[Stardust]

Fort Thomas Highlands junior wide receiver Austin Collinsworth was a first-team All-State selection this past season. Now, he's picked up a national honor.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound son of former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth has been named to the MaxPreps.com Junior first-team All-American team.

He had 46 catches for 800 yards and also was a standout defensive back for the Bluebirds.

http://www.courier-journal.com/blogs/demling/blog.html

[Mr.Kimball]

I dont mean to be demeaning be demeaning but there is no way that the kid is 6'2" . I stood right beside him and I am 6'1", and I was looking down at him. I would guess he is 5'9", but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and give him 5'10".

Highlands fans have said that he was used as a decoy in the JC game, and perhaps he was , but Ijust cant understand why you would have to use him as a decoy. If he was that good, nobody from JC would have been able to even come close to containing him. Highlands could have used him at will.

There is no doubt that he is a great talent, but It kind of appears like he is getting major distance out of his last name. I my opinion he is now where close to being as talented as the kid that played for Woodford Co. last year.

[Stardust]

I dont mean to be demeaning be demeaning but there is no way that the kid is 6'2" . I stood right beside him and I am 6'1", and I was looking down at him. I would guess he is 5'9", but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and give him 5'10".

Highlands fans have said that he was used as a decoy in the JC game, and perhaps he was , but Ijust cant understand why you would have to use him as a decoy. If he was that good, nobody from JC would have been able to even come close to containing him. Highlands could have used him at will.

There is no doubt that he is a great talent, but It kind of appears like he is getting major distance out of his last name. I my opinion he is now where close to being as talented as the kid that played for Woodford Co. last year.

I think you may be underestimating him a bit. First off, his size is legit. He is definetely over 6', but he is thin. IMO, to be a D1 player, he will need to put more pounds on, but, that was the same knock as his dad.

As for his talent, his stats stand by themselves. Highlands, hands down the #3 team in the state played one of their toughest schedules ever. All three parts of his game, O, D, SPT he was one of the best statistcally every game.

As for a Decoy, I don't know about that, the only one that could answer that is Dale Mueller himself. But a Decoy he could have been. If you are going to use a kid as a Decoy, and the opposition is going to bite on the Decoy, that would tell me the Decoy scared the opposing team's coaches to the point that they needed to pay "special attention" to him.

As for the comment that if he was that good he would run by everyone... Well, that would be a knock against Johnson Central, who was no slouch themselves athletically. JC had some of the best athletes in the State on their roster.

[Mr.Kimball]

I think you may be underestimating him a bit. First off, his size is legit. He is definetely over 6', but he is thin. IMO, to be a D1 player, he will need to put more pounds on, but, that was the same knock as his dad.

As for his talent, his stats stand by themselves. Highlands, hands down the #3 team in the state played one of their toughest schedules ever. All three parts of his game, O, D, SPT he was one of the best statistcally every game.

As for a Decoy, I don't know about that, the only one that could answer that is Dale Mueller himself. But a Decoy he could have been. If you are going to use a kid as a Decoy, and the opposition is going to bite on the Decoy, that would tell me the Decoy scared the opposing team's coaches to the point that they needed to pay "special attention" to him.

As for the comment that if he was that good he would run by everyone... Well, that would be a knock against Johnson Central, who was no slouch themselves athletically. JC had some of the best athletes in the State on their roster.

I will defend my statement tooth and toenail. No way he is 6'2" Like I said, I stood right beside him and was looking down at him, and he was wearing cleats. Even the guy that was with me mentioned that he certainly wasn't very tall after he left where we were standing.

As for the decoy comment. I too dont know for a fact what the game plan was, but that is what the Highlands fans attested to. I do remember the receivers from Bryan Station leaving our guys standing in a cloud of dust after blowing by them. Their QB was fortunately not able to connect. I would think someone of All American status would certainly be able to do the same. From what I saw, Guiduli certainly would not have had a problem in connecting.


And just so you know, I am a huge JC football fan and I dont think anybody at JC would think that I would be belittling or knocking anyone with my rationale, because I just wouldn't do it, period. Yes we had great athletes but they were not of High school all american status. They were quick and fast, but certainly not blazing fast. We just dont have any 4.4 guys here. I'll just say this however, if they were of that elite status, then they sure got the shaft when all the post season accolades got passed around.

