[ROTC]

Are they just a mediocre football school now and no one really cares that much or will the Devils emerge as the hellions they once were in the long tenure of Ivan the Great?

[Orange Blaze]

Are they just a mediocre football school now and no one really cares that much or will the Devils emerge as the hellions they once were in the long tenure of Ivan the Great?

Something that has hurt Russell a lot has been losing kids who would have been their best players to Raceland.  Raceland’s QB is a Russell transfer as was last season’s leading receiver.  Those are just recent examples and Russell has lost other kids who would have been key playmakers to the Rams over the past decade.  

Their road to a title has also been significantly harder than their neighbors down the road in Raceland and for that reason it has been easy for kids to want to leave for a smoother path to Lexington. This season they didn’t have a bad record but unfortunately had to face LexCath.  Over the past decade they also had the buzzsaw of the Belfry dynasty to deal with and they had a once in a generation Ashland team to contend with in 2020.

[ROTC]

So, Blaze, are you saying that the Devils are doing about as well as they can?

[Orange Blaze]

So, Blaze, are you saying that the Devils are doing about as well as they can?

I believe so.  I don’t think the talent is there.  I watched them practice a lot this year and they seem well coached but they just don’t have the kids to compete at a high level.

[RAM-A-DEVIL]

He’s right. They don’t have the talent from years passed

[RAMDAD50]

It’s a little deeper then just the lack of talent. Russell has definitely had some great football teams. Then have probably had at least two more f the top five teams to ever come out of this area. With that being said….for years Russell feasted on weak competition. They have always been in a sorry sorry district and have had the opportunity of playing the first couple rounds of the playoffs against subpar teams. When the Rams had to play the Beechwood district in the early 90’s there was no chance of advancing in the playoffs. I disagree with the kids coming to Raceland having anything to do with the fall in f Russell. One or two kids don’t make that big of a difference on a football team. Now if Raceland had ten kids from Russell I would agree but one or two every three years didn’t cause the demise of Russell football. But that seems to be all anyone ever wants to talk about. Maynard never won a game at Raceland he wasn’t supposed to. You couple subpar coaching with an over all lack of interest from what use to be an eager student body in football and you get where Russell is currently at as a program.

[Orange Blaze]

It’s a little deeper then just the lack of talent. Russell has definitely had some great football teams. Then have probably had at least two more f the top five teams to ever come out of this area. With that being said….for years Russell feasted on weak competition. They have always been in a sorry sorry district and have had the opportunity of playing the first couple rounds of the playoffs against subpar teams. When the Rams had to play the Beechwood district in the early 90’s there was no chance of advancing in the playoffs. I disagree with the kids coming to Raceland having anything to do with the fall in f Russell. One or two kids don’t make that big of a difference on a football team. Now if Raceland had ten kids from Russell I would agree but one or two every three years didn’t cause the demise of Russell football. But that seems to be all anyone ever wants to talk about. Maynard never won a game at Raceland he wasn’t supposed to. You couple subpar coaching with an over all lack of interest from what use to be an eager student body in football and you get where Russell is currently at as a program.

Something else that is never talked about is during Russell’s run during the early 2000’s was widespread “alleged” PED use that is no longer there now.  I was in high school when they were a dominant force and many of their star players would openly admit to this.  That had a huge impact on their success during that time IMO.

[ROTC]

They “did” used to have guys that looked like East Germans running that Cold War offense to lethality!!! Hahahahaha

[Fanman]

It’s a little deeper then just the lack of talent. Russell has definitely had some great football teams. Then have probably had at least two more f the top five teams to ever come out of this area. With that being said….for years Russell feasted on weak competition. They have always been in a sorry sorry district and have had the opportunity of playing the first couple rounds of the playoffs against subpar teams. When the Rams had to play the Beechwood district in the early 90’s there was no chance of advancing in the playoffs. I disagree with the kids coming to Raceland having anything to do with the fall in f Russell. One or two kids don’t make that big of a difference on a football team. Now if Raceland had ten kids from Russell I would agree but one or two every three years didn’t cause the demise of Russell football. But that seems to be all anyone ever wants to talk about. Maynard never won a game at Raceland he wasn’t supposed to. You couple subpar coaching with an over all lack of interest from what use to be an eager student body in football and you get where Russell is currently at as a program.

That's a pretty bold statement about a coach with the resume of Maynard's. Cmon.

[RAMDAD50]

It’s a little deeper then just the lack of talent. Russell has definitely had some great football teams. Then have probably had at least two more f the top five teams to ever come out of this area. With that being said….for years Russell feasted on weak competition. They have always been in a sorry sorry district and have had the opportunity of playing the first couple rounds of the playoffs against subpar teams. When the Rams had to play the Beechwood district in the early 90’s there was no chance of advancing in the playoffs. I disagree with the kids coming to Raceland having anything to do with the fall in f Russell. One or two kids don’t make that big of a difference on a football team. Now if Raceland had ten kids from Russell I would agree but one or two every three years didn’t cause the demise of Russell football. But that seems to be all anyone ever wants to talk about. Maynard never won a game at Raceland he wasn’t supposed to. You couple subpar coaching with an over all lack of interest from what use to be an eager student body in football and you get where Russell is currently at as a program.

