Division 1 Region 3

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lancaster90

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Lets get this started.
Who will be the teams to beat in this region and can they challenge for the State Title in 2024? Which teams that had a down year in 2023 but have the chance to have a bounce back season in 2024? Which teams could surprise that are do not have any expectations for fall? Which players will be stars this fall?
 
 
The olentangy teams are now R3- could they do damage? I’m not too familiar with them, but is Berlin the strongest?
I know UA seems to be very strong along with Gahanna, PN. PN has a crazy schedule, so they will be battle tested. Comes down to coaching for Gahanna and PN. UA has one of the best staffs in R3
One that will bounce back- based off their 2 game schedule off the schedule is PC.
Westerville North could be your dark horse
 
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This region got way harder with the addition of the Olentangy schools. Their composite packs more punch than what got shedded with the three Hilliards and Central Crossing shifting over to Region 2.

Are any of the Olentangies in the race to win R3? It’s hard to say. UA/PN/GL in some order look impenetrable… but they’re without a doubt the best candidates to spoil the party along with Pick Central. Expect OLSD to go 3-1 or 4-0 in week 11 action. 3-1 is safer money in the event something happens like Orange being a 12 or 13 seed.
 
Whoever comes out winning R3 will definitely have to earn it. No gimmies here. May be one of the most stacked R3 overall in recent years.
 
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How do all the Olentangys look coming back? Berlin and Lewis Center had a good season last year but i’m not sure who they return (Lewis Center losing a B1G Ten QB especially). It’s very hard to win the big games out elite QB play. Why I look to Orange to maybe become the newest kings of Olentangy. Levi Davis has grown and really earns his rank as one of the top 20 prospects in his respective class. Not only him, but both sides of the ball seem to have a core group of playmakers who were on the team last year. Not sure of any of the 4 Tangy O & D line situations, may be where schools like UA catch them.

Pickerington North & Central have loaded rosters, but can they get coached well enough to compete against the other giants of this region? North and Central both had “stacked” rosters on paper last year and failed to convert. I use “giants” loosely, as R3 teams still have a lot to prove this year to stand as tall as giants.

Westerville North returns a chunk of talent from last years team that started a new fire, but how much did they add to it in the off season?

Dublin Coffman suffers from the same ? at QB, did their QB last year graduate? He was small but had a lot of fight and could run well. They loose a hefty amount of talent on that defensive front of the ball so it’s just a matter of how they can reload to be a real contender.

Those are the only questions/input I have to share, I think this region is as tough as R4, just a little less top heavy, more of an even field.

1. R1
2. R4
3. R3
4. R2

IMO
 
Region 3 top 10 prediction

1. Pick North
2. Upper Arlington
3. Olentangy Liberty
4. Gahanna Lincoln
5. Pick Central
6. Olentangy Berlin
7. Westerville North
8. Olentangy
9. Westerville Central
10. Olentangy Orange
 
Berlin and Tangy both have to replace senior QBs, which will not be easy, but both teams are solid programs with a lot of depth at the other positions and should both be very good again this year with average QB play.

Tangy has by far the better individual athletes on paper, several kids with D1 offers, headed by former OSU Michael Wylie's kid and some good interior linemen with wrestling backgrounds. Still have no idea if Day is showing up over there or not, guessing not at this point because we likely would have heard by now I guess, and as a result I don't think we know a ton about QB option to bring the team together.

Coaching still seems a little suspect as well, on paper no way they should have lost to Berlin last 2 years but have, and really have an embarrassment of riches at several skill positions. Keep in mind, we are talking about a team who went to R1 finalist Medina and won last year, and minus the QB, have several of those key kids back. And while no one down here was beating Springfield, Tangy would have definitely beaten Coffman last year.

Berlin develops interior linemen like no other staff in COH. Everyone has star kids and units that play well, but I continue to be amazed at the way Nori is able to take seemingly very average kids and turn them into exceptional line units that gain advantage, no one is doing it better these days. Berlin has big, strong kids on both lines, and if you cannot pass the ball, you better be fielding a team like the Gabe Powers Marysville team to consistently run on them.

