[charlie22]

You are absolutely clueless. Go tell Alabama and LSU that you can't line up and run over anybody. You talked about Central being balanced and they are far from it. Can they throw the ball? Yes. Do they? Yes. They've thrown for 1,200 yds in 13 games. That's an average of less than 100 yds passing a game. I don't consider that a spred team. John Hardin has thrown for about 1,500 yds this year but hide and watch if they don't bread their butter but lining up and ramming it down your throat.

But Central and John Hardin can effectively throw the football. That may not be their bread and butter, but they can do it. Which makes their running game much harder to defend. Look what Highlands did to John Hardin in the 09 state game. JH, with the then rated number 1 rushing defense in the state, goes into the state game thinking that Highlands will pass and run the ball and it's defense is set up to defend both. Highlands attempted 2, that's right 2 passes, the entire game and rushed for over 300 yards. I'm sure the DC at JH wanted to put 8 or 9 in the box to stop the run but he couldn't because Highlands had shown throughout the 09 season that it could effectively throw the ball all over the field. If Highlands had not worked on the passing game throughout the year and been at the point that they could effectively pass the ball, JH would have packed the box and Highlands would have had a much harder time running the ball. JH had the defensive talent to at least slow down Highlands running game. But because of Highlands ability to pass, JH couldn't pack the box and Highlands runs all over them.

What the opening post was directed towards, I thought, were those schools in the mountains that cannot or will not regularly pass the ball. And while I respect the heck out of JC, they can't effectively pass the ball. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, I don't care how good Jude was (and he was very, very good), defending him is made much easier when you can put 8 or 9 in the box. Even last year, when JC gave Highlands a big scare, it wasn't their O that made that possible: it was their D. Yeah, the ball control O of JC limited the number of touches by the Highlands O, but it was what the JC D did when Highlands O had the ball that was more important in keeping the game close. I firmly believe that if JC had been a 60% run and a 40% pass team all year long, they would have beaten Highlands last year. Other Highlands fans might not like reading it, but JC was the more talented football team in 2010. But the better talented teams don't always win; systems and philosophies have a big impact.