[TheBigDIll]

Weak schedule sure hurt Sayre too, didn't it?

If Pburg had multiple D1 players and a former NFL player as their HC, the schedule would be less important..

You are the absolute worst. Beyond comical. How much bitterness can you possibly have? You must be real butthurt about something

Alum, he will be ok. That blue and white he wears now will soften things up.

You’re right. Moved my boy to BL to learn from the best around. Looking forward to him playing for Jarred, Dwight and Harley Quillen. 

Real football coaches.

It worked out really well for the ones that transferred out this past season!!

[Red and Black]

Weak schedule sure hurt Sayre too, didn't it?

If Pburg had multiple D1 players and a former NFL player as their HC, the schedule would be less important..

You are the absolute worst. Beyond comical. How much bitterness can you possibly have? You must be real butthurt about something

Alum, he will be ok. That blue and white he wears now will soften things up.

You’re right. Moved my boy to BL to learn from the best around. Looking forward to him playing for Jarred, Dwight and Harley Quillen. 

Real football coaches.

Lmao… Anybody who watched the round 2 game at Pburg and came away from that insult to the game of football that was shown from the BL sideline with the thought “I’d like my son to play football like that” has no business talking about or being around the game of football. They’ll be lucky to ever host a playoff game again. Real football coaches win championships. How many have they won up on the hill since the real coaches have been up there?

[Redneck]

Weak schedule sure hurt Sayre too, didn't it?

If Pburg had multiple D1 players and a former NFL player as their HC, the schedule would be less important..

Bourbon County had all of that and never sniffed a championship of any kind.

[Whoknowsme]

8. All accounts will require valid email address for set-up. Any duplicate accounts will be terminated linked to a same IP address.

New account, please check your private message. 

haha Get em Bull!!!

[BlackcatAlum]

Coach Hager releases the 2025 schedule. 

Should be a fun season for the Blackcats!

[-STAT-]

Coach Hager releases the 2025 schedule. 

Should be a fun season for the Blackcats!

Looks like a good schedule w/ some solid competition, games against Hazard, Lawrence Co, Valley. 

Got a question tho maybe a dumb one, but I noticed a 12-game schedule now, why did they make it 12 instead of 10?

[UK Fan14]

Coach Hager releases the 2025 schedule. 

Should be a fun season for the Blackcats!

Looks like a good schedule w/ some solid competition, games against Hazard, Lawrence Co, Valley. 

Got a question tho maybe a dumb one, but I noticed a 12-game schedule now, why did they make it 12 instead of 10?

1st two games listed are pre season scrimmages

[hawg laig]

A definite upgrade in competition. A great step for program development.

[jetpilot]

I like Prestonsburg, really I do. I was rooting hard for them to beat Somerset in the playoffs last year. But that is objectively an awful schedule. Please don't shoot the messenger.

[bac2369]

Coach Hager releases the 2025 schedule. 

Should be a fun season for the Blackcats!

Like the two scrimmages for them to push them to see what they will need to work on. I like seeing the Hazard pick up to challenge them for the playoffs. This is a good schedule for the rebuilding Prestonsburg is doing. The only negative is they play every team except Belfry who they will see again in the playoffs.

[Jelly Roll]

Terrible schedule other than the Hazard game. About as cream puff as you could draw up. I get the rebuilding but it will always be rebuilding without playing some competitive teams in the season out of district.

[TheTruth!]

I thought they’d be bigger schools than this lol. No hate though towards him for making this schedule. Good luck blackcats!

[Red and Black]

I love it. Win 8 or 9 of these games and you get 3 home playoff games again. I think strength of schedule is overrated, especially with the RPI playoff format. You’re either a good football team or you aren’t. Look at the Sayre and Pikeville game last year. Playing all those easy games didn’t hurt Sayre in that game and playing all those hard games didn’t help Pikeville win it. You’re either good enough to win or you aren’t, but if it’s a push then home field in November can make up the difference!

[jetpilot]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

[Red and Black]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

[Waitaminute]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

Beechwood who won it all in 2A played a 5A school, three 6A schools, and Cov Cath.

[TheBigDIll]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

Beechwood who won it all in 2A played a 5A school, three 6A schools, and Cov Cath.