Berlin will likely be going with a soph run-first QB who has virtually no varsity experience. That will make it easier to game-plan for their offense this year and their success will likely depend on whether or not this new QB can effectively throw the ball downfield against stacked run defenses. Definitely an unknown at this point. I expect they may start slow this year, but by the end of the season be an extremely tough out.

Orange is by far the most dangerous team, and complete unknown with a new coaching staff. QB shows a ton of promise, but his lack of development last year as a soph after getting most of the reps as a frosh was disappointing. Their skill players as a unit are amongst the best in COH this fall, for sure. Their entire season hinges on whether or not this new staff can develop interior line play in a way that far surpasses what was previously going on there. Remains to be seen.

Westerville North is a nice story and good to see them getting off the mat from their 1-9 seasons, but quite honestly, they don't belong in the discussion with the Tangies/Picks/UA/GL.
 
ER8868 said:
Region 3 top 10 prediction

1. Pick North
2. Upper Arlington
3. Olentangy Liberty
4. Gahanna Lincoln
5. Pick Central
6. Olentangy Berlin
7. Westerville North
8. Olentangy
9. Westerville Central
10. Olentangy Orange
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Both Westy North and Central are way too high, didn't North lose to Lancaster last year? How many years in a roll does Liberty have to beat UA until they can be ranked higher than them?
 
ELMIKE2K2 said:
Both Westy North and Central are way too high, didn't North lose to Lancaster last year? How many years in a roll does Liberty have to beat UA until they can be ranked higher than them?
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You could be right, make your top 10. This is just my list.

UA - 10-4 lost regional championship in OT to Gahanna . A lot of returners.

Liberty - 4-8 lost in second round round. A lot of returners.

Liberty has won 2 (only 2) times in a row and both wins were in overtime. That was one of Liberty’s only 3 regular season wins. I thought ranking them 3 was pretty generous. It is not a secret that these two have very high expectations this season. I’m expecting potentially 8-2, 9-1, 10-0 type of season with playoff success from both.
 
ER8868 said:
You could be right, make your top 10. This is just my list.

UA - 10-4 lost regional championship in OT to Gahanna . A lot of returners.

Liberty - 4-8 lost in second round round. A lot of returners.

Liberty has won 2 (only 2) times in a row and both wins were in overtime. That was one of Liberty’s only 3 regular season wins. I thought ranking them 3 was pretty generous. It is not a secret that these two have very high expectations this season. I’m expecting potentially 8-2, 9-1, 10-0 type of season with playoff success from both.
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Your top ten for the most part could be accurate but was just wondering about WN and WC. My correction on the Liberty win streak vs UA.
 
ELMIKE2K2 said:
Your top ten for the most part could be accurate but was just wondering about WN and WC. My correction on the Liberty win streak vs UA.
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You are probably right and I am not high on WN either but have them above Olentangy who just lost a great group, WC who is not good and Orange who hasn’t had much if any recent success. The rest of the region isn’t great either. I may be basing too much off last years teams.
 
I have no idea what to think about WC- new coach, 4 yr starter at QB and very good skill kids, but their line play and d was bad. They also lost their very good rb to Gahanna
 
ELMIKE2K2 said:
Both Westy North and Central are way too high, didn't North lose to Lancaster last year? How many years in a roll does Liberty have to beat UA until they can be ranked higher than them?
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When they win more than 3 games{ last year in reg season} and are better overall in terms of season long consistency. Liberty hasn't been as good as UA OVERALL despite winning the last couple years one of which was kind of a miracle late comeback. Kudos to the Patriots for beating them, but they haven't been a better football team week in and week out.
 
Harrycrane said:
When they win more than 3 games{ last year in reg season} and are better overall in terms of season long consistency. Liberty hasn't been as good as UA OVERALL despite winning the last couple years one of which was kind of a miracle late comeback. Kudos to the Patriots for beating them, but they haven't been a better football team week in and week out.
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Yeah they haven't had a better record overall but then again no one has had the non league schedule quite like Liberty the last 2 years, at Gahanna, PC, as well as state champion Glennville along with NA.
 
