[Bull got out!]

Rowan County vs Johnson Central. Thoughts?

[RAM-A-DEVIL]

JC by a lot

[Bull got out!]

Johnson Central

[ArmChairHC]

This one gets ugly quick.

[Pulp Fiction]

Johnson Central leads the All-Time Series 13-1

1977: Johnson Central 34-0
1978: Johnson Central 40-16
1991: Johnson Central 32-6
2001: Rowan County 40-20
2002: Johnson Central 16-15
2011: Johnson Central 63-14
2012: Johnson Central 58-14
2013: Johnson Central 59-10
2014: Johnson Central 48-14
2015: Johnson Central 42-6
2016: Johnson Central 56-17
2017: Johnson Central 61-7
2018: Johnson Central 57-7
2023: Johnson Central 43-8

[Pulp Fiction]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history. If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it. It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

[i82much]

Rough stretch for Rowan. "Endeavor to persevere".
Central is coming off a tough loss but make no mistake, they are near the top of the contender list in 4A.
JC wins 50-6

[The Source EKy]

Too much run game for the Vikings to handle.  Running clock game....

[Hoot Gibson]

My hope is that eventually Johnson Central will be in a district in which every team can enter district games with a realistic hope of winning. This is the strongest 4A district in the state, but unfortunately, Rowan County is a longshot to win any district game this season. I expect that Coach Peck will call off the dogs fairly early, and the final score will not be indicative of the gap between the two teams.

[Redneck]

JC rolls, gets back in the W column after that tough loss last week.

[Mr. D]

JC will either play this game really angry after the loss to Corbin or they will have a little bit of a letdown emotionally. Either way JC wins with a running clock. This will be a good game to get lots of carries for Barnes, Morrow, Perry, etc and keep the load off of McCoart and Music. Hopefully they can work several passing plays in as well.

[OutlawJoseyWales]

JC by as many as they want.

[The Source EKy]

My hope is that eventually Johnson Central will be in a district in which every team can enter district games with a realistic hope of winning. This is the strongest 4A district in the state, but unfortunately, Rowan County is a longshot to win any district game this season. I expect that Coach Peck will call off the dogs fairly early, and the final score will not be indicative of the gap between the two teams.

If you mean "Strongest" as most competitive, I completely agree.

[Hoot Gibson]

My hope is that eventually Johnson Central will be in a district in which every team can enter district games with a realistic hope of winning. This is the strongest 4A district in the state, but unfortunately, Rowan County is a longshot to win any district game this season. I expect that Coach Peck will call off the dogs fairly early, and the final score will not be indicative of the gap between the two teams.

If you mean "Strongest" as most competitive, I completely agree.

Strongest, as in the most competitive overall.  2 of the top 4A teams in the state and both Boyd County and Greenup County are average to above average 4A teams. Calpreps ranks the district as the most competitive based on the average Calprep rating.

[Bandit29]

The Vikings can't bring enough longboats to keep this one close.

[BobcatForever]

Johnson Central rebounds in a big way with chip on their shoulder!!

[pjdoug]

Go Vikings!

[Diogenes]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

[Hoot Gibson]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

The Humphrey year was very bad, but the how that led to the next two seasons was even worse, IMO. Those were three long miserable seasons.

[Hoot Gibson]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

The Humphrey year was very bad, but the how that led to the next two seasons was even worse, IMO. Those were three long miserable seasons.

That should have been "hire" instead of "how." Following an undefeated season under Bill Musick, the next three seasons featured what was probably the most talented 1 and 2 win teams in the state, but you would never had guessed that was the case by watching them play. I remember a game against Paintsville when Johnson Central led at halftime but were obviously out of shape and gasping for air. The Tigers dominated the second half. Humphrey's team was bad, but the players were well conditioned.

[The Source EKy]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

The Humphrey year was very bad, but the how that led to the next two seasons was even worse, IMO. Those were three long miserable seasons.

That should have been "hire" instead of "how." Following an undefeated season under Bill Musick, the next three seasons featured what was probably the most talented 1 and 2 win teams in the state, but you would never had guessed that was the case by watching them play. I remember a game against Paintsville when Johnson Central led at halftime but were obviously out of shape and gasping for air. The Tigers dominated the second half. Humphrey's team was bad, but the players were well conditioned.

