October 4, 2018
DENHAM SPRINGS vs FERRIDAY…,. Denham Springs returns to action this Friday night, September October 4, as the Jackets entertain Ferriday HS. You can catch all of the action on Family Radio, 91.9 FM and on the net at JonFineProductions.com. 6pm is Sport N Center Jackets Warm-Up, with Josh Ward, Andy Duckworth and yours truly, Jon Fine
Brusly HS at University HS
Brusly travels to University HS this Friday night and you can tune in on KBRS, 106.9 or on the net at Jon FineProductions.com… Lionel Franklin will be calling play-by-play, with Jason Manola on color commentary. Airtime 6:30pm
SULPHUR HS vs Barbe HS… Tomorrow night with Bruce Merchant on play by play, with Patrick Frey on color commentary on SportsRadio, 1310AM—KEZM—Lake Charles and on the internet at KEZMonline.coM.
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BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
FRIDAY, 10/5, 6pm… Denham Springs HS Football vs Ferriday HS… Family Radio, 91.9 FM and on the net at JonFineProductions.com…
Josh Ward, Andy Duckworth, Jon Fine
FRIDAY, 10/5, 6:30PM… Brusly HS at University HS… KBRS,106.9 FM…
Jon Fine Productions.com
Lionel Franklin and Jason Manola
SPORTSRADIO-1310-KEZM-LAKE CHARLES (AND KEZMONLINE. COM) BROADCASTS
Friday, 10/5, 6:45pm… Sulphur HS at vs Barbe HS, Bruce Merchant, Patrick Frey
Monday—Friday, 10am—Noon… Pigskin Preview… Patrick Frey and Scott Holtzman
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High
So now we really get to see how good LSU will be this year. I say “really” because everytime they have met a challenge the bar gets moved.
On August 2, around when camp started, most people thought LSU was not going to be any good. ESPN thought LSU would win around 7 games, if lucky.
A month later, September 2, Tiger fans were holding their breath all day to find out if we would be suffering through a last year of the Archer, DiNardo or Hallman era type season. By September 3rd, we knew it wouldn’t be a disastrous season, but how good was Miami after all? It was just one game.
I am typing these words on October 2nd, a month after the Miami game. LSU is 5-0. Their resume is great, yet only some optimistic LSU fans think LSU might be as good as the other 5-0 teams like Oklahoma, Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame, and Alabama. In another month, the rest of the nation will be proven right or wrong.
I admit that I don’t think LSU will be undefeated heading into the Alabama game a month from now. But to have some fun, what will have to happen for that dream to become a reality?
Starting this Saturday at Florida, LSU must find a way to play 4 consistent quarters. I can’t think of a well played third quarter in any of the five games thus far. LSU was fortunate to overcome a bad third quarter at Auburn. This month is not the time to try and duplicate that feat.
Continuous improvement is a must. LSU is not the same team they were on month ago. There has been improvement across the board. Alas, to go from a good team to a great team, this team must continue to develop. Fortunately, one great aspect of a young team is that there is plenty of room to grow, and positive experiences typically build on themselves.
What if the offensive line gets healthy and LSU doesn’t have to keep a tight end or running back in the backfield to help block when passing? What if Terrace Marshall, J’Marr Chase, Stephen Sullivan, and the other wide receivers continue to develop and make the plays they made against Ole Miss and LA Tech against quality defenses?
It is tough to put together multiple ten play drives against good defenses. LSU needed a few big plays to beat Auburn and will need the same this month.
On defense, the front seven has tons of room for improvement. The linebackers and defensive linemen are not filling their gaps against the run against spread teams. Dan Mullen will certainly expose LSU like he did last year in Starkville if that doesn’t get fixed fast.
It is time for Devin White and Rashard Lawrence to have some big impact plays like Delpit and Greedy have made. As for the rest of the front seven, either individuals make drastic improvement soon or Aranda is going to have to continue to create pressure with exotic personnel groupings.
Special teams has had very few negative plays, but their impact has slowed a bit recently. In the next month, a blocked punt, big return, or fake kick will be needed to win a close game.