ELMIKE2K2 said:
Yeah they haven't had a better record overall but then again no one has had the non league schedule quite like Liberty the last 2 years, at Gahanna, PC, as well as state champion Glennville along with NA.
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Over the last 3 years

Liberty 17-20
UA 34-8

That’s a bigger difference than a couple early season tough games.
 
ELMIKE2K2 said:
Yeah they haven't had a better record overall but then again no one has had the non league schedule quite like Liberty the last 2 years, at Gahanna, PC, as well as state champion Glennville along with NA.
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I have talked a lot about and mentioned Liberty’s tough scheduling going back to Hale’s later years especially . They have pushed themselves which is commendable and done a great job winning vs. UA the last couple years but at least at the start of this season I feel UA probably should be ranked ahead of the Patriots . Liberty needs to beat Coffman after 3 straight losses . They do that and beat UA ? They maybe bag a league title solo
 
Harrycrane said:
I have talked a lot about and mentioned Liberty’s tough scheduling going back to Hale’s later years especially . They have pushed themselves which is commendable and done a great job winning vs. UA the last couple years but at least at the start of this season I feel UA probably should be ranked ahead of the Patriots . Liberty needs to beat Coffman after 3 straight losses . They do that and beat UA ? They maybe bag a league title solo
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I agree.
 
ElDuderino said:
Berlin and Tangy both have to replace senior QBs, which will not be easy, but both teams are solid programs with a lot of depth at the other positions and should both be very good again this year with average QB play.

Tangy has by far the better individual athletes on paper, several kids with D1 offers, headed by former OSU Michael Wylie's kid and some good interior linemen with wrestling backgrounds. Still have no idea if Day is showing up over there or not, guessing not at this point because we likely would have heard by now I guess, and as a result I don't think we know a ton about QB option to bring the team together.

Coaching still seems a little suspect as well, on paper no way they should have lost to Berlin last 2 years but have, and really have an embarrassment of riches at several skill positions. Keep in mind, we are talking about a team who went to R1 finalist Medina and won last year, and minus the QB, have several of those key kids back. And while no one down here was beating Springfield, Tangy would have definitely beaten Coffman last year.

Berlin develops interior linemen like no other staff in COH. Everyone has star kids and units that play well, but I continue to be amazed at the way Nori is able to take seemingly very average kids and turn them into exceptional line units that gain advantage, no one is doing it better these days. Berlin has big, strong kids on both lines, and if you cannot pass the ball, you better be fielding a team like the Gabe Powers Marysville team to consistently run on them.

Berlin will likely be going with a soph run-first QB who has virtually no varsity experience. That will make it easier to game-plan for their offense this year and their success will likely depend on whether or not this new QB can effectively throw the ball downfield against stacked run defenses. Definitely an unknown at this point. I expect they may start slow this year, but by the end of the season be an extremely tough out.

Orange is by far the most dangerous team, and complete unknown with a new coaching staff. QB shows a ton of promise, but his lack of development last year as a soph after getting most of the reps as a frosh was disappointing. Their skill players as a unit are amongst the best in COH this fall, for sure. Their entire season hinges on whether or not this new staff can develop interior line play in a way that far surpasses what was previously going on there. Remains to be seen.

Westerville North is a nice story and good to see them getting off the mat from their 1-9 seasons, but quite honestly, they don't belong in the discussion with the Tangies/Picks/UA/GL.
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This is a good breakdown on the Olentangy schools. You're right, on paper, Braves seem to be loaded at many skill positions. Replacing EG at quarterback will be the question mark. Right now it seems they have a senior and a junior sharing reps. Don't expect to see that continue into the season, they are likely seeing what they have between the two. Junior QB hurt most of last season, Senior QB played JV fresh and soph year behind EG, but took the year off from football his junior year. Seem to be very different styles of QB. Junior more of a pocket QB, while the senior is mobile.

Berlin is also interesting at QB. They have a senior that converted to LB but played in the playoffs last year when the starter went down. Do they move him back to QB or go with the young guy?

