2023 St. Ignatius Football

Excellent. He is, after all, a pre-season first team all-American.


Agree. Many of my fellow buckeye alums were surprised when he played so well, I wasn't. We had the pleasure of watching him 10 plus weeks a year
 
Ignatius needs to fix the QB situation. All 3 on the varsity AND JV struggled this weekend. Team will never progress even if other positions get better until the QB play is much better.
 
Ignatius needs to fix the QB situation. All 3 on the varsity AND JV struggled this weekend. Team will never progress even if other positions get better until the QB play is much better.
So shocking after we were the QB envy of the state, and possibly country, from Pickens on. Was such a joy to watch again and again for years. Completely agree though
 
Could the much-maligned Nick Restifo have had anything to do with the amazing string of top flight quarterbacks? Hmmmmm. 🤔

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone - Joni Mitchell
 
Could the much-maligned Nick Restifo have had anything to do with the amazing string of top flight quarterbacks? Hmmmmm. 🤔

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone - Joni Mitchell
Like anything, including some of Kyle's reign, things needed to change. Restifo was integral in QB development. Eventually his play calling was a bit suspect. Ironically,he sat next to me at the Eds playoff game last year. He was losing his mind with the time it took Welo to get the plays in.

Still the QB play, both because of talent and coaching, has been an issue for years now. And again, it’s all of them right now from 10-12.
 
Like anything, including some of Kyle's reign, things needed to change. Restifo was integral in QB development. Eventually his play calling was a bit suspect. Ironically,he sat next to me at the Eds playoff game last year. He was losing his mind with the time it took Welo to get the plays in.

Still the QB play, both because of talent and coaching, has been an issue for years now. And again, it’s all of them right now from 10-12.
Has anyone anywhere yet offered any reasoning for why Welo has such issues getting plays in timely? Here or there I suppose I can get. But repeatedly over years seems like an indecisive issue. Did he have the same issue, if anyone knows, before coming back to SIHS?
 
Has anyone anywhere yet offered any reasoning for why Welo has such issues getting plays in timely? Here or there I suppose I can get. But repeatedly over years seems like an indecisive issue. Did he have the same issue, if anyone knows, before coming back to SIHS?
In response to your last question, I doubt the Benedictine Yappsters will have anything positive to say
 
In response to your last question, I doubt the Benedictine Yappsters will have anything positive to say
A quick take on Welo from his Benny years. On the positive he was good at connecting with the grade school kids and getting them interested in the school, good salesman. Some alums liked his direction of the lower levels. On the down side he rubbed admin the wrong way and his gameday management was not always sharp, some thought it was due to his first time being in the big chair. Nonetheless he probably hasn't stayed very long at any of his stops so maybe he stays put at Iggy and gets comfortable just being the OC and grows into the role?
 
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My takeaways from Friday:

  • The good:
    • The sophs generally held up well playing in a lot of key moments. I thought the offensive line was one of the better units on the team despite all the concerns around their youth and size
    • Nick Rivera and Jayshon Thomas played well on defense (despite Thomas getting beat for one long touchdown). They should potentially remain as full time starters. Thomas was physical and fast to the ball and had a sack from his safety position
    • Washington had a quietly productive game despite no threat from the passing game - averaged around 4 YPC. In a few cases I thought he could have broken longer runs but missed the right cutback lane or opportunity to bounce outside. Generally avoided negative plays in the running game (playing out of the pistol with a FB helped)
    • Max Ritt showed game breaker potential from a few different spots on the field - explosive and great effort
    • The team didn’t quit even when it looked like the game was going to turn into a laugher early on. The kids fought hard
  • The bad:
    • Everything about the passing game. I don’t see that a personnel change is an obvious fix to the woes here. We haven’t had an efficient, productive passing game since Elvis Grbac left after the 2015 season. I think final passing stats were 7-20 for about 70 yards and 2 INTs. Obviously Springfield has a lot of talent in the back half of the defense that deserves some credit for that. QB development and decision making has not been up to our traditional standard for years
    • There were some clock management issues - let too much time run down before half and were too slow to get plays in a few times. Had to burn two bad timeouts in the 2nd half. At one point huddled coming out of a timeout
    • Secondary was caught out of position several times and left multiple receivers unguarded for long gains. Couldn’t get off the field on 3rd and long / 4th down multiple times. Allowed a really efficient night for Springfield’s QB
    • This team overall lacks the type of D1 players that can consistently win individual matchups and take over a game. I expect them to improve but that puts a limit on their ceiling
 
