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DTs Dandy Dozen - Your Indiana Resource

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Check out DTs Dandy Dozen as the The Driven One sprays to all fields with his takes on Indiana high school football

 

1. State finals this week.  Big issues.  Center Grove looks to defend Class 6A title against Metropolitan Conference rival Carmel.  Historic pp dynasty Roncalli is 14-0 and returns to the finals after a long hiatus to face off against unbeaten Northern Lakes Conference champ Northwood.  Emerging power Westfield advances to its first state title game against coaching legend Bob Gaddis and the Columbus East Olympians.

2. Speaking of Columbus East, former Olympians QB and Indiana Mr Football Gunner Kiel lost his starting job this year at the University of Cincinnati early in the season and has been watching from the pine ever since.  Kiel's travels are well chronicled.  First committing to IU, then flipping to LSU, then to ND.  Kiel is a big guy (6-4, 235) with a cannon arm, so the NFL still is his likely final target.  

3. Big job opening up in Northwest Indiana, just across the border from Chicago.  Lake Central High School , a top 10 school in statewide enrollment is looking to replace the departed Brett St Germain.  LC has underperformed for several seasons, and just built a beautiful new multi million dollar football facility.  The Indians play in the Duneland Conference and have strong rivalries with Merrillville, Crown Point and Valparaiso.  

4. The top college coaching prospect in Indiana currently at the high school ranks is Kyle Ralph of New Palestine High School, an Indianapolis suburb.  Ralph, who played tackle collegiately at North Carolina, is 50-3 after 4 seasons with a 2014 state championship ring.  I would expect him to take a serious look at making the transition to the next level, unless he decides he wants to coach one of the mega powers in Indy like Ben Davis, Warren Central or Carmel, should those jobs eventually open.

5. Changes appear to be coming soon to the Northern Lakes Conference.  Elkhart Memorial will merge with Elkhart Central and become Elkhart High School, with the school staying in Central's old conference, the NIC (Northern Indiana Conference)  On the far eastern side of the NLC, Warsaw, the biggest school in the league in  terms of enrollment, has made it known it wants out and wants to join the Summit Athletic Conference in Ft Wayne.  The NLC might soon be looking for new members.  New Prairie, Mishawaka Marian, John Glenn, South Bend St Joe and Jimtown are all potential candidates. 

6. Former Indianapolis North Central Defensive Lineman Darius Latham is making an impact with the Oakland Raiders, the surprise team of the 2016 season.  Latham endured several suspensions while at Indiana University and never reached his obvious potential.  Perhaps that steady paycheck has brought the structure and stability that Latham needs to be all that he can be, and maybe more.

7. Urban Meyer continues his recruiting prowess and extends his mastery into Indiana.  Our top two Indiana high school receivers over the past few seasons, Terry McLaurin of Indianapolis Cathedral and Austin Mack out of Fort Wayne are now young Ohio State Buckeyes with promising futures.  Would like to see Indiana Coach Kevin Wilson do a better job of keeping this talent instate.  The IU program continues to improve, but the Hoosier receiving corps took a step back this season and hurt the offense considerably.  Mack and McLaurin could have made a huge difference.

8. Thankfully for most of us Chicago Bear fans, the Jay Cutler era finally appears to be coming to an end.  Cutler was an Indiana school boy legend, winning a state championship in a wildly dramatic finish for Heritage Hills High School.  Cutler never delivered on the great promise he carried in to Soldier Field, and the Bears are now the laughing stock of the league (unless of course you are a Browns fan)  

9. Are Texas high school coaches trying to ruin our beloved prep gridiron game?  I cant believe some of the scores I am seeing coming out of the State of Texas.  68-51.  72-45.  96-72.  Ridiculous!!  1500 yards of total offense in some games.  10 to 12 TD passes.  How can you ever develop a defensive player when you allow this style of play?  Big 12 football is unbearable to watch.  All these Texas spread offense kids are now in the B12, and the games look just like high school contests.  Sorry, huge turnoff for me, and most other "mature" fans of the traditional game of blocking, tackling and rigid defensive football.  The game goes in cycles.  I'll be glad when this ugly cycle passes into oblivion.  BTW.  The Big 12 is rated as the poorest of the Power 5 Conferences in terms of overall team strength.  Maybe there is an important message there.  

