Kenton's prolific 5-wide offense - what happened to it?

Coach22 said:
Mike Mack left Kenton in 2014 and they have gone downhill since. Fun Mack facts....
In 20 plus years of coaching, he never kicked an extra point. Why go for 1 when you can get 2. He always did an onside kick, to challenge his defense and hopefully field position for his offense.
Also, the top 3 QB passers nationally, all were taught by Mike. He was a great Coach and was one hell of a character. Unfortunately, Kenton is now a dump. Riddled with drug addicts, the talent pool has dried up. They have nowhere near the numbers of players to compete in the division they in.
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I high character coach who put in a player who had been kicked out the first half back into the game after switching jerseys at Celina, got it.
 
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Coach22 said:
Mike Mack left Kenton in 2014 and they have gone downhill since. Fun Mack facts....
In 20 plus years of coaching, he never kicked an extra point. Why go for 1 when you can get 2. He always did an onside kick, to challenge his defense and hopefully field position for his offense.
Also, the top 3 QB passers nationally, all were taught by Mike. He was a great Coach and was one hell of a character. Unfortunately, Kenton is now a dump. Riddled with drug addicts, the talent pool has dried up. They have nowhere near the numbers of players to compete in the division they in.
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1) If Kenton never kicked an extra point during Mauk's tenure, how did their kicker make 4 extra points in the 2002 state championship game? How did they have 2 missed extra points and one blocked extra point in the 2001 state championship game?

2) Kenton isn't a dump NOW, it's always been a dump and was when he was there. That didn't change when he left.
 
Daddy Mauk moved on and he and his wife stopped making QB babies around the mid-1990's.

One of my favorite high school games ever was Norwayne's win over them in the 2011 championship game, a game in which Maty Mauk acted like a spoiled puke.
 
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I used to post a lot with a poster from Kenton. I think his handle was KWDTN. He always had a lot of info on their program and where it stood. But as others mentioned, mostly the coaching left. It obviously took a special dual threat QB to run the offense to it's best ability. I was thinking that one of the sons, maybe Ben, were now coaching high school football. I'm not sure where though.
 
14Red said:
First of all to run that kind of an offense, you have to have a football who can throw the ball, and make all the throws. I've seen alot of schools try t to run the spread, but the QB can't throw, or they don't have enough recievers who can catch a ball. It's easy in 7 on 7's, but when you put pads on and guys are in the QB's face, whole different story.
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I think a little differently. I think you can pass a team to death and pile up crazy passing yards with even an average athlete behind center. It is easy to get guys wide open at the high school level. For me it’s the football IQ of the QB. All that said, throwing the ball all over the field on every down has too many potential problems….the biggest of which it puts too much pressure on the defense. It’s fun to watch but I like a spread that involves more of a run based attack.
 
Doesn't Bob Olwin run pretty much the same thing? He's at Edon now, but has been at a lot of places in NW Ohio. 3 of the top 5 single-game passing yard performances in Ohio HS history are Olwin QBs.
 
Like anything else, people got addicted to the results and like ran Mauk out. They hired this young dude that they can handle, board member and principal on staff, RIP Kenton.
 
Jocko Podcast said:
In the early 2000's, Kenton - ran what seemed to be at the time - a nearly unstoppable 5-wide offense. For a few years, they scored at high levels and made deep playoff runs. Since then, the program has had its ups and downs like most high school programs.

Does anyone who's familiar with the program know what happened? Did defenses finally solve the offense? Was it simply a combination of the right system with the right talent? Did the coaching staff change and bring with it a new offensive philosophy? I ask because that offense was fun to watch. It was interesting to see how it stressed defenses and forced D-coordinators to be creative in stopping it. I don't recall anyone running anything quite like it. Since then, I haven't seen anyone match Kenton's success with that style of offense. What happened?
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Here’s a recent interview with the coach of those teams if you’re interested. He’s been at Glendale High School in Springfield, MO. The interview was before this past season began:

 
I have seen other teams run 5-wide at times, but not full-time and not with the crazy wide splits Kenton used. I didn't know Medina runs the same system.

BTW, the Mauk kids' career passing yard, completion, and touchdown totals are insane. Those are like stats from a video game.
 
Joe Burrow ran a lot of 5 wide but the zone read was just absurd

Ohio weather will always favor being able to run the ball. All the good schools run the ball first to throw
 
Kenton has finished in the Top 4 in the WBL in soccer every year since 2017 after being a perennial bottom feeder in the league up to that point.
 