My takeaways from Friday:

  • The good:
    • The sophs generally held up well playing in a lot of key moments. I thought the offensive line was one of the better units on the team despite all the concerns around their youth and size
    • Nick Rivera and Jayshon Thomas played well on defense (despite Thomas getting beat for one long touchdown). They should potentially remain as full time starters. Thomas was physical and fast to the ball and had a sack from his safety position
    • Washington had a quietly productive game despite no threat from the passing game - averaged around 4 YPC. In a few cases I thought he could have broken longer runs but missed the right cutback lane or opportunity to bounce outside. Generally avoided negative plays in the running game (playing out of the pistol with a FB helped)
    • Max Ritt showed game breaker potential from a few different spots on the field - explosive and great effort
    • The team didn’t quit even when it looked like the game was going to turn into a laugher early on. The kids fought hard
  • The bad:
    • Everything about the passing game. I don’t see that a personnel change is an obvious fix to the woes here. We haven’t had an efficient, productive passing game since Elvis Grbac left after the 2015 season. I think final passing stats were 7-20 for about 70 yards and 2 INTs. Obviously Springfield has a lot of talent in the back half of the defense that deserves some credit for that. QB development and decision making has not been up to our traditional standard for years
    • There were some clock management issues - let too much time run down before half and were too slow to get plays in a few times. Had to burn two bad timeouts in the 2nd half. At one point huddled coming out of a timeout
    • Secondary was caught out of position several times and left multiple receivers unguarded for long gains. Couldn’t get off the field on 3rd and long / 4th down multiple times. Allowed a really efficient night for Springfield’s QB
    • This team overall lacks the type of D1 players that can consistently win individual matchups and take over a game. I expect them to improve but that puts a limit on their ceiling
I would argue the entire program lacks that take over a game talent. We'll see with the current freshmen.

Agree about the passing attack. It's a mess. There are times one side of the field is completely ignored.
 
A quick take on Welo from his Benny years. On the positive he was good at connecting with the grade school kids and getting them interested in the school, good salesman. Some alums liked his direction of the lower levels. On the down side he rubbed admin the wrong way and his gameday management was not always sharp, some thought it was due to his first time being in the big chair. Nonetheless he probably hasn't stayed very long at any of his stops so maybe he stays put at Iggy and gets comfortable just being the OC and grows into the role?
Auggie - Thanks. Really good summary. Hopefully he does grow in that role
 
My takeaways from Friday:

  • The good:
    • The sophs generally held up well playing in a lot of key moments. I thought the offensive line was one of the better units on the team despite all the concerns around their youth and size
    • Nick Rivera and Jayshon Thomas played well on defense (despite Thomas getting beat for one long touchdown). They should potentially remain as full time starters. Thomas was physical and fast to the ball and had a sack from his safety position
    • Washington had a quietly productive game despite no threat from the passing game - averaged around 4 YPC. In a few cases I thought he could have broken longer runs but missed the right cutback lane or opportunity to bounce outside. Generally avoided negative plays in the running game (playing out of the pistol with a FB helped)
    • Max Ritt showed game breaker potential from a few different spots on the field - explosive and great effort
    • The team didn’t quit even when it looked like the game was going to turn into a laugher early on. The kids fought hard
  • The bad:
    • Everything about the passing game. I don’t see that a personnel change is an obvious fix to the woes here. We haven’t had an efficient, productive passing game since Elvis Grbac left after the 2015 season. I think final passing stats were 7-20 for about 70 yards and 2 INTs. Obviously Springfield has a lot of talent in the back half of the defense that deserves some credit for that. QB development and decision making has not been up to our traditional standard for years
    • There were some clock management issues - let too much time run down before half and were too slow to get plays in a few times. Had to burn two bad timeouts in the 2nd half. At one point huddled coming out of a timeout
    • Secondary was caught out of position several times and left multiple receivers unguarded for long gains. Couldn’t get off the field on 3rd and long / 4th down multiple times. Allowed a really efficient night for Springfield’s QB
    • This team overall lacks the type of D1 players that can consistently win individual matchups and take over a game. I expect them to improve but that puts a limit on their ceiling
How much of the D secondary's problems do you think were due to the absence of Haddad and Taliak, out due to injuries?
Their absence left the center of the field vulnerable, especially on slants and crossing routes. As you mention, the DBs were out of position, slow to react or taking approaches that did not take into account the speed of Springfield's WRs.
 
