[Hoot Gibson]

It isn't like Corbin's game against Johnson Central was an anomaly. Corbin struggled in slow starts in several games last season before winning by a decent margin, including against Lincoln County. If anybody wants to blame Corbin's coaching for the JC loss, then they need to realize that Corbin's slow start against JC was not unusual for last year's team. It is easy for anybody to say that their team would have won, and then provide an iffin' list. Johnson Central played most of last season without its best running back. How many yards would JC have rushed for if Lawson had played? If Lawson had not been injured, then there is a pretty good chance that JC would have been playing at home again.

Im def not saying JC shouldn’t have won that game. But if you think our leading rush scorer not playing a down of offense wouldn’t have made the game a little more competitive then you aren’t being objective about it. I still don’t think we would have won with Greer coaching that game, because his game plan was horrendous. But you criticize us for making an “if comment”. But this below is yours after title game.  

“IMO, the absence of Mason Lawson from JC's offense and from their defense was also a big factor in last night's game. Lawson was rushing for 145 yards per game when he was lost for the season and was averaging 12.5 yards per carry. Lawson was also a key player in JC's defensive secondary. 

Johnson Central's defense feeds on the offense's ability to sustain long drives when necessary and Boyle County's ability to force two JC punts in the first quarter was a huge factor in the game. Against most opponents, JC's offensive line softened defenses pretty quickly and allowed the Golden Eagle backfield to dominate but with Boyle County's speed, especially Lanter and Zeismer, that never happened last night. Having Lawson available last night would have made the game much more competitive but injuries are a part of the game. Sometimes, your team suffers key injuries and sometimes they impact your opponent more.”

you mention a leading rusher being absent,
and it being a “big factor” in that game. You also say having him would have made it a more competitive game and it impacts
your opponents more. 

now before I go any further, I 1000000% agree with your comment. But I don’t understand how him being present would have made your game more competitive, but us not having our leading TD and rusher playing in the backfield, when he did EVERY game except that, wouldn’t? Again, what we did against you guys was just an out right head scratcher. But not having our other RB back there and coming out with the dumbest game plan you could think of, definitely made an impact on that game. Would we have won? Maybe? Probably not? I’m going with the last one, but not having our one guy that can break off a TD on any play back there definitely did not help us. And changed the whole dynamic of that game. And that was part of their “game plan” if that’s what they want to call it. But sometimes I play the “what if” game. You do, everyone does. But you use it to defend one team and not another one. And again,
I agree, our starts in some games last
year were awful. But something that wasn’t common for us was fumbles, but especially the first one we had when we ran that quick option with Seth huff, thay I don’t ever remember running. I know you could go on,
what if you had your awesome coach, your RB, on and on. Would it have made a difference, probably. But that’s all Corbin fans are saying. What we did was an anomaly- why they did it, well I think I know but that’s a different conversation- but if we played like we knew they had
the ability to, and just treated it like another game, it would have probably had an impact too. I think a few are getting ahead of themselves saying it would have made us win. Well never know, but hopefully we’ll be able to talk about a game between us in a few weeks. Hopefully we’ll be a little better prepared this time around. But if not, we’re all friend and we’ll just argue about “what ifs”. Hahaha. Sound good?

My statement about Lawson was intended to sound ridiculous as an illustration of just how ridiculous statements like Corbin should have beaten Johnson Central by at least 2 touchdowns are. Coaching, like injuries are part of the game and coaches are also part of the team. Johnson Central was a better team last season, not just a better team on that particular night. There is no doubt that Corbin had more D1 talent in the skill positions last season than Johnson Central did, but JC has faced teams having more D1 talent for more than a decade and has found ways of winning those games more often than not.

I cannot be the only Johnson Central supporter who is tired of all of the rehashing of last season's Corbin playoff loss. Maybe Corbin would have won if their coaching staff had made different decisions, but maybe Johnson Central would have made adjustments to different moves and still won the game. My point is that Corbin got off to slow starts in several games last year against lesser teams than JC and still managed to win by comfortable margins, so Corbin really did not play worse against JC than it had in some of their previous games.

This is the second season in which Johnson Central has lost a running back who was averaging more than 145 yards per game when he was lost for the season, although there may be a slim chance that Carter Conley will return by the end of the season. I  could be wrong, but I don't recall any JC supporter arguing that Conley's injury caused JC to lose to North Laurel - certainly nobody has turned it into a thoroughly beaten horse. North Laurel was better than JC on that night and the outcome of the game may have been the same if Conley had played the full game. We cannot assume that Conley would have added 145 yards of offense and a couple of touchdowns if he had not been injured early in that game. Nor can we assume that had Lawson not been injured last season that JC would have beaten a very talented Rock Creek Christian Academy.

I agree that the time to argue about "what if's" is before games are played, or even immediately after the game has been played. But at some point, time should expire on fanciful speculation. It has been almost a full football season since Corbin lost to JC and since JC lost to Boyle County. The better team won in both cases. I personally hope that Johnson Central plays Lexington Catholic and Corbin hosts Boyle County in the 3rd round this season. Teams and coaches who have not recently played against JC's offense have generally had more trouble preparing for games. I would love to see a Corbin vs. Johnson Central final this season.