leatherneck

A. Were the problems at Henderson at Duffer's feet or at Tom's? I don't recall if Duffer was the head coach and his Dad an assistant at the time, but I think that was the case. If so, some could argue that Duffer was responsible regardless of who caused the problem and I'd understand that argument. But as a very young head coach, it would have been very difficult to control the actions of your Dad as an assistant coach. B. I believe that people can be given a second chance. They're not entitled to it, but under certain circumstances, it can be given. Regardless of whether Duffer made the mistake or his Dad did, I'm not of the type that believes people can't learn from their mistakes; quite the contrary. Admittedly, I haven't seen Duffer since he graduated from Highlands and have zero idea what type of coach or person he's developed into. But from what I recall of him, he was a very nice, polite kid that was a typical coach's son when he played (ie, a coach on the field type that understood the whole picture of what was going on vs. just his assignment) and had a very high "football IQ".

A downside of the true two platoon system. Back in the day when kids practiced their positions on both sides of the ball, your starting CB could still be your back up QB and get practice reps at the QB spot. Now with players only practicing on one side of the ball, your starting CB can't be your back up QB. If Beau ends up playing defense it will be a result of the coaches feeling someone else will be a capable back up to Houliston. Hoge, Bardo, Abner and Urlage would be a very talented defensive secondary. I'm sure there are other kids that will be pressing hard to start in the secondary. Secondary should be extremely good this coming season.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I made a mistake and went with the year you and Matt graduated, as opposed to the football season year. But you are right; I was wrong. Now quit reveling in the fact I was wrong. Besides, instead of spending time on here pointing out I was wrong, shouldn't you be using your Christmas present? It's a nice day; get outside and start using it.

1979

Happy Birthday to "Aunt Bea". Hope you all have a great Birthday party on Saturday. Maybe "Aunt Bea" can share some of her handicapping tips with you!

Refs should call a technical on any high school coach, in any sport, using the F word. No exception; ever. High school administrators should be ashamed of themselves if they tolerate it.

I think Q and Sweep hit the nail on the head. I think any fan of Highlands basketball would like to see them win every game of the regular season, regardless of its impact or non-impact on the District tourny, but to be selected to participate in the Combine is a heck of an opportunity for any young man. I doubt any Highlands basketball fan begrudges him going. Do you think a fan of Covcath basketball or Conner basketball would look at it any differently if a CovCath basketball/football player or a Conner basketball/football had done the same? I don't think so.

Come on CF. You are better than that. Or at least I hope you are. If you don't see or want to admit the validity of the points I raised, that's your call. But my points are valid and are not garbage. Defending the option is no doubt assignment football; but the reads are different; the assignments are different. I assume you played the game and if so, you know my points are valid. Has anyone ever heard an opposing coach ever make a comment even resembling that Highlands players don't have discipline or execute? I haven't. To the contrary, all I've ever heard from opposing coaches are great compliments about Highlands' team discipline and execution. So, in my opinion, it's not a lack of discipline and execution causing Highlands to not have Colerain on its schedule. And please, stop the name calling. You diminish your reputation and credibility greatly on here when you do so. Tough to want to carry on an intelligent discussion with someone that resorts to name calling.

To answer your question, yes. If we needed to beat a team in the playoffs running the option as well as Colerain does, with the talented players Colerain has, I'd be all over Dale to play Colerain every year to help prepare Highlands. But we don't, so I'm not. To properly defend against Colerain's O, Highlands would have to make some rather dramatic changes to it's defensive schemes and reads. I played LB against the Colerain style of option in high school and college. You have to do things quite differently on D. We actually changed personnel defensively when we played Colerain style option teams. But back in the day, the option was a much more common O than it is now; certainly in Ky where the spread, Franklin style passing O, seems to be the most common. Does a Defensive Coordinator want to make those changes for one game; for an O that he won't face the rest of the year? I wouldn't if I didn't have to. That may seem like "ducking" to you. To me it seems like putting together a schedule that helps prepare you win state championships. For the record, if T and X ran the Colerain style option, I'd have substituted Colerain for Highlands in my initial post.

