[Orange Blaze]

Time for haywood to retire?

I know everyone likes to show the utmost respect to coaches like Haywood, but watching this Belfry team did remind me of some of Ivan McGlone’s last teams at Russell after he had lost his mojo.

Much of what happened tonight falls in the hands of the players.  You can’t really blame the coaching staff when a team has 4 fumbles that lead to scores. Sometimes a team just plays bad and the other team takes advantage of the mistakes that team made.  I don’t think it’s fair to throw the coach under the bus for the players having errors that were very preventable.

[RAMDAD50]

Time for haywood to retire?

I know everyone likes to show the utmost respect to coaches like Haywood, but watching this Belfry team did remind me of some of Ivan McGlone’s last teams at Russell after he had lost his mojo.

Much of what happened tonight falls in the hands of the players.  You can’t really blame the coaching staff when a team has 4 fumbles that lead to scores. Sometimes a team just plays bad and the other team takes advantage of the mistakes that team made.  I don’t think it’s fair to throw the coach under the bus for the players having errors that were very preventable.

Yeah ….and be careful what you wish for. There was this guy that coached at Nebraska named Tom Osborne. For years everyone thought Nebraska was a top notch program….come to find out they just had a top notch coach. I say once Haywood hangs it up it’s gonna be Belfry who??

[Bull got out!]

Congratulations Ashland!!!!

[OutlawJoseyWales]

All the Ashland Haters and that’s a long list, they still own Belfry and will be a force to be recon with in 3A or 4 A.

[BlackcatAlum]

I seen this Ashland team in a 7v7 back in July and was really impressed with them then and I’m not the least bit surprised they’re at where they are now. I am surprised by the final score though. I figured Belfry would put up a better fight, but anyone that’s kept up with them knows the Pirates more talented players are really young and are probably a few years from being back into the state championship hunt.

Congrats Tomcats!

[Spud6]

Time for haywood to retire?

I know everyone likes to show the utmost respect to coaches like Haywood, but watching this Belfry team did remind me of some of Ivan McGlone’s last teams at Russell after he had lost his mojo.

Much of what happened tonight falls in the hands of the players.  You can’t really blame the coaching staff when a team has 4 fumbles that lead to scores. Sometimes a team just plays bad and the other team takes advantage of the mistakes that team made.  I don’t think it’s fair to throw the coach under the bus for the players having errors that were very preventable.

Yeah ….and be careful what you wish for. There was this guy that coached at Nebraska named Tom Osborne. For years everyone thought Nebraska was a top notch program….come to find out they just had a top notch coach. I say once Haywood hangs it up it’s gonna be Belfry who??

I don’t even want to think of a Belfry football team without Coach Haywood and I’m not even a Belfry guy.

[OutlawJoseyWales]

Funny how these Ashland posters only show up when their team is winning. Don’t remember seeing them around much last year. ???

[Micro-Brew]

So I’m a little perplexed by this game, Ashland loses to Hazard who I’m going to be honest is not very good and then Belfry gets clocked by Ashland. So my question is this, I’ve heard all year well Belfry’s just young, well I’m pretty sure Ashland may be young as well or even younger, so is Ashland just better than Belfry or with Coach Haywood on the mend is Belfry’s staff just outmanned compared to Ashland with the boss laid up?
This score is very surprising. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that Ashland won but a complete beat down is. Someone has some explainin to do…..

[OutlawJoseyWales]

So I’m a little perplexed by this game, Ashland loses to Hazard who I’m going to be honest is not very good and then Belfry gets clocked by Ashland. So my question is this, I’ve heard all year well Belfry’s just young, well I’m pretty sure Ashland may be young as well or even younger, so is Ashland just better than Belfry or with Coach Haywood on the mend is Belfry’s staff just outmanned compared to Ashland with the boss laid up?
This score is very surprising. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that Ashland won but a complete beat down is. Someone has some explainin to do…..

Really nothing to explain.  Belfry has been mediocre at best all season.  Heck they didn’t even win their district….which I’ve said all season was WEAK.  This Belfry.squad was just   Very, very young and inexperienced.   Freshman QB says enough.   The Belfry offense may look simplistic in form….but executing from the QB position is difficult.  So much that Dixon couldn’t handle it last year.   Lost their best player very early on in Stanley..then lost their starting fullback Dre Young a few weeks ago.   Hey….these things happen.  14 trips to the state championship and 8 Titles in the last 20 years.  What goes up must come down. This team never matured like other Haywood teams have in the past.  No shame in that.  Different learning curve.  They’ll be fine.  Talent is there and more is coming.   It is what it is.

