letabrotherspeak

Impressive defensive performance from Ryle. I have a feeling Cooper is going to lay in the weeds for a while and cause some problems for people come tournament time.

Holy Cross is definitely turning some heads. It is hard to see Holmes ahead of them at this stage. This region is between Covington Catholic and NCC. Dixie will be in the next group and I think Cooper will be heard from as well. You can throw the rest into a hat.

Holmes is the third best team in the district right now and at this stage they really shouldn't be in the region discussion, but it is only mid-December. Two things that they are struggling with right now is half court defense and perimeter shooting. That is not a good combination. Teams are focusing on Bolden and forcing him to pass the ball to teammates and at this point they are not making shots from the perimeter with any sort of consistency and not getting many second chance points. Lloyd is average at best and there point guard is pretty good, but very average elsewhere. Holmes has to get way better in transition defense and in the half court. They are letting way too many drives to the basket. The Bulldogs 1-2-2 got them back into the game forcing Lloyd into turnovers and turning them into points. I liked the play of Commodore off the bench for Holmes, he does a really good job of distributing the basketball. Holmes has plenty of time to get things corrected. In a sense that is to be expected, especially when you lose the size they lost with Hill and Chames which converted missed shots into points and were there to protect the basket.

The best thing that my kids enjoyed was the Museum of Science and Industry. There were many interactive things to do, which was great for kids and was fun for adults. I highly recommend this place. It would be the #1 thing to see with kids in my opinion. The Field Museum is pretty neat to see, and has the dinosaur "Sue" inside, but M of S&I is better for kids. Both take some time to see all of the exhibits so you will need to plan accordingly. We enjoyed just walking up and down the Magnificent Mile. There is a big Lego Land close to the Magnificent Mile, I believe. I'm not a big fan of the Navy Pier. It is a tourist trap in my opinion. Depending on the weather, Millennium Park is really cool to walk around. The have Cloud Gate there with look like a giant mirrored bean. Lou Manalti's is good. I am partial to Giordano's. If there is a decent wait at any of the pizza places, go ahead and place your order when you arrive, especially if you are getting a deep dish pie. It takes about 40 minutes for them to bake it. I would see what sites are close to where you are staying and go from there. My family and I really enjoy Chicago, but my wallet doesn't.

Big XII hurt themselves by not having a conference championship. You gotta love Art Briles's passion and he makes a good case. It was idiotic to have Co-Champs when Baylor won the head to head contest. I think it will be Bama, Oregon, FSU and Ohio State. Having Ohio State eliminates the Big XII debate entirely.

55 points is a lot of points if one team held the ball for over 10 minutes of the game. If I were guessing, Holmes had the lead and GRC sat back in a zone. From what I understand, GRC is a really big team. Holmes on the other hand is a pretty quick team. Hence, Holmes has the lead or at least tied. GRC packs in the zone, so Holmes pulls it out to force GRC to play man to man or at least come out of the zone?

Henry Clay has a decent team, but the game simply boiled down to Holmes's lack of defensive effort in the second half. It was ugly. In the last few years they could get away with gambling a little bit because they could funnel players into shot blockers of Chames and Hill. They do not have that luxury anymore. They didn't contain dribblers and rotations were non-existent. Plus, they were beaten down the floor in transition. On defense, Henry Clay had some length at the guard spot and would run doubles at Bolden to force him to give up the ball and then would face guard him with others getting regular man to man treatment. Often times the ball would not return to him and others were forced to try and make plays. Holmes is really going to miss Chames and Hill this year. Avery has improved but he is not the physical presence that Chames was or one that Hill developed into.

I believe I read somewhere that UK has shifted some and is now recruiting more kids along the Atlantic coast. Supposedly, there is a big dip in talent all throughout the midwest the next couple of years, OH, IN and IL. Nor sure if that is true, but I thought I read there are more 4-5 star kids in Virginia than in OH, IL, IN combined or something like that.

