Struthers Football 2012

• BTrev

  Struthers 2012 Schedule
  
  8/23 Campbell
  8/31 @ Lakeview
  9/7 Open
  9/14 Open
  9/21 @ Hubbard*
  9/28 Poland*
  10/5 @ Beaver Local*
  10/12 Canfield*
  10/19 @ Niles*
  10/26 Howland*
  
  I thought they might keep East or East Liverpool, or both, on the schedule, but Coach Asher said they were looking for games in weeks 3 and 4.
  
  The Cats have a lot of talent coming back. They return 8 starters on offense, and 9 starters on defense. They had 16 first year letter winners, I think at least 10 of them Sophomores.
  
  Coach Asher kinda dropped the ball in the middle of the season, losing to LaBrae, East, and Lakeview... those games weren't exactly close either. In those 3 games, they were outscored 109-26. Not exactly pretty...
  
  They finished strong though, hanging tough with Hubbard 13-22, and beating rival Campbell 22-3.
  
  The returning starters on offense are QBs Gary Muntean and Tommy Kimbrough, RBs Dave Stewart and Nick Pollifrone, G Mike Pape, OTs Curtis Wagner and Danny Pape, and TE Vinny Fandozzi.
  
  Pencil in Roy Patterson at center and Tommy Kimbrough and Jaquayntae Wilburn at WR. There'd still be an opening at one of the guard spots.
  
  The returning starters on defense are DEs Tommy Baron and Steve Seiffert, DTs Curtis Wagner and Mike Pape, LBs Nick Pollifrone, Braxton Koup, and Vinny Fandozzi, and CBs Chris Wess and Jaquayntae Wilburn.
  
  Pencil in Zane Henricksen at Sam LB and Kimbrough at FS. There'd still be an opening at SS.
  
  Expectations will be very high next year. They'll definitely have the pieces to make it to the playoffs. The only team on the schedule that figures to have a losing record, is BL... and maybe Niles too. I think 7-3 would be enough for them to get in... depending on who they get to fill the open dates.
  
  Discuss.
• oldschoolreddev

  I don't think 7-3 will get them in if the loses are to Poland, Canfield and Howland.
• BTrev

  oldschoolreddev;957867 wrote:I don't think 7-3 will get them in if the loses are to Poland, Canfield and Howland.

  Very good point. Neither do I.
  
  Time for Struthers to start playing big boy football again...
• Ohio

  

  Poland loses some especially in reardon and lawman which will be good for the cats glad to see the rivalry going again and we got them at home! I think the cats could run more of a spread next year similar to what Salem runs with Muntean and with an athlete at WR in Kimbrough.
• oldschoolreddev

  Liberty and East would be good games to fill the open dates.
• BTrev

  Don't sleep on Poland next year. They'll be scrappy as usual. Losing Reardon will hurt them a bit. Losing Lawman, I don't think will be as big of a deal though. They have a tough RB backing him up this year, that'll get the bulk of the carries. Their secondary should be better next year, and they're always tough to run on.
  
  Liberty will not be on the schedule next year.
  
  As for East, I don't think so. I'd like to see East on the schedule. I think it'd be a winnable game, that'd be worth a lot of computer points and some good experience against a big school with a lot of size and speed. I don't think Coach Asher wants anything to do with East though. It doesn't make any sense though, because East lost to 4 of the teams on the current schedule, and were dominated by Campbell in a scrimmage last year. Their best player by far, George LeFlore, is a Senior. D.D. Fleeton is also a Senior. I don't know... they got beat up by East at the lower levels to. Maybe Coach Asher doesn't like the match-ups coming up...
  
  If the goal for Struthers is to make it to the playoffs and beyond, they'll definitely see better teams than East, Poland, Canfield... and even Howland.
• Ohio

  

  Struthers should try and get another series with Springfield or someone similar to them.... Is Struthers not playing Jefferson again next year? I thought they were a bigger school then struthers
• BTrev

  Ohio;958240 wrote:Struthers should try and get another series with Springfield or someone similar to them.... Is Struthers not playing Jefferson again next year? I thought they were a bigger school then struthers

  This is how I understand the 2 tiered realignment to work.
  
  Red Tier A
  
  Fitch (except football)
  Howland
  Canfield
  Poland
  
  Red Tier B
  
  Niles
  Hubbard
  Beaver Local
  Struthers
  
  Blue Tier A
  
  Jefferson
  Lakeview
  Liberty
  Girard
  
  Blue Tier B
  
  Newton Falls
  LaBrae
  Champion
  Campbell
  
  All Red Tier teams will play each other.
  
  All Blue Tier teams will play each other.
  