While jb has answered your question quite well, I'll add that Highlands usually doesn't have to beat a team as good as Highlands each year to win state and it keeps winning state. So it's scheduling philosophy is obviously working. Can the same be said for the 6A N. Ky teams? The 6A N. Ky teams do have to beat teams as good, if not better, than Highlands each year to win state. So it just makes sense for the 6A N. Ky teams to play Highlands to prepare for beating X and T in particular in the playoffs. There aren't many teams that have the overall team speed that T in particular does. Highlands year in and year out, comes the closest. Why not play them to teach your players; to help them prepare? The only reasons I can think of why a 6A N. Ky coach would not want to play Highlands is that coach either doesn't like Dale (which is putting emotions ahead of doing what is best for your team); or the coach is worried about the affect a big loss to Highlands would have on the psyche of his players (which I find odd, for if his players aren't emotionally tough enough to rebound from a big loss, they aren't going to be emotionally tough enough to beat X or T later in the playoffs). I have to think that playing Highlands helped prepare Scott County for their playoff game against Trinity. The big loss to Highlands didn't adversely impact the Scott County players in subsequent games. Not a doubt in my mind that Quick being out the entire game and Dawkins being out the first 3 quarters helped Scott County a lot. But T still had a lot of exceptional players on the field, even without those two. Yet SC was leading for the first 3 quarters. Obviously I can't prove that playing Highlands helped Scott County improve so much from where they were early in the season when they faced Highlands; I can't prove that playing Highlands helped prepare Scott County to play Trinity. But my knowledge of the game sure leads me to think it did. You can disagree if you want. That's fine. But I'll continue to see it the way I do.

In my opinion, any 6A N. Ky. team that thinks it has a realistic chance to advance deep in the playoffs is nuts for not playing Highlands regardless of the outcome.

Best advise I can give it to just accept it for what it is. Personally I think the AP writers for the most part try to select the best high school football players for their team and the coaches for the most part don't. But as Clyde pointed out, the AP writers don't and can't see every center, every QB, every etc in the state before they make their selections. Heck is my nephew, Mitch Dee, the best center in the state? Hell, I have no clue because I didn't get to see every center. He was the best one that I saw this year, but I can't honestly and logically conclude he's the absolute best center in the state. Furthermore, the AP writers selections are influenced by what they see in the state games. A lot of the AP writers attend and get to watch the 12 teams play and make assessments of the players. If a player is being touted by an AP writer, say from N. Ky., and the other AP writers get the opportunity to see the kid play in a state game and the kid has a great game, human nature is probably going to cause some of those AP writers to vote for that kid over a kid on a team the AP writers never got to see because that team didn't make it to state. So that somehat unfairly skewers the process in favor of the kids making the state game. But I do think the AP writers at least try to put the best players on their team and for that I give them credit.

And that somewhat plays into the problem with coaches voting. Knowing that Momma may be lurking, I'll try to be diplomatic. Rather than voting for the best high school football players, some coaches are more interested in getting recognition for themselves, their program and their players. They view the all state team as a tool to help themselves, their programs and their players. Which is on one hand, noble and understandable. On the other hand, it often results in the all state team not being comprised of the best high school football players.

Do you know how the number of coaches that voted this year compares with the number of coaches that voted in years past?

Congratulations to all selected to this all state team. Well done. As for the the selection process, I'll follow Momma's Rule and keep those thoughts to myself.

Congrats to all selected. I'll leave the criticism of the methodology to the others who have already posted (with some very fair criticism). Special kudos to the Highlands players. Well done boys. Special props to my nephew, Mitch Dee. I remember a few years back when he told me that Coach Turner thought he could best help the team (the JV team at the time) if he switched from guard to center. He really wanted to continue playing guard as his two cousins before him had played, but he made the switch. Kid worked his tail off learning how to do shotgun snaps. Not very big; not the strongest; not the quickest. But a smart kid that worked really, really hard. If my recollection is correct, he didn't sail one snap over the QB in the two years he started. Granted, last year he had a 6'5' QB whom he made jump once or twice and this year, he made Donovan work on his vertical jump skills during the second CovCath game, but to not sail one in two years with 99.99% of the snaps being in the gun is impressive. And he was a very, very solid blocker on top of it. Congrats Mitch. Your family is extremely proud of you, and you just know that your Grandpa is up there having a 7 count and bragging on you. Has Henry mentioned, Coach Turner's coaching skills once again showed themselves. If he isn't one of the top 2 O line coaches in the state, I'd be shocked.

Before my time. But I watched him play and remember him being very, very good and really fast.

Oh for the love of Pete. Get more fans of the school you support to get on here and talk about your school. You'd be happier and Rob would be wealthier.

You ask what folk's high school weight rooms look like on a site with a lot of Highlands posters and then take issue with Highlands posters talking about their weight room? Seems odd to me. Funniest part of it all, the condition of Highlands weight room was first mentioned by a CovCath fan; not a Highlands fan. It may not look impressive, but impressive results come out of it.

Don't know Dale's position today or what it will be in the future, but when Dale has been approached in the past (and I've been one of several approachers) about significantly improving the weight room, his answer has consistently been something to the effect of: no thanks. What we have works. Rather see the money go to academic/classroom upgrades.

Yes he was.

and both distort the vision!

Absolutely agree. And kudos to the T offensive coaches for finding different ways to get the ball in his hands. He was a weapon whose many talents were fully utilized by the T coaches.

Is Beatty the "genius" behind Trinity's O, or is it Coverdale? I've always heard it's the latter.

From my experience and observations, the senior parents feel more pressure than the players do.