[Hambley]

For the Raceland folks talking trash. Ashland lost to Hazard. I CANNOT WAIT to see how this goes down.

[Micro-Brew]

So I’m a little perplexed by this game, Ashland loses to Hazard who I’m going to be honest is not very good and then Belfry gets clocked by Ashland. So my question is this, I’ve heard all year well Belfry’s just young, well I’m pretty sure Ashland may be young as well or even younger, so is Ashland just better than Belfry or with Coach Haywood on the mend is Belfry’s staff just outmanned compared to Ashland with the boss laid up?
This score is very surprising. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that Ashland won but a complete beat down is. Someone has some explainin to do…..

Really nothing to explain.  Belfry has been mediocre at best all season.  Heck they didn’t even win their district….which I’ve said all season was WEAK.  This Belfry.squad was just   Very, very young and inexperienced.   Freshman QB says enough.   The Belfry offense may look simplistic in form….but executing from the QB position is difficult.  So much that Dixon couldn’t handle it last year.   Lost their best player very early on in Stanley..then lost their starting fullback Dre Young a few weeks ago.   Hey….these things happen.  14 trips to the state championship and 8 Titles in the last 20 years.  What goes up must come down. This team never matured like other Haywood teams have in the past.  No shame in that.  Different learning curve.  They’ll be fine.  Talent is there and more is coming.   It is what it is.

So you think over the next year or two or three that Belfry makes up this losing margin? I sure hope so, I’m a Pike Co fan just really thought they’d win this game fairly comfortably.

[OutlawJoseyWales]

So I’m a little perplexed by this game, Ashland loses to Hazard who I’m going to be honest is not very good and then Belfry gets clocked by Ashland. So my question is this, I’ve heard all year well Belfry’s just young, well I’m pretty sure Ashland may be young as well or even younger, so is Ashland just better than Belfry or with Coach Haywood on the mend is Belfry’s staff just outmanned compared to Ashland with the boss laid up?
This score is very surprising. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that Ashland won but a complete beat down is. Someone has some explainin to do…..

Really nothing to explain.  Belfry has been mediocre at best all season.  Heck they didn’t even win their district….which I’ve said all season was WEAK.  This Belfry.squad was just   Very, very young and inexperienced.   Freshman QB says enough.   The Belfry offense may look simplistic in form….but executing from the QB position is difficult.  So much that Dixon couldn’t handle it last year.   Lost their best player very early on in Stanley..then lost their starting fullback Dre Young a few weeks ago.   Hey….these things happen.  14 trips to the state championship and 8 Titles in the last 20 years.  What goes up must come down. This team never matured like other Haywood teams have in the past.  No shame in that.  Different learning curve.  They’ll be fine.  Talent is there and more is coming.   It is what it is.

So you think over the next year or two or three that Belfry makes up this losing margin? I sure hope so, I’m a Pike Co fan just really thought they’d win this game fairly comfortably.

Comfortably?   You must not have followed the Pirates closely this season.  This has been the worst road team Belfry has fielded since the early to mid 90’s.  In road games …..they had to average anywhere between 4-5 turnovers per game.  Just a struggle from the jump.   Yes….I feel very comfortable in saying that Belfry will be much closer to form next year and beyond. The sky isn’t falling.

[Westside]

Time for haywood to retire?

LOL!!!!!!   You didn't just serious post that?????   He won a championship last season.   They are loaded with young talent now.   Ahhhh, no.  It's not time.

[Westside]

Gosh oh mighty. By just reading this thread I am reminded why I often root against Ashland. Calm down T-Cat. You all haven't won a state championship this season, and you're not going to. Be sure you get back on this site when Ashland is eliminated.

[Micro-Brew]

So I’m a little perplexed by this game, Ashland loses to Hazard who I’m going to be honest is not very good and then Belfry gets clocked by Ashland. So my question is this, I’ve heard all year well Belfry’s just young, well I’m pretty sure Ashland may be young as well or even younger, so is Ashland just better than Belfry or with Coach Haywood on the mend is Belfry’s staff just outmanned compared to Ashland with the boss laid up?
This score is very surprising. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that Ashland won but a complete beat down is. Someone has some explainin to do…..

Really nothing to explain.  Belfry has been mediocre at best all season.  Heck they didn’t even win their district….which I’ve said all season was WEAK.  This Belfry.squad was just   Very, very young and inexperienced.   Freshman QB says enough.   The Belfry offense may look simplistic in form….but executing from the QB position is difficult.  So much that Dixon couldn’t handle it last year.   Lost their best player very early on in Stanley..then lost their starting fullback Dre Young a few weeks ago.   Hey….these things happen.  14 trips to the state championship and 8 Titles in the last 20 years.  What goes up must come down. This team never matured like other Haywood teams have in the past.  No shame in that.  Different learning curve.  They’ll be fine.  Talent is there and more is coming.   It is what it is.

