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2014 State Champion Tournament (part 2)

Who wins semi #2?

  • Nazareth Roadrunners

  • Providence Celtics


Results are only viewable after voting.

TPF523

Well-Known Member
Sep 8, 2014
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Lots of talk about who would win if Stevenson, SHG, Naz, Providence matched up, obviously we'll never get to see those matchups but that doesn't stop us from having them on here. If we did an additional 2 week tournament between the 5a-8a Champs who would win? In most years the 7a/8a champs would run away with it but not so sure about last year. In semifinal #2 we have Nazareth vs Providence. Both teams finished perfect seasons but in different fashion. Nazareth dominated almost everyone out in front of them with 11 running clocks. Providence lost once but played the toughest schedule in the state (one of). Providence's road to state was also tougher. Nazareth's OL was a force and their offense was virtually unstoppable. Providence had two threats in the passing game that no one could matchup with. The two played a common opponent with JCA playing Nazareth tougher mid season than they played Providence week 1 in a mistake prone loss. This should be a battle and will probably stir up the board a little bit. I will link the IHSA profiles of each, please vote and follow up with your reasoning. I'd love to see in depth analysis breaking down positional matchups, size, depth, SOS, etc. I will offer my opinions later.
 
I'll give this a shot. I have a decent frame of reference for this discussion, since I saw both teams live against JCA. IMO, Provi would win by 10 to 14. Provi just had too many skill position weapons....from from RB Warfield (who was a beast at the end of the year) to TE Vejvoda to WR Boykin (a matchup nightmare). Also, QB Hunniford was very much underrated. He had a great game against Cary.....great decision maker, extremely elusive and spread the ball around to all his weapons very well. The tough thing against Provi was you could not concentrate on any one area. They were as diverse an offense as you will find in IL. Naz' defense was good, but I don't think anyone could contain all of Provi's weapons by the end of the year.

IMO, Naz had the best O-line in the state. They would need to pound the ball and keep it away from the Provi offense. Cary used that approach and came very close to knocking off the Celtics. However, Cary's triple option can be very deceptive. Naz' run game was more straight forward. The Provi defense is very good at shutting down opponents' running games. Naz got pretty good QB play throughout the year, but it never came close to the level that Hunniford provided. I was surprised at how well Lemont limited the Naz passing game. If Lemont could give Naz those issues in the pass game, I'm sure Provi could have as well. And Naz, for as good as their O-line was, would not have had the same success lining up and running the ball as often as they did in the championship game against Provi.

Also, Naz would have needed Julian Love to make some big plays in special teams to have a chance as well.

In summary, Provi just had too many offensive weapons. They would have given Naz' defense fits, and I think the Provi defense would have gotten enough stops to pull away in the second half.
 
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I'll give this a shot. I have a decent frame of reference for this discussion, since I saw both teams live against JCA. IMO, Provi would win by 10 to 14. Provi just had too many skill position weapons....from from RB Warfield (who was a beast at the end of the year) to TE Vejvoda to WR Boykin (a matchup nightmare). Also, QB Hunniford was very much underrated. He had a great game against Cary.....great decision maker, extremely elusive and spread the ball around to all his weapons very well. The tough thing against Provi was you could not concentrate on any one area. They were as diverse an offense as you will find in IL. Naz' defense was good, but I don't think anyone could contain all of Provi's weapons by the end of the year.

IMO, Naz had the best O-line in the state. They would need to pound the ball and keep it away from the Provi offense. Cary used that approach and came very close to knocking off the Celtics. However, Cary's triple option can be very deceptive. Naz' run game was more straight forward. The Provi defense is very good at shutting down opponents' running games. Naz got pretty good QB play throughout the year, but it never came close to the level that Hunniford provided. I was surprised at how well Lemont limited the Naz passing game. If Lemont could give Naz those issues in the pass game, I'm sure Provi could have as well. And Naz, for as good as their O-line was, would not have had the same success lining up and running the ball as often as they did in the championship game against Provi.

Also, Naz would have needed Julian Love to make some big plays in special teams to have a chance as well.

In summary, Provi just had too many offensive weapons. They would have given Naz' defense fits, and I think the Provi defense would have gotten enough stops to pull away in the second half.
I don't agree on all of those but that's exactly what I'm looking for, well thought out position. Nice when people actually give reasons instead of throwing out a random score. Do you think Naz pass game couldn't move the ball on Providence or anyone for that matter? We never really saw them pressed into action except against JCA and the pass game is what won them that game with big plays. I agree Naz would have a tough time stopping Providence, there is no doubt about that, but I think Providence would have had a hell of a time stopping Naz too. IMO these are the two best teams and a game would be a heavy weight bout. I'll offer my analysis in a bit, still finishing up some work.
 