As I mentioned, I dont want to sound like I am knocking the kid because he is indeed a tremendous talent. Just being a little overly hyped, IMO.

[tradition]

I will defend my statement tooth and toenail. No way he is 6'2" Like I said, I stood right beside him and was looking down at him, and he was wearing cleats. Even the guy that was with me mentioned that he certainly wasn't very tall after he left where we were standing.

As for the decoy comment. I too dont know for a fact what the game plan was, but that is what the Highlands fans attested to. I do remember the receivers from Bryan Station leaving our guys standing in a cloud of dust after blowing by them. Their QB was fortunately not able to connect. I would think someone of All American status would certainly be able to do the same. From what I saw, Guiduli certainly would not have had a problem in connecting.


And just so you know, I am a huge JC football fan and I dont think anybody at JC would think that I would be belittling or knocking anyone with my rationale, because I just wouldn't do it, period. Yes we had great athletes but they were not of High school all american status. They were quick and fast, but certainly not blazing fast. We just dont have any 4.4 guys here. I'll just say this however, if they were of that elite status, then they sure got the shaft when all the post season accolades got passed around.

As I mentioned, I dont want to sound like I am knocking the kid because he is indeed a tremendous talent. Just being a little overly hyped, IMO.

If you stood next to him after the game, maybe he was alittle tired after playing 4 quarters of offense, defense and special teams against a good JC team. He is what they say he his. Trust me. He does it all. He isn't just offense or just defense, he is a clutch player and the go to guy. You can count on him wherever and whenever. He is an all around athlete. Take the name away and he is still the same all around athlete. He proved that in Texas at the Army combine at the end of December. He ran circles around the best in the country.

Congrats to Austin. The only Kentuckian on the Maxpreps All American 1st team or any team.

Your doing Kentucky proud and showing the country that Kentucky has great High School Football.:Cheerlead

[Mr.Kimball]

If you stood next to him after the game, maybe he was alittle tired after playing 4 quarters of offense, defense and special teams against a good JC team. He is what they say he his. Trust me. He does it all. He isn't just offense or just defense, he is a clutch player and the go to guy. You can count on him wherever and whenever. He is an all around athlete. Take the name away and he is still the same all around athlete. He proved that in Texas at the Army combine at the end of December. He ran circles around the best in the country.

Your doing Kentucky proud and showing the country that Kentucky has great High School Football.:Cheerlead

I stood next to him at halftime.

Gee if you get shorter when you get tired, I must be about 4 foot tall right now.

[Stardust]

I stood next to him at halftime.

Gee if you get shorter when you get tired, I must be about 4 foot tall right now.

Maybe you have gotten taller

[charlie22]

I stood next to him at halftime.

Gee if you get shorter when you get tired, I must be about 4 foot tall right now.

I don't know how to respond to your post that you think he's 5'9" other than to say I am a legit 6'0" and Austin is in my household on a regular basis as he is a friend of one of my sons. I know for a fact he is taller than me. 6'2", I'm not sure of, but he is at least 6'1". Maybe he was standing in a rut when he was next to you. If you have access to a tape of the game (I do) see how he compares with some of the JC kids when he's standing next to him. I think you'll be surprised.

As for the decoy comment, I believe I was the original poster of that comment. Remember that Austin did have several catches. Furthermore, you saw what happened when Highlands threw to their other receivers: two long tds that scorched JC's defense. And the receivers were wide open which I believe was caused by one of two reasons (you choose): 1. very poor defensive secondary play/coaching; or 2. JC put too much emphasis on trying to cover Collinsworth and Mueller then used him as a decoy to open up the other receivers. Plus you need to remember that Highlands ran the ball pretty well against JC so there was not the need to pass the ball more than they did.

Your coaching philosophy may be different than Mueller's. He has always spread the ball around, not only amongst receivers but amongst running backs too. He believes it makes Highlands offense much harder to defend. Given the number of points scored by Highlands this year and another state championship, I'd think it's kind of hard to second guess Mueller's strategy.