So you think over the next year or two or three that Belfry makes up this losing margin? I sure hope so, I’m a Pike Co fan just really thought they’d win this game fairly comfortably.

Comfortably?   You must not have followed the Pirates closely this season.  This has been the worst road team Belfry has fielded since the early to mid 90’s.  In road games …..they had to average anywhere between 4-5 turnovers per game.  Just a struggle from the jump.   Yes….I feel very comfortable in saying that Belfry will be much closer to form next year and beyond. The sky isn’t falling.

I didn’t mean to sound like the sky is falling. I followed Belfry pretty closely and yeah I get they’ve struggled on the road but mostly against pretty good teams like Johnson Central,LCA,  Pikeville and Lawrence Co. I just really didn’t feel like Ashland was very impressive especially from a physical standpoint but obviously I was wrong. My point is do you think it was mostly Belfry’s youth or Haywood being sidelined that led to this large of a losing margin tonight? You’d have to agree that this deficit tonight is not what most expected.  And do you think Belfry will progress more than Ashland over the next couple years to overcome what occurred tonight?

[Gold River]

Belfry and Haywood are far from done one season can’t define the immaculate career he’s had. He also has one of the youngest teams in the state that was drilled by the injury bug all season. Congrats Ashland.

[pirateforlife]

Belfry losing didn’t surprise me but getting a running clock on them absolutely did. Ashland struggled with Russell and lost to a not very good Hazard team. Thought it would be more competitive. Even on Belfry’s “down” years they have a couple studs who can carry them farther than they probably should go aka Isaac Dixon last year. If he wouldn’t have got his 5th season last year would have been similar to this year. Belfry should be improved next year but this year was disappointing. Really only beat 1 decent team in Central and weren’t even competitive in most others besides the Pulaski game. This Belfry team just didn’t improve like we see most Belfry teams and you could easily make the argument they actually got worse throughout the season.

[OutlawJoseyWales]

Belfry losing didn’t surprise me but getting a running clock on them absolutely did. Ashland struggled with Russell and lost to a not very good Hazard team. Thought it would be more competitive. Even on Belfry’s “down” years they have a couple studs who can carry them farther than they probably should go aka Isaac Dixon last year. If he wouldn’t have got his 5th season last year would have been similar to this year. Belfry should be improved next year but this year was disappointing. Really only beat 1 decent team in Central and weren’t even competitive in most others besides the Pulaski game. This Belfry team just didn’t improve like we see most Belfry teams and you could easily make the argument they actually got worse throughout the season.

Agree 100%

---

So I’m a little perplexed by this game, Ashland loses to Hazard who I’m going to be honest is not very good and then Belfry gets clocked by Ashland. So my question is this, I’ve heard all year well Belfry’s just young, well I’m pretty sure Ashland may be young as well or even younger, so is Ashland just better than Belfry or with Coach Haywood on the mend is Belfry’s staff just outmanned compared to Ashland with the boss laid up?
This score is very surprising. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that Ashland won but a complete beat down is. Someone has some explainin to do…..

Really nothing to explain.  Belfry has been mediocre at best all season.  Heck they didn’t even win their district….which I’ve said all season was WEAK.  This Belfry.squad was just   Very, very young and inexperienced.   Freshman QB says enough.   The Belfry offense may look simplistic in form….but executing from the QB position is difficult.  So much that Dixon couldn’t handle it last year.   Lost their best player very early on in Stanley..then lost their starting fullback Dre Young a few weeks ago.   Hey….these things happen.  14 trips to the state championship and 8 Titles in the last 20 years.  What goes up must come down. This team never matured like other Haywood teams have in the past.  No shame in that.  Different learning curve.  They’ll be fine.  Talent is there and more is coming.   It is what it is.

So you think over the next year or two or three that Belfry makes up this losing margin? I sure hope so, I’m a Pike Co fan just really thought they’d win this game fairly comfortably.

Comfortably?   You must not have followed the Pirates closely this season.  This has been the worst road team Belfry has fielded since the early to mid 90’s.  In road games …..they had to average anywhere between 4-5 turnovers per game.  Just a struggle from the jump.   Yes….I feel very comfortable in saying that Belfry will be much closer to form next year and beyond. The sky isn’t falling.