Regardless, I expect the Olentangy schools to have pretty solid seasons
 
LCLfootball said:
Don’t be surprised when Watkins Memorial makes it to the second round in this region. Heard it here first.
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As much as I love to push this, to put a more realistic cap on it I think they fall short in a close round 1 game. I think they will still finish 8-2 (losing to Hartley & 1 LCL school), but that alone won’t get them too great of a seed, could easily be 6-10 with those points. Regardless, I believe they will be able to hold their own with their explosive receiving core and strong LBs come playoff time! Losing their RB1 over the offseason is going to hurt them but the young man they have now will hopefully pick up the reigns. Along with that loss, Apel and Ricketts were getting a majority of the reps at corner in the 7on7s that they competed in, meaning their arguable two best guys are going to be going both way. I’m rooting for them regardless and I believe that week 4 match up is going to be one of the better games all season!
 
ManBehindTheCamera said:
As much as I love to push this, to put a more realistic cap on it I think they fall short in a close round 1 game. I think they will still finish 8-2 (losing to Hartley & 1 LCL school), but that alone won’t get them too great of a seed, could easily be 6-10 with those points. Regardless, I believe they will be able to hold their own with their explosive receiving core and strong LBs come playoff time! Losing their RB1 over the offseason is going to hurt them but the young man they have now will hopefully pick up the reigns. Along with that loss, Apel and Ricketts were getting a majority of the reps at corner in the 7on7s that they competed in, meaning their arguable two best guys are going to be going both way. I’m rooting for them regardless and I believe that week 4 match up is going to be one of the better games all season!
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Hartley should be an exciting game and a good test.
 
Tangy03 said:
This is a good breakdown on the Olentangy schools. You're right, on paper, Braves seem to be loaded at many skill positions. Replacing EG at quarterback will be the question mark. Right now it seems they have a senior and a junior sharing reps. Don't expect to see that continue into the season, they are likely seeing what they have between the two. Junior QB hurt most of last season, Senior QB played JV fresh and soph year behind EG, but took the year off from football his junior year. Seem to be very different styles of QB. Junior more of a pocket QB, while the senior is mobile.

Berlin is also interesting at QB. They have a senior that converted to LB but played in the playoffs last year when the starter went down. Do they move him back to QB or go with the young guy?

Regardless, I expect the Olentangy schools to have pretty solid seasons
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If you have ever seen him play defense, there is no way in the world he will not be playing defense. The question is whether or not they will risk injury/tiredness from playing both ways or if the soph is ready. Tough early schedule doesn't allow the luxury of bringing someone new along slowly.

LCLfootball said:
Don’t be surprised when Watkins Memorial makes it to the second round in this region. Heard it here first.
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Appreciate the excitement and your cleverly worded statement here, which assumes you get a 1st round tomato can, but the reality is there is an extremely large gap between the top and bottom schools of this region. There are many (relatively speaking) pretty poor programs in this region right now, and quite frankly NOT beating one of them would be extremely embarrassing. 7 of these 17 teams were ranked 150 or higher in the Drew50 computer end of last year, which is rivaled in disparity only by R1.

The reality is, WM has zero chance of beating any of the OLSDs, Picks, GL/UA. GroveCity and Groveport sometimes field teams that belong in this list too, sometimes they dont. If they happen to draw someone other than that, they should have a good chance at winning a game, but no one will be "surprised" or even care because it proves very little. If WM beats someone from the list here, that's when ppl would register "shock". Because those schools all play in infinitely more difficult leagues, high likelihood some of them will have mediocre records and be at lower seeds. Even if WM runs thru their goat herder league like a knife thru goat cheese and gets a high seed, they will need some luck to avoid one of the true big-boy schools in R3.
 
ElDuderino said:
If you have ever seen him play defense, there is no way in the world he will not be playing defense. The question is whether or not they will risk injury/tiredness from playing both ways or if the soph is ready. Tough early schedule doesn't allow the luxury of bringing someone new along slowly.
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Agree. I've seen him. Quite the situation they have to figure out.
 
ElDuderino said:
If you have ever seen him play defense, there is no way in the world he will not be playing defense. The question is whether or not they will risk injury/tiredness from playing both ways or if the soph is ready. Tough early schedule doesn't allow the luxury of bringing someone new along slowly.



