10 Questions: Part Two as we get ready for the start of the 2024 H.S. Football season

Yesterday, we began our list of ten questions we have about the 2024 high school football season. Now that you’ve had some time to digest those, here’s the rest of our list.

#6. Will the Big Central win its first state title? We’re only two years into the “true state championship” model of high school football, which took years of wrangling to get done. In Year One, both Edison and North Hunterdon won state sectional titles, but both fell in the group semifinal stage. Last year, Bernards won its first ever state sectional trophy of the playoff era, but the Mountaineers also lost in the group semis, falling to Westwood on a gorgeous Friday night in November.

So who can get over the hump this year, and not just make the state finals, but win one?

Certainly, we think Phillipsburg has the horses. Even though beating Easton is the goal every year, and often more important than the playoffs, there’s a feeling around the Stateliners this season that there’s some unfinished business to take care of. That’s because they’ve made two straight state sectional finals, but lost in both. Coming back to beat the arch rival Red Rovers on Thanksgiving both years – the first time they’ve done that since 2002-2003 – certainly eased any pain, but they clearly want more.

For everyone else, there may be some worthy candidates, but they will have to prove a lot. For all the talk about the talent at Hillsborough, Woodbridge and Somerville, for example, they all play challenging schedules, and all still may have a little something to prove first.

Piscataway may be back closer to championship form than it’s ever been since their COVID-shortened 2020 season got cancelled, but going all the way might be too tall an order yet. And if North Brunswick can get over that hump and win its first sectional title ever, the Raiders could also go far.

#7. 20 Minute Halftime? Really? This is one we always laugh at, and sometimes cringe at when we’re broadcasting a game. While many this year will focus on the new running clock rule – which starts when a team leads by 33 or more in the second half and now won’t revert back to normal no matter how close the score gets – we’re thinking about the halftime clock.

The NJFCA recently included a line in one of its emails to coaches around the state reminding them of key points for the upcoming year, whether it be changes or points of emphasis, stating: “As per NFHS rules the length of halftime should not exceed 20 minutes including for special circumstances or honorings.”

Really? Twenty minutes? We’ve seen games where it’s much closer to a half an hour. And our thought is, why does no one enforce this?

Our idea? Start running that 20-minute clock on the scoreboard, and penalize teams that aren’t back in time. Once the 20-minutes runs down, set the short clock for warmups. If teams aren’t back out, well that’s too bad. And if a team isn’t ready by the time the scoreboard hits 0:00? They take a 15-yard penalty right off the bat on their first possession. Whether they’re the receiving team of the second half kickoff, or they get the ball next.

That would bring everybody out in a timely fashion. Who wants to start the second half on the five-yard line?

#8. Who will break their playoff drought? A weaker-than-expected schedule ended up hurting Voorhees last season in its quest to break a four-season, five-year playoff drought. But even though they ended up 6-3, the Vikings didn’t make it. With a new head coach in John Hack inheriting a team that rushed for over 3,000 yards last season, maybe this will be the year?

The longest drought among the Hunterdon/Warren teams in the Big Central belongs to Belvidere, which last made the postseason in 2017. Ironically, the County Seaters’ tough season was part of what may have kept Voorhees out, hurting their strength of schedule.

Two Somerset County schools have gone longer: Franklin hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2012, while North Plainfield hasn’t been since 2010. The Warriors were 3-8 last year, and a couple more wins, considering the challenging division they’re in with North Brunswick, Sayreville, St. Thomas Aquinas and Edison, may just do the trick. The Canucks will need a big turnaround.

Union County also has a couple of longer streaks. Dayton has not made the playoffs since 2012, and Scotch Plains-Fanwood since 2014. The Bulldogs were 3-7 last year under second-year head coach Nick Iannacone, and the Raiders had a tumultuous year with Austin Holman stepping away as head coach a few weeks in. This year, they’ll have their third coach in less than a year as Shawn Johnson takes over the program.

In Middlesex County, it’s no surprise the longest streaks belong to Highland Park and JP Stevens. The Owls broke their 51-game losing streak last year in their finale at Point Pleasant Beach, but will have a long road to go to become a playoff eligible team. “One game at a time” will be their motto. Highland Park was last in the playoffs in 2010.

JP Stevens – which has lost 42 straight and now has the longest active skid in the state with the Owls off the board – last made the postseason in 2006, the longest drought in the Big Central. This may not be their year, but if head coach Jason Goerge can get the Hawks on the board with a win or two this year, things will be looking up in North Edison.

There are two shorter droughts in Middlesex County: both Monroe and Metuchen last made it in 2014. Perth Amboy last qualified in 2017.

#9. Could replay ever come back to football? The NJSIAA had a brief experiment with instant replay in games, and it didn’t go so well. We never saw it in any regular season games, though it certainly could have happened. But it did play a role in some playoff games, and officials still bungled calls at the end of two “regional championship” games at Rutgers in 2022. So the NJSIAA simply scrapped it just a couple of months later.

Could it come back? Well, we all know the controversy in that Manasquan-Camden basketball game last year. (If you don’t, just Google it. We got so burned out from all that talk last winter.) But suffice it to say, that controversial ending where Manasquan’s buzzer-beater was incorrectly ruled no good has stirred talk about replay in that sport, so why not football, too?

The main issue is that so many fans have phones and shoot video, in addition to the many media members often in attendance, everyone can see what the right call should have been, and from multiple angles, yet the officials have no help whatsoever.

As simple as people like to make it, though, replay is not always a slam dunk. Even the professional sports have issues. So bringing it back – or instituting it in basketball – may not be as easy as you think. After all, if they couldn’t get replay calls right the first time, why would they get them right now?

#10. What will be the best game on our broadcast schedule? We think we’ve got a pretty good slate of games coming up for 2024, but there are a few in particular we think will be good ones, starting right off the bat this Thursday when Somerville entertains Hillsborough. Both have major talent, and are ranked in the top half of the Central Jersey Sports Radio preseason Top Ten, but also will have to prove themselves a bit to move up. They’re all big games, but this would be a feather in the cap of whoever comes out on top when the playoffs are seeded.

Plainfield at Woodbridge on the 13th of September is another good one. The Cardinals are a resurgent program and bring back a ton of talent, including reigning Central Jersey Sports Radio Two-Way Player of the Year Joel Cordoba, a wide receiver and safety who makes a significant impact on both ends of the field. And it will be fun to watch him on defense when twins Derek Anderson (QB) and Bryan Anderson (WR) try and hook up for the Barrons.

We also like the Phillipsburg’s visit to Ridge the next week, September 20th. It’s the rematch of a great game we broadcast last year out at Maloney Stadium, and though Ridge has lost a lot, it’s a key divisional game, and Andy West will have his Red Devils ready.

Colonia at Edison on Friday, October 4th, also could be a big one: two evenly-matched teams in a pick-’em game that could be significant in the playoff chase.