{"id":332345,"date":"2025-10-25T21:06:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T21:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/332345\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T21:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T21:06:18","slug":"lincoln-coach-not-happy-with-jacksonville-coach-after-77-0-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/332345\/","title":{"rendered":"Lincoln coach not happy with Jacksonville coach after 77-0 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Grounds and Matt Silkowski probably won\u2019t have a warm embrace when the Central State Eight Conference football coaches meet to discuss all-conference picks on Sunday, Nov. 2. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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\u2019s Kraushaar-Rosenberger Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThen 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,\u201d Silkowski said on Cheap Seats.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve 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\u2019ve been on plenty of sides of running clock here in Lincoln \u2014 on both sides, we\u2019ve done it to other people as well \u2014 and I\u2019ve never in 18 years seen a coach leave their starters in and blitz and play the way that they did when you\u2019re up over 40 points, when the opposing team has put their back-ups in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s common practice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a phone interview with The State Journal-Register, Silkowski stood by his radio comments. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I was getting very upset, more for our JV kids who were in the game,\u201d Silkowski said Saturday afternoon. \u201cYou put them in with the expectation they\u2019re playing against other JV kids or back-up kids. You feel bad for your players. I feel like when you\u2019re on the losing side of the running clock and you put in your backups, you\u2019re conceding defeat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After being sent a link to the video of the broadcast, Grounds told a reporter with The State Journal-Register that he wouldn\u2019t comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019 winningest coach, Robert Kraushaar (152-83-13 from 1943-70).<\/p>\n

More: <\/strong>Lincoln football coach Matt Silkowski bids farewell after proving doubters wrong<\/a><\/p>\n

Silkowski, who is moving to Texas with his family, told WLCN<\/a>, based north of Lincoln in Atlanta, he only got more upset as he had more time to reflect on the game. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you do that? This isn\u2019t college football; this is high school football. These kids sign up to play for the love of the game,\u201d Silkowski told Cheap Seats while surrounded by six of his players. \u201cI think if you talk to any coach, any sport, if you ask a guy, or a woman, \u2018Why do you do this,\u2019 it\u2019s because they want to teach kids life lessons, character, how to play the game the right way \u2014 whatever sport, I don\u2019t care what it is, any coach, that\u2019s what they\u2019ll tell you.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is he (Grounds) coaching high school football? Because obviously he\u2019s lost his way, because that is not what he did last night. These kids don\u2019t deserve that; the JV kids, the freshmen kids that we had in the game don\u2019t deserve that. It\u2019d be one thing if it was a shootout, 77-50.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did you teach your kids? If anything, it\u2019s a poor life lesson. That is horrible. He should be removed immediately as head coach at Jacksonville High School. That is ridiculous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

WEAI (107.1 FM in Jacksonville) posted on its Twitter account Friday evening that the Crimsons had put in their junior varsity\u00a0players and scored the final touchdown with 8 minutes, 35 seconds left<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 coaching staff realized Lincoln\u2019s subs were in, they\u2019d make lineup changes. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second series, you\u2019d expect the transition of the players to occur at that point,\u201d Silkowski told WLCN. \u201cStill didn\u2019t happen. Fourth quarter, they\u2019re up 77-0, we\u2019re on the ball and they\u2019re still blitzing six guys, they\u2019re still bringing the house with a jailbreak blitz.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that at the end of the day, it\u2019s my responsibility to protect our players and stand up for them. That is absolutely ridiculous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the phone, Silkowski added, \u201cI thought maybe, OK, he didn\u2019t know we were going to mass-sub to start the second half. The second drive is when I thought, \u2018OK, what are you doing?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, Lincoln beat Jacksonville in Week 6 41-28 to become playoff eligible for the first time since 1984. It was the Railsplitters\u2019 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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. \u201cThat\u2019s 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\u00a0needs to probably get out of coaching high school football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546,\u00a0ryan.mahan@sj-r.com<\/a>, Twitter.com\/RyanMahanSJR.<\/p>\n