This team is flat whipped mentally and physically. They don't have much left in the tank and the bye could not come at a better time. What is showing up at this point of the season is lack of depth. You see it at the start with special teams, but as this season has worn on, you see it on the lines and on defense. UK is too thin and too many key positions. They need bigger and better bodies on the OL and and at LB. Their secondary is not very good at this time. They are playing a lot of young kids and they have hit that proverbial wall. Excuses aside, you have to question a few things. The tackling or lack thereof is alarming and has been for most of the year. Offensively, they have no rhythm. As bad as the defense has been, I have been very disappointed with Neal Brown. The game plan versus Missouri was a disgrace. Plus, they have become predictable. Why they do not throw the ball to the middle of the field/seam is beyond me. The offense has not helped the defense. If they don't get anything positive on first down, it becomes a mountain to climb to get a first down. It has been a disheartening close to the season after feeling we were on the cusp after the SC game. There is one more chance to get that 6th win.

They only have one scrimmage?

Who does CCH scrimmage this year?

Double post.

Ashland was the better team and was the heavy favorite going in and they won going away. My only objection to what was written was that it seemed like Holmes was made out to be the perpetrator of all of the events from the game. I only stated an opposing view. No one can condone the issue of the player that was ejected and that I would imagine it will be dealt with. To exonerate Ashland of any wrong doing is a bit facetious. The Holmes staff extended the courtesy a week in advance that their starting QB would be wearing a different number because his jersey had to be cut off during a game earlier this year when he suffered an injury. Why didn't the Ashland staff extend the same courtesy? I mentioned that there were at least two players with different jerseys of the Ashland starters and most on here just focused one the one player when in fact there were two. Again, Holmes extended the common courtesy of their number change yet Ashland did not. I'm sure that Holmes figured out who Baker and the linebacker was once the game started, but during warmups they probably were trying to figure out who was who. If Ashland was so innocent why did members of their game operations come up to the Holmes staff and apologize for their players actions? With all of this being said, best of luck to Ashland as they advance in the playoffs.

As for Holmes getting to the game late, the bus driver got lost and took a wrong turn somewhere on the way. That resulted in them getting there late. Ashland had a few players dressed in different numbers then they had worn all season long. One was the Baker kid and one other was a linebacker. What purpose did this serve? Ashland was not going to need any trickery to win this game. During the game the Holmes staff was complaining to the referees about some extra curricular that was taking place after plays but the referees said they were not observing anything. Then after a play in second half an Ashland player kicked #52 for Holmes in the head as he laid on the ground and buckled him again. The referee claims that he didn't see it. At this point the coach called timeout and walked to the center of the field and is gonna defend his players and team taking cheap shots that they tried to address earlier in the game. He went to talk to the head referee during the timeout. He didn't walk to the Ashland sideline and to be exact the Ashland coach came onto the field. Coach Nevels pointed at the coach and exclaimed that his player had kicked his guy in the head. The Ashland coach fired back something to the effect as to "what are you going to do about it?" At this point the officials had pretty much lost control of the game. As for the ejection there was a scrum that occurred and a Holmes kid bumped into the official during the scrum. He didn't punch or hit the official. It was a chippy game that the officials didn't take control of and it got out of hand. After the game, several Ashland fans/boosters who were on the Holmes sideline came up to members of the Holmes staff and apologized for the actions of some of their players actions and that it was not representative of the teams that they traditionally field. So in all, it seemed like Coach Nevels was defending his players in something that they tried to address during earlier parts of the game that went unaddressed by the officials. After his player got deliberately kicked in the head, it was enough. I seriously doubt that Coach Nevels is going anywhere. Holmes got hammered a few times this year and and in games that were worse score-wise than this game and there was nothing near extra-curricular like there was tonight. They are having to work through a cycle of two years where the previous coach neglected freshman and sophomore classes. They will get better and having Highlands and Covington Catholic moving up helps.

36 gets you to a running clock.

The Bulldogs fought hard but just don't have enough bodies. They are down to roughly 27 players and something along the lines of only about 4 seniors. This is the last group of players that were negatively impacted the Terry Liggin staff that more or less neglected this senior class when they were freshman and into their sophomore years. They played very few freshman and even JV games and simply were not developed, therefore never developed numbers. They have a nice sized junior class and their freshman class shows some promise but more importantly size. They had 2-3 seniors quit and that has limited them offensively. Hats off to the seniors who continue to battle each and every day as well as the rest of the team. They took it to CovCath right off the bat and forced them to take a timeout to gather themselves, but a holding penalty killed any momentum. Andrew Arnold is a really nice player and played well tonight. Quite a few freshman show action in the game tonight. As for CovCath, if this is the team that was hyped up during the summer and earlier this year, then the expectations were a little too high. They do not look too good against the run and with their size it seems like they really want to be a spread throwing team when personnel would dictate a more run oriented offense. Not sure how good Johnson Central is, but they will have their work cut out trying to stop their run game.