10. Coaching turnover in Indiana has been extremely high over the past 5 years.  We usually see about a 10-12% annual turnover rate here.  That's close to 50% over a 5 year period.  Is that the new norm?  Is it parents?  Stipends?  Poor admin support?  Spoiled kids?  We have lost a whole generation of experienced coaches here over the last few years.  Unfortunately, the quality of play and the development of players has declined as well.  Is this the trend in other states?

11. I would like to see the IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletic Association) install some minimum participation guidelines.  We are starting to see more and more game cancellations due to roster shortages, especially in the rural and small town areas.  Even some of the bigger schools are seeing major roster reductions as the impact of concussion related issues and a dramatic decline of nearly 25% in youth football over the past 5 years is starting to take a major toll at the high school level.   How can you compete on Friday night if you don't even have enough depth to practice during the week?  In my view, if your program cannot meet the IHSAA mandated minimum roster levels by class, you sit out the season.  Football is starting to look like a club sport and not a varsity sport at many high schools.  This is not a good development relative to the future overall health of the game.

12.  Many of our Indiana high school football fans are complaining on various websites about the predictability of the all inclusive state tournament.  Same teams in the final four year in and year out.  Indiana has structured its tournament using a North-South alignment forever, which breeds a lot of redundancy come tournament time.  I would like to see the IHSAA shake things up and switch to an East-West alignment for a few years and give it a try.  The first two rounds (sectional-regional) would look familiar but we would see some interesting new potential matchups at the semi state level.  Tell Bobby Cox, IHSAA Commissioner, that he can have this idea free of charge.  He's poached of few of my better ones in the past.  See ya next time readers.

 

 

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9 hours ago, DrivenT said:

Check out DTs Dandy Dozen as the The Driven One sprays to all fields with his takes on Indiana high school football

 

1. State finals this week.  Big issues.  Center Grove looks to defend Class 6A title against Metropolitan Conference rival Carmel.  Historic pp dynasty Roncalli is 14-0 and returns to the finals after a long hiatus to face off against unbeaten Northern Lakes Conference champ Northwood.  Emerging power Westfield advances to its first state title game against coaching legend Bob Gaddis and the Columbus East Olympians.

2. Speaking of Columbus East, former Olympians QB and Indiana Mr Football Gunner Kiel lost his starting job this year at the University of Cincinnati early in the season and has been watching from the pine ever since.  Kiel's travels are well chronicled.  First committing to IU, then flipping to LSU, then to ND.  Kiel is a big guy (6-4, 235) with a cannon arm, so the NFL still is his likely final target.  

3. Big job opening up in Northwest Indiana, just across the border from Chicago.  Lake Central High School , a top 10 school in statewide enrollment is looking to replace the departed Brett St Germain.  LC has underperformed for several seasons, and just built a beautiful new multi million dollar football facility.  The Indians play in the Duneland Conference and have strong rivalries with Merrillville, Crown Point and Valparaiso.  

4. The top college coaching prospect in Indiana currently at the high school ranks is Kyle Ralph of New Palestine High School, an Indianapolis suburb.  Ralph, who played tackle collegiately at North Carolina, is 50-3 after 4 seasons with a 2014 state championship ring.  I would expect him to take a serious look at making the transition to the next level, unless he decides he wants to coach one of the mega powers in Indy like Ben Davis, Warren Central or Carmel, should those jobs eventually open.