Maybe if Prestonsburg could hand pick kids from Covington, Cincinnati, and all of Northern Kentucky you would see those teams on the schedule.. pretty sorry comment considering Beechwood was the best team in 1A, 2A and 3A.. they had to play those teams to even get a competitive game... not to mention RPI puts small schools that recruit kids at a disadvantage... reason why all these 1A schools struggle to find games, it doesn't help the bigger schools RPI wise even if they win...

[Red and Black]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

Beechwood who won it all in 2A played a 5A school, three 6A schools, and Cov Cath.

Sure, it looks great if you win those games, but do you think it helped Pikeville to get crushed by Corbin, JC and LCA in the first 3 games last season? I think it hurt them more than it helped them. Also, Beechwood most likely could've played Prestonsburg's schedule last year and still won 2A. They were way better than all the other 2A schools before the season even started, and everybody in the state knew it. They likely would've won 3A (which was weaker than 2A) and could've been very competitive in 4A. They played against 10 2A schools last season and they running clocked 8 of them, and probably could've running clocked the other 2 in the semi's and finals if they'd wanted to. They were just that much better than everybody else. Hats off to them, they're an exceptional program. Sometimes you get an anomaly in the playoffs like the Boyle county loss, but it's very rare. Usually the best football team in each class wins it all.

Now, having said that, did playing those bigger schools help them beat the other 2A schools to death in the playoffs? Certainly it helped some, but they also knew going into the season that they were going to be good enough to play with those bigger schools and Volker was smart enough to schedule only bigger schools that were either equal to or lesser than Beechwood's talent level and they beat all of them except Cov Cath. I think you should always try to schedule a few teams that you can play hard with to show you where your weaknesses are, but you still want to feel good about winning those games going in to them, especially if you're looking to win a state title in the RPI system. If you schedule 5 very hard non-district games and get blown out in 3 of them then you've shot yourself in the foot if you want to make a deep November run because that's how the RPI system is designed to work, for better or worse. You get practically nothing for losing. If there was no RPI system then I'd be singing a different tune on here, but RPI is what we've got. Does playing a weaker schedule and winning 8 or 9 of those games get you called "paper tigers" on anonymous message boards? Yes, it does. But, it also gets you home playoff games, and it also can get a history rich program and town that loves football fired up about getting out on Friday nights to watch football games again for the first time in a decade. It gives you some momentum that can carry you back to the top, but that journey doesn't happen overnight. It takes years to rebuild a broken program. Go back and look at how long it took Pikeville to beat Belfry when they were rebuilding with Mac, and now they almost never lose to Belfry. It takes time.

Let's be honest here- What good would it do Pburg to schedule games they know they are most likely going to lose? Going back to the Pikeville example, did it really help them to lose those hard games against bigger schools? It seems to me like it took the wind out of their sails and they never were able to recover from that rather than prepare them for a deep playoff run. I'd rather see the kids have an excellent season and go out with 10-11-12 wins with a district title and compete for a regional title in the burg than go 7-5  or 6-6 because we overreached on the schedule and got killed and demoralized early in the season and then have to play on the road at Belfry in the 2nd round and if we're fortunate enough to get out of there with a win then we'd go to Beechwood in the 3rd round where victory is nearly impossible.

This schedule is on par with the level of the program right now, I think. It's a tougher schedule than last years schedule with the addition of Hazard, Estill and Valley and this Pburg team will be better than last years team. Nobody is adamantly predicting Pburg to play 15 games this year. I hope they do, because it would be a heck of a ride, but nobody in or out of Pburg is predicting that, no mater what the schedule looks like. Only 2 years in to Hager's leadership, this is a 13 game program right now, maybe 14 if they get some November luck, but to play 15 games in 2A would be a gigantic feat considering the depth of talented programs that 2A has right now. This schedule sets them up for that type of season perfectly. Take the RPI system away and I'd be pushing harder to play maybe Pikeville, JC, Ashland, Bell, etc, but it just doesn't make sense to take the RPI hit to play and possibly (probably) lose all of those games this season.

