BLITZ: How a team, and its coach, achieved vindication with Bishop Luers 2A title game win

As Bishop Luers celebrated state championship No. 12 on the field of Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday afternoon, Blitz sensed a feeling of absolution as much as excitement.

For a team that trounced North Posey 40-3 in a lopsided Class 2A showdown, it was the perfect ending to a season that started off so ugly – back-to-back losses in which the Knights looked outmatched against the likes of East Noble and New Haven.

But the story of this season goes back even further, and involves more than just the players themselves.

Back in 2012, Bishop Luers was piling up state trophies like Blitz stacking foodstuffs in preparation for winter (which, sadly, is coming soon). As Jaylon Smith, Michael Rogers and the Knights celebrated the state championship with a 40-28 win over Indianapolis Ritter, Bishop Luers had firmly established a dynasty within Class 2A, four consecutive state titles.

And it wasn’t just that four-year stretch led by Smith. The 2012 title capped a string of seven championships in 12 years.

When Coach Kyle Lindsay took over for his father Matt, the expectation was that winning would continue at the pace seen previously. It didn’t.

Outside of a run to semistate in 2011, Bishop Luers did not escape the sectional round in three of Kyle’s first four years. It took him eight years to reach the state championship, a heartbreaking one-point loss to Western Boone in 2020.

Some surely wondered if Kyle was capable of reaching the apex of high school football in the state, something his father did nine(!) times.

Some of the same people were skeptical that this was the team that could end the drought. After the first two games, it surely looked like an impossibility. There was no five-star talent to turn to like Jayden Smith. There wasn’t a record-breaking quarterback like Carson Clark around either. Instead, it was a group of highly motivated – and sometimes erratic – Knights players.

It was fitting to see such a group excel on Saturday. It was Damiun Jackson setting the tone with a blocked punt on the opening possession of the game, then continuing to be an absolute menace all game long, finishing with eight tackles, four TFL, two sacks and a forced fumble. It was Mickey Daring with a pair of touchdowns and a force on defense. It was Jaylen White with an interception followed almost instantaneously by a touchdown. It was Jacob Felger with big defensive plays. It was Finn Saxe roaming sideline to sideline making sure tackles.

The list goes on.

And then there is Kohen McKenzie. The senior quarterback shook off an early interception to throw three touchdown passes, including a pair of perfectly-thrown balls that, if placed anywhere else, were not going to be completed. He, like so many others, stepped up when needed most.

Some will roll their eyes about how big this title was. After all, Bishop Luers has won 12 of them. So who cares?

Like it or not, this program is judged on state championships. Why? Because it has consistently competed in and won them since it opened. Consider that in the first season of the current class football championship in 1983, it reached the state finals. It won its first title in Year 3 of the format.

Yet here the Knights were, without a title for 11 years, the longest drought in program history. And at the helm? A legacy in Kyle Lindsay, who had won titles as a player, but not yet as a coach.

As the hugs and handshakes continued on Saturday after the victory, it felt like a return to form for one of the state’s perennial powers.

Eleven years is a long time. This team, and its coach, made sure ‘The Lu’ returned to the top.

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