jbwill2

I read some comments in another thread regarding the BGP preseason rankings. Will these be rankings by class, as in previous years, or a statewide ranking?

CalPreps has released some of their information regarding preseason statewide rankings, and it seems that they have Highlands preseason no. 1 in all of Kentucky. This should get some folks in Louisville talking! Go 'Birds! Click: sneak peak, then click: sneak peak at preview, then click Kentucky: http://www.calpreps.com/

Heck, I actually voted for the "over" in this poll... I am just saying that it's going to be a tall order for HHS to go 14-1 or 15-0 in 2008... FYI, I am expecting the team to do exactly that!

Oh Lord yes it matters how many games the team wins in 2008!!!!!!!

Wow... 14 or 15 wins!!! That's asking a lot, given that they play Cincy Colerain at Colerain, plus an improved CovCath team, a LexCath team with a talented returning QB and a Central team with a talented, experienced defense. You gotta figure that most likely the Colerain game is going to be a loss, so that leaves room for NO OTHER losses.

How about Christian County? I thought I heard that they could challenge BG and JH for "best team (5A) out west."

On a related note, it was recently reported that a large black van containing several men thought to be assistant coaches was seen pulling out of Dale Mueller's driveway earlier today. Apparently, the van had a sign saying, "Gone to California, will be back in a week." It seems that the mini-QB controversy at HHS between Guidugli and Bardo has been solved!

One thing's for sure: kudos to Mueller for going out of his way to ensure that on a fairly consistent basis (i.e. yearly) his team plays games against "better" squads... I suspect that if he wanted to, Dale could set up some schedules that would ensure no worse than a 9-1 regular-season record every year (the one game in doubt being CCH). The fact that this year HHS is playing defending 4A state champ LexCath, defending 3A state champ Central, 6A Ryle, 6A Madison Central and Cincy powerhouse Colerain speaks volumes about Dale and HHS.

In another thread, someone commented about the heights and weights of some of the players being "inflated." This got me to thinking... do programs/coaches routinely "inflate" the heights/weights of their players? If so, why? What purpose does it serve??? It seems like, if anything, a coach would want to under-report his players' sizes in the hopes of tricking the opponents into thinking that the players are smaller/weaker than they actually are. The only gain I can see in "inflating" the numbers would be to draw attention to the kids from college scouts. What's the deal?

The previews are great! I think the 5A preview is especially thorough and insightful! One "correction" for the 6A preview... in Trinity's write-up the preview stated that Trinity was the only KY school to finish the year ranked nationally. Actually, Highlands was ranked 21st nationally in the final 2007 MaxPreps poll. Trinity was ranked higher than the 'Birds in that poll, however (you knew I was anal about this kind of stuff when it comes to my Bluebirds!!!!!!!). Well done BGP staff... now I can't wait to see your preseason class rankings!

I think that you really have to take a good look at the current talent level at a school, just as much (if not more) than how they did last year. Cases in point: 1. Highlands in 2005 was nowhere near the team they were in 2004 when they won state. The talent level and experience level were much different; 2. CovCath in 2007 was clearly not at the same level as they were the previous year when they won state. Going from beating Highlands twice in a matter of a few weeks (the second game being a double-digit win) to going 0-2 against them (including a 40-0 drumming) the next year pretty much sums it up.

OK... it doesn't HAVE to be just one or two things...!

... what ONE or TWO things would you like to see happen this year in KY prep football??? (Please, make it something positive and not something like seeing your most hated rival team go 0-10.) For me, I will say two things... 1. I hope that Holmes does well this year. They missed the playoffs last year, playing in a tough district with Highlands, CovCath, Dixie Heights and Scott. I wish the best for Holmes' coach and I know that this coaching job is a difficult one to handle. 2. I hope that Bell County wins 4A this year. I like it when EKY teams do well in football, given the rich history of prep football in that part of the state. Now that Bell County is no longer competing with Highlands, I can feel free to cheer them on to a state title! They came up just a bit short last year.

Now that the Class 5A preview has been released by BGP, let's have a vote to see which 5A team you predict BGP will rank as number 1 in its first (preseason) poll. NOTE: This is not a vote about which team you think will be the best heading into the season, but rather which team BGP will rank first. It will be interesting to compare how teams fare in this poll to how BGP actually ranks them in a few weeks!

