q1.

Early August 2023, freshman QB Zane Johnson (classes have not even begun for his freshman year at Trinity) walks onto the scrimmage field at Springfield HS (Ohio) and moves the Rocks offense up and down the field against a Springfield defense coming off a state runner up finish and a defense that had simply dominated the Trinity offense for the first portion of the scrimmage. Anyone there that day KNEW this kid was going to be a special high school QB. But, maybe because he is not the biggest, fastest or quickest dude around, many folks, even quite a few Rock fans, always seem to me to want to minimize his impact. One BGP’er even implied this past summer that Zane may not even be one of the best QBs in Trinity history. The 3 state championships (maybe 4), the throwing %, the TD to interception ratio, the blowout wins over high quality teams no other school in Kentucky even has the gumption to schedule, tell me the impact that Zane makes. In my mind, whether or not Zane is named Mr. Football will have no bearing on the incredible impact he has made (and continues to make) for Trinity Football. Nor will it affect my POV that he will go down as one of very best high school QBs in KHSAA history.

Thursday night final from Marshall Stadium.

Coach Cobb and his staff have a balancing act the next 5 weeks. After showing very impressive performances against top flight competition, Trinity now faces 3 relatively weak District opponents, an open/bye week and then a #4 seed from another District (PRP?). And that relatively weak District was just rendered much weaker with the suspensions to 13 Ballard starters. So, how do the coaches keep the Rock starters as sharp over those 5 weeks as they have been over the first 7 weeks, while also getting plenty of playing time for the rest of the guys on the roster. A good problem to have for sure.

Bruins Head Coach Matt Kuehn reports Ballard will face Trinity on Friday minus 8 starters on defense and 5 starters on offense.

Word is the Bruins will accept all of their suspensions (15+) vs Trinity so that Ballard then has a full roster vs OCHS and Eastern.

Upon further review, the Shamrocks 41 - 0 blowout of Cincinnati St. Xavier is especially impressive when looking back at the series between these schools over the last 25 years. In those 25 years.... -Trinity leads the series 8 games to 5 games -Tbe average margin of victory for the winning team coming into this season was only 10 points -The largest margin of victory for Trinity is 41 points (2026). The largest margin of victory for Cincy X is 30 points (2009). -Coach Beatty was 3 wins, 4 losses vs Cincy X -Coach Cobb is 5 wins, 1 loss vs Cincy X