I don't agree on all of those but that's exactly what I'm looking for, well thought out position. Nice when people actually give reasons instead of throwing out a random score. Do you think Naz pass game couldn't move the ball on Providence or anyone for that matter? We never really saw them pressed into action except against JCA and the pass game is what won them that game with big plays. I agree Naz would have a tough time stopping Providence, there is no doubt about that, but I think Providence would have had a hell of a time stopping Naz too. IMO these are the two best teams and a game would be a heavy weight bout. I'll offer my analysis in a bit, still finishing up some work.
Stevenson over Naz 35-14
Cary over Naz 42-26
HF over Naz 34-27
 
I saw play Naz vs JCA, Francis, & Lake Forest. From what I saw it looked like that naz team that played JCA hadn't hit it's "full stride," even with the sloppy play, I think naz outgained JCA by double the yards on offense. It still looked like that naz team was finding their identity. JCA actually out coached Naz that game. When JCA didnt score they were still able to eat up the clock and be slow and boring and eat up yards, in a good way. Naz whooped Lake Forest. Never have I ever seen on a 3rd and 15 pass play, were all 5 lineman pancaked the dline. That Francis game was just embarrassing.

Julian love played Flynn Nagel 1 on 1 with no safety help over the top and did a pretty darn good job slowing him down. A very cool thing is in this hypothetical game the biggest match up would be Love vs Boykins, once these guys are teammates at Notre Dame we can actually look back in hind sight and see how these 2 would have played each other.

Also vs JCA I dont think #1 on naz played? (could be wrong) the previous year that kid looked like he can play at the d1 level.

Still I think PC & Naz were neck and neck best team in the state. Naz beats both Cary & Stevenson. PC beats Stevenson.

PC -3.5
Naz +3.5
 
Naz/Provi - Would Naz Julian Love be covering Provi's WR Boykin? That would be interesting.

Wassup
 
Naz/Provi - Would Naz Julian Love be covering Provi's WR Boykin? That would be interesting.

Wassup

Knowing Rack, he loves the concept of "my best player vs your best player," he would definitely have Love playing press man on Boykins, the bigger question is would Rack bracket Boykins and give Love a little bit of help over the top? As a Domer, I can't wait in 2 years to see these 2 go at it in practice..
 
Knowing Rack, he loves the concept of "my best player vs your best player," he would definitely have Love playing press man on Boykins, the bigger question is would Rack bracket Boykins and give Love a little bit of help over the top? As a Domer, I can't wait in 2 years to see these 2 go at it in practice..

If you use your best coverage guy you don't give him help over the top you play him 1 on 1. If you want help over the top you use a lesser coverage man and give him help.
 
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If you use your best coverage guy you don't give him help over the top you play him 1 on 1. If you want help over the top you use a lesser coverage man and give him help.

Can you explain further? Im not disagreeing you with you, but Im not sure if we are talking about the same coverage and what Rack has done in the past. Rack is very aggressive and sometimes plays press man with no saftey at all. If you dont get pressure on the qb, it puts your secondary in a tough spot. You can play cover 3 press man, similar to Seattle, while Sherman may have the best receiver he still has Earl Thomas behind him, or are saying this is how they would bracket Boykins? It all depends on what coverage you are talking about. Would you leave Boykins on an island with Love without a safety, like what they did with Nagel is the championship game?
 
I would leave Love on an island. I think he can cover Boykins. The only thing that would hurt him is the height disadvantage which I don't feel bracketing him helps at all.
 
I would leave Love on an island. I think he can cover Boykins. The only thing that would hurt him is the height disadvantage which I don't feel bracketing him helps at all.

I think Rack would do the same thing as well.. but I disagree completely. Naz loses by multiple TDs if that happens, in that 4-2-5 Rack literally has the safety 5 yards off the line of scrimmage. If I were PC I would overload the one side and have Boykins run 7-8 routes all day. Even if Love can hang with him, he would be exhausted on O.

It would be better if they ran cover 3, press man.

With their personal last season honestly they should of played a Tampa 2, bend dont break defense. The front 4 was able to get pressure consistently, it was a better fit for their LB's and secondary, and players who went both ways. But asking Rack to play that defense is like asking MC to run the 5 wide.
 
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