Western Buckeye League 2021

OG pulled the upset, should have probably given them a little more credit going in, especially coming off the easiest path while Otsego had to beat Eastwood again the week before. It doesn’t change my opinion that they are just a good team for D5. Elmwood, Eastwood and Otsego were pretty even in the NBC with Otsego going 3-0 by a combined 14 points. If Otsego lines up in time on their last drive they are inside the 15 and likely beat OG similarly. They’re all good D5 teams this year not great. If OG played in the NBC they’d have competed well with those 3.

I noticed nobody is refuting my thoughts on the league as a whole. 1 great team, 3 teams were good 2 ok and 4 bad. As for the NLL I’ve said all year it was as bad in football this year as it’s ever been top to bottom.
 
NLLBEST said:
OG pulled the upset, should have probably given them a little more credit going in, especially coming off the easiest path while Otsego had to beat Eastwood again the week before. It doesn’t change my opinion that they are just a good team for D5. Elmwood, Eastwood and Otsego were pretty even in the NBC with Otsego going 3-0 by a combined 14 points. If Otsego lines up in time on their last drive they are inside the 15 and likely beat OG similarly. They’re all good D5 teams this year not great. If OG played in the NBC they’d have competed well with those 3.

I noticed nobody is refuting my thoughts on the league as a whole. 1 great team, 3 teams were good 2 ok and 4 bad. As for the NLL I’ve said all year it was as bad in football this year as it’s ever been top to bottom.
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2 great (OG is in the final 8, after all), 2 good, 3 average, 1 bad, 2 horrendous.
 
NLLBEST said:
I noticed nobody is refuting my thoughts on the league as a whole. 1 great team, 3 teams were good 2 ok and 4 bad. As for the NLL I’ve said all year it was as bad in football this year as it’s ever been top to bottom.
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Honestly, I just ignored your post because of how dead wrong you are about O-G but since you asked a second time here are my thoughts on what you're posting about.

Yeah the NLL is terrible, but the WBL is not. I mean there are 4 teams in our league who have 9+ wins this season, three of them in double digits with 10+ wins, and two of them are still going. Your definition of good must be pretty solid, because the top 4 in the WBL is pretty dang competitive. Beyond that, I'd consider Shawnee and Bath to be good, but not great. Both teams won their week 1 non-league game and had top notch defenses this season. Sure, Shawnee lost 0-17 to Badin but their defense held Badin to their season low in points scored. Not bad against the D3 R12 top seed. As for the "4 bad teams," one of them had 4 wins (Elida) and the other had 0 wins (Kenton), so lumping them all together like you did is lazy analysis. Elida regressed a bit this year, but that could just speak to the quality of WBL play this year. Meanwhile, Defiance also struggled big time, but had a lot of building blocks compared to previous years. They played a lot better ball. Celina and Kenton are the only programs that actually look hopeless, lost, and truly bad. Kenton's winless season was a bit unexpected, although maybe it shouldn't have been since they had such a young team. But the way in which they lost... yikes. I mean their game against Coldwater was actually one of their more "competitive" games and even there they were blown out by 30. The only game for Celina and Kenton that was close, like within a score of each other, was when they played each other. Elida and Defiance don't deserve to be lumped in with them, even if both Bulldogs also had disappointing seasons. Is the WBL the best league out there? Absolutely not. Not even the best in their own geographic footprint. But they're playing some pretty good football in my opinion.
 
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NLLBEST said:
OG pulled the upset, should have probably given them a little more credit going in, especially coming off the easiest path while Otsego had to beat Eastwood again the week before. It doesn’t change my opinion that they are just a good team for D5. Elmwood, Eastwood and Otsego were pretty even in the NBC with Otsego going 3-0 by a combined 14 points. If Otsego lines up in time on their last drive they are inside the 15 and likely beat OG similarly. They’re all good D5 teams this year not great. If OG played in the NBC they’d have competed well with those 3.