[jetpilot]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

I think Prestonsburg is traditionally a top program and top programs don't play JV schedules. A bad look and not exciting for the team and fans. Not to mention doesn't make you better. I just think the school, the players, the town and the fans of Prestonsburg deserve a good schedule. The team has earned it.

[jetpilot]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

Beechwood who won it all in 2A played a 5A school, three 6A schools, and Cov Cath.

Sure, it looks great if you win those games, but do you think it helped Pikeville to get crushed by Corbin, JC and LCA in the first 3 games last season? I think it hurt them more than it helped them. Also, Beechwood most likely could've played Prestonsburg's schedule last year and still won 2A. They were way better than all the other 2A schools before the season even started, and everybody in the state knew it. They likely would've won 3A (which was weaker than 2A) and could've been very competitive in 4A. They played against 10 2A schools last season and they running clocked 8 of them, and probably could've running clocked the other 2 in the semi's and finals if they'd wanted to. They were just that much better than everybody else. Hats off to them, they're an exceptional program. Sometimes you get an anomaly in the playoffs like the Boyle county loss, but it's very rare. Usually the best football team in each class wins it all.

Now, having said that, did playing those bigger schools help them beat the other 2A schools to death in the playoffs? Certainly it helped some, but they also knew going into the season that they were going to be good enough to play with those bigger schools and Volker was smart enough to schedule only bigger schools that were either equal to or lesser than Beechwood's talent level and they beat all of them except Cov Cath. I think you should always try to schedule a few teams that you can play hard with to show you where your weaknesses are, but you still want to feel good about winning those games going in to them, especially if you're looking to win a state title in the RPI system. If you schedule 5 very hard non-district games and get blown out in 3 of them then you've shot yourself in the foot if you want to make a deep November run because that's how the RPI system is designed to work, for better or worse. You get practically nothing for losing. If there was no RPI system then I'd be singing a different tune on here, but RPI is what we've got. Does playing a weaker schedule and winning 8 or 9 of those games get you called "paper tigers" on anonymous message boards? Yes, it does. But, it also gets you home playoff games, and it also can get a history rich program and town that loves football fired up about getting out on Friday nights to watch football games again for the first time in a decade. It gives you some momentum that can carry you back to the top, but that journey doesn't happen overnight. It takes years to rebuild a broken program. Go back and look at how long it took Pikeville to beat Belfry when they were rebuilding with Mac, and now they almost never lose to Belfry. It takes time.

Let's be honest here- What good would it do Pburg to schedule games they know they are most likely going to lose? Going back to the Pikeville example, did it really help them to lose those hard games against bigger schools? It seems to me like it took the wind out of their sails and they never were able to recover from that rather than prepare them for a deep playoff run. I'd rather see the kids have an excellent season and go out with 10-11-12 wins with a district title and compete for a regional title in the burg than go 7-5  or 6-6 because we overreached on the schedule and got killed and demoralized early in the season and then have to play on the road at Belfry in the 2nd round and if we're fortunate enough to get out of there with a win then we'd go to Beechwood in the 3rd round where victory is nearly impossible.

This schedule is on par with the level of the program right now, I think. It's a tougher schedule than last years schedule with the addition of Hazard, Estill and Valley and this Pburg team will be better than last years team. Nobody is adamantly predicting Pburg to play 15 games this year. I hope they do, because it would be a heck of a ride, but nobody in or out of Pburg is predicting that, no mater what the schedule looks like. Only 2 years in to Hager's leadership, this is a 13 game program right now, maybe 14 if they get some November luck, but to play 15 games in 2A would be a gigantic feat considering the depth of talented programs that 2A has right now. This schedule sets them up for that type of season perfectly. Take the RPI system away and I'd be pushing harder to play maybe Pikeville, JC, Ashland, Bell, etc, but it just doesn't make sense to take the RPI hit to play and possibly (probably) lose all of those games this season.

Apples and oranges. Prestonsburg doesn't play anybody who could play within 35 of those 3 teams, much less 3 in a row. You don't have to play any of those 3 teams to have a schedule 50x better than the JV schedule Prestonsburg put together. I will leave it alone. I'm rooting for the Blackcats again in 2025 but that schedule cripples them and sucks most of the fun out of the season. I'm out. Go Blackcats!

