Dino

:thumb: Let's not forget that Matney accused Ashland of running up the score against a young Sheldon Clark team a few years ago and used the game as motivation for an entire year that was capped by a huge Cardinal upset of the Tomcats the following season. I also remember an easy SC win a few years ago against one of Bill Musick's team in Paintsville in which I know that Matney called off the dogs late in the first half. Matney has never struck me as somebody who routinely runs up the score on an opponent. Nobody enjoys JC's sudden dominance over the Tigers more than me, but JC should be good enough to beat the top 1A team in the state in most years. That means that being pounded by the Golden Eagles in the Apple Bowl should not be an indicator of how Paintsville performs in the playoffs. It would be great to beat Paintsville 50-0 and then see the Tigers win a state title. That won't happen this season, but I will be pulling for Paintsville to win every game that it plays between Apple Bowls. Beating a great Paintsville team badly beats routing a weak Tigers team any day.

I am from Johnson County and I am a former Golden Eagle and I don't understand all of the talk from a handfull of JC fans about running the score up and the other trash talk posted here. It was wrong when Paintsville fans did it, and it is even more wrong when our fans do it. Johnson Central should dominate the series with Paintsville because of the huge enrollment gap. Johnson Central should win the games by wide margins in most years. Above all, Johnson Central's coaches, players, and fans should respond to success on the field with the same class that the supporters of most top notch programs around the states exhibit. I can understand fans getting carried away when responding to posts from supporters of a bitter rival, but unlike past seasons, I have not read any posts by Paintsville fans that would account for such trash talking. In fact, I have read very few posts of any kind from Paintsville football fans this season. Paintsville is in a rebuilding season this year with its third coach in as many years. In contrast, this may be JC's best team ever. There is nothing pretty about kicking a man or a team when it is down. Let's not act like a blowout win over the Tigers will be a key victory for JC this season. It won't be and it shouldn't be. Trash talking is bad enough, but trash talking by a team with JC's playoff history sounds just plain silly - particularly when directed at a small 1A team. I also hope for a lopsided margin of victory in the Apple Bowl by the Golden Eagles. However, I hope that it comes with Matney playing every man on the bench and with the freshman team scoring the last couple of touchdowns. To run up a score using one's first team late in the game is wrong, no matter who does it, and I expect that Matney will reward his young players with some playing time if he gets the opportunity.

Before the Rams knocked off the Tomcats, I would have probably picked the home team in this one. Now...it is hard to imagine that Raceland's line gave Ashland problems and that Belfry's line won't do the same. I think Ashland goes to 0-2, but it may be closer than a lot of people expect.

The best that I have seen is Paintsville's Daniel Pugh. I only saw him against Johnson Central last season and he spent most of the game running for his life. However, it was obvious that he is a very poised and athletic quarterback with a great arm. JC's defensive line just did not give him any time to find receivers.

:thumb: Thanks, NCF. Great summary! Do you have individual rushing stats?

Owens' statistics are impressive, but his problem is Knott County Central's weak schedule. Owens may not be the last player to rush for 300 yards against Jenkins this season. If Owens breaks loose for 200 yards against Sheldon Clark and Clay County it will be much more impressive than his performance against Jenkins, especially if he leads his team to wins.

I sometimes listen to the games over the phone and may be able to do post some updates myself. I appreciated your updates, but typing on a laptop while trying to watch a game just doesn't seem right. Enjoy the games and leave the laptop at home. :lol:

:thumb: I couldn't agree more. I think that it's great if two coaches agree in advance to exchange tapes if it is done to save some time and money on scouting. However, a coach may have very good reasons for wanting his staff to scout a team in person. If a coach believes that refusing to exchange tapes will give his team a competitive edge, then there is no reason that he should be villified for refusing to trade. OTOH, if a coach agrees to exchange tapes, sends scouts to watch the other team, and then reneges on his agreement, then I say piling on the coach would be justified.

I did not mean to sound critical of you, xyience. I understood what you were saying and I am sure that almost everybody else who follows Kentucky high school football did as well. Johnson Central fans get reminded of past Golden Eagles' teams' playoff performances after nearly every impressive regular season win. We would be fools to claim a non-existent state football title. Some people just like to rain on other people's parades I guess.:lol: BTW, thanks for the updates Friday night. Nice job.:thumb:

You brought up the point, I just responded to your post. I could also not care less about whether Matney wants to make a six-hour round trip to a high school media event. This seems like a pretty petty issue to me.

It seems to work pretty well for the NKY teams. BTW, Warren Central is only a couple hours north of Louisville (1-1/2 hrs. closer than JC is to Louisville). Has Trinity ever played WC or Ben Davis? It would be interesting to see how the 'Rocks would fare against one of the top programs in the country if they could persuade WC to schedule them.