That strategy at times has hurt the stats of some of Highlands premier players, which has at times "cost" them some post season recognition. Mueller has always been crystal clear about his team first mentality. There is no doubt in my mind that if Mueller had been a pass happy coach this year, Collinsworth and the qb, Guidugli, would have had much, much better stats. You saw Guidugli's passing in the JC game; almost every pass was right on the money including the two long tds and the scrambling td pass for Highlands first td. Believe it or not, Guidugli didn't even make the first team all N. Ky team and it was solely because he didn't have the passing stats that the other kid did ( a good qb for sure but not as good as Guidugli). But Mueller and the kids are much more interested in winning state than personal stats.

And we don't have any one near 4.4 status either. I think Collinsworth's 40 time at the Army combine was in the high 4.6s. He does not have blazing speed, but is quick out of his cuts, is a very smart route runner and gets good separation much like his father did when he played. Cris wasn't not blessed with 4.4 speed either.

And I for one did not take your post as belittling Collinsworth or even coming close to belittling him.

[Mr.Kimball]

Maybe you have gotten taller

Touche......maybe all of my hair can grow back too.

[Mr.Kimball]

I don't know how to respond to your post that you think he's 5'9" other than to say I am a legit 6'0" and Austin is in my household on a regular basis as he is a friend of one of my sons. I know for a fact he is taller than me. 6'2", I'm not sure of, but he is at least 6'1". Maybe he was standing in a rut when he was next to you. If you have access to a tape of the game (I do) see how he compares with some of the JC kids when he's standing next to him. I think you'll be surprised.

As for the decoy comment, I believe I was the original poster of that comment. Remember that Austin did have several catches. Furthermore, you saw what happened when Highlands threw to their other receivers: two long tds that scorched JC's defense. And the receivers were wide open which I believe was caused by one of two reasons (you choose): 1. very poor defensive secondary play/coaching; or 2. JC put too much emphasis on trying to cover Collinsworth and Mueller then used him as a decoy to open up the other receivers. Plus you need to remember that Highlands ran the ball pretty well against JC so there was not the need to pass the ball more than they did.

Your coaching philosophy may be different than Mueller's. He has always spread the ball around, not only amongst receivers but amongst running backs too. He believes it makes Highlands offense much harder to defend. Given the number of points scored by Highlands this year and another state championship, I'd think it's kind of hard to second guess Mueller's strategy.

That strategy at times has hurt the stats of some of Highlands premier players, which has at times "cost" them some post season recognition. Mueller has always been crystal clear about his team first mentality. There is no doubt in my mind that if Mueller had been a pass happy coach this year, Collinsworth and the qb, Guidugli, would have had much, much better stats. You saw Guidugli's passing in the JC game; almost every pass was right on the money including the two long tds and the scrambling td pass for Highlands first td. Believe it or not, Guidugli didn't even make the first team all N. Ky team and it was solely because he didn't have the passing stats that the other kid did ( a good qb for sure but not as good as Guidugli). But Mueller and the kids are much more interested in winning state than personal stats.

And we don't have any one near 4.4 status either. I think Collinsworth's 40 time at the Army combine was in the high 4.6s. He does not have blazing speed, but is quick out of his cuts, is a very smart route runner and gets good separation much like his father did when he played. Cris wasn't not blessed with 4.4 speed either.

And I for one did not take your post as belittling Collinsworth or even coming close to belittling him.

Very nice response.

I guess it doesn't matter because obviously I am going to loose the heighth arguement. All I know is I was standing right beside him(on the sidewalk) and a buddy of mine discussed how small he looked. I guess I was expecting him to be more of the stature of his dad, which I beleive was about a willowy 6'5" . Am I correct about that?

Maybe he had several catches , but for the life of me I cant remember many, if any at all. I remember a sweep around the end, but as far as receptions I am honestly vauge about those.

I understand where you are coming from. Matney's program pretty much empasizes the same team concept stategy. The disapointing thing I guess for us JC fans is that in spite of Matney's theory and the teams obvious succes we still had guys put up astonomical stats on the ground and then still get bypassed when the awards were handed out. Maybe the other guys that received the recognition were very deserving but still disapointing none the less that these guys didn't become more accoladed. It's obvious that JC does not have the aerial attack that Highlands possesses but we were still the most dominate team in the state when it came to running the ball. Somewhere, somebody ( be it linemen or backs)was doing something not only right, but better than everyone else in the entire state.