I noticed nobody is refuting my thoughts on the league as a whole. 1 great team, 3 teams were good 2 ok and 4 bad. As for the NLL I’ve said all year it was as bad in football this year as it’s ever been top to bottom.
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If OG beats Elyria, will they be great then?

Or do they have to beat Kirtland to slide up into that tier? Ridiculous. What was the VW OG score again?

Was 12-0 league champion Otsego a great team?

Just curious.
 
Hats off to VW for another great season and an outstanding 2 year run. I know there's a lot of talent graduating, but count me as one who won't doubt that Coach Recker and Aidan Pratt can't have them back in contention again in 2022.
 
tucson said:
Honestly, I just ignored your post because of how dead wrong you are about O-G but since you asked a second time here are my thoughts on what you're posting about.

Yeah the NLL is terrible, but the WBL is not. I mean there are 4 teams in our league who have 9+ wins this season, three of them in double digits with 10+ wins, and two of them are still going. Your definition of good must be pretty solid, because the top 4 in the WBL is pretty dang competitive. Beyond that, I'd consider Shawnee and Bath to be good, but not great. Both teams won their week 1 non-league game and had top notch defenses this season. Sure, Shawnee lost 0-17 to Badin but their defense held Badin to their season low in points scored. Not bad against the D3 R12 top seed. As for the "4 bad teams," one of them had 4 wins (Elida) and the other had 0 wins (Kenton), so lumping them all together like you did is lazy analysis. Elida regressed a bit this year, but that could just speak to the quality of WBL play this year. Meanwhile, Defiance also struggled big time, but had a lot of building blocks compared to previous years. They played a lot better ball. Celina and Kenton are the only programs that actually look hopeless, lost, and truly bad. Kenton's winless season was a bit unexpected, although maybe it shouldn't have been since they had such a young team. But the way in which they lost... yikes. I mean their game against Coldwater was actually one of their more "competitive" games and even there they were blown out by 30. The only game for Celina and Kenton that was close, like within a score of each other, was when they played each other. Elida and Defiance don't deserve to be lumped in with them, even if both Bulldogs also had disappointing seasons. Is the WBL the best league out there? Absolutely not. Not even the best in their own geographic footprint. But they're playing some pretty good football in my opinion.
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Depends on the definition of "disappointing." Elida, absolutely, considering they were considered a dark horse for the league title and went 4-6.

But I'm personally not disappointed in the least about Defiance's season. I expected another 1-9, 2-8 season...they outperformed that. And honestly, they were 7 points from 5-5 and 17 from 6-4. They showed some promise mid season on with an EXTREMELY young backfield. Discipline was better, although still a work in process. They just weren't a team ready to take the next step.


I said mid-season and it became more obvious late, the WBL had 4 distinct tiers this year.

1- the contenders
VW
Wapak
OG
St. Marys

2
Shawnee
Bath
Elida

3
Defiance

4
Celina
Kenton

Definitely think Defiance was closer to tier 3 than tier 4, which is more than I could have asked for coming into the year.
 
The disappointing part for Defiance, I'd say, is that it was a 3-7 season, losing games they were capable of winning (Shawnee, Bath, Elida). Those were pretty close, competitive games that all went against Defi. They could've been 5-5 and in the playoffs, but weren't. But I did say it was a good year for them in terms of playing better ball than they had been in recent previous years and gives them stuff to build upon for next year. I agree with your tiers, dhsdog2006, although I'd personally put Elida in the third tier as they weren't particularly competitive in as many games as Shawnee and Bath were.
 
tucson said:
Honestly, I just ignored your post because of how dead wrong you are about O-G but since you asked a second time here are my thoughts on what you're posting about.