McConnell is who he is, a statesman. He is not going to be easily flustered and is pretty straight forward with a monotone delivery. Grimes did OK, but she lacks substance and didn't seem real specific. She was at an extreme experience disadvantage and in a debate like this you need something to differentiate yourself from the veteran. You have to be dynamic and specific. I don't think she came across as that. Coal and ObamaCare are losing issues for Grimes. She is at the mercy of her party with those issues. She knows they are losing issues. Heck, she will not admit that she voted for Obama, that is how toxic it is position wise for her. Minimum wage hurt her. Just like ObamaCare hurt employees with companies cutting hours from 40 to 32, you will see reduced hiring with a minimum wage increase. Grimes did OK, McConnell had no major errors. I thought the moderator did pretty well, but he did dabble too much into a state's issue with ObamaCare follow up questions.

You score 34 points you should win the game. Run defense is the issue for the Bengals. I thought getting Burfict back would help but they are getting beat at the point of attack. The DL has to step up and stop the run game. Dalton takes a lot of heat but his one pick was as he was getting hit. He would be helped immensely if the Bengals could establish any sort of consistent run game. If he becomes one dimensional, it will not be pretty. He was out there today with roughly without his #1 and #2 receiver to start. Overall, a pretty solid game for him. He led them on a drive and put it on a platter to win, but Nugent blew it.

The Bengals/NFL help out a lot of schools that are putting in turf fields. From what I understand, if you can show that you have 75-80% percent of the needed funds accounted for your renovation of field or complex, then you can apply for a grant/donation and the Bengals/NFL will complete the rest. I believe this is more common than what many believe. Holmes is embarking on a campaign through the Tom Ellis Foundation in trying to raise funds for a new turf field, track, scoreboard and other items at Holmes Stadium. From what I gather, if they hit a certain benchmark in fundraising then they can appeal to the Bengals/NFL for money to close the deal. They really need to upgrade the playing field at Holmes and other areas around the stadium, including a new track and so forth.

Scott has a nice team and the single wing offense is fun to watch. Coach Woolley has done a nice job developing that program. They are huge up front and have some nice backs. Holmes had some chances early but a bad snap took them out of a good drive and a poorly thrown ball into coverage in the endzone really hurt them. The only way they were going to hang around with Scott was putting up points and by the time they started moving the ball they were too far behind. Andrew Arnold if he applied himself could be a D1 player. He is a nice looking player for Holmes.

Holmes probably should have won this game by 4 touchdowns. They had two pretty pass plays that #6 Vickers dropped which would have gone for touchdowns. One was a long pass in which he had gotten behind the defense and Brumfield led him perfectly, but dropped. Another was a nice play call on 4th and short where Holmes faked a quick pass and Brumfield hit Vickers in stride behind the defense but went through his hands. You get those two scores and I think it is a different game. Holmes has to eliminate their turnovers. They would get some positive momentum on offense and then put the ball on the ground. Same thing happened against NCC in their scrimmage. I saw #4 for Holy Cross on the sideline who is not eligible to play yet at Holy Cross. The name escapes me but he played at Holmes last year. I believe he is a sophomore. I heard he had a brother on Holmes team and they live in the same house. I'm not 100% positive on this, but one brother is playing for Holmes and the other is trying to gain eligibility at Holy Cross?

How did this thread never make it to the "Classic" tab?

When you have a shortfall of around 350k dollars going into the next school year, heads will roll. The word last week was that their forecast of enrollment numbers for next year was really low. Any chance they get booted from the NKAC?

We are headed to Litchfield Beach (Pawley's Island) in July, which is just south of MB. I plan on hitting up the Dockside Seafood House in Calabash, NC. Vaguely remember going there when I was a kid. I hear it is still excellent and reasonably priced.

Marty B read his annual Mother's Day poem before the game. It is fantastic, but I have not been able to locate the name of it. Anyone out there with a link?