Cheating is clearly anything that formally breaks the rules of play. Anything less than that is not cheating. To me, issues of gamesmanship and sportsmanship involve etiquette between the competitors, and does not extend to the teams' fan bases, bands or student bodies. I think that stuff like hitting players when they're down after a play is over or cursing other players demonstrates a lack of sportsmanship. Issues like using breakaway jersies (before they were banned) are not poor sportsmanship, they are issues of creativity. If one considers making creative use of the game's rules as wrong, then I suppose it's not proper to run trick plays like fake handoffs or flea-flickers.

Of course, it's very well written! After reading this preview, it does make me a bit concerned about HHS' kicking game for 2008. I get the sense from this write-up that kick-offs/XPs/FGs will not be a strong point for the 'Birds this year. At least it sounds like the punting game will be pretty solid. Also, I find it interesting that the preview presents the starting QB situation at HHS as pretty much a "done deal," with Guidugli set to start. I have heard from other BGP'ers along the way that this was not fully settled yet... I wonder what the reality actually is... Overall, the team sounds like it will have a nice mix of SRs and JRs, which should bode well for 08 AND 09... here's hoping HHS is headed towards a "three-peat" in 5A!!!!

I don't think that Highlands plays against more talented teams on a consistent enough basis to develop any trends. I'd say that year in and year out, there are only a very few number of KY teams that are better than the 'Birds... unless HHS were playing Trinity, Louisville Saint Xavier or Male every year it's doubtful that they would consistently run into a KY team that's "better" than they are (they do play several teams that are comparable, like LexCath and CovCath). But in terms of teams that are just plain better than HHS, there just aren't many at all in KY that are. Hence, a lot of HHS' recent losses coming to Ohio competition.

I can understand why the casual observer may make the assumption that HHS has had some difficulties with top-tier teams under the current coach. Prior to Coach Mueller coming to HHS, the 'Birds rarely played Ohio teams. Since arriving, Mueller likes to schedule a game against one of the Ohio powers every year (with a few exceptions). Usually, the game HHS plays against these Ohio teams is in a big venue (like in PBS as part of the i-Wireless Fox 19 Classic or in the Herbie) which really attracts the attention. Prior to this past year HHS under Coach Mueller had not beaten one of these Ohio teams, although there were certainly some very close tries! I think all of this added up to the notion that HHS under Mueller couldn't win the games against top-tier (Ohio) competition. With how HHS did against a very talented Trotwood-Madison team last year, I'd say that following that victory up with a win against Cincy Colerain at Colerain this year would definitely shut everybody up! Make it happen!

Does anyone know if the final score was 14-6 or 14-8? I'm very curious! I thought it was 14-8.

Was the final score 14-6 or 14-8? According to some information I have that I used for http://www.highlands-bluebirds.com, the final was 14-8. Was it actually 14-6???

Dale Mueller coached in Ohio prior to coming to HHS. I don't know how he fared against the Cincy schools then, but at HHS I think it's safe to say that it's been "close but not cigar." He lost by 1 point to Moeller back in 1997, by 7 points to Elder in 2000 and by 3 points to Elder in 2006. There have been some other games that were not very close. He hasn't beaten a Cincy team since being at HHS, to my knowedge.

What seems to be the biggest weak spot (if one even exists) for Trinity this year? Is it lack of a veteran QB? Something tells me it's not the coaching!!!!!

Also, I have heard that CovCath was a better team than Highlands in 2005, yet HHS beat CovCath at CovCath to win the district that year. CovCath then went on to give LexCath a big scare down in Lexington, after which LexCath shut out HHS 17-0 at HHS a week later en route to winning state. Another game that sticks out is the Highlands-Mason County regional final game in 2003, which HHS won by a TD. That Mason County team was very talented, with stars Lofton and Grutza (among others) on the squad. I don't know which team was "better," but both teams were comparable I'd say. Yet another game was the 1998 contest between Male and Highlands, which HHS won by 10. Male then went on to win Class 4A. I'm not sure how good Male was compared with HHS (this was Lorenzen's senior year), but they did go on to win the state's big-class title. Still another game could be the 1996 HHS-Louisville Saint X game. I have no idea how good Saint X was this year, but the game was close (within one TD) and Saint X rarely puts a bad product on the field. I will say that there have been enough games between Mueller's Highlands and first-tier teams like Cincy Elder, Cincy Moeller and Columbus DeSales which have been barely lost by HHS to give the impression that Mueller/HHS usually lose games against superior/equal talent. One thing to keep in mind is Mueller's outstanding W/L record against CovCath, a program with a strong talent base and history.

Specifically, what were the two rule changes?

Tick, tock... tick, tock baby!