  Each Red Tier B team will play a Blue Tier A team every year. For example, next year BL plays Jefferson, Niles plays Girard, Struthers plays Lakeview, and Hubbard plays Liberty.
  
  Blue Tier B teams can play any Red Tier team if they choose to, but they're not permitted to.
  
  Struthers playing Campbell in week 1 is scheduled as an OOC game, and is not mandated by AAC rules.
  
  Struthers and Jefferson are both D3, but I don't know which is bigger. Jefferson is the only D3 school in the Blue Tier. The rest are D4, except Campbell, which is D5.
  
  Springfield could be a possibility. The only fault I see with them playing Springfield, is that Springfield is D5. Their schedule is made up of mostly, if not all, D5 and D6 schools.
  
  Struthers has a lot to lose by playing Springfield, and little to gain... especially if Springfield doesn't repeat the success that they had this year. I'd be a little leary of scheduling any ITCL teams, unless they're going to bring some definite L2 points to the table.
  
  For example, Streetsboro went 6-4 this past year, and was worth 30.0 L2 points to the teams that beat them. Springfield went 8-2, and was only worth 30.0 L2 points.
  
  Here's some teams that I'd at least call, to see if they're open in weeks 3 or 4 for the next couple years...
  
  Alliance (D2)
  Streetsboro (D4)
  Salem (D3)
  West Branch (D3)
  Brookfield (D4)
  Ravenna (D3)
  Southeast (D3)
  
  They have history with Salem, from the MAC and AAC. They have history with Alliance from the MAC too, and they scrimmaged Alliance a couple years ago. They scrimmaged Southeast a couple years ago too. They have history with Brookfield and West Branch, from the old MVC days. The only reason I'd look at Streetsboro and Ravenna, is because both are fairly close, they'd both likely be worth some computer points, and they'd both be pretty competitive... especially Ravenna.
  
  If none of those teams are availible, then go after Springfield, Columbiana, or Crestview.
  
  I still wouldn't rule out East either, but right now it seems like they're exploring other options.
  
  Then there's always the parochial route... Struthers does have history with JFK, SVSM, Mooney, and Ursuline.
  
  They did do a home and home with Steubenville back in the 80s. That might be a possibility too. They did travel down to Steubenville for the jamboree back in August, and Coach Asher and Coach Reno are friends, aren't they?
  
  This is all speculation on my part. I really have no clue who Mr. Carden is looking at to fill the open dates. Nevertheless, it's still very intriguing stuff...
• Ohio

  

  I would want them to schedule a team that could give them some points and also some cofidence, with Brookfield bringing back basically everyone it will be a hard lower divisioned team to beat and they are also right on the boarder of D5 so you never know how it will play out.... Maybe even scheduling a team like Newton Falls
• Ohio

  

  Would be nice to see the Struthers Campbell game game of the week on thursday this season....
• BTrev

  One tune-up game early on wouldn't hurt, I guess. Looking at that schedule, I can see them going anywhere from 2-6 to 6-2... maybe even better if they live in the weight room and bust their tails over the Winter and Spring.
  
  You don't want the schedule to be too soft though, because it wouldn't be challenging, the film would be useless (like Conneaut a couple years ago), and it wouldn't make them a better team.
  
  You don't want the schedule to be demoralizing though. That wouldn't help their cause either.
  
  They need to play teams that will challenge them, but won't whitewash them.
  
  Looking at this past season, it's tough to call. They beat Jefferson in week 1, who was not at 100%. IMO, if they'd played Jefferson in the second half of the season, they wouldn't have won. They lost to Girard by 31, when they were only down by 7 late in the 3rd quarter. They beat 1-9 Beaver Local (only win was against 1-9 East Liverpool) 20-7, but were tied at 0 at halftime. They beat 0-10 Liberty 20-18, but again failed to score any points in the first half... 0-12 after 2. Kudos to them for gutting the BL and Liberty games out, but both of those should've been blowouts. They took care of business against East Liverpool. Good job there. One thing I noticed in that game, was that the D couldn't get off the field late in the 2nd half. LaBrae, East, and Lakeview were as ugly as it gets... period. They hung tough with Hubbard, but they did give up 200 yards rushing to a Freshman. I don't think I'd be insulting anyone, if I said Campbell quit, and beat themselves. That was actually part of the gameplan... to not play Campbell's game, let the penalties add up and they'd get frustrated and beat themselves. They did manage to keep a 1500 yard rusher under 75 yards... which gets big props from me. They had trouble stopping the run all year, and Hughes had set Campbell's Single Game Rushing Record against Struthers in 2010. Campbell was averaging nearly 32 points a game too, so to hold them to just 3 points is pretty awesome as well.
  
