The RENEGADE 2010 NW Indiana High School Top-10, Week-9 Football Poll

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith

10-11-2010

VALPARAISO (10-15-2010) The points keep going up on scoreboards all over Northwest Indiana. In week eight: Winless Kankakee Valley rolls up 41. Chesterton gets 45 at Crown Point. Merrillville adds 62. East Chicago settles for 68. Gary West Side adds on 78. Why? How come?

Taking the individual teams out of it, for a second. This is a trend. First of all, passing is overwhelming football. Teams put their best athletes on offense. Most schools don't have two good cornerbacks, much less five. Kids don't want to play cornerback. Who would? It's a position where you can be elbowed in the groin within the rules, face-masked legally and have basketball players use you as a vault stand to go up and make headlines. If you play good defense, the penalty is on you and if you give up a reception, some overweight offensive linemen rushes up to the scene of the crime, grabs you and throws you off his hero.

Plus I don't think high schools have a lot of cornerback coaches. How could you? Most kids who played the corner in high school, got blown up quicker than Rick Sanchez and could only teach the next generation how to go up in flames. But it's bigger than that. A trend away from good, solid traditional blocking and tackling football and a walk towards the freaky world of spread offenses.

It's almost embarrassing to see Notre Dame and Michigan go to the girly-man spread offense attack where they can't even run the clock out when they have a lead because their linemen haven't pancaked anybody since high school. But that's 21st Century college football. Teams like Oregon have the QB looking like a hood ornament spinning around running trick plays. Teams like Boise State can't beat quality foes so they don't play them. But they want the attention and money that comes from being in the spotlight. So let's just spread it out and drop a tsunami of points on limp-wristed foes and we'll be on ESPN every week. It works. A 12-yard run doesn't make "SportsCenter."

And it's drifted down to the high schools. Linemen don't need to run block. They just have to hold their ground three seconds while the QB makes the 'hot read'. Is it good football? No, but it's hard to block a linebacker. It's a lot more fun to play with no fullback and four wide receivers. We've had a perfect weather this fall and look at the scoreboard. And it's all cool until you hit bad weather and the running teams beat on you like you were a Chicago Bears QB. No spread offense team has ever won the state title out of Northwest Indiana and, unless they start playing regional and semistate games indoors, none ever will.

You had some odd results in week eight because some teams got the 'late season blues' and didn't come to play. Sunday's state draw will give some schools new life. While others will start thinking basketball.

1.) 5A Valparaiso (8-0)
2009 (5-5), 2008 (9-2), 2007 (6-5), 2006 (3-6), 2005 (5-5)

VALPARAISO: The Vikings took advantage of an injury-depleted Portage in a 27-7 victory, staying unbeaten. No one would call this an impressive win as Valparaiso gained only 196 total yards. The Kings held Portage star halfback Jake Dixon to 64 yards on 18 carries. QB Paul Andrie tossed three TD passes. Valpo isn't impressive. But they win. While other teams lose.

2.) 5A Merrillville (6-2)

2009 (12-2), 2008 (8-5), 2007 (12-2), 2006 (7-5), 2005 (11-3)

MERRILLVILLE: Merrillville does score a lot of points. 62 points on Lake Central. Almost 550 total yards. Denzel Pierce ran for four TDs and, I believe, became Merrillville's all-time leading rusher. That's the second time the Pirates have scored more than 60 this year. I don't like the way they played against Crown Point and Valparaiso, but their loses are to No. 1 Warren Central and No. 5 Valpo. Merrillville is a clear cut No. 2.

3.) 5A Chesterton (6-2)
2009 (7-4), 2008 (9-3), 2007 (6-4), 2006 (5-6)

CHESTERTON: The Trojans found Lake County to their liking, rolling up a 31-0 lead and romping past Crown Point 45-20. We have radio and newspaper people who keep saying Chesterton is not a factor, but Jon Watson scored three TDs and Kyle Schmidt booted 8 kick-offs for touchback and kicked a 33-yard field goal as the Trojans smoked what had been thought to be a good CP 'D'. Maybe if Chesterton boys put on Griffith and Morton uniforms they'd get more talk on the local media. Could be a high scoring game with Merrillville this Friday.