It was an absolute crazy time for sure. Humphrey finally was ran out of town.

[Hoot Gibson]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

The Humphrey year was very bad, but the how that led to the next two seasons was even worse, IMO. Those were three long miserable seasons.

That should have been "hire" instead of "how." Following an undefeated season under Bill Musick, the next three seasons featured what was probably the most talented 1 and 2 win teams in the state, but you would never had guessed that was the case by watching them play. I remember a game against Paintsville when Johnson Central led at halftime but were obviously out of shape and gasping for air. The Tigers dominated the second half. Humphrey's team was bad, but the players were well conditioned.

It was an absolute crazy time for sure.  Humphrey finally was ran out of town.

Too bad they botched the next hire even worse.

[Pulp Fiction]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

The Humphrey year was very bad, but the how that led to the next two seasons was even worse, IMO. Those were three long miserable seasons.

That should have been "hire" instead of "how." Following an undefeated season under Bill Musick, the next three seasons featured what was probably the most talented 1 and 2 win teams in the state, but you would never had guessed that was the case by watching them play. I remember a game against Paintsville when Johnson Central led at halftime but were obviously out of shape and gasping for air. The Tigers dominated the second half. Humphrey's team was bad, but the players were well conditioned.

The 2002 Apple Bowl.... Chat Yates scored all five of JC's TD's.

I think we led 12-0 at the half.

The ONLY time the 2002 JC team ran during practice was the first day of school when one of the seniors layed out the entire first day and showed up in time for practice.


Bruce Humphrey should have NEVER been hired as the JC coach.  Such a mistake.
Bill Tom Ross may have been a great guy.... but he was not a good football coach.

[Pulp Fiction]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

The 01 game was the Chris Ginter show for Rowan County.
Chris (probably) would have been a member of the JC team, but his dad took the principalship at Rowan County.

[Hoot Gibson]

The 2001 game vs. Rowan County may be the least attended JC home football game in history.  If it's not, I'd like to know what would beat it.  It was on a Saturday afternoon the week of Sept. 11th and our team was in the midst of our 5-25 W/L record over the next two seasons.

There were more players on the field than fans in the stands.

God, I remember this one. Postponed from 9/11, had to do it on Saturday afternoon. And this was our historically awful era, think that was a Bruce Humphrey team. That hire after Bill Musick left set the program back a decade or two.

We have made far better decisions since then. Thank God.

The Humphrey year was very bad, but the how that led to the next two seasons was even worse, IMO. Those were three long miserable seasons.

That should have been "hire" instead of "how." Following an undefeated season under Bill Musick, the next three seasons featured what was probably the most talented 1 and 2 win teams in the state, but you would never had guessed that was the case by watching them play. I remember a game against Paintsville when Johnson Central led at halftime but were obviously out of shape and gasping for air. The Tigers dominated the second half. Humphrey's team was bad, but the players were well conditioned.

The 2002 Apple Bowl.... Chat Yates scored all five of JC's TD's.

I think we led 12-0 at the half.

The ONLY time the 2002 JC team ran during practice was the first day of school when one of the seniors layed out the entire first day and showed up in time for practice.


Bruce Humphrey should have NEVER been hired as the JC coach.  Such a mistake.
Bill Tom Ross may have been a great guy.... but he was not a good football coach.

Bruce Humphrey was a great guy, but not a good football coach. To be fair, he was hired very, very late in the process after Jim Matney decided not to take the job. He did not have time to get to know his staff, but had to rely on them heavily. The staff was not strong and they made some horrible mistakes.

Bill Tom Ross was probably a pretty good coach earlier in his career, but those days were way behind him by the time Johnson Central hired him. He was an awful coach at JCHS and did not believe in conditioning players during practices. He said that they would play themselves into shape during games. My youngest son attended the first team meeting with BTR and came home and told his mother and me that he had decided not to play football. He had been a two-way starter the previous season. He was persecuted by various members of the school administration for the rest of his time at Johnson Central for refusing to play for a coach that he realized early on was not up to the job. I am so glad those days are behind us.