[Senters_93]

Happy to see a good Lawrence county team and prestonsburg scrimmage in louisa this year!!

[Red and Black]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

Beechwood who won it all in 2A played a 5A school, three 6A schools, and Cov Cath.

Sure, it looks great if you win those games, but do you think it helped Pikeville to get crushed by Corbin, JC and LCA in the first 3 games last season? I think it hurt them more than it helped them. Also, Beechwood most likely could've played Prestonsburg's schedule last year and still won 2A. They were way better than all the other 2A schools before the season even started, and everybody in the state knew it. They likely would've won 3A (which was weaker than 2A) and could've been very competitive in 4A. They played against 10 2A schools last season and they running clocked 8 of them, and probably could've running clocked the other 2 in the semi's and finals if they'd wanted to. They were just that much better than everybody else. Hats off to them, they're an exceptional program. Sometimes you get an anomaly in the playoffs like the Boyle county loss, but it's very rare. Usually the best football team in each class wins it all.

Now, having said that, did playing those bigger schools help them beat the other 2A schools to death in the playoffs? Certainly it helped some, but they also knew going into the season that they were going to be good enough to play with those bigger schools and Volker was smart enough to schedule only bigger schools that were either equal to or lesser than Beechwood's talent level and they beat all of them except Cov Cath. I think you should always try to schedule a few teams that you can play hard with to show you where your weaknesses are, but you still want to feel good about winning those games going in to them, especially if you're looking to win a state title in the RPI system. If you schedule 5 very hard non-district games and get blown out in 3 of them then you've shot yourself in the foot if you want to make a deep November run because that's how the RPI system is designed to work, for better or worse. You get practically nothing for losing. If there was no RPI system then I'd be singing a different tune on here, but RPI is what we've got. Does playing a weaker schedule and winning 8 or 9 of those games get you called "paper tigers" on anonymous message boards? Yes, it does. But, it also gets you home playoff games, and it also can get a history rich program and town that loves football fired up about getting out on Friday nights to watch football games again for the first time in a decade. It gives you some momentum that can carry you back to the top, but that journey doesn't happen overnight. It takes years to rebuild a broken program. Go back and look at how long it took Pikeville to beat Belfry when they were rebuilding with Mac, and now they almost never lose to Belfry. It takes time.

Let's be honest here- What good would it do Pburg to schedule games they know they are most likely going to lose? Going back to the Pikeville example, did it really help them to lose those hard games against bigger schools? It seems to me like it took the wind out of their sails and they never were able to recover from that rather than prepare them for a deep playoff run. I'd rather see the kids have an excellent season and go out with 10-11-12 wins with a district title and compete for a regional title in the burg than go 7-5  or 6-6 because we overreached on the schedule and got killed and demoralized early in the season and then have to play on the road at Belfry in the 2nd round and if we're fortunate enough to get out of there with a win then we'd go to Beechwood in the 3rd round where victory is nearly impossible.

This schedule is on par with the level of the program right now, I think. It's a tougher schedule than last years schedule with the addition of Hazard, Estill and Valley and this Pburg team will be better than last years team. Nobody is adamantly predicting Pburg to play 15 games this year. I hope they do, because it would be a heck of a ride, but nobody in or out of Pburg is predicting that, no mater what the schedule looks like. Only 2 years in to Hager's leadership, this is a 13 game program right now, maybe 14 if they get some November luck, but to play 15 games in 2A would be a gigantic feat considering the depth of talented programs that 2A has right now. This schedule sets them up for that type of season perfectly. Take the RPI system away and I'd be pushing harder to play maybe Pikeville, JC, Ashland, Bell, etc, but it just doesn't make sense to take the RPI hit to play and possibly (probably) lose all of those games this season.

Apples and oranges. Prestonsburg doesn't play anybody who could play within 35 of those 3 teams, much less 3 in a row. You don't have to play any of those 3 teams to have a schedule 50x better than the JV schedule Prestonsburg put together. I will leave it alone. I'm rooting for the Blackcats again in 2025 but that schedule cripples them and sucks most of the fun out of the season. I'm out. Go Blackcats!