Been reading everything on here and couldn't remember my login so wasn't able to post for awhile.
My takeaways from Friday:

  • The good:
    • The sophs generally held up well playing in a lot of key moments. I thought the offensive line was one of the better units on the team despite all the concerns around their youth and size
    • Nick Rivera and Jayshon Thomas played well on defense (despite Thomas getting beat for one long touchdown). They should potentially remain as full time starters. Thomas was physical and fast to the ball and had a sack from his safety position
    • Washington had a quietly productive game despite no threat from the passing game - averaged around 4 YPC. In a few cases I thought he could have broken longer runs but missed the right cutback lane or opportunity to bounce outside. Generally avoided negative plays in the running game (playing out of the pistol with a FB helped)
    • Max Ritt showed game breaker potential from a few different spots on the field - explosive and great effort
    • The team didn’t quit even when it looked like the game was going to turn into a laugher early on. The kids fought hard
  • The bad:
    • Everything about the passing game. I don’t see that a personnel change is an obvious fix to the woes here. We haven’t had an efficient, productive passing game since Elvis Grbac left after the 2015 season. I think final passing stats were 7-20 for about 70 yards and 2 INTs. Obviously Springfield has a lot of talent in the back half of the defense that deserves some credit for that. QB development and decision making has not been up to our traditional standard for years
    • There were some clock management issues - let too much time run down before half and were too slow to get plays in a few times. Had to burn two bad timeouts in the 2nd half. At one point huddled coming out of a timeout
    • Secondary was caught out of position several times and left multiple receivers unguarded for long gains. Couldn’t get off the field on 3rd and long / 4th down multiple times. Allowed a really efficient night for Springfield’s QB
    • This team overall lacks the type of D1 players that can consistently win individual matchups and take over a game. I expect them to improve but that puts a limit on their ceiling
I agree with all the good things you noticed and would add some more.
  • The secondary actually looked quite good except for a few plays. All the big plays they got beat on were actually failures to pass off and go with the correct guy on crossing routes. Other than that they played well. Not sure why some of the corners played so far off the ball though.
  • Overall I would give the defense a passing grade. They played well and outside of those first two drives where it looked like they could have used the scrimmage to jell together they hung with Springfield's offense and passing attack. The later the game went the better they looked which tells me they needed snaps in a live game situation to coalesce as a unit.
  • They have guys on offense and again like last year, they aren't being utilized. The playcalling it atrocious as it was last year. Completely predictable. This is a quick high-level overview of their offense against Springfield: Ignatius never threw the ball on 1st down until under 2 minutes left in the game and in desperation mode... and only did it twice. 14 of the 24 passes came only when they had 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down and over 10 yards to go... and 21 of the 24 passes were only when they had 2nd or 3rd down and over 5 yards to go. That means they never throw it on 1st down and if they get 5 yards on 1st and 2nd down combined they are almost guaranteed to run the ball. That means as a defense you can bring 8 or 9 comfortably on 1st down and on any downs with under 5 yards to go. On other downs or 5 or more bringing 7 is still comfortable because the odds are good there will be a run play and the lack of blitz-beating routes is painfully obvious.
  • No easy throws for the quarterback. I actually think the criticism of Papesh should be leveled first at Welo here. He gives him no easy passes. No quick slants or shallow crosses or digs at the beginning of a game to sink linebackers and allow the running game to start moving. Combine that with the passing stats above and you have a passing gameplan setup to fail. You cannot be running deep post routes and mid-crossers which take a ton of time to develop when teams are blitzing 7 - 9 every play. Ed's knew this last year for both games and realized Welo has no plays to beat cover 0.
  • I actually disagree strongly that this team doesn't have legit D1 talent that can take over a game. Go back to the film and you'll see Merimee beating Aaron Scott on almost every route he ran against him. Granted they either never looked his way or were sacked by the time the ball should have been thrown but this was consistent of last year. Washington is also a legit D1 talent and I would argue by the time it's all said and done some of the young receivers like Simms can be as well but that doesn't mean they will have any success in this offense. I tend to think they won't and you could put any top recruit in the country on this team and they wouldn't have success in this offense and thus not be recognized as a top talent.
  • The offensive line looked good. There is a lot to be excited about from this unit. One could argue they already looked better than last year's unit even with their youth. I am sure Bentley's coaching has played a massive impact on them being a unit that plays together. Again though no unit will look good when a defense brings more guys than you can block.
 
