Landshark

1 Trinity 2 CovCath 3 Bowling Green 4 Mercer County 5 Ryle 6 Russell 7 Danville 8 NCC

Sorry, but the "life isn't fair" phrase is not garbage. Being an American is all about taking advantage of opportunities and overcoming adversity. The same goes for creating a good football program. Metropolitan areas do enjoy certain advantages over rural districts, but that just makes state championships by teams like Belfry and Bourbon County all the more sweet. I don't like and don't support the federal and state's involvement in local school district any more than absolutely necessary and I certainly don't support the KHSAA trying to level the playing field between the haves and have nots. Obviously, there are many examples of the government attempting to impose their vision of "fairness" on schools and invidividuals. My post was not about what is - but what should be. PepRock pointed out some of the reasons that open enrollment is not a panacea for rural Kentucky school disricts and I appreciate the fact that somebody from an urban background understands the tangible differences between urban and rural schools when it comes to building strong football programs. Rural schools need to deal the hands that they were dealt, but (to paraphrase Ann Richards), supporters of certain strong urban programs, who find themselves on third base should not think that they just hit a triple.

Congratulations, Covington Catholic, you have a very impressive team. I thought Bleser was the difference in the game. That was the best individual performance that I have seen by a quarterback against JC. I think the Golden Eagles would have hung closer if Johnson had not gone down with an injury, but Covington Catholic figured out that it could run wide on JC in the second half. Once JC fell behind, I just didn't have the feeling that they were going to win, even with Johnson in the game. Even before the injury, I thought Johnson Central was starting to look a bit tired. Johnson Central needed to play a near perfect game and they played a near perfect half. I would love to see a rematch next season between these two teams. Good luck next weekend against Bowling Green!

Excellent point, PepRock. I don't think that most people from the metro areas of Kentucky really understand Kentucky's rural schools and the role that population density, geography, and demographics play in fielding a competitive football team. It is easy to criticize schools for placing enrollment "restrictions upon themselves," but open enrollment in an urban or suburban area is an entirely different animal than it is at a school like Beechwood. Most rural school districts do not have the same kind of tax base that schools like Beechwood and Highlands have, and in many cases 60 percent or more of their students in rural county school dstricts qualify for free or reduced lunches. Absent a reciprocity agreement with adjacent school districts, passing the state's portion of the cost for educating out of district students to parents is cost prohibitive in most cases. Transportation from adjoining districts is also a much bigger consideration in a district like Johnson County, for example, than it is for schools in the Louisville or NKY areas. There are areas within Johnson County that are a 45 minute drive from Paintsville and the county has a population of approximately 23,000 people. If you draw a circle with a 10 mile radius from JC, you will encompass approximately 1/10 the number that the same circle would capture in Kenton County. I am fully in favor of open enrollment and I also support giving parents the right to transfer their kids to any school system with no residence change. (Athletes transferring during a school year would be ineligible until the following year unless there was a bona fide change of address.) People who believe that the difficulty most rural schools have competing consistently with the urban private schools is simply because of bad decisions by district school boards are simply poorly informed. I am glad to see that some metro residents understand the advantages that urban schools have over rural schools, whether they are private or public. BTW, I am not in favor of doing anything to "level the playing field." Life isn't always fair, nor should it be. Rural living has certain advantages, just as city living does.

Maybe because Jasper is a freshman who did not start and who had 4 times as many assists and 3 times as many rebounds as starting PG Bradley. The fact that Jasper also had all three of UK's steals also might be a factor.

Covington Catholic has sold, or at least taken, 3,000 tickets already and they have requested more. That kind of support is very impressive from a program whose fans will be driving at least 3-1/2 hours to the game. Hopefully, our fans will not be outnumbered. If everybody shows up, JC should have its largest crowd to every watch a football game Friday night.

As I have said, and as I am sure that you know - Massey does not list teams in order or their "power" ranking. If you ask him where he has Highlands ranked, I am pretty sure that he would tell you that he has them ranked below both JC and Covington Catholic. Why do I think so? Because that is the order in which Mr. Massey lists them. Your objections are duly noted, but they should be addressed to the man who compiles the ratings - not to me.

JC may be a better team than Covington Catholic, but we know that Highlands isn't and the Massey ratings are a reflection of that fact. Better? Obviously, we have no way of knowing how Highlands and JC compare.

Actually, my wording was not as precise as it should have been. We know that CCH is better than Highlands. Whether CCH is better than JC has not yet been determined. Regardless of how the game turns out Friday night, we will not know for sure how a game between HHS and JC would turn out.

