goherd96

Look again...I said MOST are rural based schools. Besides, Mayfield and Danville are anything but rural schools like what I was referring to, covering large areas. They are both independent systems drawing their students from a much smaller areas, as is Beechwood and private NCC. This is a huge advantage shared by these schools as well as by most of the top teams in AA (OC, Russell, Fort Campbell). Most A schools are small community schools as opposed to schools covering an entire county.

Actually, this doesn't exactly help your arguement either since it does nothing to disprove the statement that 1A is dominated by about 4 schools. As for the ratings, it had nothing to do with any average of rankings, it was merely taken from the Massey Ratings. I looked it up myself to see if that was the source and the numbers were identical. That's just one rating system...:thumb: We hear this arguement every year and it generally is started by a NKY football fan who thinks anyone outside of the tri-county area is inherently inferior in football... The biggest difference in the two classes is the fact that most AA teams are rural based school systems while the dominant A schools are not. Anyone who has ever worked in a county school (talking about schools where there is only one or two high schools in the whole county) knows the difficulties faced by coaches and staff involved in extracurricular activities.

And yet despite their failure to impress you, they did what it took to win the game and win a state championship. I have worked at Russell for five years now and this was about the 3rd best team we have had here in that time. However, this year's team just would not be denied. To take the 3 hour bus ride to Newport, play poorly and have to rely on the passing game to tie it up with about 3 minutes to play is impressive to Russell fans. Anybody that follows the Red Devils would have said we lose if you told them that we would have to go to the air to tie the game in the closing minutes.

Who is the new OC?

I do not agree with the opinion of 1A being stronger 1-15 in the last five years. Once you get past the top 4, there is a HUGE drop off in 1A while I feel 1-15 are stronger overall in 2A. Talking about the teams that have bounced up and down does little to diminish the fact that 2A's 1-15 are stronger than 1A's. This thread was supposed to be about the top 10 or 15 teams in each, saying the top 5 have the edge in 1A (which I still feel is arguable) does nothing to change the fact that 6-15 in 1A are significantly weaker then 6-15 in 2A.

I do not agree with the opinion of 1A being stronger 1-15 in the last five years. Once you get past the top 4, there is a HUGE drop off in 1A while I feel 1-15 are stronger overall in 2A. Talking about the teams that have bounced up and down does little to diminish the fact that 2A's 1-15 are stronger than 1A's. This thread was supposed to be about the top 10 or 15 teams in each, saying the top 5 have the edge in 1A (which I still fell is arguable) does nothing to change the fact that 6-15 in 1A are significantly weaker then 6-15 in 2A.

No, actually I believe having a greater number of quality teams year in and year out makes it TOUGHER. The reason being it takes more to get through 5 rounds of playoffs when you are playing in AA as opposed to A. I believe there are more blowouts in the early rounds in A than AA. And by early rounds, I mean games up to and including the 3rd round (regional championship).

If you're including the top 10-15 teams over the past decade, you have to go with AA. After you get past the Beechwood, NCC, Danville, Mayfield quartet, there is typically a serious drop-off the rest of the way down the list. While the top teams in AA may not be as good as the very top A teams year in and year out (although I believe they'd hold their own), the overall quality is better...at least IMHO.

We return our center, one guard, the first tackle off the bench who saw huge minutes throughout the season at various positions due to injuries and Seth Harvey returns to Russell after starting for at tackle for the St. X freshmen team this fall. We do have some holes to fill, but I think the O-line will be a strong point going into the season. Along with Kasey Clark, of course...

Is it just me or is the Shawnee coach a real whiner??? Jeez, somebody get him a crying towel already...

Don't remind me! The memory of that game still makes me ill...:creepy:

That would be in the semis, I expect Newport to be at Russell the week before that. What does Middlesboro have back next year?

All I know is the Wing-T was plenty good enough to beat the spread in the 2A championship game...So do you think they might run pitch left????...actually, Russell had most of their consistent success out of Power-I, but who really cares!?! WE'RE STATE CHAMPS!

Too bad they didn't see fit to inform the KHSAA of this decision until 3 weeks prior to the championships (according to a reliable source). Then the KHSAA dropped the ball by not making this clear to the participating schools. Now all we have is our game film, which is OK, but certainly not the quality of the productions in past years... :mad:

What is the source of this tape?

If so, we should be able to contact them to buy copies.

So why were there TV timeouts if the KHSAA wasn't taping the game????

Not sure you can get much more playing time if you're a starter... Seriously though, expect to see him more on offense next season.

Man...I can't believe it. What did Russell have to do to gain your respect as being better than your Pirates.

Kasey would also get my vote if not for his championship game performance alone, then for his playoff production as a whole.

Looking at his regular season stats on the BGP playoff preview earlier today, I realized he had around 600 yards rushing, not sure on receiving yards and 17 or 18 TD's in the playoffs. He really stepped it up and earned his yards and scores against tough opponents week-in and week-out during the post-season.

Thanks for the compliment...I don't think I am alone in the feeling that this year's edition wasn't necessarily a "great" team in the sense most of us think of. I think one of the OC players summed it up best by describing them as relentless (or something to that effect). Even while the Devils kept winning, some of us always felt, "Well, yeah we won, but we could have done this or that much better." Even through the playoffs, it seemed like Russell never really put together a complete game, at least IMO. When you are winning playoff games and still haven't played your best, you just feel like that REALLY good game is still out there for you. I think this past Saturday was the best, most complete game I saw us play this season (and even then, there were some things that could have been done better...not that we're complaining ). No disrespect to any of our previous opponents, that's just my feeling. This years seniors really matured as the season wore on and they became accustomed to the yoke of leadership which had been carried for them the past few years. It was their time to step up, and they...as a group...did just that. Now let's see about next year's seniors and if they can get the same kind of results.

We know the feeling all too well here at Russell...see the 2002 semifinal game against Breathitt County to see what I mean...

I know...omigod...it was like, so cold, but then I saw Jenny and she said...and then I said, "Whatever!"

Not exactly, I stated I based it on teams I watched either live or at least on film. I only saw Ft Campbell on film, but from what I saw, they were a better team that just had some calls go against them. I am not sure how Belfry would have matched up with O-Cath this year, but I still believe Newport was the best team I actually saw against Russell this year.