As far as Guilugli I was surprised about his post season recognition as well. I have no problem in saying that I think he is the best quarterback that I have seen play at Johnson Central, and we have seen a bunch of good ones over the years, yes even Tim Couch.

As far as Chris's speed , am I correct that he at one time ran against a thorobred race horse in some kind of a publicity stunt? I cant remember how it turned out, but I can remember that taking place. I assumed that he was probably able to run in at least the 4.4 range. Seems to me, I remember him being a quarterback in high school as well as a track star and then because of his speed, was made an SEC wide receiver when he went to college.

As far as belittling Austin or his acheivements, you need to know that I consider him almost one of us. I was always a Chris Collinsworth fan even when he played at Florida and then of course the Bengals. He is still one of my favorite commentators on TV. His father played and came from our neck of the woods. You can about throw a rock from Paintsville to where he grew up and played. I guess bottom line, is that if our local kids cannot get the post season recognition then I can say that there is nobody else that I would rather see get it than someone from the Collinsworth family. I guess I really should have been congratulating him instead of making this a appear to be a critical response, and for that, I apologize. As I mentioned, he really is one of us just as much as you consider him one of yours, because of his mother's Northern Kentucky ties.

Good luck to him in the future and congratulations on the recognition.

[charlie22]

Very nice response.

I guess it doesn't matter because obviously I am going to loose the heighth arguement. All I know is I was standing right beside him(on the sidewalk) and a buddy of mine discussed how small he looked. I guess I was expecting him to be more of the stature of his dad, which I beleive was about a willowy 6'5" . Am I correct about that?

Maybe he had several catches , but for the life of me I cant remember many, if any at all. I remember a sweep around the end, but as far as receptions I am honestly vauge about those.

I understand where you are coming from. Matney's program pretty much empasizes the same team concept stategy. The disapointing thing I guess for us JC fans is that in spite of Matney's theory and the teams obvious succes we still had guys put up astonomical stats on the ground and then still get bypassed when the awards were handed out. Maybe the other guys that received the recognition were very deserving but still disapointing none the less that these guys didn't become more accoladed. It's obvious that JC does not have the aerial attack that Highlands possesses but we were still the most dominate team in the state when it came to running the ball. Somewhere, somebody ( be it linemen or backs)was doing something not only right, but better than everyone else in the entire state.

As far as Guilugli I was surprised about his post season recognition as well. I have no problem in saying that I think he is the best quarterback that I have seen play at Johnson Central, and we have seen a bunch of good ones over the years, yes even Tim Couch.

As far as Chris's speed , am I correct that he at one time ran against a thorobred race horse in some kind of a publicity stunt? I cant remember how it turned out, but I can remember that taking place. I assumed that he was probably able to run in at least the 4.4 range. Seems to me, I remember him being a quarterback in high school as well as a track star and then because of his speed, was made an SEC wide receiver when he went to college.

As far as belittling Austin or his acheivements, you need to know that I consider him almost one of us. I was always a Chris Collinsworth fan even when he played at Florida and then of course the Bengals. He is still one of my favorite commentators on TV. His father played and came from our neck of the woods. You can about throw a rock from Paintsville to where he grew up and played. I guess bottom line, is that if our local kids cannot get the post season recognition then I can say that there is nobody else that I would rather see get it than someone from the Collinsworth family. I guess I really should have been congratulating him instead of making this a appear to be a critical response, and for that, I apologize. As I mentioned, he really is one of us just as much as you consider him one of yours, because of his mother's Northern Kentucky ties.

Good luck to him in the future and congratulations on the recognition.

And your's was a very nice post also.

I knew that Cris' father, Abe, hailed from the Paintsville area and that he has a bunch of kin still in that area. Abe is a great man and gets back up to N.Ky pretty often from Florida to watch his grandkids participate in sports. Cris' grandparents were from the Ashland area and there are some relatives living in the Whitley County area also. So at most of our playoff games this year, there were a bunch of relatives coming up to Abe and Cris. Seemed like "old home week" each Friday night.