Appreciate the excitement and your cleverly worded statement here, which assumes you get a 1st round tomato can, but the reality is there is an extremely large gap between the top and bottom schools of this region. There are many (relatively speaking) pretty poor programs in this region right now, and quite frankly NOT beating one of them would be extremely embarrassing. 7 of these 17 teams were ranked 150 or higher in the Drew50 computer end of last year, which is rivaled in disparity only by R1.

The reality is, WM has zero chance of beating any of the OLSDs, Picks, GL/UA. GroveCity and Groveport sometimes field teams that belong in this list too, sometimes they dont. If they happen to draw someone other than that, they should have a good chance at winning a game, but no one will be "surprised" or even care because it proves very little. If WM beats someone from the list here, that's when ppl would register "shock". Because those schools all play in infinitely more difficult leagues, high likelihood some of them will have mediocre records and be at lower seeds. Even if WM runs thru their goat herder league like a knife thru goat cheese and gets a high seed, they will need some luck to avoid one of the true big-boy schools in R3.
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I’d take any of the schools in this region over Massillon Washington in the old region. There’s good football played in other leagues then the OCC and OLSDs should not be considered big boys.
 
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LCLfootball said:
I’d take any of the schools in this region over Massillon Washington in the old region. There’s good football played in other leagues then the OCC and OLSDs should not be considered big boys.
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Watkins has absolutely no idea what they are about to face in the playoffs this year, and I mean that literally. While the Drew50 computer is far from perfect, it does the best job of relational ranking across divisions as any other method I've seen, and this is a review of last year's schedules:

Top 100 teams played:
Liberty - 11
Orange - 8
Berlin - 7
Tangy - 6
Watkins - 0

There is good football played in other leagues, I agree. But not the one Watkins plays in, if we are talking relative to D1R3 teams of any consequence. And you clearly have never seen recent OLSD teams on the field against the others mentioned, because unlike Watkins they play games against these teams and stack up just fine with those heavy hitters.

It's unfortunate Watkins doesnt play in a real league, because we will have to listen to this deep into Oct while they run up a record against tomato cans before finally facing a real team. If they played in either league the OLSDs are in, they would be a 5-5 football team at best, maybe 6-4 if they load up the OOC schedule with D3/4 schools like they do now.
 
ElDuderino said:
Watkins has absolutely no idea what they are about to face in the playoffs this year, and I mean that literally. While the Drew50 computer is far from perfect, it does the best job of relational ranking across divisions as any other method I've seen, and this is a review of last year's schedules:

Top 100 teams played:
Liberty - 11
Orange - 8
Berlin - 7
Tangy - 6
Watkins - 0

There is good football played in other leagues, I agree. But not the one Watkins plays in, if we are talking relative to D1R3 teams of any consequence. And you clearly have never seen recent OLSD teams on the field against the others mentioned, because unlike Watkins they play games against these teams and stack up just fine with those heavy hitters.

It's unfortunate Watkins doesnt play in a real league, because we will have to listen to this deep into Oct while they run up a record against tomato cans before finally facing a real team. If they played in either league the OLSDs are in, they would be a 5-5 football team at best, maybe 6-4 if they load up the OOC schedule with D3/4 schools like they do now.
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We will see how things shake out then. Watkins has arguably the fastest kid in the state on their team at WR and a great quarterback.
 
ElDuderino said:
Watkins has absolutely no idea what they are about to face in the playoffs this year, and I mean that literally. While the Drew50 computer is far from perfect, it does the best job of relational ranking across divisions as any other method I've seen, and this is a review of last year's schedules:

Top 100 teams played:
Liberty - 11
Orange - 8
Berlin - 7
Tangy - 6
Watkins - 0

There is good football played in other leagues, I agree. But not the one Watkins plays in, if we are talking relative to D1R3 teams of any consequence. And you clearly have never seen recent OLSD teams on the field against the others mentioned, because unlike Watkins they play games against these teams and stack up just fine with those heavy hitters.

