Mean Bird

Great game by the BIRDS. 20n10 was achieved. Defense was great all night and the offense just did what it wanted, period. Six to's makes it that much more impressive. CC had a nice team and a lot of athletes to compete, but Coach W had his defense meeting in the backfield all night long. I think LN stated before the game that he wanted the QB to beat em with his arm and not his legs. The Birds D must have heard this loud and clear all weak long as I think he may have seen the Bluebirds defenders in his sleep last night as they never let up on him. Dale stated in the paper that this was the teams best performance and I for 1 agree. The Birds heeled up and all showed up tonight. Having Com pton back was crucial. Gave the Birds the ground game that was unstoppable. Having 29 on defense was a boost as he was a leader early in the year. Putting it all together in BG was magical. 21n11 looks ready for the taking at the 4A level. Get to work boys and keep this thing rolling. Go Birds.

Coach, well said and Happy Thanksgiving to you and all the teams that get to enjoy this moment. Having done it in the past I have to agree it is special. Luckily they all get to enjoy this as opposed to having to play on this day as our Birds once had to down on Log Mountain. Uncle Dudley must of wanted more family and friends around for the holiday back then. Just kidding folks. Happy Thanksgiving to all BGP members and families. Go BIRDS 20n10!

Jim you have a solid point made and I agree that it all starts here. Additionally, I would add two things to strengthen your point and that being "buying into" and "support". Having a program be successful can only happen if you have total support for any program and the support needed to make it run. Great booster programs is a big factor and when they "buy into" what the program WANTS to achieve it all works together. Having traveled to many places over the years I have seen my fair share of programs that had lots of promise towards success but the "support" was lacking. Whether it be the community, parents, students or the administration you could just sense it was missing. I am NOT saying many programs do not have this problem, because they do not. What I am trying to point out is they seem to lack the "buying into" factor of the program they tend to support. Successful programs get peoplt to "buy into" a program by starting with the basics and build up the program from the ground up, whether it be boosters, junior leagues or community involvement. Simply put they do not seem to really be on the same page. We have seen posts recently from fans that grumble about about everything, but very few posts on ways to resolve or improve. This is usually the lack of support or lack of buying into that basically impedes a programs chance of getting to the needed levels to be a success. If you do have more people working together on the same page it is a huge boost for the programs chance of success, IMO.

I find that hard to believe. When he was at the Rock, that was a pretty darn good team. I think they may have won it all that year or the next. They had one of the best backs in the state, Reagan, at the time and a couple of really good lineman on both sides of the ball. The team played very well together as well, so I do not think he has that much more talent, IMO. Go BIRDS 20n10

Watusi and Jude very good posts. Hats off to a fine JC ballclub that put forth a great challenge for the Birds. Great job by the Birds tonight, specifically the defense in containing the JC offense to small chunks of yardage all night. Keep your eye on the goal. Go BIRDS 20n10.

I guess the use of the word "mediocre" in what the Guru has started is what is muddying the water on this topic. Do I believe this team is good or even very good, the answer is YES. On the flip side, do I think this team has flaws that stand out, again the answer is YES. By Highlands STANDARDS, this team is a notch below what we have been seeing lately, but still pretty good overall. This years team IMO seems to lack that edge that past teams have shown. I think it is a combination of things that seems to cause problems for this team at times. I'll timed penalties, poor tackling, over running lanes, not keeping on a block, route running and chemistry/leadership. All these things have popped up in many games this year and seem to aggravate the situation during a game. Past teams and esspecially the past couple did not have this many issues popping up to bite them in game situatons like this team. Injuries happen to every team and create many problems, but also many opportunities as well. Again, all this being said I still think this team can achieve the altimate goal of EVERY Highlands team and that is to WIN a state championship. They just need to come together a little better and remain focused on the task at hand. Win out and quiet the doubters. Go BIRDS.

Congrats go out to the Raiders on a hard palyed game. Your execution was very good and exposed some flaws in the Birds play. Thought the Birds did way to many things to cost them this game from the begining to the end. Poor decision on PAT and seemed to put them in a pickle the rest of the night. Birds defense needed to slow down a notch and see what was going on. Very little adjustments IMO. Over pursued their lanes, too many high body tackles or arm tackles that looked to hurt them and cost a lot of extra yardage after hits. Lots of body slammin and not wrapping up as well. Keep the faith and learn from this and now is the time to go 4-0 the rest of the way. Again, KUDOS to the Raiders. All players mentioned earned them and can't take anything away from their effort. Keep it up boys and you will have a chance. Go BIRDS.

Good game by both teams. Way to hold ground at the end Birds. Thought the complection of the game turned midway in the 2nd quarter when Compton left the game after banging his head hard on the turf around mid field. Seemed to be a concussion. Then HHS fumbles. Compton was pounding CCH to that point. After that the game plan seemed to change and passing was not in synch tonight, give CCH the credit. Second half seemed like lets get out with this win and go on, instead of the usual full throttle attack. Just my opiion. Go Birds.

