Football leftovers ... Week 9

Before we move on to other subjects, a few final thoughts on the situation at Paducah Tilghman:

No program benefited more from the Kentucky High School Athletic Association's decision to go from four classes to six classes than Tilghman, which was placed in a district with a school (Union County) that had beaten the Tornado once in 24 years and three others (McLean County, Muhlenberg South and Webster County) that would have never had the stomach to schedule the Tornado.

It seemed like a breeze ... I fully expected it would be a decade or more before Tilghman lost a district game and felt that the Tornado would have a clear path to the state semifinals nearly every year.

I covered the Tornado's first game, against Christian County — one of western Kentucky's most talented teams — at the Jerry Claiborne Bowl in Hopkinsville. Tilghman made a nice second-half comeback and, with its top two running backs on the shelf with injuries, appeared to be driving for a potential game-tying touchdown when it fumbled inside the Christian 30 in the final five minutes.

Then the wheels fell off against Graves County the next week, and the program has been in downward-spiral mode ever since.

Compare the way that this year's Tilghman squad has deteriorated with the way that Perry Thomas' 2006 squad came back from an 0-5 start to win the district title and reach the second round of the playoffs.

It remains interesting that Thomas, who left to take the job at Campbellsville University last December, still has his detractors in town. He played a boring brand of football, some of them say ... well, he used about three or four different schemes in his eight-year tenure at Tilghman, going with what he felt was best suited for the talent on hand in the program.

An anti-Thomas reader e-mailed me today ripping Thomas for his coaching style. My response was this: Are you enjoying the 2-7 record Tilghman has compiled this year more than the playoff run that got the Tornado to within a play or two of the state championship game?

Like him or not, exciting brand of football or not, Thomas was a winner at Tilghman. He took over a program in near-shambles and won a district title in his first season with 19 players in the top three grades, then got the Tornado to the state semifinals twice in a span of five seasons.

One more point to make ... Thomas inherited a team at Campbellsville that was 0-10 last season, leaving a program that reached the state semifinals. Campbellsville is 2-6 this season with three games left on the schedule. Tilghman will win, at most, three games on the field this fall.

What kind of odds could we have gotten in the preseason that Campbellsville would win more games than Tilghman this year?

• Marshall County's injury woes will extend deep into basketball season, too. Josh Madding and Denver Seay, both two-way starters and perhaps the team's two most indispensable players, are out for a few weeks with injuries. Madding. a dual threat back and receiver, broke his right arm in last week's loss to Henderson County. Seay, a starter at quarterback and defensive end, was already dealing with a badly bruised wrist when he suffered a separated shoulder.

Both are expected to start on Marshall's basketball team, too. There is talk that Seay is hoping he can play with the shoulder and avoid surgery until after the conclusion of basketball season.

• It was clear last week that senior Chris Dobbins has become Calloway County's go-to receiver. Dobbins sometimes gets overshadowed by teammate George Garner, who has a little more size and speed, but Dobbins is reliable in his own right. In the come-from-behind 28-21 win over Hopkins Central, four of Dobbins' five receptions were on third-down plays for first downs, and he had a touchdown catch on fourth down.

• The playoff picture became a little clearer after last week. Here is a look at the first-round pairings (in bracket order) in far western Kentucky:

Class A
Ballard Memorial at Caverna
Kentucky Country Day at Crittenden County
Bethlehem at Mayfield
Fulton City at Louisville Holy Cross

Class 2A
Caldwell County at Owensboro Catholic
Todd Central at Trigg County
Hancock County at Murray
Heath at Fort Campbell

Class 3A
Muhlenberg South at Butler County
Adair County at Union County
Edmonson County at McLean County
Webster County at Russellville

Class 4A
Hopkins Central at Franklin-Simpson
Russell County at Calloway County
Warren East at Lone Oak
Muhlenberg North at Allen County

Class 5A
Hopkinsville at Grayson County
Barren County at Christian County
Warren Central at Owensboro
Ohio County at Bowling Green

Class 6A
Madisonville at Louisville Eastern
Louisville Seneca at Daviess County
Louisville Ballard at Henderson County
Graves County at Louisville Trinity