One brick at a time, JP. Rome wasn't built in a day. Betsy Layne and Martin County were our competition level last season. Not gonna win state playing at that level, if that's what you mean by apples and oranges. If we win district again and host 3 playoff games again then the season will be another huge success and Hager will be able to build off that going in to 2026, then again in 27, and so on. Gotta learn to walk again before you can run. That's where we're at in Pburg. It takes time. Think about Mac taking over Pikeville for the 2nd time in 2010. Go back and look at Pikeville's schedule from 2010-2014 then come back and lets talk about those schedules leading up to his first title in 2015. Even in '15 you all didn't really have a very impressive schedule. Belfry, Sheldon Clark and Paintsville were the best teams you played that year leading up the Beechwood, yet you still won state. How? I'd say it's because Mac inspired those kids who were freshman in 2011 to lay the foundations to build a great program for 3 years leading up to that title run and led them on a couple of 8-9 win seasons against "JV" schedules to inspire the confidence to get that program back into the shape that it was historically and then he pushed it beyond that. Compare the 2025 Pburg schedule to the 2011 Pikeville schedule and tell me what you see. Those are the year 2 schedules for both of these coaches.

[jetpilot]

Fair enough R&B.

[Blue_Bird96]

Everybody now using the Sayre excuse to play a JV schedule doesn't fly. They are a private school with several D-1 players and an NFL coach. Nobody believes that schedule will get Prestonsburg anywhere. It's really the opposite, they will get drilled by the first good team they play in the playoffs. They will have a good record though, which is nice.

Right, Sayre was good whether they played a hard schedule or not. That’s my point. Would a brutal schedule help Pburg win a state title next year? If you think not, then why do it? What’s the point? This schedule will get them ready to play 3 home playoff games, which is a great step forward for a program that has won only 2 playoff games in the last 8 seasons and both of those wins were last year. The top 3 or 4 schools in 2A are very, very good, and I don’t think any type of schedule is going to put Pburg above them this year. If Hager keeps building this program up with winning seasons and winning playoff games then we’ll get there though!

Beechwood who won it all in 2A played a 5A school, three 6A schools, and Cov Cath.

Sure, it looks great if you win those games, but do you think it helped Pikeville to get crushed by Corbin, JC and LCA in the first 3 games last season? I think it hurt them more than it helped them. Also, Beechwood most likely could've played Prestonsburg's schedule last year and still won 2A. They were way better than all the other 2A schools before the season even started, and everybody in the state knew it. They likely would've won 3A (which was weaker than 2A) and could've been very competitive in 4A. They played against 10 2A schools last season and they running clocked 8 of them, and probably could've running clocked the other 2 in the semi's and finals if they'd wanted to. They were just that much better than everybody else. Hats off to them, they're an exceptional program. Sometimes you get an anomaly in the playoffs like the Boyle county loss, but it's very rare. Usually the best football team in each class wins it all.

Now, having said that, did playing those bigger schools help them beat the other 2A schools to death in the playoffs? Certainly it helped some, but they also knew going into the season that they were going to be good enough to play with those bigger schools and Volker was smart enough to schedule only bigger schools that were either equal to or lesser than Beechwood's talent level and they beat all of them except Cov Cath. I think you should always try to schedule a few teams that you can play hard with to show you where your weaknesses are, but you still want to feel good about winning those games going in to them, especially if you're looking to win a state title in the RPI system. If you schedule 5 very hard non-district games and get blown out in 3 of them then you've shot yourself in the foot if you want to make a deep November run because that's how the RPI system is designed to work, for better or worse. You get practically nothing for losing. If there was no RPI system then I'd be singing a different tune on here, but RPI is what we've got. Does playing a weaker schedule and winning 8 or 9 of those games get you called "paper tigers" on anonymous message boards? Yes, it does. But, it also gets you home playoff games, and it also can get a history rich program and town that loves football fired up about getting out on Friday nights to watch football games again for the first time in a decade. It gives you some momentum that can carry you back to the top, but that journey doesn't happen overnight. It takes years to rebuild a broken program. Go back and look at how long it took Pikeville to beat Belfry when they were rebuilding with Mac, and now they almost never lose to Belfry. It takes time.

