By FRED KRONER
A popular question has been swirling around Mahomet faster than the autumn leaves in recent weeks.
Does the high school football team have the talent to win a state championship?
To me, that is not the real question, but I will address that one first and then tackle what I perceive as bigger issues.
Anyone who studies the eight postseason brackets issued on Saturday by the IHSA could justifiably conclude that there are around eight to 10 schools in each class that could contend for a state title, based on their body of work throughout the nine-game regular season.
Yes, Mahomet-Seymour would be in that grouping in Class 5A.
There’s probably anywhere from two to four other schools that – on that proverbial given day – are close enough in talent that it wouldn’t be a surprise for them to win as well.
When the big picture is viewed then, nearly half of the qualifiers in each class could be considered as legitimate title contenders.
Where does that get us?
That’s where the other issues come into full view.
There are several.
Coaches will tell you that injuries are a part of the game.
That is only partially true. Yes, they are part of the game, but they are never distributed equally.
There is no rule that every team will have an injury. Some schools will have someone hurt in the first game and that will be it for the entire year.
Other schools will go unscathed throughout the season.
Most schools fall somewhere in between.
For M-S, the starting lineup looks different for Game 10 than it did for Game 1.
Luke Johnson – the team rushing leader through six games – is sidelined for the year with an injury.
So, too, is offensive lineman Tyler Uken. It’s much harder to evaluate the players in the trenches because they don’t have stats that can be used as a gauge.
But any time a 6-foot-10, 260-pound senior lineman with college aspirations is removed from the field, it’s not a loss to be taken lightly.
And defensively, lineman Ryan Yancy is also out for the year, sidelined by an injury.
Their replacements have stepped in and performed admirably, enabling the school to secure just its sixth unbeaten regular season in more than a century of playing high school football.
How many hits can a team take before it’s not the one that – on paper – looked so promising a couple of months ago?
It’s certainly not a gloom-and-doom scenario for the Bulldogs, but it could be a factor moving forward.
There’s still plenty of talented athletes taking the field and wearing M-S jerseys.
It’s expected that coaches will sing the praises of the players on their own team.
What happens less frequently is when persons from the opposing school lavish the praise.
One of the first individuals I saw after M-S’ 21-7 triumph over Bloomington at Frank Dutton Field in the Week 9 finale was a long-time Bloomington loyalist.
“No. 53,” he said referring to sophomore Bulldog defensive lineman Jack Gallier, “is a beast.”
He is not alone.
Among his teammates who have made college visits this fall are linebacker Nick Golden and receiver Quenton Rogers.
And, there’s the quarterback, Wyatt Bohm.
Bohm, who moved to Mahomet when he was in elementary school, has already broken the single-season school mark for passing yards and should add a record for single-season completions if he connects on nine passes in the Saturday (Oct. 30) first-round playoff home game against Jacksonville (5-4).
And do you want to talk about players who can carry a team?
Mateo Casillas provided an excellent example in the literal sense following the win over Bloomington.
He went to the injured Johnson, picked him up and carried him to the west side of the field for the postgame team meeting with Bulldog head coach Jon Adkins. When the coach had concluded his comments, Casillas carried the 180-pound Johnson back to the sidelines, where he was reunited with the scooter that he uses to keep his leg elevated while moving around.
Adkins has done the things needed to minimize the strains of a long season.
By utilizing platoon football, players are guaranteed breaks throughout the games and can go full-speed the entire time they are on the field.
He has very few players who are called upon to take the field in limited roles on the side of the ball where they don’t normally play.
Among them is Mitch Gallier, a defensive stalwart, who has shown the propensity to gain valuable yards as a runner or receiver.
Perhaps the biggest question in upcoming weeks is what kind of conditions Mother Nature will present on Game Day.
Some will say that is a non-factor because both teams will play on the same field under the same conditions.
True … but, football teams can be divided into two basic groups. One is those who rely on the running game to move the ball. The other is those who gain the majority of their yards through the air.
M-S easily falls into the second category.
Nearly two-thirds of the Bulldogs yards to date (64.8 percent) have been gained by passing.
Rainy conditions – or snowy conditions!! – could affect a team’s ability to utilize that weapon to its fullest, as could windy conditions.
Does anyone think it is a coincidence that the Bulldogs’ playoff opener Saturday in Mahomet is scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m., the time of day when winds have usually died down?
There are certainly passing teams which have excelled in the past in less-than-ideal conditions. Not saying it’s impossible, just that as teams get deeper into the playoffs and the competition on each side is much more equal, little things such as whether a school completes a third-and-9 pass into a 35-mph wind can make a difference in the outcome.
There’s yet another factor not to be overlooked.
It’s where the games are played. It’s an obvious advantage to be at home, but sometimes it’s best not to be short-sighted and to look beyond a given week.
Study the options for M-S if it secures its 10th consecutive victory on Saturday.
The second-round opponent would be either Troy Triad (7-2) or Hillcrest (5-4).
The home-field advantage goes to the school with the best seed IF both schools have hosted the same number of playoff games.
A game between M-S and Triad would be played in Mahomet because each will be hosting in the first round. A game between M-S and Hillcrest would be played in the Chicago suburbs.
Best to be home for the second round?
Not necessarily.
Take a peak at the possible – likely – opponent that would await in the quarterfinals. Unbeaten Morris looms as the biggest challenge and is seeded better (second) than M-S (third), meaning if both schools have hosted playoff games the first two weeks, the third round would be played in Morris.
However, if M-S wins its opener and gains a second-round game at Hillcrest, the Bulldogs would have a home game against Morris (if that game becomes reality).
Sure, that’s looking ahead, but that’s part of the fun of the playoffs, anticipating what might be just down the road.
There are other games to be played first, but there are plenty of implications to consider. There’s no shortage of possibilities.
Looking at the entire Class 5A bracket is a true head-shaking experience.
If you’re a fan of consistency, the IHSA pairings should not be studied in depth.
There are 32 teams assigned to each of the eight classes, based on enrollments (from the 2020-21 school year).
In Class 7A and Class 8A, schools are seeded from 1 through 32 (based on opponents wins during the regular season), which means the top-seeded school opens with the 32nd-seeded entry.
Other pairings follow accordingly in 7A and 8A.
The IHSA will justify the decision in Class 7A and 8A because the majority of the qualifiers in those classes are near Chicago or at least in the top one-third of the state.
Why does it matter?
Class 5A is the perfect example.
Since the qualifying schools are geographically spread throughout the expanse of the state (as they also are in classes 1A through 4A), the IHSA created a top bracket of 16 teams and a bottom bracket of 16 teams. It’s basically a North/South division, but the line varies each year, depending which schools advance to the postseason.
How did that work out?
The top bracket in Class 5A features one team with a season record better than 7-2. One team. And that team was 8-1.
In one case, a 6-3 team in the upper bracket of 5A was awarded a first-round home game.
The bottom bracket – which includes M-S – has five teams with records better than 7-2.
M-S is one of three 9-0 teams in the bottom bracket. There are two 8-1 qualifiers.
It doesn’t take much imagination to think that 9-0 teams will be matched up in both the quarterfinals and semifinals of the bottom bracket and then advance into a championship game against either a one-loss or a two-loss team.
For those who have read this far, it should be clear that the question for Mahomet-Seymour football fans goes way beyond whether there is enough talent to win a state championship.
Great article, Fred! Thanks!