All good observations but Welo isn't going anywhere. His playcalling was really bad against Eds last year and it's frustrating to watch after one game. They changed to the pistol but the plays are still predictable and questionable.

I also assume it's coaching when anyone watching can see the defense coming and they end up running or throwing right into it. The QBs must be told not to check out of any play.

Bentley has massively upgraded the o line coaching.
 
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All good observations but Welo isn't going anywhere. His playcalling was really bad against Eds last year and it's frustrating to watch after one game. They changed to the pistol but the plays are still predictable and questionable.

I also assume it's coaching when anyone watching can see the defense coming and they end up running or throwing right into it. The QBs must be told not to check out of any play.

Bentley has massively upgraded the o line coaching.
I agree Welo isn't going anywhere and I hope he can learn from his own mistakes in the playcalling arena. I actually like the pistol it has the potential of opening up some things and utilizing the playmakers we do have currently on the team. Ritt being a scat back and utilized in the running and passing game from the pistol is an exciting and dynamic possibility.

The fact Springfield played cover 0 and brought everyone about 90% of the game was extremely frustrating to watch because they weren't doing anything to counter that defense and I can bet other teams are gonna look at that game film and follow suit until Welo adjusts and counters cover 0.

The strength of the team and the cohesiveness of the offensive line are proofs he has already had a big impact and will for as long as he's here.
 
Lots of good insights from A Football Fan. Agree completely about the offense being too predictable and degree of difficulty too high in the passing game. Need some bubble screens to Ritt, quick hitting slants, attacking the flats, etc.

Freshman roster is up. Numbers look good but seem a bit small on the lines. This doesn’t include the two o lineman who are playing JV:

 
Lots of good insights from A Football Fan. Agree completely about the offense being too predictable and degree of difficulty too high in the passing game. Need some bubble screens to Ritt, quick hitting slants, attacking the flats, etc.

Freshman roster is up. Numbers look good but seem a bit small on the lines. This doesn’t include the two o lineman who are playing JV:

Absolutely agree about utilizing Ritt. Would love to see him come out of the backfield in the pistol formation and run some screens and slants to put pressure on the LB and make them sink in coverage to open up that first level for the run game. I know we have all seen Papesh struggle the past two years but I believe he is a better-than-average High School QB who just needs to be fed some simpler play concepts. Start the game with quick hitters and some outside fade passes and I think we would all be surprised by what he could do. We saw it against heights when our backs were against the wall.
The passing game has evolved everywhere but there are still holes behind the LBs and in front of the safeties. Ignatius had about 8 guys go All-State playing TE and exploiting that area.
Absolutely agree with this. I think that is where Merimee would shine in the passing game and he could put a ton of pressure on the middle of a defense and suck the safties in and the linebackers back. We have number 84 who could do some damage in that area as well. I mean we have a kid who's 6'4" 215 and catches darn near everything that comes his way. I just don't understand why they don't exploit those matchups against high school safeties who are almost a foot shorter than him.
 
Use a tight end? What is that? The travesty........I truly don't understand that, having been around when we had the best in the state year after year and frustrated everyone. Tight end, RB, then over the top, some combo. Everyone was always on a swivel except Mike Doss
 
Does anyone know what the rules on suspensions for unsportsmenlike are? I looked up the regulations and they seem to indicate Merimee is suspended all of the next game which is pretty extreme but ya I wanted to figure out if anyone else knows clearly what the regulation means.
 

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Does anyone know what the rules on suspensions for unsportsmenlike are? I looked up the regulations and they seem to indicate Merimee is suspended all of the next game which is pretty extreme but ya I wanted to figure out if anyone else knows clearly what the regulation means.
To me, that's clear he is suspended next week. Absurd
 
To me, that's clear he is suspended next week. Absurd
That's how it reads to me I just feel like that's so extreme. That is quite a hard lesson to learn but I'm sure it will be one he learns from this experience. What's even crazier to me is that if it were to happen again it would be the remainder of the season which again seems so absurdly extreme. The remainder of the game seems fair enough or if its at the end of the game the first half of the next game but ya it is what it is I guess.
 
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