I think I remember the horse race stunt too. I'll ask Cris about it. But Cris wasn't a 4.4 guy. He was fast for his time, but kids are faster now than they were back then. He did go to UF as a qb and is still in in the record books there as a qb for throwing a 99 yd td pass. I think Cris said it was actually about a 15 yd completion and his receiver did the rest. But I believe Cris was an option qb in high school and UF didn't run the option so he was converted to a WR. Ended up working out pretty well for Cris (slight understatement there).

Cris may be 6'5" but I think is closer to 6'4". Austin is already a little more muscular than Cris was in high school according to Cris and is working hard to put on more muscle mass. I'll tell you this: for being a pretty gifted natural athlete, Austin is one of the hardest working kids on the team. He's a fanatic about his workouts and has been since I coached him in the Jr. Football League. I actually think if he worked out less, he'd put more weight on.

And I agree with you about the JC players not getting the recognition they deserved, particularly the offensive linemen. Other than our offensive line (of course ), they were the best O line I saw this year. Unfortunately, from what I recall JC's O linemen weren't real tall and unfortunately in this age, unless an O lineman is 6'3" or taller, folks who make the All State selection penalize them, which is just crazy in my opinion. They look at what linemen are attracting D-1 attention (where height is a prerequisite) and don't look at actual high school performance. I had the opportunity to watch a several of the All State O line selections this year, and most of them did not impress me at all. They were very slow and immobile and didn't even dominate their assignments when the ball was ran right over them. But they are tall and big, attracted D-1 attention, and the voters assumed they must have been good high school players. The running backs probably didn't get the recognition they deserved, particularly Richardson, because people attributed his success to Matney's system (which you and I know is baloney). I thought Richardson was a beast: big, strong and decent wheels and one of the best RBs we faced this year. Certainly was better than some of the more hyped RBs.

Best of luck to all the seniors on the JC team. I've got a strong feeling that we'll see JC again next year in the playoffs.

[IRISH4]

As for the decoy comment, I believe I was the original poster of that comment. Remember that Austin did have several catches. Furthermore, you saw what happened when Highlands threw to their other receivers: two long tds that scorched JC's defense. And the receivers were wide open which I believe was caused by one of two reasons (you choose): 1. very poor defensive secondary play/coaching; or 2. JC put too much emphasis on trying to cover Collinsworth and Mueller then used him as a decoy to open up the other receivers. Plus you need to remember that Highlands ran the ball pretty well against JC so there was not the need to pass the ball more than they did.

I can assure you that it wasn't the coaching. A freshman had a mental breakdown in coverage thinking that we were switching receivers in cover 1 (big no-no and something we haven't worked on all year). The second, a junior safety jumped an out in cover 4 (who knows why) when he should've been over the top, but left the backside corner on an island to cover both and it's impossible...especially when they had all day to throw.

Congratulations to Collinsworth on his accomplishments though.

[charlie22]

I can assure you that it wasn't the coaching. A freshman had a mental breakdown in coverage thinking that we were switching receivers in cover 1 (big no-no and something we haven't worked on all year). The second, a junior safety jumped an out in cover 4 (who knows why) when he should've been over the top, but left the backside corner on an island to cover both and it's impossible...especially when they had all day to throw.

Congratulations to Collinsworth on his accomplishments though.

It doesn't surprise me that it wasn't coaching given the great coaching I saw in every other phase of JC's football team.

[Deathstar 80]

I will defend my statement tooth and toenail. No way he is 6'2" Like I said, I stood right beside him and was looking down at him, and he was wearing cleats. Even the guy that was with me mentioned that he certainly wasn't very tall after he left where we were standing.

As for the decoy comment. I too dont know for a fact what the game plan was, but that is what the Highlands fans attested to. I do remember the receivers from Bryan Station leaving our guys standing in a cloud of dust after blowing by them. Their QB was fortunately not able to connect. I would think someone of All American status would certainly be able to do the same. From what I saw, Guiduli certainly would not have had a problem in connecting.