  It all depends on how you look at it. Did they go 5-5 because they weren't as good as we thought they were? Or, did they go 5-5 because they were young, and inexperienced?
  
  I think the latter is a better explanation. As bad as they looked at times in 2011, that's how much better they can look in 2012. If they don't slack off and get lazy over the offseason, there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to hang with the big boys next year in the AAC Red Tier...
  
  ... and I think everyone would agree that Struthers-Campbell should be the GOTW. Just have to hope they don't give it to Niles-Girard...
• Spread All Day

  

  I would like to see Struthers schedule a weak team to beat up on. Confidence builder. Conneaut? Edge wood?
• RIP.Soroka.89

  

  Ohio;958490 wrote:Would be nice to see the Struthers Campbell game game of the week on thursday this season....

  
  No.
  
  
  It would be nice to see it on a friday night in week 10.
  
  This week 1 crap is bs.
• BTrev

  I wouldn't want anything to do with Edgewood, or Conneaut. Don't make Campbell's mistakes. If Campbell had played some better competition than Mineral Ridge and Edgewood, maybe 7-3 could've gotten them into the playoffs...
  
  I'd rather Struthers-Campbell was in Week 1, than not at all. If it can't be in Week 10, I'm glad it's in Week 1.
  
  Who does Campbell play in Week 10 now?
• Struthers Fan

  

  Not for sure but I believe it's Girard or Brookfield. Probably Girard.
• landshark0731

  Ohio;958487 wrote:I would want them to schedule a team that could give them some points and also some cofidence, with Brookfield bringing back basically everyone it will be a hard lower divisioned team to beat and they are also right on the boarder of D5 so you never know how it will play out.... Maybe even scheduling a team like Newton Falls

  Doesn't Brookfield lose 4 of there 5 starting lineman? Not to mention about 12 seniors? It should be Brookfield approaching Struthers for a game to beef up there lackluster schedule.Since the divisions were re-aligned this year wouldn't Brookfield be D4 for at least one more year? I thought they did the review every 2 years. i may be wrong tho.
• BTrev

  Brookfield will be D4 in 2012. As for beyond that, it's unclear.
  
  Who does Brookfield really have coming back, besides Mosora and Quinlan?
  
  I think Struthers would match up well with Brookfield next year... better than they would have this year.
  
  My first 2 choices would be Alliance and Salem though.
• BTrev

  pooter says that Asher is interested in the WGH job, and is upset with the BOE for not giving him what he feels he's due.
  
  I need time to sleep on this, but my initial reaction is... good luck with that!
• ts1227

  

  I don't believe Salem has an open date. I thought we were trying to get East Liverpool back on the schedule in Week 1 (we had been playing them week 10 but that is now West Branch since we're both in the NBC).
  
  I would assume United stays on the schedule in Week 2 for the forseeable future unless a school backs out, and week 3 next year is the final year of a contract with Niles. The rest are NBC games
• BTrev

  Thank you. Salem can be scratched off the list.
• GoPens

  

  Salem is replacing Labrae with Liberty in Week 1 for the next two years. Salem has one more year with Niles in Week 3 before E. Liverpool moves in that spot in 2 years. United will remain Week 2 so it does look like Salem can be scratched off your list. I wish it were otherwise. I miss playing the Y-town schools.
• Ohio

  

  BTrev;962902 wrote:Brookfield will be D4 in 2012. As for beyond that, it's unclear.
  
  Who does Brookfield really have coming back, besides Mosora and Quinlan?
  
  I think Struthers would match up well with Brookfield next year... better than they would have this year.
  
  My first 2 choices would be Alliance and Salem though.

  They lose 3 of 5 lineman, Other then that they may lose one or 2 starters on the defensive side of the ball.
• Spread All Day

  

  Hey, maybe even reach out to stark county.... I'm sure theres some teams out there that wanna play! Scheduling an astubula county team won't hurt us, since its already a tough schedule! Unlike Campbell which had a joke of a schedule...
• BTrev

  Spread All Day;967491 wrote:Hey, maybe even reach out to stark county.... I'm sure theres some teams out there that wanna play! Scheduling an astubula county team won't hurt us, since its already a tough schedule! Unlike Campbell which had a joke of a schedule...

  Good point.
  
  Still, I don't see the point in playing any cupcakes. How would that get them ready to play against the AAC Red? Especially considering that they haven't played a schedule like that before.
• Spread All Day

  

  You need wins on the schedule. None of those red tier games are wins, you take them where you can get them,. 5 wins is impressive as bad as that sounds