BillyBob1
- Champaign
Jake made several big hits on defense.
2025 IHSA Football Playoffs
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I think Jake would be a great slot receiver for Illinois I hope he gets a offer next year
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Here is a crapton of highlights from that insane Byron-Unity game, they were filming from field level from near one of the endzones.
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
I saw ESL a few weeks back against Glenwood. ESL has absurd talent (to a questionable volume for a town of 20k to think they are following IHSA rules - but that's an aside).
They beat a solid Glenwood team 53-14 but were horribly undisciplined with 25 penalties for the game. I said to the friend I sat with at that game that if a team had the horses to hang with them for 4 quarters, ESL would most likely lose due to the penalties, lack of attention to detail, poor special teams, etc. Glenwood had a solid team but was overmatched in the trenches. Fenwick had the size in the trenches & enough studs to make a few plays to keep themselves in range. They capitalized on every big mistake ESL made.
21 points off of the botched punt snap and 2 int's. 2 of the drives were less than 5 yards but every big mistake ESL made turned into 7 for Fenwick. And in the 2nd half Fenwick made some legit offensive plays as well. A long td run & 2 other drives that totaled 17 points on legitimate offensive drives. Capped off with the 2 yarder after the late INT.
There are lots of ways to lose a football game if you don't pay attention to all facets of the game. Sure ESL doesn't lose often due to those mistakes & poor special teams but when the game is close they seemingly always lose precisely because of those mistakes.
Fenwick played a masterful game & should be credited. Part of winning is sticking every opponent mistake down their throat. As Bret says, more games are lost than won. That game was a textbook case of that.
They beat a solid Glenwood team 53-14 but were horribly undisciplined with 25 penalties for the game. I said to the friend I sat with at that game that if a team had the horses to hang with them for 4 quarters, ESL would most likely lose due to the penalties, lack of attention to detail, poor special teams, etc. Glenwood had a solid team but was overmatched in the trenches. Fenwick had the size in the trenches & enough studs to make a few plays to keep themselves in range. They capitalized on every big mistake ESL made.
21 points off of the botched punt snap and 2 int's. 2 of the drives were less than 5 yards but every big mistake ESL made turned into 7 for Fenwick. And in the 2nd half Fenwick made some legit offensive plays as well. A long td run & 2 other drives that totaled 17 points on legitimate offensive drives. Capped off with the 2 yarder after the late INT.
There are lots of ways to lose a football game if you don't pay attention to all facets of the game. Sure ESL doesn't lose often due to those mistakes & poor special teams but when the game is close they seemingly always lose precisely because of those mistakes.
Fenwick played a masterful game & should be credited. Part of winning is sticking every opponent mistake down their throat. As Bret says, more games are lost than won. That game was a textbook case of that.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
This kind of expansion probably should have been coupled with a mandated scheduling concept. Like where each team is assigned a district and most of your games are against district opponents. At least then your schedule during the year would match the class you will be in for the playoffs.
As Ryllini mentions letting 3 or 4 win teams in is gonna look odd when a JCA or someone similar goes 3-6 playing a 6,7,8a schedule & they make the 5A semis or finals. Not all 3 win teams are near the same.
At the other end will be the 3 win teams that really aren't any good. We already have a lot of 63-0 type of games in the early rounds. This just exacerbates that issue it seems to me.
As Ryllini mentions letting 3 or 4 win teams in is gonna look odd when a JCA or someone similar goes 3-6 playing a 6,7,8a schedule & they make the 5A semis or finals. Not all 3 win teams are near the same.
At the other end will be the 3 win teams that really aren't any good. We already have a lot of 63-0 type of games in the early rounds. This just exacerbates that issue it seems to me.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
This entire things seems poorly planned especially the part where it takes place this season!
Last year a 4-5 naz team won state
The scheduling for officials is going to be a complete disaster because the IHSA didn't mandate how schools should do their scheduling. We've got some conferences moving Week 9 to Week 0 and leaving Weeks 1-8 alone but it seems like more conferences are shifting the entire schedule forward 1 week so now Week 1 is week 0 and Week 9 is Week8, etc.
