leatherneck

Then again, Dale and Bob might have actually passed the ball frequently to Tony Messer in the state championships games against Central and come home a winner! :isurrender: Sorry Toots, the Devil made me do it! :laugh:

Fair point. But some things to consider: 1. PT had fast, quick D linemen and LBers. Does JC?; 2. Highlands played PT after a long 5 hour bus ride. JC will have the long bus ride to FT if they meet in the playoffs; 3. No disrespect to Jalen Hayes, but he's not the pass blocker that Harris is. Harris did not play in the PT game. He did play in the CovCath game and the protection given Houliston was much better. If Harris plays in a game against JC, Houliston will get better pass protection than he got against PT; and 4. Highlands played PT the week before playing CovCath, its strongest rival. While Dale does a pretty good job of trying to keep the kids focused on every game, they are nonetheless kids, and they very easily could have been looking past PT. Take it as a compliment to JC, the Highlands players do not look past JC.

Nailed it. Well done.

It is a really nice, cheap restaurant. Been there several times and the food is always great, as is the service. Really nice and friendly people. Grabbed some to go on Monday night. Again great.

No problem Toots. Like you said, you know the man better, much better, than I do.

To be honest, this "antic" doesn't bother me as much as it bothers others. Good Lord, if the kid made a 60 yard field goal, it's blooming impressive and I don't think I care how the ball got to the needed LOS. I also don't see it as the embarrassment to the other team that others (including people I really respect) on here do. It would bother me if the defenders hadn't rushed, but rather stood aside and let the kicker have all the time he wanted on the kick. Not sure why (other than it was Matney) people are upset with the fact a ball carrier ran backwards to get the ball to the necessary LOS. I'm not sure Matney didn't do it with the hope it would cause the uproar that it has on here. I hear that Jim likes playing the "everyone hates JC" card and the "we don't get any respect" card to motivate his players. Wouldn't surprise me a bit. Something like this plays into that hand. Almost Dudley-esque.

It's been asked and answered every year for the probably the last 5 years or more. I could have told you the responses before they were even made.

BGP has become the House of Trolls!

Great post Clyde. Keep your head up Jacob. The character that you demonstrated in your commitment to becoming the best football player you could become will serve you very well the rest of your life.

FWIW, I had the same reaction that Trinity alum did.

Sandman, normally I agree with you, but I've seen players/teams really play hard some weeks and be rather lackadaisical other weeks. Do I think CovCath played without a hard effort against Highlands? Man, I'd sure hope not. I did see a couple of CovCath players (and no I won't give numbers as I don't want to identify those players) seemingly really packing it in after Highlands got up by 21. Based on the comments of a CovCath fan standing nearby me, I wasn't the only one that saw that. And these kids were not backups playing due to injured starters. Having said that, I also saw some CovCath players playing hard the entire game. Kudos to them. Great effort by the Highlands players and another nice coaching job by Dale, Brian and the assistants.

Doc Waite to the rescue!

Agree. And for the record, the fine in the referenced article was at the youth league level.

My memory may be faulty, but I think Dale made more changes to the traditions than Tom did. Which I'm fine with. Things change and I understand that concept. Playtowin, thanks for mentioning my Dad as a member of the old Cannon Crew. Brought back great memories of him. Like the time he showed up at Henry's door when she was just a little girl looking for more gun powder. He scared the heck out of her. Little did they both know, that years later Henry would be marrying his son. Or the time, as part of the 75 state championship procession through town, my Dad loaded the cannon into the bed of his pick up (which was being driven by the fine gentleman whom is now my father-in-law and whom purchased the cannon back in 1968). The police escort told my Dad he better not be planning on firing the cannon from the back of the pick up truck (if you knew my Dad, it was very reasonable for the police officer to think my Dad would do it). Without warning my future father-in-law, my Dad fired it as the truck was moving through town. Jolted the heck out of th truck and scared the beejeezus out of everyone except those in the bed of the truck. Police escort stopped the procession and told Dad not to do that again. As soon as the procession started moving, Dad popped off another shot. Police officer just gave up at that point. Which of course caused my Dad to not fire it again during the rest of the procession. Great memories. Dad was quite the character.

Just not near as frequently as they have during the Mueller years.

Ditto. Congrats David.

Congrats Chief Smoke. Well done.

Nice article Scribe. Thanks for posting it.

Does Colerain have a QB that can pass the ball this year? If so, that offense which is always very good, becomes flat out wicked. I've always been impressed by Colerain. Particularly the great speed in the O backfield and exceptional LBers on D year after year. I know you don't give Highlands much respect but I won't let that impact my assessment of Colerain. Great program.