And just so you know, I am a huge JC football fan and I dont think anybody at JC would think that I would be belittling or knocking anyone with my rationale, because I just wouldn't do it, period. Yes we had great athletes but they were not of High school all american status. They were quick and fast, but certainly not blazing fast. We just dont have any 4.4 guys here. I'll just say this however, if they were of that elite status, then they sure got the shaft when all the post season accolades got passed around.

As I mentioned, I dont want to sound like I am knocking the kid because he is indeed a tremendous talent. Just being a little overly hyped, IMO.

I have to agree with Mr. Kimball. I don't think he's taller than 6 feet. He most likely is extremely talented, even though he wasn't much of a factor in the Johnson Central game. They might have used him as a decoy against Johnson Central, but that doesn't make any sense. Why should you put your best football player on the field just to run around and be ignored by your teammates? I know it would catch the attention of your opponents, but they were facing a team who I personally thought was inexperienced against the passing game. Why not just put him out there and let him help your team? Also, he didn't get to show off his skill as a defensive back since Johnson Central doesn't pass it very much.

Anyway, good luck to Collinsworth in next year and college!

[tradition]

I have to agree with Mr. Kimball. I don't think he's taller than 6 feet. He most likely is extremely talented, even though he wasn't much of a factor in the Johnson Central game. They might have used him as a decoy against Johnson Central, but that doesn't make any sense. Why should you put your best football player on the field just to run around and be ignored by your teammates? I know it would catch the attention of your opponents, but they were facing a team who I personally thought was inexperienced against the passing game. Why not just put him out there and let him help your team? Also, he didn't get to show off his skill as a defensive back since Johnson Central doesn't pass it very much.

Anyway, good luck to Collinsworth in next year and college!

What cracks me up is you have a guy like Charlie 22 that has said he personnally knows the kid, he hangs at his house with his son, and Austin is definately over six foot. Yet people still want to insist that Austin is maybe 6 ft.

Really, I don't know why anyone really cares how tall he is, his performance on the field makes him a giant.

[Stardust]

What cracks me up is you have a guy like Charlie 22 that has said he personnally knows the kid, he hangs at his house with his son, and Austin is definately over six foot. Yet people still want to insist that Austin is maybe 6 ft.

Really, I don't know why anyone really cares how tall he is, his performance on the field makes him a giant.

:Thumbs: tradition, you are deadon with your post. Argument for arugment's sake I guess. I guess I have gottent past it. If we think he is over 6', the National recruiting services think he is over 6', and those who are with Austin say he is over 6', then does it really matter.

I don't care if he's thought to be 4'-3", he's obviously one of the best players in the Country, not just HHS, not just KY, the entire country. So, if he's 6' or not, he's that good :Thumbs:

[MonsterMan]

I am a JC fan too and Collinsworth is a player and sounds like a great kid, that is all that needs to be said. Any kid who works hard and get honors deserves them. I for one would like to see a Kentucky jersey on him. Who knows, we may meet up in the playoffs again.

[tradition]

Oh by the way, Austin picked up an offer from Stanford yesterday.:Thumbs:


To date that makes offers from:

Louisville
University of Cincy
Stanford

[Stardust]

I am a JC fan too and Collinsworth is a player and sounds like a great kid, that is all that needs to be said. Any kid who works hard and get honors deserves them. I for one would like to see a Kentucky jersey on him. Who knows, we may meet up in the playoffs again.

Good post MonsterMan.

I'd love to see Austin in the SEC like his dad. His mother is a UK Alum, so, who knows????

[TheONLY1]

I have to agree with Mr. Kimball. I don't think he's taller than 6 feet. He most likely is extremely talented, even though he wasn't much of a factor in the Johnson Central game. They might have used him as a decoy against Johnson Central, but that doesn't make any sense. Why should you put your best football player on the field just to run around and be ignored by your teammates? I know it would catch the attention of your opponents, but they were facing a team who I personally thought was inexperienced against the passing game. Why not just put him out there and let him help your team? Also, he didn't get to show off his skill as a defensive back since Johnson Central doesn't pass it very much.

Anyway, good luck to Collinsworth in next year and college!

It doesn't matter how tall he is because he and his team still put it all over central.

