goherd96

Congrats to Russell. Sure would have liked to have seen Newport in this game and bringing home the hardware but it wasnt that way. Well at least we were knocked out by the AA State Champs in OT by 1 pt.

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

Goherd and I were talking about the number of teenage girls who apparently never found their seats. :lol: Seriously...the concourses were teeming all night, throughout the game.

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

Wouldn't the same go for you, considering that both Belfry & O'Cath went further in the playoffs than Ft. Campbell?

 

Heck, O'Cath beat Ft. Campbell.

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.

For those scoring at home, I believe that makes it East Kentucky 3 - Tony Franklin 0 the last three years.

Thats why I put Newport 2nd also. By looking at the scores of the playoff games it did look like our guys played you guys the toughest.

It's hard to judge by comparing scores, but seeing all of the teams mentioned either live or on tape, Newport was the best among the ones we played, IMO. I also felt Ft. Campbell was a better team than O-Cath just had some things go against them that they were unable to overcome.

Newport and The Aces both spread the field, I just felt like the Wildcats did a better job of it and gave us more trouble than did O-Cath. Maybe your coach should start selling his offense...

2A

 

1 Belfry

2 Ft. Campbell

3 Russell

4 Newport

5 O'Cath

You're kidding...right?????

I certainly hope so, otherwise your credibility on this board just took a serious hit.

2A

1 Russell (DUH!?!)

2 Newport (basing this on the fact I felt they were the best team we faced in the playoffs)

3 Ft Campbell

4 Belfry

5 O-Cath

Maybe while we are at it, we can get the KHSAA to update his coaching record for victories. I believe they have recently shorted him a season's worth of wins somewhere along the line.

With all the recognition the area got from the all-state teams this season, not to mention Russell's state title, I agree that northeastern Kentucky was pretty deep this year. Hopefully we won't have to wait 15 years for the next Ashland area state football title. Looking at the 2-deep chart in Saturday's Independent, Russell looks to reload again next season... :flame:

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!

:dancingpa

I just got home myself and would like to say it just didn't seem real...the whole thing. Once we got set up for the game, it really just seemed like a normal game. When you're working the sideline, you can kind of get lost in what's happening on the field and not have to be as concerned about the hoopla surrounding a title game. That being said, when it was over, it was very exciting to celebrate with the players and coaches on the field and take home the big gold trophy!

The Russell fans came en masse to support the team and the players picked up on that energy. We truly appreciate all the comunity support we have received these last few weeks...:thumb:

I know Russell's coaches worked very hard watching film and preparing for this. I'm sure we all want to thank our neighbors (who also run the Tony Franklin system) for their consultation with our coaches to the local teams who offered the use of their headset systems when ours were malfunctioning after the last game.

As for some of the predictions for the game, I am still looking for a good recipe for crow... D:

The two-platoon system really didn't bother our players at all. They had all played the entire game (or darn close to it) the last 5 weeks and they were well conditioned for what O-Cath tried to do. I will say I'm sure the extra timeouts helped as well, but as well as our defense played, I'm not sure it would have mattered.

Apparently, either Russell was the most physical team the Aces had played up until now or the previous opponents just took something out of them. Once the Red Devils switched to the Power-I (which is a staple of Ivan's offense, although usually not as much as tonight), O-Cath didn't seem to have an answer for it, or for Kasey Clark, who I'm guessing is a little better than the kid from DeSales. After tonight, he owns Russell's single season record with 44 TD's with 17 of those coming in the playoffs (didn't think Josh Gross' name would be removed from any of his records so quickly).

I believe this group of seniors may be leaving as the winningest team in Russell history and Coach McGlone broke the record for most seasons between titles by winning his 2nd 27 years after his 1st. Not sure that's a record one shoots for, but I'm betting he'll take it...

I thought this game would be decided by mistakes...who made them and who was able to capitalize on them. Put a check mark by O-Cath for making the mistakes and by Russell for taking advantage of them. Not covering the pooch kick to start the game, 2 straight offsides on a Russell FG attempt to set up first and goal, 2 INT's, one punt blocked. Russell converted the pooch kick to 7 points with the aid of the aforementioned penalties and also were able to convert several 4th downs to keep drives going.

As for the TD-not a TD at the back of the endzone, not sure on the call but the official was right on top of the play to make the call. Besides, the Aces shouldn't have even had that play to run except for a bad pass interference call on Tommy Brown after the pass had been tipped away by Jacob Sizemore (a tipped pass negates any interference) so I guess that may have evened out. Russell's defense stepped up, got pressure with the front 3 while dropping 8 in coverage many times and Nick Lewis came through BIG with his defensive play in place of the injured Michael Horn.

BTW, thanks to TonyDanza, RockMom, Watusi, Bert and Deuce for their hospitality at Friday night's game.

OK...I'm done now...

So the rules apply "some of the time" and there are exceptions??

I agree with you on this one. This is, IMO, THE problem with today's society, folks eager to make excuses for the unacceptable behavior of others. "It's not his fault because..." This bull has lead this country down the wrong path, seems nobody is willing to take responsibility for their actions.

One of the purported values of high school sports is to teach life lessons. What kind of lesson gets taught when breaking the rules is forgiven so the offender is allowed to play in a game??? I mean, it wasn't his fault anyway... :irked:

This is obviously the game with the most fans on BGP...8 pages already, are you kiddin' me?

Russell's record is 13-1. You can find the rest of the information at http://www.reddevilsports.com...