[King Kong]

JC gets the win in this one. 

Hoot and Pulp,  I have really enjoyed your conversation here.  You guys touching on some of the history JC football.  I'd like to chime in here and get your opinion on my thoughts here. 

I believe the opening of the middle school, had a huge part in the turn around of JC athletics.  

I never attended the middle school.  We went to 7th and 8th grade,  at the grade school we attended.  There were 6 grade schools at the time.  Most of our games were against the other 5 grade schools in the county.  Occasionally we'd play Blaine,  in Lawrence Co.  Or another school from a nearby county.  That was in 7th and 8th grade. 

Back then Meade Memorial dominated almost every sport,  for the most part.  They were kinda like Boyle Co has been the past few years in football.  Meade was the team to beat. 

During this time it seemed like JCs best sports teams was baseball and girls basketball.   In baseball our county all star teams would play teams from all over the state.  So at an early age,  we were used to competition that was state wide.  I believe this helped shape JCs baseball team early on.  It was hard to get a out of county game in football and basketball,  through grade school.  Which During this time included 7th and 8th grade. 

Then the middle school opens.  Middle school sports teams had instant success,  right off the bat in Johnson Co. 

The next year after the middle school opened,  the high school football team,  made the playoffs for the first time.  About two years later,  JC wins our first playoff game.  

Shortly after,  boys basketball wins their first region title and first state playoff game ever.  Coach Mckenzie was on that team.  

Baseball wins more region titles and makes it to the final 4 in the state tournament .

The middle school allowed our kids the opportunity to play competition all around the state. Before getting in high school.  Something that didn't exist for the longest time.  Now we've been able to get the right leaders and coaches in place.  Things have really taken off all the way around.  

Now in football, in grade school,  several kids get to face state wide competition.  I believe stuff like this has really boosted our programs all the way. 

Idk,  just seems to me,  around the time the middle school opened,  things kinda seemed to get pointed in the right direction. 

Just something I've personally picked up on. 

Anyone have any thoughts? 

[Hoot Gibson]

The opening of the middle school definitely helped Johnson Central to finally get its football program heading in the right direction, but I think that two individual coaches had an even bigger impact on JC's football program.

1. The hiring of Bill Musick as head coach. Coach Musick was a fixture at middle school and elementary school games. At one time, most if not all of Johnson County's elementary school football coaches never even played football. The same was true of most of the high school's assistant football coaches in the early days of the program. Coach Musick was very active with his support of the elementary and middle school programs.

I believe that Coach Musick's first team was winless, but the administration broke with past practice and rehired him for a second season and for many seasons afterwards. I believe that there was a realization on the part of the Johnson County Board of Education that if the football program was ever to be any good, the cycle of firing good coaches and replacing them with political hacks had to end.

2. The hiring of Jim Matney as head coach. There were three long years of football futility after Coach Music departed, but JC's persistant attempts to hire Coach Matney finally paid off. Coach Matney was one of the best in the history of Kentucky high school football at building programs. He built Sheldon Clark' football program into a powerhouse, and then he took a Johnson Central program that was headed south and built a program that produced two state titles and competed for regional titles in almost every season that he coached. Coach Matney worked closely with football coaches at the lower levels to ensure that players entering high school already new the fundamentals of Johnson Central's system.

Another factor, related to opening a new middle school, was ensuring that the new school had the best coaches and teachers available. Success on the football field was almost immediate for the middle school. It took time for the high school to reach the same level of excellence, but the feeder system was in place.

[ROTC]

Shout out to Eddie Blair for building a fine, fundamental MS program. Is he still coaching the MS team?

[Hoot Gibson]

Shout out to Eddie Blair for building a fine, fundamental MS program.  Is he still coaching the MS team?

I agree. I am not sure whether he is still coaching the team or not.

[King Kong]

Coach Musick was HC for the first team to make the playoffs and for the first team to get a playoff win.  He coached some other good teams as well. 

Eddie Blair done a lot of great things for the Johnson Co school systems athletics.  

Coach Matney took JC football and wrestling to new heights.  He was even involved with the county youth baseball leagues.  Just an all around legendary coach.