Yeah Harry, that would have to be a dramatic Coffman drop-off if Jerome is able to flip things that dramatically with Jerome. I saw very little last night in terms of superlative athleticism or size, and they are also graduating a senior QB. It's interesting to hear that this is a pinnacle year in the Dublin schools as well, because that is ABSOLUTELY the case at most of the OLSD schools, especially Olentangy. This has been a special senior class for many schools it sounds like, and a real shame it is going to be cut short for so many of them.
Berlin/Jerome 1st half was much different than the score indicated, as is the case quite often Berlin's problems were much more about what they did to themselves as opposed to what the other team was doing. Berlin had like 280 yards in the first half and only 9 points to show for it. All 3 of their FG drives got inside the 5, on 2 of them a TD pass was dropped, and the other one saw back-to-back penalties that moved them off the goal line.
Berlin had 32 first downs in this game, let that sink in. Anyway, I know nobody is worried in D1 about Jerome this year, and I haven't seen JV the past couple years and obviously wont this year, but yeah that will be a dramatic reversal if they suddenly become a team capable of competing with Coffman. Their coach is very smart and coaches a great game with in-game decisions. But Nori and his staff made excellent halftime adjustments last night and put it together. The same defensive problems are still there, but they did do a little better in the 2nd half and only gave up one TD on a trick play.
One thing that is clear to me 4 games in now with some more play in context is that both Olentangy and Liberty are very good football teams. I still have zero idea what to make of Marysville, as their loss to Darby is rapidly becoming a larger black eye and they 3 teams they beat in Bradley, Jerome, TW are looking worse each week. We will find out more about them in the next 2 weeks.
This was my first chance to really look at the regions in depth this morning, and it seems like the Rocks should have smooth sailing into the final 4, although it is tough to know what to make of the Northmont/Springfield/Wayne trio because they haven't played anyone out of region and the quality of ball there can be questionable at times. Wayne is certainly down relative to recent years. You are also catching Whitmer on a total rebuild and they are a zero factor and usually either Centerville or Beavercreek are good, but this year it seems not. If anything, a rematch with Liberty may be a sneaky challenge. This is a region the Rocks should win.
The D2 schools got a little unlucky with the Canton/Massillon area pairing, I would much rather have seen them either in with the Toledo or Cincinnati schools. There's a lot of dead weight at the bottom of R7, but some potential challenging matchups as early as week 2 in the playoffs and that spells trouble and some good teams are going to be cut to 8 game seasons, unfortunately. The seeding process should be interesting.
