{"id":145100,"date":"2021-08-23T03:51:30","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T08:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=145100"},"modified":"2021-08-23T03:51:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T08:51:32","slug":"monday-mailbag-football-and-volleyball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/08\/23\/monday-mailbag-football-and-volleyball\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Mailbag: football and volleyball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about upsets from Week No. 1 of the high school football season, NWC volleyball, Pigskin Pick\u2019Em\u2019s guest selectors and Ohio State\u2019s quarterback situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What was the biggest surprise from this weekend\u2019s area football games? Shawnee over Lima Central Catholic has to be considered a shocker. Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: In my mind, there were several surprises.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, many people consider Shawnee over Lima Central Catholic to be an upset. I picked the Thunderbirds to win but I\u2019m not shocked that Shawnee got the victory. After all, the Indians have nine starters back on each side of the ball. Still, it probably does go down as a bit of a surprise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m surprised by Eastwood\u2019s margin of victory over Ottawa-Glandorf and I\u2019m a little surprised by Defiance\u2019s 7-0 win over Napoleon on Thursday. The Bulldogs had a number of key fourth down stops in that game, including at least two inside the five.<\/em> It was a good victory for a team looking to rebound from a handful of down seasons.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was tough to get a read on Saturday\u2019s \u201cDelphos Bowl\u201d but I\u2019m somewhat surprised that Jefferson defeated St. John\u2019s by two touchdowns, 28-14.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on opening night results, the 2021 high school football season should be an interesting one in northwest Ohio.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: I know you don\u2019t get many volleyball questions, but who do you like to win the NWC volleyball championship this season, Crestview or Lincolnview? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: It\u2019s tough to say right now but with all due respect to other Northwest Conference squads, I would say there\u2019s an excellent chance it\u2019ll come down to those two teams. Both are blessed with great players and great coaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it does indeed come down to those two teams, we\u2019ll have to wait until October 12 to find out. That\u2019s when they\u2019ll meet at Crestview and it will be the NWC finale.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: What happened to the Guest Selector part of Pigskin Pick\u2019Em? I enjoy seeing your picks but it was also fun seeing others pick games as well. Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

A: I agree, it was fun picking against a different person each week.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It ultimately boiled down to this \u2013 while a number of readers enjoy seeing the picks, it was sometimes difficult to find people to actually do it each week and I believe there were a couple of main reasons for that.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people were reluctant because didn\u2019t like the idea of picking the wrong team and looking bad (no one looked bad, it was a fun competition), while others didn\u2019t like the idea of picking against their own team or picking against a team they had some sort of connection with, i.e. a relative playing, coach is a friend, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you take part in a feature like that, you have to pick who you think it’s going to win, not who you want to win. There have been plenty of people who disagreed with my picks and they let me know, sometimes in friendly terms and sometimes in not-so-friendly terms.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If enough people express interest in picking games, I\u2019m certainly open to bringing back that part of the feature.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: With CJ Stroud being named as Ohio State\u2019s starting quarterback, which of the other quarterbacks will be the first to transfer elsewhere? Name withheld upon request<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: Good question and I hope the answer is none of them but we both know that\u2019s probably not realistic.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stroud, Kyle McCord and Jack Miller were fighting for the starting nod, then Quinn Ewers arrived last week.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think Ewers is going anywhere, at least for now. He just got there and has some catching up to do, but it seems unlikely that he\u2019ll pack up and leave.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That leaves McCord and Miller and I won\u2019t be surprised if one of them transfers out and it\u2019s probably whichever one isn\u2019t named as the backup quarterback. While head coach Ryan Day announced Stroud as the starter against Minnesota, he didn\u2019t say who the backup would be.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that in mind, I don\u2019t think either of them will go anywhere this season. However, things could be different in January.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there\u2019s always the possibility that Stroud doesn\u2019t work out as planned and one of the others steps in and takes the job.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a sports question or comment for the next Monday Mailbag, please email it to sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor This week\u2019s Monday Mailbag features questions about upsets from Week No. 1 of the high school football season, NWC volleyball, Pigskin Pick\u2019Em\u2019s guest selectors and Ohio State\u2019s quarterback situation. Q: What was the biggest surprise from this weekend\u2019s area football games? Shawnee over Lima Central Catholic has to be considered a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 23:13:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}