That's a pretty bold statement about a coach with the resume of Maynard's. Cmon.

Name one game then. When he was the head coach at Raceland he never won a game where the other team was as good or better than Raceland. There’s only been one coach at Raceland that’s won games they had no business winning and that was Vanderhoof. Now I do believe he’s won at least one game at Russell he had no business winning and that was a game at Ironton. I can’t remember what year it was but Russell did beat a Ironton team that was better than them that year just not that night.

[Fanman]

It’s a little deeper then just the lack of talent. Russell has definitely had some great football teams. Then have probably had at least two more f the top five teams to ever come out of this area. With that being said….for years Russell feasted on weak competition. They have always been in a sorry sorry district and have had the opportunity of playing the first couple rounds of the playoffs against subpar teams. When the Rams had to play the Beechwood district in the early 90’s there was no chance of advancing in the playoffs. I disagree with the kids coming to Raceland having anything to do with the fall in f Russell. One or two kids don’t make that big of a difference on a football team. Now if Raceland had ten kids from Russell I would agree but one or two every three years didn’t cause the demise of Russell football. But that seems to be all anyone ever wants to talk about. Maynard never won a game at Raceland he wasn’t supposed to. You couple subpar coaching with an over all lack of interest from what use to be an eager student body in football and you get where Russell is currently at as a program.

That's a pretty bold statement about a coach with the resume of Maynard's. Cmon.

Name one game then. When he was the head coach at Raceland he never won a game where the other team was as good or better than Raceland. There’s only been one coach at Raceland that’s won games they had no business winning and that was Vanderhoof. Now I do believe he’s won at least one game at Russell he had no business winning and that was a game at Ironton. I can’t remember what year it was but Russell did beat a Ironton team that was better than them that year just not that night.

But you're saying that makes you a "subpar" coach? B/c you don't win games you're not supposed to?  Just saying, hard to talk poorly about a coach that has won nearly 150 high school football games in his career, and had like 2 losing seasons out of 25.

[Orange Blaze]

It’s a little deeper then just the lack of talent. Russell has definitely had some great football teams. Then have probably had at least two more f the top five teams to ever come out of this area. With that being said….for years Russell feasted on weak competition. They have always been in a sorry sorry district and have had the opportunity of playing the first couple rounds of the playoffs against subpar teams. When the Rams had to play the Beechwood district in the early 90’s there was no chance of advancing in the playoffs. I disagree with the kids coming to Raceland having anything to do with the fall in f Russell. One or two kids don’t make that big of a difference on a football team. Now if Raceland had ten kids from Russell I would agree but one or two every three years didn’t cause the demise of Russell football. But that seems to be all anyone ever wants to talk about. Maynard never won a game at Raceland he wasn’t supposed to. You couple subpar coaching with an over all lack of interest from what use to be an eager student body in football and you get where Russell is currently at as a program.

That's a pretty bold statement about a coach with the resume of Maynard's. Cmon.

Name one game then. When he was the head coach at Raceland he never won a game where the other team was as good or better than Raceland. There’s only been one coach at Raceland that’s won games they had no business winning and that was Vanderhoof. Now I do believe he’s won at least one game at Russell he had no business winning and that was a game at Ironton. I can’t remember what year it was but Russell did beat a Ironton team that was better than them that year just not that night.

His last season at Raceland was Raceland’s first regional championship win against Pikeville.  Also in that season he had broken Fairview’s 3 year regular season winning streak on the field (for the sake of this discussion I’m not looking at the Fairview vacated wins).  Hate him or love him but you have to admit that Maynard played a very important role in helping Raceland build the foundation for where the program is at today.

---

Also in the next season he took Russell to the Semi finals in his first year there. As for the state of the program now, I don’t think they have been bad but they just don’t have the guys they had when they were having their run from 2002-2007.

[Runrunrun]

It’s a little deeper then just the lack of talent. Russell has definitely had some great football teams. Then have probably had at least two more f the top five teams to ever come out of this area. With that being said….for years Russell feasted on weak competition. They have always been in a sorry sorry district and have had the opportunity of playing the first couple rounds of the playoffs against subpar teams. When the Rams had to play the Beechwood district in the early 90’s there was no chance of advancing in the playoffs. I disagree with the kids coming to Raceland having anything to do with the fall in f Russell. One or two kids don’t make that big of a difference on a football team. Now if Raceland had ten kids from Russell I would agree but one or two every three years didn’t cause the demise of Russell football. But that seems to be all anyone ever wants to talk about. Maynard never won a game at Raceland he wasn’t supposed to. You couple subpar coaching with an over all lack of interest from what use to be an eager student body in football and you get where Russell is currently at as a program.

Now that’s funny, you wouldn’t have been playing at Kroger field last year if it wasn’t for the two Russell kids you got in Lundy and lykins. Had those two never left the path for both teams would be different we