Only a handful because my work has taken me out of state. I have listened to most of the games that I have missed, although it would be great if WSIP would start webcasting them. I also watched Johnson Central play several of Matney's Sheldon Clark teams over the years and I am not surprised at all that he has turned the program around in such a short time. His teams beat JC when they shouldn't have and the games were closer than they should have been in the games that JC won. I have never seen Matney get outcoached and now he has the numbers to avoid rebuilding years. I wish that he had taken the job in 2001. If you believe that somebody has to see JC play in person to understand how the program has fundamentally changed for the better, then I would have to respectfully disagree. I watched nearly all of the games in 1999 and 2000 and those teams had some great individual talent, but the depth, special teams play, and pass defense were lacking. Those things hurt them against good teams and limited their playoff success. This JC team is best known for its explosive offense, but IMO, defense and depth is what sets it apart from the excellent 2000 team.

Massey uses the stat that he believes provides the most accurate ranking of the teams. If he believed that his own power ranking was the most accurate indicator of team strength, then I am sure that he would use that stat for the rankings. You are grasping at straws to make the case that Highlands is underranked at No. 11 in all classes with 5 losses. Covington Catholic may be a better team than JC, but we know that Highlands isn't and the Massey ratings are a reflection of that fact.

I used the rating that Massey uses to rank the teams. If you have a problem with that the you should address it to Mr. Massey. Something else to consider is that Johnson Central, despite pounding most of its opponents has substituted early and often, given up most of its touchdowns with the second and third team defense on the field, and consequently is ranked a little lower than it could have been. I honestly don't see how Massey has penalized Covington Catholic for playing a tough schedule. They are ranked third overall in all classes, despite losing to 3 strong teams. To believe that the Colonels have been penalized for their schedule, you would have to believe that Covington Catholic is better than St. X. As for Highlands, it is hard to see how a team ranked 11th in all classes with a 7-5 record has been penalized for playing a tough schedule. I like the Massey rankings. Massey is much quicker to recognize when a team just doesn't have the horses in a given year than any of the non-computer systems are. When teams don't live up to pre-season hype, corrections are made fairly quickly and the computer is not reluctant to drop a team 10 spots in the rankings if it fails to perform as expected. Computers seem to have a knack for recognizing the impact that coaching changes and graduation losses have on "traditional" powerhouses - and on traditional doormats. Johnson Central's hiring of Jim Matney three years ago resulted in an entirely different program than the one that was in place before he arrived, and the departure of Chuck Smith from Boyle County had an immediate impact on that program. Massey's rankings recognized that those programs had changed without factoring in tradition and the teams' performance in past years.

Looking at some game results and Massey ratings, three things jump out at me: 1. Covington Catholic has played a tougher schedule than Johnson Central. 2. Of the Colonel's 3 losses, 2 were to higher rated Ohio teams and the third was to an Ohio team ranked below Covington Catholic. 3. Covington Catholic has not beaten a team ranked as high by Massey as Johnson Central. It will take Johnson Central's best game of the year, but Covington Catholic is very beatable if the Golden Eagles play up to their capability. 2.420 Cincy St. X (beat Covington Catholic 23-3) 1.687 Cincy Elder (beat Covington Catholic 13-3) 1;515 Covington Catholic 1.465 Bishop Watterson (beat Covington Catholic 38-13) 1.370 Columbus DeSales (beat Highlands 30-25, lost to Watterson 40-34) 1;245 Johnson Central 1.229 Lexington Catholic (lost to Covington Catholic 56-49) 1.142 Highlands (lost to Covington Catholic 29-27 and 25-15) 0.824 Beechwood (lost to Covington Catholic 34-0) 0.739 Boone County (lost to Covington Catholic 44-2) 0.690 Dixie Heights (lost to Covington Catholic 28-7) 0.684 Rockcastle County (lost to Johnson Central 29-7) 0.618 Newport Central Catholic (lost to Covington Catholic 35-14) 0.520 Ashland Paul Blazer (lost to Johnson Central 35-7 and 28-21)

:laugh: Underdogs? I am a big Golden Eagle fan, but Covington Catholic is a solid favorite in the upcoming game for the same reason that JC was a solid favorite against Rockcastle this past Friday. CovCath is ranked ahead of JC in every computer ranking and poll in existence, I believe, and rightfully so. This is the first game that the relative SOS of JC and its opponent may be a factor. I suspect that the Colonels will also enjoy an overall edge in experience. Don't get me wrong, I think that Johnson Central is capable of upsetting Covington Catholic with a near perfect game, but the home field advantage is not nearly enough to make our NKY friends underdogs in this one.

Here is an interesting fact about JC's strength of schedule. After the win over Rockcastle, JC's SOS (80) nudged ahead of those of both Bell County (83) and Rockcastle County(81) for the season in Massey's ratings. I don't understand how JC could have passed Rockcastle after a game that involved both teams, but it happened. Playing Covington Catholic (3) will give the Golden Eagles' SOS another big boost. (Ashland's SOS jumped to #64). The teams that Johnson Central defeated this season have been climbing in the Massey ratings because of the Golden Eagles' strong playoff performance. Apparently, JC's SOS was not quite as bad as advertised.