Maybe Matney deserved the criticism last seeason as well, NCF, but the expectation of professionalism cuts both ways. Publicly airing one's complaints about a coach in a high school sports forum did not seem like an appropriate way for a journalist to handle what was essentially a problem at work. The thread has not been archived, so you should be able to find it if you want to review it. It's not a big deal, but I have no idea what the tone of the communication between the reporter and Matney was last year. Nor do I know what the fallout from that issue was. All I know is that Matney and his Sheldon Clark team always conducted themselves with class when they played the Golden Eagles, both in Paintsville and Inez. (Although a few of SC's fans got a little out of hand following a home loss to JC one year.)

Is that expectation part of the contract that JC signed? If so, then you have a case. If not, then maybe the CV organizers should amend the contract terms.

If the newspaper guy to whom you refer is the same one who used this forum to rake Matney over the coals last season for not sending him a roster in a timely manner, Matney may have been paying him back. I am not justifying what Matney did or did not do, but I am not so sure that anybody commenting on this issue is aware of all of the facts. Sheldon Clark played Johnson Central many times while Matney coached the team and I don't recall him being involved in any off field controversies at all. If Matney has been less than cooperative with the folks involved with the Cumberland Valley Bowl, maybe there is a reason for his actions of which none of us are aware. I don't think that it is fair to condemn Matney for something without having all of the facts and I doubt that Coach Matney is going to sign up with BGP and present a defense.

Paintsville to Columbus 182 miles! I am not sure if you were trying to make a point or just reenforcing my point. In any case, here are travel directions from MapQuest: Paintsville to Columbus, Ohio 177 miles Paintsville to Louisville, KY 190 miles Paintsville to Cincinnati, Ohio 202 miles The trips to Louisville and Cincy include more interstate miles, so there is not really much difference in travel time to the three cities. I am not that familiar with Ohio football, so I don't know how many potential JC opponents there are outside of Columbus and Cincy. I suspect that there are many strong programs in south central and southeastern Ohio that are closer to Paintsville than Louisville. And I said before, as JC continues to improve its program, it would be an attractive opponent for a strong Ohio program because of that state's playoff qualification system.

I don't see what the big deal is about over whether coaches agree or don't agree to trade video. If coaches want to exchange film, fine. If one coach believes that withholding film gains his team an edge, more power to him. It makes sense to exchange film because I assume that it reduces expenses for both schools involved, but I have never seen it as an issue of sportsmanship or "class." If Matney chooses to exchange film with some coaches but not others, for whatever reason, I have absolutely no problem with his decision. Nor do I have any problem if other coaches refuse to exchange films with JC. It's their call, IMO, and either decision is equally acceptable. If I recall, there was a big pubic flap over JC not providing a roster or not providing it quickly enough to satisfy a certain reporter before last season's game. Maybe Matney was not as forthcoming with information this season because of the public attacks that were made against him and the school last season. I also agree that it is pretty petty to criticize Matney for not making the long trip for media night. Did anybody consider asking him to participate via a speakerphone or video?

You are correct. JC has never won a state title. In fact, the school has never won a regional title either. However, I assume when the Golden Eagles win their first state title, some hardware would come back with them to Paintsville. I believe that is what xyience meant. "Bring the state title home to eagleville" might have been a better way to phrase it. I thought the meaning of his post was fairly clear even if the wording was a bit imprecise.

So, Johnson Central threw all over the field against Belfry instead of playing like they did in a real game Friday night? One of JC's top rushers on Friday night did not run the ball in the Belfry scrimmage. Yet, we are asked to believe that Johnson Central approached the scrimmage like it was the Super Bowl, but it was just a normal practice for Belfry. I am sorry, but it just does not sound like Matney approached the scrimmage like a game. It does sound like he used the opportunity to see how hs new QB might do slinging the ball against a real defense and perhaps to give North Laurel, JC's first real opponent, something besides the Golden Eagle's running game to worry about. I don't know how Matney has used scrimmage games in the past. I will acknowledge that some past JC coaches have placed too much emphasis on "winning" preseason scrimmages. I think that Matney is too good a coach to show all of his cards during a practice session, but there is no way to know how a game between Belfry and JC would go if they met in a real game this season. I think that Matney went to the air against Belfry because he wanted to give a green quarterback some experience against a quality team and keep part of his ground game under wraps. In other words, I don't think that Matney's approach to the game was much different than Haywood's.