Right now as good as this team has shown I can IMO only give a B+. They are making things happen, but honestly are not clicking on everything. As good as Towles has been, he still is missing the receivers on open deep routes or the receivers are not on the proper route. The ground game is good , but not smooth just yet. I would like to see more breakaway runs in yhe future. Towles needs to improve on the intermediate routes and his accuracy and it could be lights out. Defense is good and will keep improving as this is the youngest or least experienced total area IMO. Overall not far from an A but needs to get in synch consistently.

Its on Old Shelbyville Rd outside the Loop I believe. I think its right off 265

Birds put up 455 yards in offense to Boone's 104. Boone had 3 TO's to 1 for the Birds. Towles had all day to throw or run and did. Missed on a few long passes that were open. Seidl showed he has a nose for the goal line. Good win for the Birds. Boone may want to look at passing more to slow down the rush. Screens would help.

Birds played a decent game in the final 3 quarters. First quarter was ugly but it gave coaches time to evaluate Withrow and make some adjustments. HHS D was on the QB and RB almost immediately all nite and if not being outstanding athletes got alot of extra yards on their own. QB's leg strength was impressive in moving two and three tacklers forward. IMO I think spreading the field to cover this teams athletes and they had at least 5 on every play in the skill sets caused much of the openness people refer to, but the D line was all over the field with the QB. The spy adjustment helped. On offense it was similar to the Manuel game in that the pass opened the run and in this case big runs. What I saw was Withrows dline pushing upfield and their dbacks sprinting the opposite direction w/o looking back. Run or screens would have gone long all night and coaches seemed content on running. QB's stats running may have been stronger had he not been sacked for like 35 yards in first quarter. Good job and lets get ready for Boone.

CF I think it may end as 1-1. Colerain will dominate Manuel and Elder may have the same problem with Trinity's speed as it did with your Cards. Highlands could run all night on this team and did. Poor tackling killed them. Their DB's are decent and tried to take away the pass and that in turn opened the run. Did not see Trinity play the Birds in a scrimmage but was informed that the skill people are very good and going to get better, as they are young. Could be similar to Colerain's two young guys two years ago, who are now seniors. Hope for good games on both.

Go back to the OLD days at DCM when both teams were on one side of the field and split at the 50 yard line. I'm sure in todays trash talking world this would be just be a bomb waiting to go off, but it would resolve part of the problem. Remember back then you had a full track going around the field and cutting into the corners of the endzone.

Lets all agree to disagree. The fact of the matter is HHS is ranked and not one of us can change this. For HHS it is a great thing to boast about. For the naysayers, they can can moan all they want and nothing changes. HHS is one of the winningest teams all time in the NATION folks and that is going to add to their case. By the way, Male is also top ten in this category. All season long I have seen posts after the USA 25 poll from around the country about this team and that team being great and should be ranked , etc.... When you have a team win three state titles in a row, one loss in four years and playing up in class, somebody will take notice. And it doesn't hurt if you get a little PR from some or a coach who is as proud of his program and not afraid to tell the world. Congrats BIRDS on a great season and the wonderful memories. Take the ranking, whatever it is, and be proud.

Thoughts and prayers to coach S and a speedy recovery for the Holidays.

Wanted to give a big shout out to the #30 for John Hardin. After the game that young man was asked to go out and receive trophy for team. Not only did he do this, by himself. He also stood there and applauded at mid field for the Bluebirds as they received there trophy as a group and celebrated. Young man showed GREAT sportsmanship in a tough moment. Do not know his name, but if any of the JH Bulldog faithfull could give him a pat on the back, it would be well deserved. Great season BIRDS. Merry Christmas and have a safe Happy Holidays.

Well said. And I agree with you, totally.

All things thrown together, it was the perfect storm as stated. CF you are well aware of the talent levels and I agree that the D1 Ohio schools would normally and I would say 90% win these games. It is just a numbers game. Spoke to Guru after the game and stated then that HHS defense played fundamentally "night and day" better in this game than any this year. They tackled well, kept assignments and stayed in their lanes all night. X was pressured by their speed and skill and did not make major adjustments for that, and it came back to bite them. But lets not get out of touch with the reality of the whole thing. Numbers will win out in most cases, but occasionally they do not. CF keep the Cards rolling and keep the good and realistic posts coming.

Red Dog

Previous post by Clyde wanted info on why score was not more based on stats. Simple reason, poor handling of the ball. Birds lost too many TO's deep in Withrow territory and had a TD nulified by penalty that had an end result of giving the ball back on downs. Withrow could not consistently moved the ball and when you throw 62 passes in the game you should be near 300 yards. They averaged less than 19 per catch with few going deep down field all night. HHS was balanced in the attack and Tigers had little to stop them, except the turnovers.

Congrats on the win. Tigers showed a lot of moxy tonight. Birds defense needs to get its act together in a hurry. Too many missed tackles and holes that you could drive a truck through.

Great news and rest well MR. Hope to see you playing soon.

Hope fpr a speedy recovery.

Congratulations Patrick !! See you at the pool this summer.