Let's be honest here- What good would it do Pburg to schedule games they know they are most likely going to lose? Going back to the Pikeville example, did it really help them to lose those hard games against bigger schools? It seems to me like it took the wind out of their sails and they never were able to recover from that rather than prepare them for a deep playoff run. I'd rather see the kids have an excellent season and go out with 10-11-12 wins with a district title and compete for a regional title in the burg than go 7-5  or 6-6 because we overreached on the schedule and got killed and demoralized early in the season and then have to play on the road at Belfry in the 2nd round and if we're fortunate enough to get out of there with a win then we'd go to Beechwood in the 3rd round where victory is nearly impossible.

This schedule is on par with the level of the program right now, I think. It's a tougher schedule than last years schedule with the addition of Hazard, Estill and Valley and this Pburg team will be better than last years team. Nobody is adamantly predicting Pburg to play 15 games this year. I hope they do, because it would be a heck of a ride, but nobody in or out of Pburg is predicting that, no mater what the schedule looks like. Only 2 years in to Hager's leadership, this is a 13 game program right now, maybe 14 if they get some November luck, but to play 15 games in 2A would be a gigantic feat considering the depth of talented programs that 2A has right now. This schedule sets them up for that type of season perfectly. Take the RPI system away and I'd be pushing harder to play maybe Pikeville, JC, Ashland, Bell, etc, but it just doesn't make sense to take the RPI hit to play and possibly (probably) lose all of those games this season.

True. With RPI now in the mix you simply can’t just holler SOS!  There’s just more that goes into it than that. Coach Hager is doing a great job at what’s needed to build the Blackcat program back.

[Belichick]

I like the “crushed” comment. Some people’s hatred of Pikeville just oozes out in threads. Lose by 1-2 scores and they got crushed! Watch the games. Corbin didn’t crush Pikeville. They scored 2 offensive TDs the whole game. JC did manhandle Pikeville. I’ll give them that one but greatly due to some of the worst play calling you’ll ever see. Pikeville had a chance to win against LCA. Over 500 yards of offense in that one and didn’t score on a first down and goal inside the 2 and lost a fumble when the QBs butt was on the ground for a defensive TD. 3 offensive starters out that game too. All good though. Sayre game was awful play calling again and they had so many important players hurt. Not taking away from Sayre. They won. They’re the champs. Deserved to win. I just find it funny how the talk around scheduling comes back to Pikeville and Sayre this one season. Then they say that’s why players were hurt. No and no. One season of a team playing cream puffs and winning a state title doesn’t mean everyone will benefit from it. I’m sure it will eventually happen again but if you don’t play teams who show you weaknesses, you will usually get exposed in the playoffs. As far as Prestonsburg’s schedule, the Hazard game is nice and I am glad they get a game in the PCB against Valley. I think they are scheduling appropriately for where they are right now and it should get better with time. I hope the turnaround continues.

[Red and Black]

Wasn’t trying to show any disrespect to pikeville with the “crushed” comment. Words matter, true, and I probably should’ve used a different one because insulting Pikeville was not the point I was trying to get across. I’ve got nothing but respect for pikeville and their program. Am I envious of them? Hell yes I am, but I also respect them and what they’ve done very deeply. I want Pburg to get to where Pikeville is. I’m very glad that they are in the shape they are in year in and year out. It makes the mountains look good to the rest of the state when they dominate and I’m all for that. However, they also gave up 35+ points in 5 games last year. Whether you want to call that getting crushed on defense or not, that’s objectively not good defense. Having injuries all year is crippling to a team, yes, but it’s football. Injuries will happen, especially when your schedule consists mostly of programs that have serious offseason S&C programs. I believe Sully is probably the best DC east of 75, so I’m not sure exactly what the problem with the defense was last year. Injuries, lack of focus from the kids, lack of SR leadership, reaching too high in scheduling for what turned out to be a down year in pikeville, maybe? Idk, maybe one of those or maybe a little of all of those, but I truly hope they bounce back this year and win another ring. They’ve always got the guns to do it both on the sideline and in the locker room.

[Blackcat 4 Life]

Who is coaching the A team Middle school team since Burchett stepped down?