5. Changes appear to be coming soon to the Northern Lakes Conference.  Elkhart Memorial will merge with Elkhart Central and become Elkhart High School, with the school staying in Central's old conference, the NIC (Northern Indiana Conference)  On the far eastern side of the NLC, Warsaw, the biggest school in the league in  terms of enrollment, has made it known it wants out and wants to join the Summit Athletic Conference in Ft Wayne.  The NLC might soon be looking for new members.  New Prairie, Mishawaka Marian, John Glenn, South Bend St Joe and Jimtown are all potential candidates. 

6. Former Indianapolis North Central Defensive Lineman Darius Latham is making an impact with the Oakland Raiders, the surprise team of the 2016 season.  Latham endured several suspensions while at Indiana University and never reached his obvious potential.  Perhaps that steady paycheck has brought the structure and stability that Latham needs to be all that he can be, and maybe more.

7. Urban Meyer continues his recruiting prowess and extends his mastery into Indiana.  Our top two Indiana high school receivers over the past few seasons, Terry McLaurin of Indianapolis Cathedral and Austin Mack out of Fort Wayne are now young Ohio State Buckeyes with promising futures.  Would like to see Indiana Coach Kevin Wilson do a better job of keeping this talent instate.  The IU program continues to improve, but the Hoosier receiving corps took a step back this season and hurt the offense considerably.  Mack and McLaurin could have made a huge difference.

8. Thankfully for most of us Chicago Bear fans, the Jay Cutler era finally appears to be coming to an end.  Cutler was an Indiana school boy legend, winning a state championship in a wildly dramatic finish for Heritage Hills High School.  Cutler never delivered on the great promise he carried in to Soldier Field, and the Bears are now the laughing stock of the league (unless of course you are a Browns fan)  

9. Are Texas high school coaches trying to ruin our beloved prep gridiron game?  I cant believe some of the scores I am seeing coming out of the State of Texas.  68-51.  72-45.  96-72.  Ridiculous!!  1500 yards of total offense in some games.  10 to 12 TD passes.  How can you ever develop a defensive player when you allow this style of play?  Big 12 football is unbearable to watch.  All these Texas spread offense kids are now in the B12, and the games look just like high school contests.  Sorry, huge turnoff for me, and most other "mature" fans of the traditional game of blocking, tackling and rigid defensive football.  The game goes in cycles.  I'll be glad when this ugly cycle passes into oblivion.  BTW.  The Big 12 is rated as the poorest of the Power 5 Conferences in terms of overall team strength.  Maybe there is an important message there.  

10. Coaching turnover in Indiana has been extremely high over the past 5 years.  We usually see about a 10-12% annual turnover rate here.  That's close to 50% over a 5 year period.  Is that the new norm?  Is it parents?  Stipends?  Poor admin support?  Spoiled kids?  We have lost a whole generation of experienced coaches here over the last few years.  Unfortunately, the quality of play and the development of players has declined as well.  Is this the trend in other states?

11. I would like to see the IHSAA (Indiana High School Athletic Association) install some minimum participation guidelines.  We are starting to see more and more game cancellations due to roster shortages, especially in the rural and small town areas.  Even some of the bigger schools are seeing major roster reductions as the impact of concussion related issues and a dramatic decline of nearly 25% in youth football over the past 5 years is starting to take a major toll at the high school level.   How can you compete on Friday night if you don't even have enough depth to practice during the week?  In my view, if your program cannot meet the IHSAA mandated minimum roster levels by class, you sit out the season.  Football is starting to look like a club sport and not a varsity sport at many high schools.  This is not a good development relative to the future overall health of the game.

12.  Many of our Indiana high school football fans are complaining on various websites about the predictability of the all inclusive state tournament.  Same teams in the final four year in and year out.  Indiana has structured its tournament using a North-South alignment forever, which breeds a lot of redundancy come tournament time.  I would like to see the IHSAA shake things up and switch to an East-West alignment for a few years and give it a try.  The first two rounds (sectional-regional) would look familiar but we would see some interesting new potential matchups at the semi state level.  Tell Bobby Cox, IHSAA Commissioner, that he can have this idea free of charge.  He's poached of few of my better ones in the past.  See ya next time readers.

 

 

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