[Elwayfan]

You are sorely mistaken if you're taking these height and weight charts from an "official" stat book or program. They are heavily padded. I know because my height and weight were NEVER correct in the football programs. The coaches will often try to make the players appear bigger, meaner on the stat charts. It's just a fact, a 6'0'' lineman looks more intimidating on paper than a 5'10'' lineman.

So yeah, I'm not surprised if you're showing me these numbers. However, I watched the game and those kids on the line did not look that big, plus they were getting beat by smaller players. In fact the whole team seemed smaller than teams in the past. Several others that I've talked to have encountered this phenomenon as well. The kids seem to be getting smaller. And if this staff has the kids in the weight room so much then why is the line getting beat by smaller kids?

As for the "huge holes" you saw, they were not there all the time or even often I would say. Yeah, there may have been some huge holes during the game which can be attributed to numerous things, but were they consistent? Obviously not, because Pikeville was going nowhere in the second half. You say that the safety was making most of the plays, but if a safety is the only one getting tackles, then Pikeville would HAVE to gain some yards. You only need about 4 yards a play to get a first down and you're saying the safety was making all the tackles, how can Pikeville not be gaining yards if the safety is making the tackles?

If the runs up the middle had worked then of course, the outcome would have been different. Yes, you can't rely on this alone, but you're making it sound like Pikeville had no trouble running it up the gut, when they hardly went anywhere in the second half.

I will agree that the first half was much better, I don't know if these kids weren't as conditioned as LCA or if they just mentally broke down.

First of all these heights and weights are close to exact, I haven't even looked in a program. I'm around these kids every day, so trust me on that. The linemen for LCA weren't making the plays, it was corners and the safety. They basically had 10 guys in the box all night. When this happens you need to be able to throw certain types of passes to back them out or at least keep them from shooting gaps all night and Pikeville just hasn't been able to execute the pass all year. Pikeville still moved the ball on LCA. Harmon led the way with around 180 yards himself.

The turnovers obviously killed the Panthers, but the misexecutions at QB was just as much a negative impact. People usually don't catch these mistakes from the stands, they think it's a playcall by the coach.

Yes, the safety did make most of the plays but not all of them. the wekside corners and outside OLB's made several plays off the edge because the blocking backs didn't get any movement.

The outcome would have been different if Pikeville didn't have 8 turnovers(2 of which were fumbles on the QB/Center exchange on LCA's 4 and 17 yardline), a blocked punt, terrible field position, better blocking by the halfbacks, etc. But, it wasn'nt because they could't run the ball. Pikeville should have went in at halftime with a 21-0 lead.
I believe your right about the mental breakdown by some key players.