Since my sons were playing during the time period of the games you referenced, I remember most of the game details pretty well: Cincy X and Highlands have not played since 09. To be honest with you, if I had to pick one of the two (X or Elder) to play, I'd rather play Elder. Not because I think they are easier to beat, but I thought the X players played very dirty. Actually I know they played dirty. I was greatly disappointed in what I saw. Got the tape to back it up if anyone disputes what I'm saying. I have no idea if that is why we haven't played Cincy X since 09 though. Colerain in 08 was not a beat down; at least not according to my definition of a beat down. I think Highlands was within 10 early in the 4th quarter. 08, not coincidentally, was the last year you saw Highlands playing kids both ways (with the exception being Austin Collinsworth played both ways for some of the Cincy X game in 09). As was the case in other previous games when we were playing the big schools, our two way players were simply gassed by the end of the game. In 05 against Colerain (it was the first game of the year), I think Highlands may have actually been winning by a point at half (or may have been losing). We punted on our first possession after half and Eugene Clifford (?) took it to the house. Our starting QB went out in the first half; second string QB went out early in the second half and it got butt ugly fast. I think both of Colerain's inside LBers got schollies to Big 10 schools; Conner Smith (O linemen) got scholly to OSU; and Clifford eventually (I think he was a junior that year) also ended up with a D1 scholly (OSU?). Bottom line was that was a dang good team loaded with D1 talent. Anyone scheduling them with the thought process they'd be significantly down was missing something upstairs. Lou X did smack down the Birds in 05; the week after Highlands had played Colerain. X had a physical team that year. Older son road home with me because of a concussion and team doc thought I could keep a better eye on him than if he rode home on the bus. That game was ugly from beginning to the end. That was the worst beating I've seen Highlands take other than perhaps the RockCastle playoff beating in 2002. But Highlands played Lou X again in 06. It was the week after we played Elder. Bad scheduling by Dale, playing those teams back to back. Played X at Paul Brown Stadium on a blistering hot afternoon. Birds had several players out that game. Birds were winning at half by one point. Game went back an forth for a while in the second half. After X went up a TD I believe we had a turnover. X scored to go up 2 TDs. We answered to get it to one TD; X scored again to go back up 2 TDS. Game ended after we had driven to about X's 30 ( I think X intercepted a "what the hell" pass on the last play of the game). Scoreboard says X won by 2 tds and they did, but it was a one TD margin most of the game. Sorry to get so far off topic, but this myth that Highlands will only play the powerhouses when the powerhouses are down is simply not backed up by the facts.

I agree. It was a great story. I loved it. Was really hoping that the Jags would win the title, but it was an absolutely great run nonetheless. It was one of those things I was hoping would happen as a result of going to 6 classes.

Damn right it is.

Why just focus on 2011 (a year by the way that Elder had discipline and injury problems, that I sincerely doubt Dale could have predicted when he scheduled Elder)? Last year Elder beat Moeller during the regular season. For those not aware, Moeller won the blooming Ohio Division 1 state championship. If you can beat the team that went on to win the Ohio Division 1 State Championship, you are a dang good football team. Elder lost to Colerain by one blooming point last year in the playoffs. That doesn't sound like a team that's a team that's a bit down. Unless you think Dale is a moron that can't see what Elder would be like in 2012 or you think he can predict the discipline and injury problems Elder experienced in 2011, I don't see how anyone can claim he scheduled Elder because they were down. Highlands scheduled and beat Cincy St. X (2009), a year they were predicted to be extremely good. They were ranked No. 2 in the country at the time Highlands beat them. Highlands scheduled Colerain in 2005, a year after their Ohio Division 1 State Championship. Colerain had a pretty good team in 05 too. Take some time to see what D1 players Colerain had on its team that year. As for your un-informed UC comment, Highlands scheduled UC because they needed a game after teams backed out from what Dale believed were commitments. At the time Dale agreed to schedule UC out of desperation, he had no clue whom had graduated from UC. And they did not graduate almost there entire team. That is blatantly false as I understand the definition of the word "almost". The newspaper article I read said they returned 5 starters on O and 5 starters on D. My friendship, respect and admiration for ChiefSmoke prohibits me from bringing McPapa's team into this discussion.

What in the hell are you talking about? And yes Ru I'd love to see Highlands play BG every year. Games could be played on Saturdays.

For what it's worth, I've never agreed with Dale's "this is the toughest schedule Highlands has ever played" stuff. Heck the 06 team played Elder and Lou X in back to back weeks and also played Columbus St. Francis de Sales that year. And of course they played CovCath (who won the state championship) twice that year. And I've not claimed and am not claiming Highlands schedule is tougher than BG's. Just asking who BG's tougher games were this year. At this point I'd probably agree that BG has the tougher schedule, although it's so hard to make that statement with certainty without watching those opponents.