pj44

Ravenwood huge positive surprise (though not when you heard who they hired). In first year with Hester are 4-1 with an OT loss. Started last year 0-5

Hester's done an amazing job as was expected by all and the Jefferson kid is legit. I was never that sold on Indy though, so we'll see what happens in the district

Definitely not predicting it, but this is the exact kind of game that built the legend of Rector- rivalry game where he clearly has the lesser team and just takes chances like crazy. That said, Brentwood by 10

Franklin Indy Brentwood Ravenwood Centennial Dickson Summit Indy will be much improved because of the coaching change, but lets not get too carried away as it hasn't exactly been an off the charts SOS. The only team I think that will be able to capitalize on their major weakness (off and def lines), though, is Franklin. So, Franklin wins the league in my view

Love coach Aydelot, his system, his coaches, and have always felt that most of the criticism of him was unfair. All the crap his Wing-T takes, and they've scored a lot of points in recent years. It also strikes me as unfair to look only at wins and losses and not consider that the talent level is down for Riverdale this year... That said, I've always thought the Wing-T in general was a weird fit at Riverdale. IF any school can do without trickery and creative blocking schemes and just try to hit defenses in the mouth, it would be Riverdale wouldn't it?

Ha, well if you have any desire to, ya know, WIN at Brentwood, you need to out work other schools and be both sound and UNIQUE in the X's and O's. Brentwood is paying for Pemberton not doing the first, and I am confident Woodward meets the first 2. But I'd offer this on the "more fun" spread passing attack. Crawford ran a spread offense for roughly the first half of his tenure, when it was brand new to high school football and provided a real challenge to DCs. As spread sets, zone blocking, and air raid passing concepts became more commonplace and he realized that you cant count on having a top-flight QB at a place like Brentwood every year, he moved to the option. Which set off another run of Brentwood excellence: 3 straight District Titles and the 4th year was a Quarterfinals appearance. With almost every team running the spread in the district and across the state it seems, I wonder if Brentwood would be better off with a different scheme... Not that this is why they're going to struggle this year, I think I've been clear on why I think that is.

Brentwood's really going to struggle this year, and you have to think that with a potential 1-3 start and big losses to Blackman and Oakland looming a first-year coach is going to have a hard time holding the team together. I actually think Woodward's a good coach (though I wonder if a Spread/zone blocking scheme is the best fit there long-term), but is paying for the way Pemberton did his best to wreck Crawford's program. It shouldn't be hard to imagine that if you dont lift weights or practice in pads for a whole year, you may still be able to churn out some good WRs but that you will develop zero good linemen.

Franklin was very impressive. Defense really battled against an oline thats way bigger than anything they'll see in the league. Plus, any Webb defense is going to end up being fine. Offense looked good too. New scheme is a good fit for the personnel. QB is the real deal. If Left side of the o line tightens up, they'll light up some scoreboards

first 2 choices being Gore and Smith, I'm assuming?

So, assuming Vaden lets him make some staff changes, Ravenwood will be much better coached next year. What do we think the talent looks like? Can they compete for the district next year?

I agree it was not fair for Clayton to be run off. I don't agree that Franklin would have been much better if he'd stayed. When you play as many sophomores as they are, you get the kind of team you saw this year. I'd expect Franklin to be very good in the next two years, as the players mature under a good football coach.

I don't think Dickson is a legit contender, but I do think they breeze through McGavock

I think Brentwood is the better team and will win. But keep in mind, Wilson Central is unquestionably the second best team Brentwood has played all year. If WC gets out to a fast start, they could pull it off

Franklin score will be more lopsided. Brentwood score will be closer. Have watched Rector win too many big games with teams who should have no chance to think he can't keep this one close. Is Franklin building a two year run of dominance next year and the year after? Critchlow is the real deal and only a sophomore, their starting several lineman who are sophomores as well i believe.

Almost none of Brentwood's success is Pemberton. This is a quarterfinal team a year ago, with almost 40 seniors, that returned virtually everyone that matters except for Echetebu. They should be a great team regardless of the coach, but we have no clue how good they actually are since they've played two really bad football teams. If anything though I'm giving negative marks to Pemberton for a bungling of the QB situation so far and an apparent lack of attention to detail in special teams.