2015 Intelligencer/Courier Times "Let's Talk Football" (Week 4)

Back for its sixth season, the popular Intelligencer/Courier Times ‘Let’s Talk Football’ features Kevin Cooney and Drew Markol.  Cooney, the Phillies beat writer, will handle the Bucks County Courier Times coverage area and also is part of a panel each Friday night on the WNPV/Intelligencer Scoreboard Show. Markol is the football beat writer for the Intelligencer area. Both are regular contributors on the weekly Game On show, and to view this week’s show, click on the following link: http://www.theintell.com/videos/hsgameon/  To stay on top of the high school football news in the area, visit the Intelligencer/Courier Times web site http://www.phillyburbs.com/sports/high_school/

SuburbanOneSports.com:  What are your thoughts heading into week one of the league season?

Kevin Cooney:  “The conferences are broken up in tiers. In the American Conference, it’s pretty clear. It’s Upper Dublin and maybe PW, and Upper Moreland may make noise in Class AAA, but they’re not good enough to take that step with the other two.

“In the National, it’s like a three-team round robin with Pennsbury, Neshaminy and North Penn. I’m going to take North Penn to take the division until Pennsbury proves they can beat North Penn head to head. That’s not being overly negative. It’s just stating a reality. If it comes down to that one game between those two teams, you’ve got to take the team that everyone feels has the other team’s number.

“In the Continental, I know (Drew) Markol says he thinks it’s so deep, but I think there’s one clear elite team, and that’s Quakertown. I could see a bunch of other people beating each other up, and I think that’s a big, big problem for the Continental. If you have a lot of teams that are 6-4 – guess what? You’re probably not going to get a lot of teams into the postseason, and there’s a real possibility that you could have some 6-4 teams coming out of the Continental. I think William Tennent’s schedule is propping them up a little bit, but could they win three games in that division? Yes, they could. Could CR North go 5-2 in that division? Yes, they could, and that would be a problem then for CR South or CB East because I just think it would whittle down the number of bids and power points you’re going to get.

“One of the things with CB East – I think John Donnelly has done a great job, but it’s been a long time since they’ve been a playoff team. How do they react? CR South – this group has gone through a couple of lean years, and how do they react? Can they handle success? That’s a big question. Much has changed, and how these schools handle success is the one unknown. Some coaches would say – you don’t fear success. You welcome and embrace it. That’s great, but if you’re not traditional powers, taking that next step from being very good to elite is a lot more difficult than going from mediocre to good. That may be a reality that hits some of these teams as you get into the playoffs, especially in the Continental if everyone is beating the hell out of each other.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  Neshaminy defeated Council Rock South in a thriller. Your thoughts about those two teams heading into the league season.

Kevin Cooney:  “I think the one thing we’re seeing – CR South is a team that could make some noise in the Continental Conference. Drew (Markol), and I just had this conversation. He thinks seven teams could win the Continental. I think realistically, Quakertown is the heavy favorite, but CR South’s performance in non-league has at least given you a reason to think they can make it difficult, they can hang around, they can make the playoffs. They’ve set themselves up with their non-league schedule. Their tough losses against Pennsbury and Neshaminy make you think they’re going to be there at the end.

“With Neshaminy, do the flip side – they’ve had a couple of meat grinders. You look at their schedule, and it was tough. Here they are 2-1, and they have put themselves in a position where they’ve been tested. Their two wins are very close non-league wins that got them ready for your league schedule.

“If you’re Steve Wilmot or Vince Bedesem, you’re happy right now because you have at least shown – we’ve got the talent. Both of them are in tough divisions, and I don’t think either one of them are the favorite in their divisions, but they’re competitive. In a 16-team playoff field, I think they’re strongly in the conversation. What they would have to avoid, in my mind, is the big slip up. It’s one thing if you’re Neshaminy and you lose to North Penn and Pennsbury. I’m not saying they will – I’m just saying if they do. You could still make the playoffs with that. If you lose to a Pennridge, a CB South, that’s where you get into trouble.

