Talking with ‘Edgy’ Tim: Best defenses, Barrington’s playoff chances, rivalry week in the DKC

Rivals prep football expert “Edgy” Tim O’Halloran is back to talk with Daily Herald columnist Kevin Schmit about the area’s latest news heading into Week 6.

What’s the topic? A little bit of everything, starting with the area’s top defenses. They also discuss Barrington’s playoff chances and a pair of huge conference matchups: Geneva (4-1) at Batavia (4-1) in the DuKane Conference and Jacobs (5-0) at Huntley (5-0) in the Fox Valley.

Let’s get to it in this edition of Talking with “Edgy” Tim.

Kevin Schmit: Last week we talked about the area’s top offenses. What about the top defenses?

“Edgy” Tim: I’ll start with IC Catholic Prep. I think the wins over Nazareth and St. Ignatius are pretty quality, I don’t care what class they are. (Junior athlete) Grant Bowen is a stud, and it doesn’t hurt that his dad (former NFL safety Matt Bowen) is coaching on the defensive side. They’re just good.

Wheaton North has only allowed 57 points this year. And they’re playing Wheaton Warrenville South this week, who’s also been very good defensively. They lost by two points to Geneva and gave up 28 points, which is pretty good against that offense. That was impressive by South. And they’ve just hung in there defensively.

Prospect and Huntley have both been good defensively. Huntley’s allowed 63 points and Prospect’s allowed 59. It’s all coming down to Week 9 (when Hersey plays Prospect). It’s going to solve a lot of things in the Mid-Suburban League. Two great quarterbacks and two defenses not giving up a whole lot.

I don’t know how good Conant is. We’ll have a better idea after this week when they play Fremd, but Conant’s only given up 43 points this year.

But I think the number one, and this goes for more than just this year, is Downers North. They’re always well-prepared. They’re boring, but boring wins football games. And they always play defense. They’ve only given up 33 points against good competition. They’re always physical.

KS: Perennial playoff qualifier Barrington notched its first win last week against a brutal schedule. With Palatine (2-3), Conant (5-0), Fremd (4-1) and Schaumburg (1-4) remaining, can the Broncos make the playoffs in the expanded field?

ET: They’ll get in. I see three wins minimum from them because I think they’ll beat Palatine and Schaumburg. And that’ll be enough with the expanded playoffs. I’m guessing they’ll find a way to hang in against Conant and Fremd. I’m relatively confident they’ll find a way. There’s too much pride there for those guys to back down. They’ll fight their way in. It may be an ugly 3-6, but that still gets them in.

There’s still talent in that building. They could be one of those teams that sneaks in with three or four wins, and they could be dangerous in the first round depending on the matchup. Those guys know how to win.

KS: It’s rivalry week in the DuKane Conference, and the top matchup is Geneva at Batavia. Who you got?

ET: That’s where I’m going on Friday. It’s a great rivalry. I don’t think it ever went away, but Geneva was down for a little while and it’s nice to see them back up now. It should be a great game and, I don’t know, first to 50 wins?

They are not going to make the defensive part of this conversation, by the way. They both have given up some points. I think it goes back and forth, but Batavia is hard to go against at home. So I’m not going to. I’m going with Batavia.

KS: It’s a good week for a who-you-got two-parter. What about Huntley against Jacobs?

ET: I saw Huntley last week (a 42-35 win over Cary-Grove), but I think Jacobs gets the win. I think Jacobs is a little more tested. Brian Zimmerman is a good coach, I think he does a good job there. Talent-wise, they’re able to do a lot offensively.

They’re kind of like Huntley. They mix it up a lot. So I think offensively, philosophy-wise they’re pretty similar. I just have a sense that Jacobs has a couple more quality wins under their belt, and Huntley still has those teams ahead of them.

It should be a real tight game, but I’d go with Jacobs in that one. But I like Malik Carter at quarterback for Huntley and (Chase Hojnacki) is a nice running back. He’s a change-up in that offense, so they’re not all about throwing the ball.

KS: Where are you going this weekend?

ET: Geneva and Batavia on Friday, and then probably back to the city on Saturday to see Morgan Park against Simeon. By far the best game in the Chicago Public League, and I haven’t seen Morgan Park yet. I think they’re the best team in the city.