[charlie22]

Probably not. Boyle is replacing a lot of key people but the defense will still be pretty solid, especially against "ground oriented" attacks. I expect it to be a good game but still think Boyle will win. :Thumbs:

Fair enough. And JC is certainly a "ground oriented" attack. Should be a fun game to watch this year. Can you see about moving it to a Saturday so I can come down to watch?:biggrin:

I'll say this about JC last year: they were a completely different team at the end of the year than they were at the beginning. I saw them play Ashland in what was their 5th game I believe. JC won, but I was terribly unimpressed. Fumbles, missed tackles, heads dropped down, poor coordination between qb and running backs on handoffs/fakes, they looked out of shape, and bad pass defense. It just really surprised me as I'd thought they be dominating last year. I thought they'd smoke Ashland. To JC's credit, they did come back to win the game, but it was on a last play TD pass that they probably couldn't complete again if they tried it another 100 times. But at least they won. If I recall properly, that was the first game that Dillon played last year (and he only played sparingly).

By the time I saw them live again (vs Highlands in the playoffs) Dillon was again an impact player like he had been his junior year, the coordination between the qb and the rbs was vastly improved, and their pass defense was somewhat improved. I don't think they lost one fumble in that game, if I recall properly. Kids held their heads up throughout the game. Just a different completely different team.

Lest people think that the only reason JC looked better offensively at the end of the year was because Highlands run defense wasn't that good, keep in mind that Cincy X didn't move the ball at all against Highlands defense on the ground. In the last regular season game Highlands held Ryle's very good running back (Elliott) to less than 100 yds rushing, which was the first time that had happened all year (and maybe was the only time it happened). Highlands run defense was pretty good. Also keep in mind that JC looked poor in that fifth game against Ashland. Ashland had an okay team last year, but I wouldn't characterize Ashland as being really strong last year and they got beat badly by Dixie Heights in the playoffs. Dixie lost twice by about 50 points to Highlands last year. If comparing scores has only a little validity, unless JC improved a lot during the year Highlands should have beaten JC by 70 plus points. Obviously that didn't happen. Which indicates at least to me that JC improved dramatically during the course of the year.

I attribute JC's improvement during the year to 3 things in the following order of importance: the better coordination between qb and rbs on handoffs and fakes which eliminated a lot of fumbles; the return of Dillon (THE leader of that team last year); and being in better shape.

If, with JC's qb and two of the three backs returning, they are able to eliminate the frequent fumbles; if several of the returning starters can replace Dillon's leadership; and if they start the season in shape, I too expect the game this year between Boyle and JC to be much closer and I won't be surprised if either team wins.

I don't have a dog in the Boyle vs JC debate going on, but that is what I observed last year and think could happen this year.