OldCamelNewBird

I saw the first non-pancake at 2:15. Pretty darn impressive...

Come on now... last year, SK handily lost to Dixie, who got blown out by Trinity. I appreciate your optimism for SK, but they can barely touch the top 5 in 6A. You really think they can hang with Male, Trinity, St. X, etc?

#1 in NKY really doesn't mean much when you are consistently nationally ranked in the top 25.

Highlands has won state in 8 out of the last 10 years... They have #1 locked down.

I'm wondering if they could back-fill the hill behind the field house to gain some more space. I haven't gotten a close look back there, so I don't know how much of the real estate is still available (if any).

Will the game be televised?

I do not see this as a discipline issue at all. Actually, if you ask me, the birds were extremely disciplined in the game against Elder. I don't recall a single flag in the first half. That's pretty darn impressive. On another note, there are two possibilities for me here when considering the current state of the season and the corresponding record (2 losses so far). 1. This is simply an average year for Highlands. 2. The FL team and Elder were just better teams. I'm convinced it's a combination of both options. Though there are a few star players, this doesn't seem to be a year that Highlands dominates at every position like we've seen in some years past. There are some weak spots, but I don't personally think this will have an effect on the run to another state title. These weaknesses seem to show up when you play teams that are similar to the birds when it comes to tradition and history of putting good teams on the field. Highlands will be just fine in the playoffs and state, which I fully expect them to achieve. Additionally, I'm not sure what's up with the green socks. IMO, that's a player and/or parent problem. I consider myself relatively young, but when I played, wearing colors that didn't go along with the uniform didn't even cross my mind. Even if it did, I like to think my parents would have stepped in and corrected me. With that being said, I still don't think it's a huge deal.

I can't imagine a situation where the camels score more than 14. They have definitely improved with Lickert at the helm, but this one shouldn't be close. Highlands has too many weapons on offense. I'm thinking HHS 35, CCHS 7.

Will this be broadcast anywhere like the Trinity scrimmage was?

They looked pretty good from where I was sitting. I noticed pressure coming immediately through the guard and center area consistently. That was one of the items I was eluding to in my review.

I stand corrected. Either way, the kid looks good.

If I recall correctly, Will Bardo, Houliston, and Gino were some guys who only had one year as a starter. I'd say it worked out pretty well for them. I agree that three years is better than one, but he wouldn't have received nearly the same instruction at another school as he did at Highlands.

That's a good problem to have, I'd say.

From what I remember, they both hit his hands. One of them came on a beautiful throw from Hoge that went through 3 or 4 defenders and found Veneman. It looked like it caught him off guard that the ball got there untouched. I think he was expecting to have to react to a tipped ball. I think it's actually the opposite. From what I saw, he holds onto the ball as long as possible in the pocket and just needs to get rid of it because no one is open. He showed that he can outrun some defenders, he obviously has some good speed, but when you're rotating your body 270 degrees with a defensive end baring down on you at a straight line, you're going to get caught 9 out of 10 times. Don't get me wrong, I like his scrambling ability when pressured and the pocket closes, but he needs to realize that it is sometimes better to fall down or throw the ball away than lose 15 yards trying to avoid defenders.

So here is what I saw tonight: Trinity is a well disciplined team, they will be a force this year. Highlands O-line needs some work. There were way too many defenders in the backfield as soon as the ball was snapped, disrupting the passing plays. It was 14-0 when I arrived, so I can't speak about what happened before then. But at that point, I didn't get the impression that Trinity was overly dominant over Highlands, although the score didn't indicate that. Based on personal experience, Weinrich uses practices and scrimmages to get better, it's not about winning. I put more weight on how well things were executed than points on the board. Trinity will have no problem moving the ball, they can run, pass, and kick very well as they showed us tonight. Veneman was very fast! He dropped a couple of passes in the endzone that should have been caught. I'm sure that won't happen going forward. Additionally, Hoge underthrew him on a few deep throws. When these two figure out timing, they are going to be fun to watch. Highlands running game is not as good as it has been in prior years, but the read-option worked very well during the scrimmage. Hopefully they will be doing more of that in the regular season. Hoge needs to throw the ball away more. He is losing a whole lot of yardage when he runs backwards while scrambling. One play, I think he lost about 20 yards. That will not fly. Both teams will make a run at state this year. They will be very solid teams at the end of the season.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Dixie Chili in Newport!

A coach can only do so much. At some point, it comes down to the players executing their assignments.

Weinrich is a brilliant defensive coach; a perfect counterpart to Dale. Dale does have a way of getting the players motivated. They don't get much better than these two. As mentioned before, when you talk to either of them, it's like they're talking about their own kids rather than just players.

Who is Butler and when did they enter the scene?

I played in that game. Awesome atmosphere and awesome weather. I'm glad I could be apart of it. Grutza was a darn good QB, I do remember that.

I played at Highlands from 2000 to 2004, so I've had a much more recent perspective as opposed to the pre-Dale era. 1. Dale is a great motivator during training. He stresses being the first one into the lift, doing decline reps when your arms are shot, setting the bar higher than you might even set it for yourself, etc. If I was slacking, he would always notice, and tell me that I should have been in the higher-up running group than I was. Most of all, HE RAN WITH US. To see your leader out there, old enough to be your father, busting his chops with you, you realize that the team is in this thing together. 2. All Highlands players want to carry on the winning tradition. All I ever thought about while playing in the JFBL was being the best team ever to come through the system. I wanted to impress previous Highlands players, I wanted our team to be remembered, and everybody else on the team did too. 3. The competitive nature of Highlands players is incredibly high. We expect to win at everything, whether that be beating out the guy next to you in a sprint, benching more than everybody else at your position, or even being the first one to get to the water troth. We pushed each other to get better. If one of us fell down, the other picked them up. 4. Probably the biggest "secret" to success was being able to weed out the "bad eggs". If guys were out doing things that they weren't supposed to, players really looked down upon them. Guys who were getting in trouble or doing these bad things were isolated and eventually left the team. We had a job to get done and there was never any room for slackers or guys who would pull you down. When I was playing football at Highlands, I would sometimes get the question, "What do you do?" and I would respond, "I'm a Highlands football player". All of my teammates really bought in to the work ethic of the Highlands program. There was no such thing as going half way. We really identified with being Highlands football players and being proud of it. That is how I describe the success of the Highland program while I was there.

It will be hard to compare this team to any prior Bluebird team due to the extremely weak schedule.... I have never seen anything like this before.

What time is the kick off this evening?

I just bet it might be perfect.

This was one of the best games I have ever seen tonight. Words cannot express the joy that I feel for our birds. I am very proud. This one wasn't even close.