[papa pigskin]

They were the poorest prepared team that I saw on film all of last season. Don't put it on the kids when the coach did a terriable job of adjusting his system to the talent he had available. Kids will rise to the expectations you place on them. Apparently there weren't enough expectations placed on the weight room. Coach Cotton did a terrible job coaching, hired an awful staff, and lost his team by the end of the season. I think their numbers dropped by 20 or so kids by seasons end. Put the blame where it needs to be, on the man in charge.

Coach Cotton is a good knowlegeable coach and knows x's and o's as good as anyone. You have to go into a job with a system and see how it works. I am sure he and his staff were already in discussion this off-season to implement or modify their schemes to adjust to the players. Everything in building a program takes more than one season. Im sure kids were prepared, execution on the otherhand may have been lacking. However, at all levels of football winning teams do 2 things well, block and tackle. Until this new staff had enough time to build the foundation of these 2 fundamental skills of football you could have had Bill Belichik coaching them and have the best schemes in the world but Taylor wouldn't have tasted success.

Kids rise or fall based on the expectations you put on them. Coach Cotton and the staff came in and tried to instill a culture of accountability and discipline. Because of this, I would say he ended up with 20 less kids because they weren't willing to make a committment to the new expectations.


How can you blame Taylor's physical ineptitude on Coach Cotton and his committment to the offseason. The players he inherited obviously hadn't been held accountable to train in the off-season with the last staff. Coach Cotton hasn't even been on the job for one calander year. When you get a job in late spring you have to get the weights going as good as you can and hit the ground running with everything else. To see results you must have a sound winter program in for several years. As I understand it, the staff had 65 kids out for winter conditioning which started in November. So maybe those 20 they lost during the season were cancerous. They implemented the Bigger Faster Stronger weight program, which is proven, and added stretching and speed exercises from a track program. Some of the staff also visited Highlands and watched their off-season workouts to see what the best team in the state does to instill year round competition. We all know that Highlands is the standard in Ky high school football. So, from what I gather the staff was steering the ship in a very positive direction. However, we won't get to see where they might have taken the program.

Taylor County must think it is on the level of Trinity, Highlands, and Boyle. However, they don't understand that these programs weren't built over night. If Boyle had acted like Taylor then Chuck Smith would have been fired after his first or second season and Boyle would have never won a state championship, let alone the 4 more consecutive ones that followed.

I believe the Superintendent of the Schools is the problem. I think he has a major ego and being a former coach he tries to meddle too much. If I were him I would let the coaches do their job considering his record as a high school head football coach is well below .500!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe the district overall would be a better place if he tried supporting employees and motivating them instead of ruling by intimidation.

This whole situation is stupid. The people of Taylor have no idea what it takes to be successful. Maybe they could learn from the Anderson, Green, Allen, and Boyle Counties of the world. Those that know hard work will know success and those that have no hard will have no success. The administration and community need a reality check. God help the next coach that takes this job.

I hope Coach Cotton lands on his feet as the OC at Mercer and scores 100 points on Taylor. They deserve every loss they get!!!!!!!!!!!!!!