It's unfortunate Watkins doesnt play in a real league, because we will have to listen to this deep into Oct while they run up a record against tomato cans before finally facing a real team. If they played in either league the OLSDs are in, they would be a 5-5 football team at best, maybe 6-4 if they load up the OOC schedule with D3/4 schools like they do now.
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You must have never seen a Granville or licking valley game and they play Hartley in the regular season which is a small school but with a couple D1 players.
 
ElDuderino said:
Watkins has absolutely no idea what they are about to face in the playoffs this year, and I mean that literally. While the Drew50 computer is far from perfect, it does the best job of relational ranking across divisions as any other method I've seen, and this is a review of last year's schedules:

Top 100 teams played:
Liberty - 11
Orange - 8
Berlin - 7
Tangy - 6
Watkins - 0

There is good football played in other leagues, I agree. But not the one Watkins plays in, if we are talking relative to D1R3 teams of any consequence. And you clearly have never seen recent OLSD teams on the field against the others mentioned, because unlike Watkins they play games against these teams and stack up just fine with those heavy hitters.

It's unfortunate Watkins doesnt play in a real league, because we will have to listen to this deep into Oct while they run up a record against tomato cans before finally facing a real team. If they played in either league the OLSDs are in, they would be a 5-5 football team at best, maybe 6-4 if they load up the OOC schedule with D3/4 schools like they do now.
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Canal winchester beat these amazing D1 teams of groveport, new Albany, Lancaster, Westerville north last year and only beat Watkins by 4 points in the second round. Don’t say they have no idea lol. Watkins played with backup qb that game too.
 
LCLfootball said:
You must have never seen a Granville or licking valley game and they play Hartley in the regular season which is a small school but with a couple D1 players.
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LMAO, why in the world would anyone in D1 care about Granville or Licking Valley? They don't even schedule good D2 schools, let alone trying to play even a mediocre team from D1. There isn't a team I listed above who wouldn't be undefeated against laughably bad schedules like this.

I mean.... Granville played 8 schools last year ranked 300 or worse by Drew 50
1721929197905.png


It's easy to look good and run up stats against tomato cans. The fact that you would even bring these teams up underscores the fact that you have no idea what the competition difference is.

LCLfootball said:
Canal winchester beat these amazing D1 teams of groveport, new Albany, Lancaster, Westerville north last year and only beat Watkins by 4 points in the second round. Don’t say they have no idea lol. Watkins played with backup qb that game too.
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First of all, none of those teams you mentioned were in my list, and in fact were all exceptionally down last year with the exception of WN.

- Lancaster ranked 226, went 5-6 and lost 1st round of playoffs
- GM ranked 176, went 6-5 and lost 1st round of playoffs
- Westerville North ranked 129, went 9-3 (while not facing a top 100 team in the reg season) and WON A PLAYOFF GAME, WOW (against Lancaster)
- New Albany ranked 128, went 4-7, and lost 1st round of playoffs

So yeah......

Having the state's "fastest kid" (regardless who was QB) and failing to get into the endzone against (106th ranked) Canal Winchester, when a team like Delaware scored 3TDs against them, actually makes Watkins look worse, and for some reason you think losing that game is a brag.

It's exactly the point of the entire discussion. Lots of teams have a couple of good players, and maybe even a few D1 kids. Last year's Findlay team had D1 1st team all-ohio QB and TE/WR and 3rd team DB. 3-7 Liberty went up there beat them on their home field in the 1st round of the playoffs.

What makes these teams different is roster depth and avg ability of the other 20 players on the field, not just your 2 star players. If one of them goes down and your team can't score, you don't have a good team or program, you have an artificially inflated team on the output of a single exceptional player.

And I get it, when your team has sucked for years and suddenly you get a pair of generational players that lead the team to huge results against tomato cans, it's easy to get overly excited. We just went thru the same thing up here with Big Walnut after they had a pair of super sophs and we all had to listen for the last 3 years how great they were, before they would regularly get running clocks put on them in the playoffs by Stark cty teams, and by their jr/sr years, started losing regular season games too.

If you want to keep looking like a complete clown like many of their followers did, go right ahead, but you would be much better served shutting up, letting the kids play football, and if/when you ever actually win a game of any meaningful consequence (which Watkins has never done), start talking then.

Enjoy the season...
 
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