[Panther1]

I agree. With a few play-action passes sprinkled in to keep 9 out of the box.

NOW you've hit the nail on the head!

After losing Mayo, Pikeville seemed to have the personnel best-suited to run a power-offense (which is what this year seemed to be -- only reason it seemed "tricky" to some is the fact that it was done in shotgun with the qb never really having to touch it much. I saw pretty much all the games, and the qb NEVER that I saw "put the ball between his legs" all season. Not sure what that is?)

The idea of running the OPTION with the qb they had makes sense athletically...but it takes a lot more than being athletic to be good at option qb. Mainly takes good decision-making ability and ability not to make careless mistakes with pitches and such. That's a lot to ask of a kid new to a position on the varsity level.

Play-action passing (and passing overall) was the main problem last year. Seems like I remember 6 of them called in the Hazard game...they were 0-for-4.

Also, in a "power offense," getting 4 yards at a time and sustaining LONG drives is critical. In the last game, Pikeville was called for HOLDING on 1st downs of 3 different series (one of their coaches told me later that they'd only been called for holding SIX times ALL SEASON up to that point). Starting 1st and 20 is a killer in a power offense, especially if your passing game is suspect.