Mark Grounds and Matt Silkowski probably won’t have a warm embrace when the Central State Eight Conference football coaches meet to discuss all-conference picks on Sunday, Nov. 2.
About 12 hours after Silkowski coached his final game of a 10-year career at Lincoln Community High School, he appeared on WLCN radio (96.3 FM and streamed on YouTube), and told Cheap Seats co-hosts Joe Ryan and Scott Kirby on Saturday that Jacksonville should fire football coach Mark Grounds following a lopsided 77-0 Jacksonville win on Friday in the regular-season finale for both teams at Jacksonville’s Kraushaar-Rosenberger Field.
“Then it got out of hand, too, by the just classlessness of their head coach, Mark Grounds. In my opinion, he should be removed as the head football coach at Jacksonville High School, immediately,” Silkowski said on Cheap Seats.
“I’ve been coaching high school football for 18 years: up north, I coached on some really good programs, programs that were not very good, either. We’ve been on plenty of sides of running clock here in Lincoln — on both sides, we’ve done it to other people as well — and I’ve never in 18 years seen a coach leave their starters in and blitz and play the way that they did when you’re up over 40 points, when the opposing team has put their back-ups in.
“That’s common practice.”
In a phone interview with The State Journal-Register, Silkowski stood by his radio comments.
“I was getting very upset, more for our JV kids who were in the game,” Silkowski said Saturday afternoon. “You put them in with the expectation they’re playing against other JV kids or back-up kids. You feel bad for your players. I feel like when you’re on the losing side of the running clock and you put in your backups, you’re conceding defeat.”
After being sent a link to the video of the broadcast, Grounds told a reporter with The State Journal-Register that he wouldn’t comment.
Jacksonville finished its season 5-4 to become playoff eligible. Grounds, who is in his 25th season guiding the Crimsons, has led JHS to the playoffs 14 times and twice got five wins, though the Crimsons were left out of the postseason due to a lack of playoff points. He is 129-114 overall and 23 wins shy of the Crimsons’ winningest coach, Robert Kraushaar (152-83-13 from 1943-70).
Silkowski, who is moving to Texas with his family, told WLCN, based north of Lincoln in Atlanta, he only got more upset as he had more time to reflect on the game.
“How do you do that? This isn’t college football; this is high school football. These kids sign up to play for the love of the game,” Silkowski told Cheap Seats while surrounded by six of his players. “I think if you talk to any coach, any sport, if you ask a guy, or a woman, ‘Why do you do this,’ it’s because they want to teach kids life lessons, character, how to play the game the right way — whatever sport, I don’t care what it is, any coach, that’s what they’ll tell you.
“Why is he (Grounds) coaching high school football? Because obviously he’s lost his way, because that is not what he did last night. These kids don’t deserve that; the JV kids, the freshmen kids that we had in the game don’t deserve that. It’d be one thing if it was a shootout, 77-50.
“What did you teach your kids? If anything, it’s a poor life lesson. That is horrible. He should be removed immediately as head coach at Jacksonville High School. That is ridiculous.”
WEAI (107.1 FM in Jacksonville) posted on its Twitter account Friday evening that the Crimsons had put in their junior varsity players and scored the final touchdown with 8 minutes, 35 seconds left. Jacksonville led 47-0 at the half and went up 54-0 two plays after Lincoln (1-8) lost its opening possession of the second half on a fumble. JHS led 68-0 before a safety gave the Crimsons 70 points.
Silkowski said he was a little surprised that Jacksonville, up 47-0, had its starters in to begin the second half but thought when the Crimsons’ coaching staff realized Lincoln’s subs were in, they’d make lineup changes.
“The second series, you’d expect the transition of the players to occur at that point,” Silkowski told WLCN. “Still didn’t happen. Fourth quarter, they’re up 77-0, we’re on the ball and they’re still blitzing six guys, they’re still bringing the house with a jailbreak blitz.”
“I feel that at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility to protect our players and stand up for them. That is absolutely ridiculous.”
On the phone, Silkowski added, “I thought maybe, OK, he didn’t know we were going to mass-sub to start the second half. The second drive is when I thought, ‘OK, what are you doing?’”
In 2023, Lincoln beat Jacksonville in Week 6 41-28 to become playoff eligible for the first time since 1984. It was the Railsplitters’ third playoff appearance and second since 1975. The Railers were 0-27 in the three seasons before Silkowski arrived in 2016. He finished 28-60 over 10 seasons and is the fourth-winningest coach in Lincoln football history.
Friday wasn’t the first time he’s been upset at Grounds. Silkowski said his first game against Jacksonville left a sour taste in his mouth.
“In 2016, my first year there, it was 42-0, we were running the clock out to go to halftime and he (Grounds) called timeout with one second left to force us to punt,” Silkowski said. “That’s what made 2023 even sweeter, when we beat them to go to the playoffs. That was a personal thing for me. That guy clearly has lost his way and needs to probably get out of coaching high school football.”
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.