Get Yer EAGLE ON said:
Like anything else, people got addicted to the results and like ran Mauk out.
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Mauk ran himself out. He wanted to retire/re-hire and the school board said no. He wanted to double dip tax dollars and they said no. He didn't get his way like he was used to, so he bailed. thought he was a god and when he found out he wasn't, he took has ball and went home.
 
commodore20 said:
Western Brown's coach is 26 years old...he got the head job a couple years ago. He is a WB grad. Did he coach at Anderson before then? Seems awfully young.
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He played at WB under Evan Dreyer where they ran this offense. He was then the freshman coach at Anderson when Dreyer took that job. Then became the head coach at WB. Yes, he is young but WB seems to like hiring very young coaches. Dreyer was young 20s when hired there. Tyler Evans was young when hired, and Osborne is young too. It seems to be their trend. Sizer is the exception.
 
DRB84 said:
Benedictine shut out Kenton 12-0,in the 2003 D3 state title game.They didn't come close to scoring.
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It was also 37 degrees and raining most of the game. Not conducive for the spread.

Benedictine was also a matchup nightmare for Kenton that year. Athletic defense and Mr. Football, Ray Williams, at RB to control the clock.

One of the best low scoring games I've seen in person. Not often you have two talents like Mauk and Williams going against each other in the mid to lower divisions for a state championship.
 
*67 said:
Mauk ran himself out. He wanted to retire/re-hire and the school board said no. He wanted to double dip tax dollars and they said no. He didn't get his way like he was used to, so he bailed. thought he was a god and when he found out he wasn't, he took has ball and went home.
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Retire/rehire is a huge benefit to the district, they'd win out but attached themselves to this to run him out & it's worked out poorly since.
 
clarkgriswold said:
Daddy Mauk moved on and he and his wife stopped making QB babies around the mid-1990's.

One of my favorite high school games ever was Norwayne's win over them in the 2011 championship game, a game in which Maty Mauk acted like a spoiled puke.
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What happened to make you say he acted like that? Just genuinely curious and unaware of the situation.
 
Spark1357 said:
Those Kenton teams were fun. Large annoying fanbase on jjhuddle and yappi. They Packed stadiums. They played some memorable games. Like the game below vs Huron

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Large, annoying fan base in general! Have to respect their pride but they had a lot of similarities to Tennessee football fanbase wise. Losing Mauk as coach killed the program, and it's something we're seeing across the state. Too much turnover in the coaching ranks anymore is killing continuity at schools
 
Voice said:
Correct, most people do not understand this. Not a lot of deep thinkers in Hardin County.
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Wait till people see what Superintendents are starting to do. Which costs not 1 cent more, but makes it appear as if they've gotten a significant raise. In any profession if you have a chance to compensate someone who's carried your school and athletics, you do it.
 
osuturfman said:
It was also 37 degrees and raining most of the game. Not conducive for the spread.

Benedictine was also a matchup nightmare for Kenton that year. Athletic defense and Mr. Football, Ray Williams, at RB to control the clock.

One of the best low scoring games I've seen in person. Not often you have two talents like Mauk and Williams going against each other in the mid to lower divisions for a state championship.
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Yes; the weather was cold and wet. It was a miserable day.

Although Kenton struggled to move the ball consistently, they never seemed to be out of the game. Benedictine's defense was incredible that day. It had to be to stop that offense. Though, I don't think one of the Mauk boys was the quarterback for that game. I can't remember the quarterback's name, but hadn't Ben Mauk graduated the previous year?
 
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Jocko Podcast said:
Yes; the weather was cold and wet. It was a miserable day.

Although Kenton struggled to move the ball consistently, they never seemed to be out of the game. Benedictine's defense was incredible that day. It had to be to stop that offense. Though, I don't think one of the Mauk boys was the quarterback for that game. I can't remember the quarterback's name, but hadn't Ben Mauk graduated the previous year?
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Yes sir Ben Mauk had graduated. I think Kenton's QB in that game was D. J. Underwood, I think he was. I'm pretty sure that Kenton team had 3 losses in the regular season, and they had moved up to D3 from D4 where they were the 2-time defending champions. Benedictine on the other hand only had one regular season loss, to St. Edward, the D1 runner-up, by five.
 
As stated previously Medina runs the Kenton system. Medina's head coach Larry Laird was the offensive coordinator for those successful Kenton teams.
 
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