Bluegrassrivals

final

First off, Congratulations to Belfry and Philip Haywood on #400 and good Luck next week. Second its been fun watching the Russell seniors for four years,Good luck in the future. Third, Russell underclassmen who don't play basketball your season for next year starts Monday get in the weight room and get bigger, stronger, and faster.

Thanks Goreddevils, I really respect everything about Russell and how you all run things. I have to think it won't be long until the devils are back on top of the mountain.

Belfry vs Central part eleventybillion.

UK should be begging Ray Horton to come there. Best defensive player in the state regardless of class.

And sign the kid that kicks for Johnson Central.

Why did X have to do that kid so dirty on the long TD run right before halftime??

That was a funny move, made the kid look stupid.

Too bad for Russell that they have to run in to Belfry so early in the playoffs now. This one seemed like it might be a game for a drive or two. Then Belfry ended the game in just a few minutes. At least they made it quick and as painless as possible for Russell.

Congrats to the Pirates.

PCN better start to realize how special this run is that the Pirates are on over the last decade +. There will come a time when success isn't so easy to come by. The PCN needs to come out in full force to the CAM every Friday night and support these Pirates. I love the way this team is playing as of late. GO Big Red!!

Belfry has been on a special run for the last 15 years. There will be a time when that ends but it has been a historical run.

I agree with everything above.

Belfry has at least one more dominant year left with this Junior Class. I think Belfry returns 8 or 9 starters each way next year with most being multi year starters. The Feeder system continues to hum along and that will help Belfry but a run like this is fleeting at a small school.

Russell will be back and Belfry will dip... You can assure yourselves of that. When this happens though is Tbd

I wish someone had a video clip of X Willis run where he juked Conley. Radio call made it sound nasty.

Minus the 05 and 06 season 😉

PaytoPlay Wrote:I wish someone had a video clip of X Willis run where he juked Conley. Radio call made it sound nasty.

would love to see it while hearing Buclovers voice calling it again while it happened..:Thumbs:

Russell's program lost it's "edge" after the 2006 season, ultimately leading to the dismissal of longtime coach McGlone. Even when they were great, Russell never turned into a "destination" program like Belfry where players come from other schools and across the river specifically to play football. Ironically, Russell's current coach was busy trying to turn Raceland into that type of program during the years when Russell should have been riding the momentum of the state title games. Raceland even got the best athlete in a generation at Russell during that time in Connor Messer. Fairview was bringing players in as well during that time. The only way Russell could have achieved what Belfry has achieved on this recent run is to have been the school all of these players wanted to play for in the area. It was quite the opposite, though, as talented players were actually leaving Russell. It hurt badly that 2 class A schools within a 5 mile radius of Russell were building powers with Raceland taking players from Russell and Greenup and Fairview attracting players from Ohio and Huntington. At the same time, McGlone was losing his energy and the program went in the opposite direction of Belfry. Maynard is doing a good job of restoring the pride, the interest, the feeder leagues, and the conditioning. Over time, hopefully that will work to attract talent.

Russell will develop what they have. They either need a) a special group of lineman to come up together who can take over a game (with good not necessarily great skill) or b) some special skill kids to come up together.

Belfry_99 Wrote:PCN better start to realize how special this run is that the Pirates are on over the last decade +. There will come a time when success isn't so easy to come by. The PCN needs to come out in full force to the CAM every Friday night and support these Pirates. I love the way this team is playing as of late. GO Big Red!!

Agree!

Belfry has two really good years a head of them but even after that there still going to be Belfry physical great defense and run the ball at you.

First of all, congrats to Coach Haywood on his incredible achievement. I heard somewhere that he's now one of only ten active coaches in the country with 400 wins.

Secondly... Russell's future looks promising, but there's still obviously a long way to go. The younger kids just need to hit the weight room hard and stay at it all off-season. The biggest gap between Russell and Belfry lies in the trenches. That's where the Devils are playing catch-up the most. Also, I think it's important to point out that while yes, Russell regressed after '06, Belfry continued to get better and better. It's not like Belfry just held steady after '03-'04. As good as they were a decade ago, there's a greater depth of talent in Pond Creek these days. Russell went in one direction, Belfry in another.

I think Russell fans were spoiled a little by the success we had in year one of Maynard's tenure. Russell's region last year was pretty weak. Bourbon Co. and Mason Co. weren't what they had been in years past. The region was there for the taking and Russell seized it. Then we got thrashed in the semis. This year, due to realignment, the thrashing came two rounds earlier.

nekysportsfan Wrote:Russell's program lost it's "edge" after the 2006 season, ultimately leading to the dismissal of longtime coach McGlone. Even when they were great, Russell never turned into a "destination" program like Belfry where players come from other schools and across the river specifically to play football. Ironically, Russell's current coach was busy trying to turn Raceland into that type of program during the years when Russell should have been riding the momentum of the state title games. Raceland even got the best athlete in a generation at Russell during that time in Connor Messer. Fairview was bringing players in as well during that time. The only way Russell could have achieved what Belfry has achieved on this recent run is to have been the school all of these players wanted to play for in the area. It was quite the opposite, though, as talented players were actually leaving Russell. It hurt badly that 2 class A schools within a 5 mile radius of Russell were building powers with Raceland taking players from Russell and Greenup and Fairview attracting players from Ohio and Huntington. At the same time, McGlone was losing his energy and the program went in the opposite direction of Belfry. Maynard is doing a good job of restoring the pride, the interest, the feeder leagues, and the conditioning. Over time, hopefully that will work to attract talent.

Russell never did attract outside talent. Raceland kids have always been loyol to that school and they usually got a few from Greenup Co. They never attracted kids from Ohio, Irony in always got those. And Ashland always ended up with Fairview and Boyd Co defectors. So they've always had to develop their own. Had some Russell kids not left the program things may have turned out different the last several years.I know Messer left, Mavrick Dixon was in the feeder system along with Isic Sherman the big kid who played at Irony in. And I believe a few of Racelands lineman from last year was previously at Russell. The biggest challenge they have will be developing big strong lineman with some mobility. They get enough skill people to make a difference. But without the big uglies it won't matter. McKee could have had a good yr passing but was always running for his life. He had some good receivers. It will take a few more years of the kids in the wt room to develop the strengthen they need to compete with the better teams.

Darn spell check. The phrase irony in is suppose to read Ironton.