4.) 5A CROWN POINT (5-3)
2009 (3-7), 2008 (3-7), 2007 (8-3), 2006 (12-1), 2005 (11-1)

CROWN POINT: If you are waiting for me to tell you how a Crown Point team which allows 14 points a game gave up 45 to Chesterton, it'll be a long wait. CP had not fumbled all season, but they coughed up three to the Trojans. CP had four turnovers in seven weeks and four turnovers in week eight. A very bad performance and they can't make up for it this week at last place Michigan City (1-7). When something happens for absolutely no reason, it's usually a fluke. But Chesterton has beaten CP three times now in two years. After getting their home scoreboard lit up like that, CP boys have to decide whether they just overslept or are just over-rated.

5.) 3A Andrean (6-2)
2009 (9-4), 2008 (6-7), 2007 (9-4), 2006 (8-3), 2005 (8-2)

MERRILLVILLE: Remember, an overtime game is a tie. Give Griffith credit for a 20-19 double-OT upset, but Andrean is still a top team. Danny Wirtz, an excellent kicker, missed a field goal and the game-winning extra point to open the door for a Griffith team that has upset Lowell and Andrean now at home. But Andrean's offense was as lame as the Minnesota Twins last week. They will see much better teams than Griffith in the post-season and they have to be able to score more than seven points in four quarters.

6.) 4A Morton (7-1)
2009 (11-2) 2008 (7-5), 2007 (6-4), 2006 (5-5), 2005 (8-4)

HAMMOND: Morton is winning quietly, which is the best way. The Governors out-gained Hobart 473-233 in a 35-13 win, committing no turnovers. Ten more penalties were the only blemish on this night. Morton has won six in a row and 18 of their last 21, with all three losses to Lowell. Why do I have them rated ahead of Lowell? I think the Governors' 40-26 loss at Lowell in August was somewhat flukey and if they met again tomorrow, Morton would win. Trouble is: If Lowell and Morton meet again this year, it won't be tomorrow. It'll be in mid-November when the mood may have changed.

7.) 4A Lowell (5-3)
2009 (13-2), 2008 (13-1), 2007 (13-2), 2006 (7-6), 2005 (11-4)

LOWELL: The Devils appeared to turn a corner in a 24-17 win over Munster in a slugfest at Lowell. For the first time this season, the Devils stopped the running attack of a good team holding Munster under 100 yards. Cole Midgett passed 1,000 yards and scored his 21st TD. Some shuffling on the offensive line has led to a running revival and the Devils had 24 first downs against Munster. The Devils still can't throw the ball to save their lives and they are down to 41 players. But you get the impression that if you are a Northwest Indiana 4A team and you wanted to beat Lowell, you needed to have done it by now.

8.) 5A Portage (4-4)
2009 (6-6), 2008 (6-4), 2007 (5-5), 2006 (6-5)

PORTAGE: The Indians lost lineman and co-captain Nick Scott on the first series of the game last week in a 27-7 loss at Valparaiso and they never generated much offense after that. Serious injuries change your team and that's why Portage drops here.
Still the Indian defense held Valpo to just 197 total yards and wile star Jake Dixon left with a minor injury, he did return and score Portage's only TD.
Portage has lost to Valparaiso (8-0), St. Rita (7-0), Merrillville (6-2) and Crown Point (5-3). This is one poll where its hard to pass teams that play tough schedules when you don't. Still, in two weeks, Portage cant lose to a good team and get any credit and you get the feeling they are getting beat up.

9.) 5A Munster (5-3)
2009 (7-3), 2008 (7-4), 2007 (3-7), 2006 (5-5), 2005 (3-7)

MUNSTER: Is Griffith (5-3) better than Munster? I say: No. The Mustangs lost a big one 24-17 at Lowell last week but they played well and Mark Strbjak is still a big-strong running-passing threat. The Mustangs looked a little slow at times, but that may have been Lowell's team speed. This is a bad weather team and they need the snow to fly by playoff times so they can run that wing-T offense and kill the clock. Munster has lost key games by 7 or less. But again, so did the Minnesota Twins. Eventually you need to win some close ones.

10.) 5A LaPorte (4-4)
2009 (6-4), 2008 (3-9), 2007 (3-7), 2006 (10-4)

LaPORTE: Could Griffith beat LaPorte? Maybe. The Slicers got 1,000-yard rusher Nick Latchford back in the lineup in a 28-9 win over rival Michigan City. LaPorte lost QB Kyle Hartson for the season, but Latchford ran 38 times for for 200 yards. The losses are to Valpo (8-0), Merrillville (6-2) in overtime, Chesterton (6-2) and Crown Point (5-3), all 5A schools. Griffith's losses are to Valpo (8-0), Munster (5-3) 4A Morton (7-1). It's close, but LaPorte gets the edge.