[charlie22]

I have to agree with Mr. Kimball. I don't think he's taller than 6 feet. He most likely is extremely talented, even though he wasn't much of a factor in the Johnson Central game. They might have used him as a decoy against Johnson Central, but that doesn't make any sense. Why should you put your best football player on the field just to run around and be ignored by your teammates? I know it would catch the attention of your opponents, but they were facing a team who I personally thought was inexperienced against the passing game. Why not just put him out there and let him help your team? Also, he didn't get to show off his skill as a defensive back since Johnson Central doesn't pass it very much.

Anyway, good luck to Collinsworth in next year and college!

As to the bolded part, because it worked! He did help the team. We won the game and scored 35 points! Others caught three td passes after getting wide open. If Guidugli had thrown the ball to Collinsworth instead of the wide open kids that caught the tds, you think that would have been smart? And we ran the ball well, so that meant their were fewer passes. Guidugli was 8 of 10. I believe that Collinsworth had 2 maybe 3 of those receptions. 3 of the remaining 5 or 6 receptions were the td passes. So we are only talking about 2 or 3 other completions that went to a receiver other than Collinsworth.

Look at it this way: I thought Richardson was your best runner. Why didn't JC give him the ball more? Why did they fake the ball to him (ie, use him as a decoy) so many times instead of giving him the ball? Because you have other talented players and your running offense is designed to spread the ball around. Focus too much on stopping Richardson, and Dillon or one of the other rbs burns the D. That's exactly what Highlands did on offense too. And again, it worked. It's not like we don't have many other talented players to use. We did run the ball for 189 yds on 26 carries don't forget.

And thank you for the good wishes towards Austin. I'm sure he genuinely appreciates them.

[charlie22]

And if I can add one other point. Highlands scored 653 points this year; more than any other 5A team and I believe more than any other team in the state other than Trinity and St. X. So I think it makes a lot of sense for Mueller to spread the ball around, use Collinsworth as a decoy at times, and score a lot of points. Why force the ball to a player, even when he's a fantastic player, when there are other options that, because of an opponent's focus on the fantastic player, will make scoring easier? You go with what the other team gives you. Against JC, it was the run and other open receivers. Against other teams, it was Collinsworth. That's what's so nice when you have an offense that can run the ball and pass the ball equally well, and neither your running game nor your passing game is dependent on any one runner or receiver. I realize why JC fans weren't necessarily impressed with Collinsworth; he didn't show much in that game. But that was due to coaching decisions. Not lack of talent.

[sstack]

I can assure you that it wasn't the coaching. A freshman had a mental breakdown in coverage thinking that we were switching receivers in cover 1 (wbig no-no and something we haven't worked on all year). The second, a junior safety jumped an out in cover 4 (who knows hy) when he should've been over the top, but left the backside corner on an island to cover both and it's impossible...especially when they had all day to throw.

Congratulations to Collinsworth on his accomplishments though.

This is why HHS fans say you need to play a tougher schedule. I know you get tired of hearing that, but you just admitted that they did not have to practice or use much of a pass defense all year before HHS. Jc was a good team and was fun to watch. I expect to see them up north this year, so I hope they continue to neglect the passing defense and play 1A teams.

[charlie22]

This is why HHS fans say you need to play a tougher schedule. I know you get tired of hearing that, but you just admitted that they did not have to practice or use much of a pass defense all year before HHS. Jc was a good team and was fun to watch. I expect to see them up north this year, so I hope they continue to neglect the passing defense and play 1A teams.

Personally I think you are being a little unfair to JC. Keep in mind that unlike Highlands, JC is not located in an urban area with a lot of high schools in a 20 minute drive area and there are still few schools in Eastern Ky (admittedly more than 5 years ago) that emphasize the pass. So in order for JC to find programs with a strong established passing game, it would mean lots of travel I would think. Some JC fan could give us some input on the proximity of strong passing teams to JC. In an era where most schools (I don't know about JC) are having big pressure placed to cut the transportation budget, placing out of area teams on the schedule is frowned upon. It's one of the reasons why Highlands has only one "far" game on the schedule this year (Manual) and why Highlands agreed to play Beechwood (a 1A team I'll point out).