“If you’re CR South and you lose to Quakertown, I don’t think you’re going to be in bad shape. If you lose to Quakertown and CB East, now you’re on the borderline. If you lose to somebody else, you’re probably done. It’s a matter of marching forward, but you have some momentum. You’ve given yourself momentum going into the league and are in the conversation of being in there at the end.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  Council Rock North will travel to Central Bucks East. Your comments about Rock North heading into its league opener.

Kevin Cooney:  “North can’t play defense, and here’s the thing – some people say I’m being too tough on CR North. They have one tremendous player, and that player will win them games. I think in this era of spread offenses - we all think that having that one player and having a high-powered offense is all you need. No, to really be a contender, you have to play defense. You have to be good enough on defense. This is one of the things that, quite frankly, I felt doomed Upper Dublin last year. They didn’t play defense well. Now they are. Now they’re a better defensive team than they were, at least early on.

“I think when you look at CR North – besides Brandon McIlwain, I don’t see a combination of great players there, so when you get against Quakertown, when you get against CB East, when you get against CR South and you’re going to have to play a grind-it-out game, and they’re going to pound the crap out of your quarterback, I don’t see where it works. I just don’t. Maybe they get to 6-4, and maybe they sneak in as a 16 seed. They’ve put themselves in a tough spot, not just by losing because there are 1-2 teams that are in good shape. North Penn is 1-2, and North Penn is in good shape. North Penn’s losses to Downingtown East and La Salle have put them in a position where it’s toughened them up. They were representative in both games – they weren’t blown out, and you can project ahead.

“When you look at the way CR North lost those two games to a non-celebrated CB South and the way they got shelled last week to Pennsbury, you really have to be concerned, really concerned.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  Central Bucks East is coming off a convincing win over Central Bucks South and takes a 3-0 record into its league opener against CR North. Your thoughts?

Drew Markol:  “They needed that confidence after coming off a win over Pennridge. If they lose to CB South, all of a sudden that takes some air out of the balloon with the Continental Conference and Council Rock North sitting there a week away. To win that game on their new home field, they’ve never won the Central Bucks Cup, which they will get if they beat the two Central Bucks schools, and they’re off to a good start.

“Now they’ll get a test they’ve never really seen with Brandon McIlwain. The thing with Council Rock North is they can score, but they can’t stop anybody. It will be interesting.

“CB East’s defense held up to Pennridge’s massive line. They’re big enough. They just have to try and slow McIlwain down and just do their thing on offense. They’re not a quick-strike offense. They need to do what they do, which is four or five yards at a clip, and keep McIlwain on the sidelines. That’s how you beat teams like that.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  North Penn, which gave Downingtown East all it could handle, will travel to Pennridge. Your thoughts?

Kevin Cooney:  “This is one of those games – if you’re North Penn, in a lot of ways, people think that the season comes down to two games. It’s going to come down to how you do against Neshaminy and how you do against Pennsbury because they’re the clear favorites in the division. If you’re North Penn, because you are 1-2, you can’t afford that slip up now against Level A or Level B. What I mean by Level A - Level A is Neshaminy and Pennsbury, but you can’t lose to Abington or CB South. That forces you to kind of run the table of the conference, and I think that’s going to be a little unrealistic.

“One of the big issues at North Penn over the years has been the quarterback spot. Reece Udinski is pretty good, but they need to get their offensive line going. When they do that, you have Nyfease West and you have enough weapons there that they should be in pretty good shape.”

Drew Markol:  “Junior quarterback Reece Udinski, a CB West transfer, gives North Penn a weapon they really haven’t had. As good as they’ve been, you’ve got to go back a long way to where they’ve really had an outstanding quarterback. Yes, they lost to Downingtown East, but you lost a close game on the road to a team that many think is going to win the district title. Now you’re all of a sudden thinking to yourself, ‘Hey, we’re pretty good. We might be 1-2, but look who we’ve played.”