I am sorry that my questions were not more clear. You compared the time that it took Matney to reach the playoffs at Sheldon Clark to Sean Hager's playoff success after he took over the job. The question that I attempted to ask was what kind of program did Jim Matney have when he took over the job as a young, inexperienced head coach at Sheldon Clark? How many parents of his prospective football players had even played the sport in high school? How many people in the school system's administration had ever played the game? Did Sheldon Clark have a strong football tradition, or was Martin County known better for its rich basketball tradition? Your implication seemed to be that Sean Hager has accomplished more in less time at Sheldon Clark than Jim Matney did. My recollection is that Matney is the person most responsible for Sheldon Clark's rise to respectability as a football school and that Coach Hager was a beneficiary of Matney's hard work. I mean no slight to Coach Hager, but building a program almost from scratch at a school that was formed by two schools who never fielded football teams was quite an accomplishment, whether or not it took Matney 10 years to field a playoff team. Johnson Central's football program went through the same kind of growing pains. The early years of the program were characterized by a long steady stream of short-term coaches. Some of them had little or no head coaching experience, and some (Ed Vanhoose, for example) had enjoyed good success elsewhere. What they had in common was an impatient administration that expected a new coach to instantly create a respectable football program. That finally changed after JC stuck with Bill Musick following a 0-10 campaign in his first year on the job. (Following a 1A state runner-up run at Evarts.)

Johnson Central is just as capable at taking a beating from Columbus Bishop Watterson as Covington Catholic is - and almost as likely to come home with a win!:lol: I think that if it is laughable to mention JC in the same breath as Highlands and CovCath, it is equally as laughable to mention those two teams in the same breath as the top Ohio teams. The Ohio teams play good Kentucky teams for their potential win totals. I don't profess to understand the Harbin points system, but my guess is that JC is probably every bit as an attractive AAA opponent to the good Ohio teams as anybody else in Kentucky. The Ohio powers do not schedule teams from Kentucky because they expect to lose.

No need to roll your eyes. The application of a smiley face emoticon at the end of my post should have been enough to tip you off to the tongue-in-cheek nature of my post. I wouldn't mind seeing JC make one three or four hour trip to play a top team, whether in Louisville or Columbus, but I would prefer seeing that money being spent closer to home. JC is not a wealthy system and taking 60+ players, plus coaches, equipment, etc., is pretty expensive, especially with current gas and diesel prices. A few years ago, JC was moved up to 4A and its average district road trip was more than 2 hours and 15 minutes. Putting bus loads of players on the highway repeatedly for such long trips does not make sense if it can be avoided. It isn't fair to the players or their supporters and it needlessly increases the odds of the team being involved in a serious accident.

Do that. Check your map and get back to me.:lol: I grew up in the Columbus area and I regularly drive to eastern Kentucky through Louisville on I-65/I-64 and Cincy on I-74/I-75/I-64. There are many people on this board who know football better than me, but I don't need a map to know how long it takes to drive from Johnson County to Louisville, Cincy, and Columbus. You are correct about the level of football played in Ohio and that was my point. Those whose teams compete in Louisville, Lexington, and NKY tend to look down on teams from eastern Kentucky, just as the top teams in Ohio look down upon the NKY teams. It is always best to understand that no matter how good you think your team is and no matter how much success they have had in Kentucky's playoffs, there is almost always a team north of the Ohio River waiting to deliver a good whoopin' to them. If it makes you feel good to belittle JC because it has never played in the state finals, then by all means do it. I hope that if Johnson Central ever does win a state title that their players and fans will maintaing some sense of perspective about them.

Johnson Central can take the team to Columbus or Cincy in about the same time that it takes to drive a bus to Louisville. If JC plans to compete with Highlands and CCH in the future, they might as well play the same Buckeye teams that beat up on Kentucky's current AAA state powers nearly every time they meet.

How did the program that Matney took over compare to the one that he left to Sean Hager? Was Hager not on Matney's coaching staff, or did he train under another head coach? I agree that the consolidation of the Inez and Warfield middle schools should help Sheldon Clark at the high school level. Having the high school and middle school on the same campus has been a big advantage for JC.

I seem to recall reading on BGP that Matney was quoted last year as saying that he would like to drop the Paintsville game. I hope that does not happen, but the outcome of the game is beginning to get pretty predictable with Matney coaching JC. In the past, the outcome of the game was a shock to fans as often as not. Matney has taken some of the suspense out of the game. Matney will continue to work to upgrade Johnson Central's schedule, whether or not he has to go out of the area to find strong opponents. With Ohio's Harbin rating system, I would not be surprised to see him schedule some stronger Ohio teams in the future - but Ironton can't play every team in eastern Kentucky.:lol: