[devil58]

Competition has gotten a little better than 3 or 4 years ago.

The state team didn't even beat anyone that was all that good to win state. Belfry was way down, and OC was an average team at best.

what teams aren't going to walk through a schedule that includes Powell, Estill, Lewis, West, and East. Heck our JV team can beat those teams most years.

Ill even go and say that I personally don't think the State team would be within 4 TD's of the 02 team. If that close. Or a few other teams Russell has had over the past 15-20 years. At a school like Russell with dwindliing numbers, the amount of talented players drops. This year you have a few outstanding players, but then there is a dropoff. This year's team has around 13 or 14 seniors I think. those teams had 20-25+ seniors. That's a major difference for a 3A school. Especially when the classes below aren't much of an improvement with the amount of players.

This team is still much better than 97, 01, or 04. If their lineman can get it together they can be pretty good. They also need to play like they care, not worry about what school they are going to. Because if this is all the effort some of these kids have, they better just focus on school, because no college coach will put up with the laziness that is shown by some of the players on this team.

I think you may mean 03 instead of 04...04 was Gross's senior year and this years team, while similar in size, has not proven to be even close to as good as that team...04 went undefeated in the regular season and ran into the best Belfry team in a long time with Howard and Jones in the backfield or they would have probably won back to back titles with 05...BTW, I agree that 02 was probably the best team in recent history mainly because they were so strong but only slightly better than 04...05 and 06 where about even but 05 got the breaks that you often need to get over the hump and 06 had to play a 5A school in the final and still probably should have won...

Think about it, we are a missed XP in 02 against Breathitt and running into a buzzsaw Belfry team in 04 (both teams won the title the next week) from being in the title game 4 out of 5 years with good chances to win all 4...Thats a heckuva run...Hard to duplicate year in and year out in a school Russell's size unless you are drawing a lot of kids in from other schools...

My honest assessment is this team is about on the same level as 01 and 03...Those teams weren't bad teams, they just weren't on the same level as what we have seen in 02, 04, 05, & 06...Remember, 01 beat the heavily favored Arliss Beach led Tomcats behind the 100+ yard breakout performance of a freshman by the name of Gross I believe... The 03 team was a sophmore and junior heavy team that had to replace a lot off the very physical and experienced 02 team...At this point, I would also have to rate this team below the 07 team as well...While many hoped that this team would be a little better they just aren't as physical and lack that on the field take charge guy that helped last year's team probably exceed a lot of people's expectations...You can call it toughness or heart but the bottom line is this team has yet to really show it...

Obviously there is still time for this team to reach their potential but time is getting short...The playoffs start Friday against Raceland...That's right I said it...You won't have any more of a playoff atmosphere the rest of the way, with the possible exception of Belfry, than you will Friday...This may be Raceland's best team in 20 years and they want an undefeated season...They are going to come into your house and bust you in the mouth in front of your family and friends...How are you going to respond?? Obviously, we want you to win but even if you don't it is more important how you respond...If you stand toe to toe and still get beat, you can walk out disappointed but with your heads up because you gave everything but just got beat by a better team...If you lay down, they will jump on top of you and beat you by 3 or 4 TD's...

This is not meant to down this year's team...Those who know me know I would never do that...I'm talking to you just like I would (and did) talk to my own kids...I never sugar coated things with my kids and said they were doing great when they weren't...You don't get better when that's done...

Truth is, it's gut check time fellas...It's time to play with more than just the INDIVIDUAL talents that you have...It's time to come together and play with the same HEART that all the teams I mentioned above played with...You've been given an opportunity to continue the Red Devil legacy of playing championship level football...

How do you want to be remembered????