I didn’t mean to sound like the sky is falling. I followed Belfry pretty closely and yeah I get they’ve struggled on the road but mostly against pretty good teams like Johnson Central,LCA,  Pikeville and Lawrence Co. I just really didn’t feel like Ashland was very impressive especially from a physical standpoint but obviously I was wrong. My point is do you think it was mostly Belfry’s youth or Haywood being sidelined that led to this large of a losing margin tonight? You’d have to agree that this deficit tonight is not what most expected.  And do you think Belfry will progress more than Ashland over the next couple years to overcome what occurred tonight?

The margin of victory may be surprising to some…..but….when u turn it over as often as Belfry did this season……margins can get out of control quickly.   

I can’t  speak to how Ashland will develop going forward.  Seem to have some great pieces in place.     I can  assure you Belfry will be fine.  Will they replicate 2015-2016 talent?   No they won’t.  At least not in my opinion.  But the pieces are there ….albeit raw right now…to push Belfry back to form….whether that’s in 2A or 3A.    Patience will be a must.

[Walter White]

All the Ashland Haters and that’s a long list, they still own Belfry and will be a force to be recon with in 3A or 4 A.

Own? Your ignorance is showing heavily. Compare Ashland’s trophy case to Belfry’s lmao. Funny the Tomcats were too “*****” to play Belfry from 2013-present in regular season. Would’ve been at least 6 straight running clocks in Belfry’s favor regardless of venue. The only tradition Ashland has is not playing teams when they know they can’t beat them.

[i82much]

Great win for the Tomcats! And no, this Ashland fan doesn't believe they're on their way to another state championship. The overreaction is due to the fact that at the beginning of the season things looked rough. Through great coaching and young talent maturing they are competitive and have made this a successful season regardless of whether they win or lose next week. I love to watch what I consider throwback football. Coach Haywood is a treasure and a class act. I just wish some of the fans on here would stop overreacting to an Ashland fan's overreaction. Belfry and Ashland are two great programs and along with Pikeville and Johnson Central have put eastern Kentucky back on the football map. I respect all of these programs and definitely love it when they have success...and most Ashland fans do also...

[Westside]

Great win for the Tomcats!  And no, this Ashland fan doesn't believe they're on their way to another state championship. The overreaction is due to the fact that at the beginning of the season things looked rough. Through great coaching and young talent maturing they are competitive and have made this a successful season regardless of whether they win or lose next week. I love to watch what I consider throwback football. Coach Haywood is a treasure and a class act. I just wish some of the fans on here would stop overreacting to an Ashland fan's overreaction. Belfry and Ashland are two great programs and along with Pikeville and Johnson Central have put eastern Kentucky back on the football map. I respect all of these programs and definitely love it when they have success...and most Ashland fans do also...

I have no comeback for this statement.  I have nothing!!!

[Scotty_Bronson]

Color me shocked by the outcome and the score. I expected Belfry to win. An Ashland win isnt a shock, but lord a beatdown was! Ashland has drastically improved. But 3A as a whole isnt great. It reminds me of 2A in the old classification. Outside of the top 5 teams, as a whole the class isnt very good. Bell is good and CAL is good. But after that, the rest of the top 10 is somewhere between solid and competitive. Its because of that reason though, that it starts getting competitive and interesting in rounds 3-5, bc someone could get upset at any moment. Its going to be interesting to see how 3A ends up.

[RTruth]

Holy cow!

The my hometown crew was terrible on the call and just need to be not such homers.

I haven’t watched Belfry every game this year but I have watched the majority and I feel they are just fighting doing anything modern at all offensively or defensively.

They just don’t game plan, they do what they do no matter what personal they have, but more importantly what personal the other team has.

That simply doesn’t work anymore and don’t throw up last year. This Belfry team got a lot worse as the season went on. I would venture to say that Central would running clock them now. Injuries played a part no doubt but their team has athletes that they turned into just kids filling a role. Quite baffling that any team in 2022 would do Some do the stuff they did.

As for Ashland.
What an opposite job of coaching by that staff. Lose some of your top athletes, get beat by some very bad teams early on, but they adapted and overcome.
Offensively they put their guys in a position to succeed and they dictated the game from play #1. They helped their young QB out by putting him in the gun and basically play the power run game and giving him 1 side of the field to throw to bases on formations and got the matchups he could read easily.

Coach Tackett is my luck for 3A coach of the year just based on where that team started and where they are going to finish, and that’s at least the semifinals. They’ll beat Mason County soundly.

[Jarons]

Holy cow!

The my hometown crew was terrible on the call and just need to be not such homers.

I haven’t watched Belfry every game this year but I have watched the majority and I feel they are just fighting doing anything modern at all offensively or defensively.