“If you’re North Penn, you’ve got to get to seven wins at least, so you have to go 6-1. There are games in there – Pennridge is one of them, and Pennsbury and Neshaminy are two other games that could go either way. If you stumble now to 1-3 coming off a pretty good performance against a really good team and you drop one to Pennridge, now you’ve really created a mountain that’s going to be difficult to climb.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  After covering Pennridge several times, what are your thoughts about the Rams heading into Friday’s opener?

Drew Markol:  “Pennridge needs to clean up their game. Penalties really hurt them against CB East in the game they lost. Last week, they had over 100 yards in penalties against CB West. Normally, in a tighter game, that’s a death sentence. It was a lot of false starts, and then they would mix in personal fouls and stuff, and you can’t be doing that. They were fortunate they had a big lead, but when you’re playing North Penn, you don’t get many big leads. You’ve got to play a clean game now when you’re playing back in the National Conference with the North Penns, the Pennsburys and the Neshaminys. If you don’t play a clean game, you’re asking for trouble. I’m sure Pennridge coach Jeff Hollenbach is stressing that same thing that ‘penalties can really hurt us if we aren’t careful.’ They just have to get better at it.

“Pennridge has the offensive and defensive lines to play with anybody. Size-wise, they’re enormous, but they just continually hurt themselves with penalties. Eventually, it will bite you.

“Senior fullback Nick Hirsch is a big kid – he’s a bruiser, and they run him up the middle. He’s a good goal-line kid. He breaks tackles, and he just runs tough and runs hard. Junior Ryan Cuthbert is a wide receiver and kick and punt returner, and I would try and get him the ball as much as I could because when they do give him the ball, he’s usually running in the open field and teams are chasing after him. He’s really good. Teams have now started – when they punt to Pennridge, they punt it away from him or punt it out of bounds because he’s like a touchdown waiting to happen when he gets the ball. They don’t throw it much, but if they start to, I would throw it to him all the time if I could because he’s a really good player, and he needs to get the ball more.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  Abington is 0-3 heading into its league schedule. Your comments. 

Kevin Cooney:  “This is so out of character for what Abington has been. It’s not just getting beat - it’s kind of the crushing way it’s happened. When you lose a game the way they did at Northeast, they pretty much had chance after chance after chance and you couldn’t knock it home and get beat on a big play - that hurts, and it has a carryover effect. Their next two games were against teams that they didn’t match up well against in PW and Upper Dublin.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  Central Bucks West will face Norristown in the league opener for both teams. Your comments.

Drew Markol:  “CB West is a team that just needs a win. It was 0-0 at the half against Pennridge, and they finally just got worn down in the second half. Last year against Norristown, Norristown came back and beat CB West in overtime in a heartbreaker, so they’ve got that too in the back of their minds that they lost to this team in a real close one. When you look at your schedule and the whole Continental Conference is pretty good, there are not many wins out there unless you play really, really well, and this is the time to do it.

“For Norristown, coach Jason Powel knows what he’s doing. Norristown will be leaving the SOL for the PAC-10 next year, but their head coach Jason Powell has them going in the right direction. No one is really saying much about Norristown as far as the Continental is concerned, but they could be a player.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  Can Truman give Council Rock South a game this week?

Drew Markol:  “Truman’s quarterback – Mark Lopez-Shefcyk – got hurt in their game against Bensalem, and that’s an issue. A lot of that game depends on the health of their quarterback. They need him to be at full strength, and if he’s not – he’s such a big part of their offense.

“Council Rock South almost took Neshaminy to overtime, so they’ve got to be pretty confident too with what they’re doing, and they want to win the Continental. Will that be a good game? Yes, but if the Truman quarterback doesn’t play, that will make it whole lot harder.”

SuburbanOneSports.com:  Upper Moreland will face Hatboro-Horsham in the first of two meetings this season. Your thoughts?

Drew Markol:  “For years and years and years, Hatboro would beat Upper Moreland every Thanksgiving. Now Upper Moreland has turned the tables. They’ll play them again on Thanksgiving, which is kind of strange, but that’s a huge game. It does matter. It’s bragging rights. If you’re Hatboro and you’re struggling, there’s nobody you’d like to beat more than Upper Moreland.”