The good news is depth has been built along many positions to help survive this stretch. LSU has not been in this position in October since 2015. Check out some of these names from that roster: Jalen Mills, Deion Jones, Kendell Beckwith, Duke Riley, Dwayne Thomas, Davon Godchaux, Jamal Adams, Tre White, Travin Dural, Malachai Dupree, John Diarse, Trey Quinn, Will Clapp, Ethan Pocic, Leonard Fournette, and Derrius Guice. At quarterback, Brandon Harris, Anthony Jennings, and Justin McMillan.
That team coasted through October, and fell apart in November. This year, we will know all we need to know after October.
HEY REF
It’s the eternal question “is the glass half full or half empty”? With that said the only question I want to ask every high school football coach, team and playeris whether they feel their season is half over or do they think they’ve still got half a season to play? We’ve come to that part of the high school football season where the slate is “wiped clean” in a sense. Those teams that haven’t been very successful so far while playing non-district games can turn their collective seasons completely around.
This is what makes the high school football season so exciting. A team can get a winning streak started six weeks after that first kick-off and still make a run at landing an invitation to a December game down in the Super Dome and be crowned a State Champion. This is the message that coaches will strive to have their teams understand in that they possess the ability to right all the wrongs and be one of the final two teams playing for a championship.
It’s also the time of the season that the third team on the field, the guys in stripes, should also work hard to right all their wrongs and become stronger officials. I remember being schooled that just because you’ve passed the written test doesn’t mean you put your rulebook away till next season. In fact I believe this is the most important time of the season for officials. We’re never allowed time to work at getting better. Coaches expect every official to be at his very best from the first practices all the way to the end of the season.
That fact translates into pressure for every down in every game! And it should be that way since a coaches’ livelihood depends on his team’s won-lost record. It makes my blood boil to hear another official say he only calls games as a hobby. That train of thought went the way of the dinosaurs simply because what we are expected to do is WORK games! Officiating high school football in today’s world is not a hobby, IT’s A JOB! And if you think otherwise then its past time you don’t walk away from it but run and run fast.
Here’s a couple of examples of what I’m talking about, earlier this year a team ran a play to cause the defense to jump offsides. Low and behold in the rulebook if a team does run this type of play it is a foul. So when I saw it done I just knew there would be some yellow laundry resting on the playing field. To my surprise it was not called. At our next weekly meeting I tried talking to the referee about his “no-call”. He just didn’t want to discuss the play then just said “It doesn’t look that bad on the film”.
I was dumbstruck because he’s one of the best officials I know of. On some calls we as officials have to use our own judgement but on a clear black ‘n white case as this was it should’ve been a no-brainer. I understand we all make mistakes but this call should’ve been made. In another game the quarterback threw a backwards pass that went out of bounds and the ball should’ve been moved to that spot and not ruled incomplete which saved the offense about tens yards and made the distance for a first down much shorter.
When I saw the play I knew the crew would rule a backward pass but they didn’t. As we viewed the film we saw the official responsible in making this call out of position. He too is a good official; he worked the entire game and was on top of every other play. As humans we make mistakes but as officials we’re expected to be mistake proof. What I will say about both of these officials is they saw their mistakes and took the steps needed to correct them. That’s what will take them from being good officials to being great officials. Putting in the work to get better is what separates average officials and great ones.
As officials we’re gonna make mistakes just as the teams do and we work hard to correct these mistakes. The announcer for the game went crazy that the backward pass wasn’t called. He wined and cried saying how could they miss the call, etc. So I asked him if he’d ever worked as an official and of course he said “no”. It was then that I invited him to join our association next year, put on a striped shirt and give working football games a try. He was all for it until the final seconds ran off the clock. I offered to take his information so he’d be made aware when the first meeting would be but he changed his mind. Until you actually try and make sense of what happens on a football field you’ll never understand how tough a job it is.
I’ll close for this week by inviting all the rule experts sitting in the stands to “come on down” and give officiating a try. There is always a need for good officials and who knows you might just be one of them.
Till next week…
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