“Certainly, starting off 0-3 is tough, no doubt about that,” Daniels said Thursday. “My message to our guys is it would be far more of a travesty if we don’t use it to get issues addressed. We’ve played three really tough opponents. It’s forced us to embrace reality. This is truly where we’re at. When you go through these hard things, you’ve got to evaluate how you’re going to deal with adversity. Who’s committed? Who’s not committed? What attitudes exist that have been detrimental? All those things rise to the top.”
Kenton Ridge has been outscored 104-14 and has not scored in its last six quarters. It lost 35-0 at home to London last week.
“We’ve got to execute better offensively,” Daniels said. “We’ve got to do a better job coming together. We put those guys in a bunch of competitive situations in practice with some of the best available defensive guys we’ve had and allowed them to be compete. I think it has been really good.”
The knowledge that every team will make the playoffs this season regardless of record helps teams like Kenton Ridge. No matter what happens in the regular season, it can hit the reset button in the postseason. Every team will be 0-0.
Daniels has preached that to his players, especially the seven returning seniors, since the Ohio High School Athletic Association made the announcement about the revised playoffs.
“Certainly with our senior group and many of our juniors, their success isn’t going to be judged by their win-loss record but by how much they’re going to change the attitude and culture,” Daniels said.
Here’s a look at Friday’s other area games:
Springfield (3-0) at Northmont (3-0): This game features the top two passers in the Greater Western Ohio Conference. Northmont’s Cade Rice has thrown for 731 yards and 10 touchdowns. Springfield’s Te’Sean Smoot has seven touchdown passes and 553 passing yards.
Springfield won 28-17 last season. The teams have split the last four meetings.
Shawnee (3-0) at London (3-0): Shawnee beat London 30-22 last season. The teams have won their first three games this season by a combined margin of 132 points.
Urbana (0-3) at Graham (3-0): Graham is 3-0 for the first time since 1999. Falcons quarterback Brady King ranks second in the Central Buckeye Conference with a 138.2 passer rating.
Tecumseh (1-2) at Jonathan Alder (3-0): Alder has won this game three years in a row since joining the CBC in 2017.
West Liberty-Salem (2-1) at West Jefferson (2-1): This game features the top two passers in the Ohio Heritage Conference. Tyler Buescher has thrown for 911 yards and 11 touchdowns for West Jefferson. Christian Griffith has thrown for 700 yards and eight touchdowns for West Liberty-Salem.
Northwestern (1-2) at North Union (1-2): The last two games in this series have been decided by a total of seven points. Northwestern won 20-14 last season and lost 8-7 in 2018.
Greeneview (2-1) at Catholic Central (0-3): The Irish have been shut out by Greenon and Southeastern the last two weeks.
Triad (1-2) at Fairbanks (3-0): Since beating Fairbanks 45-21 in 2015, Triad has lost four straight games in the series.
Cedarville (0-3) at Greenon (2-1): Greenon has scored 74 points in its last two games after losing 41-7 to Mechanicsburg in Week 1. Evan Davis ranks fifth in the OHC with 455 passing yards.
Mechanicsburg (3-0) at Northeastern (1-2): Mechanicsburg ranks second in Division VI in the state poll and has shut out Northeastern the last two seasons.
Madison Plains (1-2) at Southeastern (1-2): Southeastern has lost eight games in a row in this series since a 28-7 victory in 2011.
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