Why not McKissick versus Curtis?

With ESPN and Fox Sports Net showing an increased number of of high school games each year, here's a matchup you'd think they would be interested in:

John Curtis (River Ridge, La.) vs. Summerville (S.C.)

It would pit the nation's all-time winningest coach, Summerville's John McKissick (544 wins in 53 full seasons), against the coach with the second most wins all-time, Curtis' J.T. Curtis (444 wins in 37 full years).

McKissick has led teams to 10 state titles while Curtis' teams have won 21 crowns.

Surely the people who do the legwork to put these games on for ESPN and FSN have tried to make it happen.

Not so, according to John Curtis assistant coach Jeff Curtis, who would very much like to see it.

"Still not sure why someone doesn't approach J.T. about playing Coach McKissick in a game somewhere," Curtis told me in an email this week. "No. 1-ranked coach in wins ever versus No. 2. Seems like a no-brainer to me."

Me too.

Summerville did play its first-ever ESPN game earlier this season against Miami's Booker T. Washington. It was part of a South Carolina vs. Florida doubleheader on August 25.

But Curtis, who is one of two sons of J.T.'s on the coaching staff (there's also three nephews), says ESPN has not contacted the Patriots about a game this year.

Curtis, which is ranked No. 19 in this week's National Prep Poll, will have appearance on FSN on Sept. 22 when the Patriots travel to Longview, Texas.

Curtis on No. 1 St. Xavier

Jeff Curtis says his eyes and ears "perked up" earlier this week when he read my description of why St. X is so tough to beat.

I wrote: The Bombers don't have the most speed of any team in the country -- probably not even in the Top 10 in that category. But there's this thing called "football speed." Few, if any, teams in the country play the game faster as a unit than St. X's defense. Not only do they fly to the football, they play with great confidence and are able to go 100 percent on every play, because they know where they are supposed to be going. They don't overpursue. They don't miss assignments. They don't play out of position.

"The same thing has been said numerous times about us here at Curtis," Jeff said. "That would be an interesting matchup betweed two great coaches."

Sure would. Maybe next year.

Early football recruiting: What's the rush?

I was pleased to be quoted in a piece about the increasing number of early verbal commitments of high school football players written by my old friend Mitch Stephens of MaxPreps.com.

Mitch very accurately detailed the recruiting landscape for a Division I football prospect entering his senior season.

The story revealed that Notre Dame-bound QB Dayne Crist of Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks, Calif.) once received 36 text messages from 21 different colleges in a single day, and CSTV recruiting guru Tom Lemming said some top players might get 30 interview requests a day from recruiting websites.

It's an interesting overview of an environment that has led more than half of this year's consensus Top 100 prospects to make early verbal commitments.

Is that so bad? Well, I think it can be.

College coaches feel pressure to extend scholarship offers to players before the having luxury of evaluating their senior game tape.

Players feel pressure to give their word to attended colleges they may never have even visited yet (official visits cannot take place until the fall).

Fans subscribing to recruiting websites apply pressure of their own by demanding timely updates and quotes from the players who are supposedly on their team's radar screen.

In other words, there's a heck of a lot of pressure to get all the recruiting wrapped up in a tight, neat bow a lot sooner than it really needs to be.

Especially since the bow is so often undone, anyway.

Lemming estimates that half of the early verbal commitments are dust in the wind by the time February's signing day comes around.

The solutions?

Well, for one, the NCAA has banned text messaging of recruits by college coaches. But there's already a lot of momentum to modify that ordinance. There are also restrictions in place related to the timeline when coaches make phone calls to recruits.

A new big idea being proposed is an early signing period for football players in the fall. While this would certainly turn a lot of verbal commitments into binding letters before the players can change their minds, it would do nothing to decrease the pressure of early recruitment.

The upside is, perhaps, it would force the players make sure they know where they want to go before signing a letter of intent.

A little housecleaning

• Just an alert that I will be away from the office until Sunday afternoon this weekend. Therefore, there won't be any updates here or on the main PrepNation.com site until I return.

