JazzyJeff

No it hasn't. I questioned your reading comprehension abilities, and judging by the fact that you asking two questions that I already answered in an earlier post, I seem to be correct. I answered your questions in my 8:12 p.m. (board time) post. I'll cut and paste both answers for the second time as it appears that my post from 6:57 a.m. (board time) has been deleted. For what reason, I'm not sure. In any case, FairInMyFavor quoted me so I know it made the board at some point. Again, I NEVER posted that Riverdale "was nothing special." Why completely fabricate something that is flat out not true?

I know you are being facetious (at least I hope), but the Columbus Dispatch rarely gives much space to high school sports, other than during the wrestling and basketball state championship are held on the Ohio State campus. The paper is a shill for Ohio State athletics and football in particular. However, it's still a large-city newspaper that has to cover a heck of a lot of teams on opening Friday night of the high school football season. I'm shocked it was more than a box score. Had Riverdale played Brookhaven, DeSales or Bishop Watterson, perhaps you may have seen a photo. BTW, I still can't get over some posters referring to the size and speed of Kilbourne. Can someone please clarify this? The Wolves are often considered one of the smallest (ht/sz-wise) DI teams in the OCC (the mega conference Kilbourne belongs to).

It just depends on which rankings you look at. For instance, Chris Wells has been ranked as high as 4 and 9. Again, individuals aren't necessarily the best indicators of how good the teams are. Although teams like Glenville in Ohio have 12-15 guys that will play in NCAA DI and is arguably the fastest team in the nation. Turner, I believe is the No. 2 split end for the Trojans. Very impressive nonetheless.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Come visit the national boards and get a consensus. Most will put Ohio two or three behind Texas and maybe California with regards to teams. Athlete-wise, Ohio is behind Texas, Florida, California and maybe Louisiana.

Catholic Schools in my top 20 1. St. Ignatius 3. St. Xavier 4. Moeller 8. St. Edward 10. LaSalle 11. Elder There are only seven Catholic schools in Ohio DI and the one missing is Toledo St. John Jesuit. SJJ's has been a far as the state semi-final once in recent years (a blowout loss to St. Edward). Toledo teams haven't been know to make much noise at the DI level otherwise. Colerain had to replace their Fab Five (fullback Mister Simpson (Michigan); defensive back Brayden Coombs (Miami University); and defensive tackle Terrill Byrd, quarterback Dominick Goodman and linebacker Andre Revels (all Cincinnati) and in all 13 players will be playing in college this season. IMO the two most important cogs in their triple option offense was their QB and fullback/diveback. In the QB's place is junior transfer Gary Pride from a local Catholic school (Roger Bacon) who has never run it before. Colerain only goes as far as Pride takes them. I wasn't shocked by St. X winning, I was shocked that X shut them out. Glenville doesn't have the line play they did a year ago, nor do they have a Mr. Everything, like they have had the past two years. In 2003, it was Ginn Jr. and in 2004 it was Freddie Lenix. They do have the DI collegiate talent, but a poor kicking game and poor coaching may not get them as far as last year.

No, I am basing my opinion of Kilbourne on a number of different factors, including that Marion Harding is a mediocre team at best. Any team worth ranking should have named their score against them, especially with three quarters of live game play with the starters. Why is it so hard to believe an Ohioan would have a pretty good idea of how good Kilbourne is? I would consider myself someone who is fairly knowledgable about Ohio DI statewide. In any case, I would have put Kilbourne in the 15-20 category in Ohio's DI for the preseason and still do after week 1. All divisions considered, they wouldn't be in the top 20. My DI Top 20 (note: I don't think any team outside the top nine has a shot to win the title) 1. St. Ignatius 2. Glenville 3. St. Xavier 4. Moeller 5. Canton McKinley 6. Warren Harding 7. Brookhaven 8. St. Edward 9. Colerain 10. LaSalle 11. Elder 12. Massillon 13. Solon 14. Westerville South 15. Centerville 16. Elyria 17. Lakota East 18. Amherst Steele 19. Kilbourne 20. Mentor Also note that I have no qualms in saying the TN's best would compete well with OH's best. I do think down the line, Ohio would have a greater depth of quality teams.

1. JJ Huddle is a Columbus based entity that has traditionally pumped R3 teams in past years. It should also be said that same poll saw three of it's top ten lose. Besides, it was a preseason poll. Any poll worth a dime isn't accurate until the first four weeks are complete. High school football is a crapshoot, not an exact science. I honestly would have had them in the top 15 as they returned 13 starters from 2004 until I read about their second scrimmage result (see below). Another site didn't even have Kilbourne in their top 15: http://www.yappi.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=94376 2. No one is claiming that Kilbourne is the best or worst team in Ohio. I merely gave some background to give Riverdale fans an idea of where they stand. I have no stake in the matter and I (and many others) fully expected Kilbourne to lose and lose big. Teams such as St. Ignatius, St. Edward and Benedictine all had open dates week one until very late and would have provided a much better test for Riverdale. In fact, Kilbourne had an agreement with Benedictine (a DIII Cleveland power) for week one and reneged to play Riverdale instead of probably losing to a DIII Catholic school. Time will not tell for Kilbourne. With the exception of Riverdale and DIII Watterson, Kilbourne's schedule and league is weak. In fact, only two of the six leageue teams opened their season with a win. As I mentioned earlier, Kilbourne also scrimmaged a weak Marion Harding football team (6-4 in 2004) a week prior the Riverdale game and only managed a 10-10 tie with the starters. Marion Harding lost in week 1 to a Marysville team that was 5-5 last season. 3. It's equally comical to see you and others look for polls and posters to prop Kilbourne as one of Ohio's best. I gave stats/data to back up my opinions, whereas others are going on pure speculation.

This may be a hard pill to swallow, but Kilbourne is hardly an Ohio team that should strike fear in an out-of-state opponent. Ohio's Division I is divided into four regions. Region 1 is basically the Cleveland-area, R2 is a the Toledo/Akron-Canton/everywhere else, R4 is Cincinnati-area and R3 is the Columbus-area. The champion of the R3 bracket is almost exclusively cannon fodder for R4 winner in the state semi-final. From 1972-2001, two Columbus area teams made the state finals, 1976 and 2001. In 2001 a Columbus-area suburb, Upper Arlington, won the first OHSAA state title in DI for the Columbus-area. Since then, R3 has continued to fail to reach the title game. Is making the state semi-final game an accomplishment? Absolutely. However, for the most part, the R3 regional champion has been the tallest midget. For instance, Kilbourne lost to R4 champ Colerain 34-3 and won their other three previous playoff games by a combined 11 points. Why does this happen? R3 is a collection of mid-sized suburban public schools, many of which are fairly new. As Columbus continues to sprawl outward, many Columbus suburbs have grown to two or even three high schools in just the past ten years. In Worthington, the population doubled from 1980 to 2000 to reach 58K. I'm fairly certain Kilbourne was the second high school built in Worthington, opened in 1990 or so and has zero state titles in any sport. Despite the 34-3 loss to Colerain last year, Kilbourne was a good team, but that was last year. Conversely, any publication that placed Kilbourne 15th in the Midwest was doing so to hype this matchup. IMO, there are at least 10 teams in Ohio DI that I would place in front of Kilbourne.