Yeah the NLL is terrible, but the WBL is not. I mean there are 4 teams in our league who have 9+ wins this season, three of them in double digits with 10+ wins, and two of them are still going. Your definition of good must be pretty solid, because the top 4 in the WBL is pretty dang competitive. Beyond that, I'd consider Shawnee and Bath to be good, but not great. Both teams won their week 1 non-league game and had top notch defenses this season. Sure, Shawnee lost 0-17 to Badin but their defense held Badin to their season low in points scored. Not bad against the D3 R12 top seed. As for the "4 bad teams," one of them had 4 wins (Elida) and the other had 0 wins (Kenton), so lumping them all together like you did is lazy analysis. Elida regressed a bit this year, but that could just speak to the quality of WBL play this year. Meanwhile, Defiance also struggled big time, but had a lot of building blocks compared to previous years. They played a lot better ball. Celina and Kenton are the only programs that actually look hopeless, lost, and truly bad. Kenton's winless season was a bit unexpected, although maybe it shouldn't have been since they had such a young team. But the way in which they lost... yikes. I mean their game against Coldwater was actually one of their more "competitive" games and even there they were blown out by 30. The only game for Celina and Kenton that was close, like within a score of each other, was when they played each other. Elida and Defiance don't deserve to be lumped in with them, even if both Bulldogs also had disappointing seasons. Is the WBL the best league out there? Absolutely not. Not even the best in their own geographic footprint. But they're playing some pretty good football in my opinion.
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I am a Kenton guy and I was disappointed in our season. However, to say they are hopeless I do not see that. They were by far the youngest team in the league and probably the youngest team I have seen in a long time. 4 Freshmen starting at times, 11 sophomores and only 5 total seniors on their roster. Doesn’t mix for a great chance in a sport that is built of maturity. Their staff is also extremely young and have a first time head coach. Hopefully they can turn it around.
 
OhioFootball25 said:
I am a Kenton guy and I was disappointed in our season. However, to say they are hopeless I do not see that. They were by far the youngest team in the league and probably the youngest team I have seen in a long time. 4 Freshmen starting at times, 11 sophomores and only 5 total seniors on their roster. Doesn’t mix for a great chance in a sport that is built of maturity. Their staff is also extremely young and have a first time head coach. Hopefully they can turn it around.
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I'm sure Kenton will be fine long term. Happens to everyone at some point. St. Marys dropped to 0-10 between Frye tenured. VW was 0-10 in 2016 and won state by 2020. O-G was just 3-7 as recently as 2017. My personal favorite example, Defiance made the regional finals in 1994. Came back with a team full of talented, but inexperienced sophomores in 95 and went 3-7. That group won state their senior year in 97.

Sometimes a class just gets thrown to the wolves and has to take their lumps.
 
What needs to happen for Celina to become relevant? Great place to watch a game but their make sport's seem to be in shambles.

Always had a soft spot in my heart foe teh Dawgs. Been to many, many many games.

Kenton....they may be lost. Any time you see a team bottom out with a new coach it's bad news and is not like people are flocking there and with the FB program that bad they won't be attracting athletes to move in.

Goodluck to the Titans
 
thavoice said:
What needs to happen for Celina to become relevant? Great place to watch a game but their make sport's seem to be in shambles.

Always had a soft spot in my heart foe teh Dawgs. Been to many, many many games.

Kenton....they may be lost. Any time you see a team bottom out with a new coach it's bad news and is not like people are flocking there and with the FB program that bad they won't be attracting athletes to move in.

Goodluck to the Titans
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I agree. I am watch the program closely. The only thing I will say is their staff was late coming together. Then they never played a game with all their kids. Lost a sophomore receiver before the year.

Was 10-0 elida at half
13-13 bath at half. Was up 7-0 against defiance before their senior receiver/DB got hurt.

senior class also was the class they got running clocked in every middle school game. I guess I just saw a storm coming that would have been tough. Still have some optimism.
 
Think I need to keep picking against OG. I can win them a state title for sure.

Although Kirtland and Versailles will be one hell of a mountain.
 
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