• I would also like to thank all the basketball coaches across the nation who went out of their way to get in touch with me as I finished compiling the preseason national Power 50 rankings for RISE Magazine. They already have a lot on their plates with the start of the school year, so making time for my deadline was greatly appreciated. Like I tell any coach who thanks me for what I do: It's a bit of a brain teaser each year doing the rankings, but it's a lot fun. And it's certainly a lot less important than coaching and the games themselves. But I really appreciate the help I get from coaches like yourself.

PHOTOS: John McKissick (left) and J.T. Curtis

South Panola 'inadvertently omitted' by USA Today's Super 25

A poster over at TexasHSFootball.com found this one.

Lots of folks, especially those in Mississippi, were puzzled when national rankings giant USA Today released its preseason Top 25 national rankings on August 22.

South Panola (Batesville) was not ranked -- not even regionally.

South Panola, ranked No. 8 in our preseason National Prep Poll, has emerged as one of the South's premier high school football programs. The Tigers have won four consecutive 5A state titles, 61 straight games (now America's longest active winning streak), and produced dozens of Division I recruits.

And it's not as though USA Today hasn't ranked the Tigers in the past -- the paper had them No. 9 in its final 2006 poll.

South Panola returned 14 starters (seven on each side of the ball) from last year, including six listed in the database of prospects at rivals.com.

Even though it was breaking in a new head coach (Lance Pogue), I was also more than a little bit shocked to find South Panola completely missing in action from the USA Today preseason Super 25.

Which leads us to the nugget discovered by a poster named "sptiger" at the TexasHSFootball.com board.

On its current Super 25 scoreboard page, USAToday.com now states the following regarding South Panola's absence from its preseason rankings: The USA TODAY Super 25 preseason high school football rankings published Aug. 22 inadvertently omitted South Panola of Batesville, Miss. The school, which has won a state-record 60 consecutive games, will be considered for inclusion once most schools have begun play and the rankings are updated. The Tigers open Friday at Warren Central of Vicksburg.

Fair enough.

By the way, South Panola defeated Warren Central, 31-18, and moved up two spots to No. 6 in this week's National Prep Poll.

The week in review

• Week 3 National Prep Poll Scoreboard
  

Another edition of Monday morning news, views and other stuff.

During my in-game blog of the St. Xavier-DeMatha game, I wrote "if there's a better-coached team in America than St. X, you'll have to show them to me."

Well, there are plenty of great coaches in the high school coaching fraternity. Hundreds of them, to be precise. Pretty hard to match the accomplishments of Steve Specht of St. X against those of Concord (Calif.) De La Salle's Bob Ladouceur at this point. Bill Castle at Lakeland (Fla.) and Tom Knotts at Independence (Charlotte, N.C.) are also right there on the list.

But watching St. X play such assignment-sound, fundamentally sound football was really a pleasure on Sunday.

The Bombers don't have the most speed of any team in the country -- probably not even in the Top 10 in that category. But there's this thing called "football speed."

Few, if any, teams in the country play the game faster as a unit than St. X's defense. Not only do they fly to the football, they play with great confidence and are able to go 100 percent on every play, because they know where they are supposed to be going. They don't overpursue. They don't miss assignments. They don't play out of position.

It's amazing how much more important it is to be quick getting into the right spot than it is being fast while constantly chasing the play from behind.

So, with that said, I am supremely impressed by job being done by Coach Specht and his staff (who are now 39-3 in a little over three seasons).

More St. X-DeMatha thoughts

I really think that DeMatha was dog tired in the second half of its 28-7 loss to St. Xavier. It's not the only reason they lost, but I think it had a ton to do with why they lost by so much.

Even though it was St. X having player after player leaving the field with leg cramps, it looked like DeMatha was clearly the most gassed and heavy-legged team.

The blocked punt that led to St. X's third touchdown was, I think, another example of a tired team breaking down on special teams.

