[Diogenes]

Sorry to get off topic but this is something that has been bugging me for years. I know that the teams like Highlands, Central, Trinity, Bowling Green have way more tallent to choose from and will probably always win the championship count, but think of all the years that Mountain teams went to the carpet and came close to winning. Do you think that more balance on both sides of the ball could have been the difference? I know we love the run game in this part of Kentucky and I do to, but I also think the pass game is nice also. Look at the last 2 years with Belfry and Central or Those 2 close years with Bell and Boyle or that year that Johnson Central took Highlands to the wire a few years ago. Do you think that if those teams had more balance on both sides of the ball that they would probably have won those games. It just seems to me that when we get in a game with teams like that, after they stack the box and smack us in the mouth and start to pass all over the field is when we fall apart and have no answers. Look at the last time we had a champion with Hazard. That Hazard team could run or pass and did both well and had defenses on their heels all the time. Look at the Breathitt teams of the 90s. It would seem to me that the only time a mountain team who runs all the time wins a championship is when they are so good and so fast and so big and talented on the O line that they just overwhelm the other team and how often has that happened. Don't give me dates from the 80's on back because this game has changed and back then every High school team was mostly run.

I think it honestly depends more on who you run into in the playoffs.

Don't forget: Johnson Central has gone up against and absolutely shredded a fair number of teams, even some from NKY, with balanced or even pass-heavy attacks. We have been able to MOVE the ball on Highlands. We just can't stop them. But when you look at the results...nobody else is stopping them either. Nothing you practice can prepare you for a team that platoons, is full of speed at every position on both sides of the ball, and executes just about everything perfectly.

When you're running into teams that are nationally ranked more often than not, you need to have a system that gets the ball into the hands of your best playmakers and gets blockers in front of them. Does it help us to defend the pass when we practice against the run? No. But if we focus on our line and getting enough pressure on a HS quarterback, perhaps you can force enough mistakes to get some stops and turnovers. Controlling the clock and keeping those high-powered offenses off the field gives us our best chance, I personally feel.

Being balanced didn't help Woodford County the last few years we played them, for example - they had several great athletes that they rarely got the ball to, and they were horrid. In the end, I think more important than WHAT you run is HOW WELL you run it.