From an officials standpoint I would much prefer to move the entire schedule forward 1 week. But with it being a mixed bag - some schools and conferences are going to end up scrambling to fill open spots and it puts officials in an impossible situation.
From an officials standpoint I would much prefer to move the entire schedule forward 1 week. But with it being a mixed bag - some schools and conferences are going to end up scrambling to fill open spots and it puts officials in an impossible situation.
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
The title games got uploaded to IHSA Archives
TentakilRex
- Land O Insects between Quincy-Macomb-Jacksonville
https://youtu.be/BhZmKYtl7yw?si=2FG12Wdq3wwO0Gi3
https://youtu.be/zd0jnHCMb3w?si=IApRY0lLobNFpBDs
https://youtu.be/BwYx2lyOIlk?si=rlqoTbdNROOMel2y
Been having issues posting the 6A-8A gamea
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I know the enrollments for each class changes slightly each year based on who makes the playoffs, but with the IHSA change to 48 playoff teams per class is this likely to radically shift the current enrollments in each class? And if so are there going to be any "annual contenders" getting bumped up to a new class? I don't know enough about the enrollments of the playoff regulars but a few of us at work were wondering if this takes someone like East St Louis up into 7A or Lena Winslow into 2A. Or will this not likely change the current enrollments?
I know some of you know a lot more about high school football, is there an article or anything about this out there? I'm sure the IHSA did some kind of study.
I know some of you know a lot more about high school football, is there an article or anything about this out there? I'm sure the IHSA did some kind of study.
In a class they never should have been in. Crazy how they had won 7A before and then were reset after COVID
What is the difference? The number of regular season games needing officials across the state is the same. What are all of the officials on vacation the week before the previous start of the season?
You realize they were in 7a because of the success factor. They are normally a 5a school with the multiplier.
I do. They have consistently been a top ten team in the state for the last decade. Few schools can match the number of D1 players they have produced. Pre-Covid a lot of teams had been moved up to classes that they were very competitive in. I wouldn’t have bet against a 4-5 Naz team to make it to the final 4 in 7A
Class size for private schools is irrelevant, having a schools restricted by districts vs schools that recruit across multiple districts makes class sizes irrelevant - even with some multiplier that doesn’t make sense.
It’s easy for a small private school to build a great team, where a small public has to get lucky if they have good kids in the district - same for big districts. The best kids get recruited to the private schools 80% of the time, and it seems to be skewing that way more and more.
If you like private schools, it’s fun to win and have that advantage, but at some point they should be spun off to their own playoff system.
It’s like having the Illini restricted to only playing kids from illinois, but having us go against teams pulling the best kids from multiple states and trying to say it’s ok because the student bodies are the same size.
I heard an Interview with the Chicago Mount Carmel coach on The Score (I think). Anyway he said that every kid on their team was recruited. Teams around here nobody on the team was recruited.
For the record, I'm pro-private schools. I grew up on the South Side, went to Brother Rice (my nephews are at Fenwick). EP could have very good teams, but every good athlete went to Rice, Rita, Marist, or Mt Carmel - some even to St Laurence.
I think something like a playoff for public schools, a separate one for private schools - with a Prep Bowl ending would be great - even if the publics got smoked every year. This could actually be done, but I'm sure there would be resistance due to the logistics and vastly different sizes of the fields.
LWE had 3 kids transfer in who had p4 offers. Also they have talked to a 2027 qb about transfering… It’s not like the Loyola teams that won were stacked with d1 talent. I still think it’s funny how much trash LWE talked all week leading up to the MC game and then when it’s time to play had their tail between their legs. 8a is wide open next year. MC and BR lose a ton. Hopefully LWE learns their lesson from this year
Are they starting earlier in the year or don't they care how terrible the weather will be...
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