With that said, it's very hard to blame DeMatha and its coach Bill McGregor for not being as physically ready for the game.

Consider the fact that St. X had one extra week of practice, one extra preseason scrimmage, plus one extra regular season game leading up to Sunday.

Then there's the huge disadvantage of having to travel, like not being able to sleep in your own bed (as St. X did) and the emotional drain of playing a big game like that in a foreign environment like Nippert Stadium and on national television for the first time.

House cleaning

• I'll try to confirm, but I believe that ESPNU will show Cincinnati Elder's upset of Charlotte Independence this Wednesday at 9 AM (EDT). Set your DVRs to own a piece of history.
  
• Beginning at 9 AM (EDT) this Saturday, the NFL Network will show all four of the Kirk Herbstreit Classic games that were played in Canton, Ohio. It includes No. 5 Long Beach Poly beating Cleveland Glenville, No. 20 Youngstown Mooney beating Gateway and regionally ranked Tulsa Union throttling host Canton McKinley.
  
• I would really like to hear fewer fans comparing the football played in one state against that played in another. Personally, think there are great teams in every state. Just because a good team in State A beats a good team in State B, it doesn't necessarily mean that all football is being played at a higher level in State A. It's the same debate we hear in college football all the time comparing conferences. It tends to drive me nuts.
  
• How about Hoover (Ala.) entering the regional rankings after losing to Colerain in overtime? Well, some say they had no business losing. Hard to argue. They could have attempted a short game-winning field goal in regulation had the clock not run out on a running play near the goal line. But given the way they played against a Top 25 team in its home city, I was pretty impressed.
  
• I was also quite impressed with the way Brother Rice (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) went into Pittsburgh and leveled Penn Hills, 24-0. It earned the Warriors a spot in this week's Midwest regional rankings.
  

NOTE: Steve Specht photo courtesy of USAFootball.com.

FINAL: No. 1 St. X 28, No. 3 DeMatha 7

UPDATE: The game has gone final. More thoughts later.

With about four minutes left in the game, St. X has now widened its lead to 28-7.

A blocked punt and an interception in St. X territory set up the scores.

Despite the cramping, St. X appears in much better condition for this early season game. They are still flying around the ball on defense and pushing DeMatha's line back on offense. It's basically a mismatch right now because DeMatha's athletes have been completely neutralized.

DeMatha has not crossed the 50 yard line in this half.

End of 3Q: No. 1 St. X 14, No. 3 DeMatha 7

Several St. X players left the field with cramps during the third quarter. That, a nice leaping catch over the middle by St. X WR Stephon Ball, and the second missed FG of the day for St. X kicker Danny Milligan were pretty much the highlights of the third quarter.

DeMatha connected on one long downfield pass early in the second half, but it was called back due to a procedure penalty. Let's see if they try again after trying to pound it at St. X for awhile.

Cramps are taking toll on St. X

Maybe the conditioning tide is turning. St. X doesn't look winded, but they've lost four defensive starters to cramping in the first five minutes of the third quarter.

Most notably, defensive leader Fred Craig was taken from the field on a cart. He'll likely return after getting some fluids via IV.

If St. X continues to struggle with cramping, this could become a huge factor in the outcome of this game.

Halftime: No. 1 St. X 14, No. 3 DeMatha 7

St. X closes the first half by missing out on a scoring opportunity.

The Bombers seemed to have DeMatha on its heels, but a false start penalty helped stall out the drive. They settled for a 40-yard FG attempt by Danny Milligan, which missed wide left. His timing appeared to be ill-effected by an off-target long snap.

Overall, the game is going about how I expected it, although St. X's passing game is a bit more prominent than I would have imagined.

The biggest factors for the second half appear to be:

1. Can DeMatha get its second wind in the second half? St. X's advantage of having an extra week of practice, an extra game and an extra scrimmage is showing big time in the conditioning department.
   
2. Will DeMatha QB Tommy Chroninger settle down the in the second half? He appeared to be overwhelmed in the adrenaline department and most of his passes sailed wide. He MUST get the ball to playmakers Tate and McLeod in the second half for the Stags to win.
   

