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Massachusetts Thread


Adam Kurkjian

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I haven't posted in this thread in a while, but the main takeaway from the season is how good Springfield Central and Catholic Memorial were. I'd recommend both for regional ranking designation. Both are deserving, and both are better than a lot of teams from Massachusetts who made it in the past. Both will be very good next year, too.

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  • 1 month later...

https://247sports.com/Player/Samson-Okunlola-46102278/

https://247sports.com/Video/Samson-Okunlola-Thayer-Academy-2021-Junior-Season-Highlights-10801389/

Like watching The Blind Side, lol.  "Big Mike"     Film angles are hard to really see much technique and he doesn't need it until '23 Fall.   Based on his frame, he'll pack on weight and probably be nearing 315-320 by signing day.   

Morgan State was his first offer, nice recruiter there apparently.    

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5 hours ago, golfaddict1 said:

https://247sports.com/Player/Samson-Okunlola-46102278/

https://247sports.com/Video/Samson-Okunlola-Thayer-Academy-2021-Junior-Season-Highlights-10801389/

Like watching The Blind Side, lol.  "Big Mike"     Film angles are hard to really see much technique and he doesn't need it until '23 Fall.   Based on his frame, he'll pack on weight and probably be nearing 315-320 by signing day.   

Morgan State was his first offer, nice recruiter there apparently.    

Samson has done a great job progressing physically since he came to high school. He's really become way more athletic than he was when he started. I'm excited to follow his career. Happy for him.

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  • 5 months later...

How has this thread gone almost six months without a post when MA is now the nation's recruiting hotbed?

https://theathletic.com/3362036/2022/06/14/samson-okunlola-college-football-recruiting/

Quote

John DiBiaso, the head football coach at Catholic Memorial in Boston, has been a head coach at the high school level for going on 40 years.

This May, he saw something he’d never seen before.

“We had a workout, an after-school workout,” DiBiaso said, “and I had 16 Power 5 coaches sitting in our workout area, our weightlifting area, watching the kids at the same time.

“There were people literally tripping over each other.”

Welcome to recruiting — in Massachusetts.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Big-Time commitments! Transfers! MA rapidly becoming like the top states.

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▪ BB&N senior Ronan Hanafin, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound safety/receiver from Burlington and a top six Class of 2023 recruit in the Bay State, committed to Clemson and coach Dabo Swinney on Sunday . . . Oluwakoleade Osinubi, a speedy 6-2 senior receiver, announced Monday night that he will be transferring from Catholic Memorial to Brockton High to play for his hometown Boxers this fall. And Henry Hasselbeck, the son of former Xaverian, Boston College, and NFL QB Matt Hasselbeck, is on the move from Belmont Hill to his father’s alma mater, Xaverian, where he will be a junior quarterback.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/08/17/sports/move-nepsac-austin-prep-football-has-bit-more-time-prepare-kickoff/

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  • 3 weeks later...

Season gets underway with a few games tonight and then for real on Friday. Adam and the gang at New England Football Journal have been pumping out some good content, here is Adam's Top 40:

https://nefootballjournal.com/2022/08/03/high-school-adam-kurkjians-miaa-top-40-pre-season-countdown/

The Globe previews every team in Eastern Mass:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/high-schools/preview/?sport=football

Only four teams looking to change their culture. MA still a little behind the times in coachspeak.

 

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First weekend in the books.

Some takeaways:

— Catholic Memorial couldn't find a game for the opening weekend. But Springfield Central rolled to a 38-0 win over Central Catholic. Many people are saying SC is the real best team in the state. Still a lot to play, but Central made the biggest statement of the weekend, by far.

— St. John's Prep obliterated Marshfield and is a legit state title contender in D1. Xaverian also blasted Everett and is going to be tough in D1, as usual.

— Franklin has reloaded and beat a solid Wachusett team, 32-22.

— The Hockomock League showed out with big wins from King Philip, Mansfield, Milford, Franklin, and North Attleboro. All are top 15-20 teams in this state.

— Brockton is interesting. The Boxers pulled out a 13-6 win over Barnstable on the Cape. Brockton's offense was supposed to be the difference, but the Boxers played good defense. They get Franklin next week.

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Week 2

--Springfield Central hammered BC High 56-12. Curious if they can compete against SJC at all next week. Tottenville burned SJC a couple times yesterday so maybe Central can score some points, but I expect they will have a hard time getting any stops.

--Catholic Memorial beat La Salle of Providence 47-7. It was 41-0 at halftime. A shame that CM didn't get any better games on the schedule this year.

--Central Catholic bounced back from last week's mauling by Central to beat St. John's Prep 17-7. 

--Everett got killed by Xaverian last week and every other team on their schedule is terrible, so I wonder what seed they'll get.

--Once again people want to change the playoff system:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/09/15/sports/proposal-revamp-high-school-football-season-would-include-playoffs-beginning-after-thanksgiving/

Not conceptually opposed to lengthening the regular season and cutting down the number of teams in the playoffs, but pushing the winter season back another week is a tough sell when MA is already one of the last states to start winter sports. Most states have some overlap between the end of football playoffs and the start of winter sports and I don't understand why MA can't do the same, the small number of schools affected can reschedule a few games. Also, two bye weeks? Presumably one is supposed to be the week before Thanksgiving in order to make the compressed playoff schedule more palatable.

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3 hours ago, golfaddict1 said:

CalPreps nat’l ratings this am… top 25   

 

E46D8851-C5F0-43C8-8146-64C79D407166.jpeg

I don’t see how they can justify this, given the lack of any interstate matchups for comparison.

Even when Brockton was making noise they never got ranked higher than the 85 to 100 range, and I suspect those were pretty much mercy rankings.

I’d like to be wrong, but …

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17 minutes ago, Wosinc said:

I don’t see how they can justify this, given the lack of any interstate matchups for comparison.

Even when Brockton was making noise they never got ranked higher than the 85 to 100 range, and I suspect those were pretty much mercy rankings.

I’d like to be wrong, but …

Yea, that’s one wicked or “vicious” (popular word this week lol) breaking the chains scale move.  All the years doing this with zero connect the dots.  Weird call by Freeman.  Not even a good win or even a playoff boost.  They started top 100 or even better,  a real WTF rating for a MA power with a weak schedule to boot nationally. 

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1 minute ago, golfaddict1 said:

Yea, that’s one wicked or “vicious” (popular word this week lol) breaking the chains scale move.  All the years doing this with zero connect the dots.  Weird call by Freeman.  Not even a good win.  They started top 100 or even better, but still… a real WTF rating.  

I could stomache a 95 or 96 feel-good ranking, but 22?  Where’s The Fish?

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