You can make the counter argument that Highlands looked weak attempting to stop the strong running games of JC and Whitley and that was caused by the failure of Highlands to schedule more strong running teams (although I'll admit that Colerain fell into that category this year, but that was the only option/veer team we faced until the playoffs and based on JC and Whitley's success running the ball, Colerain wasn't enough to prepare us adequately for those two teams).

Each offensive system has it's strengths and weaknesses. One can ponder over the winter whether the outcome of the JC game would have been different had we played the game in poor weather conditions that would have made passing very difficult. IF the outcome had been different, we may be responding to posts by the JC faithful wondering why Highlands didn't put more teams that run the option/veer on their regular season schedule to better prepare us for the JC matchup.

Having said that, I do agree with you that not having many strong passing teams on JC's schedule hurt them in their preparation for Highlands and I wish Highlands would put a team like Belfry on their regular season schedule to help them prepare for teams like JC and Whitley. But because of budget issues, I don't think you are going to see that happen.

[IRISH4]

This is why HHS fans say you need to play a tougher schedule. I know you get tired of hearing that, but you just admitted that they did not have to practice or use much of a pass defense all year before HHS. Jc was a good team and was fun to watch. I expect to see them up north this year, so I hope they continue to neglect the passing defense and play 1A teams.

I admit the tougher schedule, but I never admitted to working on pass defense. The primary coverage was cover 1 man-to-man...it's not that difficult and cover 4 zone isn't that difficult, just mental breakdowns not from a lack of doing it. You see professionals do the same stuff and they practice it to but that excuse don't float with me. Highlands was just the better team that night and caught some breaks.

Now back to the topic, Collinsworth is a heck of an athlete...congratulations on his accomplishments.

[sstack]

Personally I think you are being a little unfair to JC. Keep in mind that unlike Highlands, JC is not located in an urban area with a lot of high schools in a 20 minute drive area and there are still few schools in Eastern Ky (admittedly more than 5 years ago) that emphasize the pass. So in order for JC to find programs with a strong established passing game, it would mean lots of travel I would think. Some JC fan could give us some input on the proximity of strong passing teams to JC. In an era where most schools (I don't know about JC) are having big pressure placed to cut the transportation budget, placing out of area teams on the schedule is frowned upon. It's one of the reasons why Highlands has only one "far" game on the schedule this year (Manual) and why Highlands agreed to play Beechwood (a 1A team I'll point out).

You can make the counter argument that Highlands looked weak attempting to stop the strong running games of JC and Whitley and that was caused by the failure of Highlands to schedule more strong running teams (although I'll admit that Colerain fell into that category this year, but that was the only option/veer team we faced until the playoffs and based on JC and Whitley's success running the ball, Colerain wasn't enough to prepare us adequately for those two teams).

Each offensive system has it's strengths and weaknesses. One can ponder over the winter whether the outcome of the JC game would have been different had we played the game in poor weather conditions that would have made passing very difficult. IF the outcome had been different, we may be responding to posts by the JC faithful wondering why Highlands didn't put more teams that run the option/veer on their regular season schedule to better prepare us for the JC matchup.

Having said that, I do agree with you that not having many strong passing teams on JC's schedule hurt them in their preparation for Highlands and I wish Highlands would put a team like Belfry on their regular season schedule to help them prepare for teams like JC and Whitley. But because of budget issues, I don't think you are going to see that happen.

I agree with most of what you said. It is easier for HHS to play quality teams that are closer. However, HHS seems to travel almost ever year to Louisville, Lexington, Hopkinsville,ect. And as for travel cost, it probably costs HHS more for travel each year due to they do not have buses and have to rent buses even for games 20 mins away. As far as this years schedule, I do not think most people are to excited about it. I have heard nobody that is happy about playing Beechwood, We play each year IN preseason and it is not a close game(they have been blowouts). We will have to reschedule the Holmes game, so maybe they will replace that game with a good opponent.
As far as your commet about HHS not ready for the running game, that is where I disagreewith you and have to laugh. YOu should be giving your team more credit. The reason JC ran so well was they had a good line and were excellent at hiding the ball. HHS line was small and played bend but don't break defense all year. I think we both agree, Can't wait till football starts back up!