St. X starting to grind it out?

• With a 14-7 lead and DeMatha looking a bit tired, St. X's running game might be starting to overwhelm DeMatha. Disappointed but not surprised by X's superior conditioning.
  
• X still doing a great job of mixing in the short-route passing game. Hurley making Division I QB coaches watching around the country take notice. He has completed eight of his first nine passes and looks poised and accurate.
  
• Let me just say this now, if there's a better-coached team in America than St. X, you'll have to show them to me.
  

No. 1 St. 14, No. 3 DeMatha 7; 5:55 to play 2Q

• St. X scores on John Hurley's second TD pass of the game to make it 14-7. The Bombers had a short field following Dan Milligan's punt return to around the 35 yard line.
  
• Hurley, St. X's first-year full-time starter, looks really good. Very accurate and very poised. Tom Chroninger, his DeMatha counterpart, has looked a little over-excited and most of his passes have sailed on him.
  
• There's Kirk Herbstreit on the sidelines. Props to him for helping make sure this even continued this year -- and getting some of the games on ESPN.
  

No. 3 DeMatha ties it up

• After loosening St. X with some some passes, the Stags run the ball right at the Bombers and tie the score, 7-7. DeMatha has very good size up front.
• St. X sticking with the passing game. Hurley looks good. But when will the Bombers get their running game going? Ashley's absence is making a bigger impact so far than I actually expected.
• DeMatha has a great chance of winning this game if they continue to make yardage running it right at St. X's defense. If the Bombers are forced to put more men in the box, DeMatha has the speed in its receiver corps to make them pay.
• St. X going no-huddle while DeMatha starting to look tired already on defense. Again, I go back to St. X's extra preparation time, including conditioning time.
  

No. 1 St. X jumps out to 7-0 lead

The Bombers are on the board first, 7-0, after a six-play, 46-yard scoring drive. St. X QB John Hurley hit WR Dan Milligan from about 20 yards out.

Early 1st quarter Observations: DeMatha size is apparent, but so far its speed has yet to show itself ... On its first drive, St. X's offense neutralized the Stags' speed advantage with underneath routes. Hurley was right on target with his first three passes ... X opening things up a bit in the passing game to make up for not having Ashley in the lineup ... DeMatha junior QB Tommy Chroninger, in his first varsity start at QB, looking a bit shaky. Missed his first three passes by a fairly wide margin ... DeMatha certainly looking like the team that is playing on the road and the team that has led much less preparation time for this game so far. We'll see if that snowballs.

Big momentum shift possible here as the highly reliable Milligan fumbles a punt return at midfield. Recovered by DeMatha with about six minutes left in the first quarter.

• St. X plays great defense, not just because they have great athletes on defense. They play assignment-sound defense on every play.
• DeMatha should be able to get its passing game clicking if Chroninger can calm down. He is a tough and poised kid, but it looks like he's panting like he's just run a half-marathon.
  
• X makes me eat my words a bit as DeMatha finds a lot of running room on the option. Fred Craig makes a bit hit to save the first down, which DeMatha got on the next play anyway.
  

In-game thoughts: St. X vs. DeMatha

Good Sunday morning, everyone.

This Kirk Herbstreit Challenge thing is pretty cool, eh? Good thing national sponsor Burger King and some other folks stepped up to the plate, because it was only a few months ago that the event looked to be dead in the water.

Anyway, I will be blogging some thoughts as today's No. 1 St. Xavier versus No. 3 DeMatha game (Noon EDT on ESPN) progresses.

First off, Tom Groeschen of the Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting in his blog this morning that St. Xavier star RB Darius Ashley is definitely out for today's game. He is dressed in his jersey, shorts and street shoes on the sidelines as the Bombers go through pre-game warmups.

So, bad news for the Bombers and their fans. We'll see how well fullback Luca Romero and Patrick Berning can pick up the slack.