Ok, well I still believe it CAN be stopped, if the offense is filled with a great blocking offensive line, not many defenses can stop that... all I'm saying is that to stop the Wing-T each defensive player must play their possition, linebackers really just have to focus on reading their guards and meeting the ball at the line of scrimmage, lineman have to fight the pressure and hold their ground, while ends can't get sucked inside/stay at home/contain... the wing-t is pretty simple, the defense knows that the next offensive play will be 1 of 5 plays. I simply prefer to see other offenses, I agree that it can be very successful, but only if there is superior blocking in the trenches, a running back only has to break 1 tackle to get a huge gain.

Most of what you are saying is the same for ANY offense. If the defense only knows the play 1 out of every 5, that means they have no idea what's coming 80% of the time. Your assessment of "defensive player must play their possition, linebackers really just have to focus on reading their guards and meeting the ball at the line of scrimmage, lineman have to fight the pressure and hold their ground, while ends can't get sucked inside/stay at home/contain" leaves a large amount of room for errors and, again, the same can be said for every offense out there.

Independent school systems are basically the same as non-independent school sytems except there is only one school within the system instead of more than one. County schools also accept out of district students and schools such as Somerset, Bardstown, etc. abide by the same rules as these county school systems.

 

There are a lot of misconceptions concerning independent school systems.

Thank you for clarifying. I work in an independent system and the only difference here is we have a separate school board from the county system and one high school. I'm not sure how independent schools got lumped in with the privates...BIGGGGGGGG difference. Our school still has a defined boundary that identifies those who make up our student population.

Its not about X's & O's as much as it is about the Jimmy's & Joe's.

That holds true for any offense or defense. I was just pointing out the fact that if it was so outdated and easy to defend, I doubt De La Salle's streak would have ended when it did... :thumb:

I personally can't stand the wing-T, its actually very easy to defend when people stay at home and linebackers have proper reads on their "triangle".

You may not realize the team (Bellevue, WA) that ended De La Salle's national record winning streak (somewhere over 100 consecutive wins) ran the wing-t. I'd say it must not be too easy to defend because De La Salle is very well coached and highly disciplined.

Wow...these fans come out of the woodwork....76 post already :scared:

I don't know who I am pulling for in this game....I'll go with the catholic school just for fun :lol: :lol: :lol:

I can't believe after meeting the great TD, he would root against my team. Here I thought he was a great guy and I could count on his support seeing as he has no rooting interest in this game other than the loyalties of one of his biggest fans... :irked:

Coach McGlone is one of the best coaches in the state, and he didn't come close to losing it for Russell. It wasn't a case of Russell being vanilla in the 2nd half, but a case of Belfry making some adjustments to their defense, and taking some things away from Russell. Russell also had some bad field position for a lot of the 2nd half, and kind of forced Russell to keep it on the ground more instead of going to the air.

:thumb:

Come now, I thought women could argue a point and hold grudges much longer than that.

I know my wife can...:lol:

5 of the final 8 teams at the Pizza Box next week are private schools. Think this might raise some more eyebrows when Prop 20 discussions come about??? It's obvious this "problem" isn't going away anytime soon so will this encourage a compromise or will it change nothing? Note the quotes around problem before anybody bites my head off...:thumb:

For the Record, Kasey Clark had over 100 yards on 20 carries, Tommy Brown had around 90 on like 12 carries. This should be a great game, hopefully, Coach Morris will be able to come up with something to contain the O-Cath offense and maybe the Devils offense can eke out enough yards to survive...:thumb:

Congratulations is in order for eveyone. It was nice to see Clark's INT to seal the deal. He has made huge plays all year! It was one of the only good breaks Russell got all night. Belfry had several fumbles that resulted in big losses, if the Devils pounce on one of those the MO in the 2nd half could have easily gone back the other way. Clark caused a fumble for a 6 yard loss right before the big pass play that set up Belfry's second score. My household is still fired up about a trip to the CARPET!!!! Russell D SUPER JOB!! A Belfry fan told me that they had not been shut-out in any half this season. Anyway great win enjoy it tonight and start thinking of O-Catholic. Remember you still have 1 more WIN!!!!! We know you CAN!!! GO GET YOUR RINGS THAT Y'ALL DESERVE!!!!!!!! :devil: :fire: :ylsuper:

Stat of the night...Belfry had 8 fumbles but only lost 1. Talk about getting some good bounces...

Update on Micheal Horn (#16)

 

Dislocated left shoulder and torn ligaments in his elbow. Nothing broke, but still obviously unable to go in the State Championship Game.

I can't really comment on the injury due to confidentiality, but I will say according to hospital personnel and my own observations, the injury was confined to the elbow. He will see the doctor Tuesday following an MRI for further results.

The ticket office at the high school will be open tomorrow from 12 - 2 PM, at least that's what was posted on the front door yesterday. There will be 4 ticket windows open at the gate for the game, not sure what time they open, but imagine around 6 or so at least. Also, don't forget the RHS girls' basketball team is sponsoring a chili dinner at the middle school (right next to the stadium) from 5-7. Come early and get your parking spot, support the Lady Devils and get ready to watch a great game with what I feel will be a huge crowd. Seems everybody I talk to is going to the game and that even includes my mother who hasn't been to a Russell game in years, at least since my sister was in the band and she graduated in '98...my sister that is. Mom wouldn't like it if I told what year she graduated from dear old RHS, but let's just say it was a while before Ivan started roaming the Devils' sideline.