They just don’t game plan, they do what they do no matter what personal they have, but more importantly what personal the other team has.

That simply doesn’t work anymore and don’t throw up last year. This Belfry team got a lot worse as the season went on. I would venture to say that Central would running clock them now. Injuries played a part no doubt but their team has athletes that they turned into just kids filling a role. Quite baffling that any team in 2022 would do Some do the stuff they did.

As for Ashland.
What an opposite job of coaching by that staff. Lose some of your top athletes, get beat by some very bad teams early on, but they adapted and overcome.
Offensively they put their guys in a position to succeed and they dictated the game from play #1. They helped their young QB out by putting him in the gun and basically play the power run game and giving him 1 side of the field to throw to bases on formations and got the matchups he could read easily.

Coach Tackett is my luck for 3A coach of the year just based on where that team started and where they are going to finish, and that’s at least the semifinals. They’ll beat Mason County soundly.

Ashland plays Bell County next.

[ROTC]

For whoever said: “this Belfry team reminded me of some of Russell’s later teams when Ivan McGlone had lost his mojo….time for Haywood to retire…..”

You answered your own dumb question!!!! How bad of a mistake was it at Russell to throw Coach McGlone away like trash and bring in the PRODIGAL SON to replace him.

Team he left got better; Russell got…. A LOT …..worse.

Also, read whoever made the Nebraska analogy. I was talking to some of my family the other day about that scenario and what a huge mistake FROST made going there.

Calm down.

---

And furthermore…..RTRUTH- when Coach Tackett has let’s say…..several hundred wins and more rings than one hand can wear….then and only then can you start the debate you are trying to make.

[Orange Blaze]

For whoever said:  “this Belfry team reminded me of some of Russell’s later teams when Ivan McGlone had lost his mojo….time for Haywood to retire…..”

You answered your own dumb question!!!!  How bad of a mistake was it at Russell to throw Coach McGlone away like trash and bring in the PRODIGAL SON to replace him.

Team he left got better; Russell got…. A LOT …..worse.

Also, read whoever made the Nebraska analogy.  I was talking to some of my family the other day about that scenario and what a huge mistake FROST made going there.

Calm down.

---

And furthermore…..RTRUTH- when Coach Tackett has let’s say…..several hundred wins and more rings than one hand can wear….then and only then can you start the debate you are trying to make.

This season showed how much coaching can make a difference in HS football.  Russell and Ashland had very similar starts today their seasons and they have equivalent talent levels.  The Ashland staff was able to overcome early set backs and improve throughout the season while Russell stayed stagnant and didn’t show much improvement.  I also think the Russell team may have quit on the coaches halfway through the season.

[wolfcat]

Time for haywood to retire?

I know everyone likes to show the utmost respect to coaches like Haywood, but watching this Belfry team did remind me of some of Ivan McGlone’s last teams at Russell after he had lost his mojo.

Pretty sure he just won a title last year. Every program has a down year. I have saw their middle school last couple of years, believe me, Belfry will be back sooner rather than later.

[irishcard16]

If the middle school pirates get it done today and win that will mean every kid next year from juniors down will have won a MS state championship. If the struggles in HS continue next year then maybe questions need to be asked.

[Slic Ric]

If the middle school pirates get it done today and win that will mean every kid next year from juniors down will have won a MS state championship. If the struggles in HS continue next year then maybe questions need to be asked.

Anyone know if the Middle School Championship will be live streamed today?

[16thregioner]

I disagree with you about the Russell coaching change in 2014. Coach Ivan McGlone's last teams at Russell were uninspired groups that weren't competitive with good teams, sort of like what I saw last night on the field for Belfry. Every coach has his time and when it goes downhill, it goes fast. That doesn't mean I don't respect what legendary coaches like that have done in their careers. It's just the reality of the passage of time.

As for Raceland getting better since "the prodigal son" left, I disagree here as well. That same "prodigal son" had beaten Raceland by double digits for the past 3 years including a 41-0 demolition in 2019. The problem for the "prodigal son" now? Raceland took advantage of the COVID year and Russell didn't. 5 sophomores who were on the losing side of that 41-0 beating were now on the winning side of this year's 40 point Raceland win over Russell as 5th year seniors. Add in the fact that 2 players on the Russell sideline in that 41-0 beating are now the QB and leading WR for Raceland this year. Throw in a couple of decent Ohio transfers and a couple of decent Ashland transfers to the mix of old players and you have "Raceland getting better" defined for you. It wasn't due to the "prodigal son" leaving Raceland.

As for Tackett, he has done a great job this season and should be at the front of the pack for 3A coach of the year.