Ryle welcomes back the vast majority of their top players for another shot at winning their first 6A state championship in 2025. Even though the 2024 season was very successful, the Raiders fell short of their goal to "hoist the hardware at Kroger".

Highlights included the first half running clock defeat of St. X in round 2 of the playoffs, 8 straight running clock victories, the 4Q comeback win at CAL and the OT win over Highlands.

You always have to replace good players and Ryle has some solid underclassmen to fill gaps. Stud DE Dillon Smith and WR Landon Lorms are their 2 most notable losses to graduation. I believe the Raiders return 15 starters including Jacob Savage and Dylan Lee both ways plus QB Nathan Verax. Jacob should be a leading candidate for Kentucky's Mr. Football this year: 

The players and staff will put in the work required to compete for the state championship. A challenging non-district schedule that includes Covington Catholic, Cooper, Highlands, CAL, and St. X will have them well prepared for district play and the playoffs.

Thanks to Coach Engler and all of the dedicated coaches. Best wishes to everyone associated with the Ryle Raider football family for an outstanding season.

What are your thoughts about the 2025 Ryle Raiders?

My initial thought is how exciting!  15 starters back from that great football team is formidable. 

Ryle will be in a similar position as Cooper was this year. Cooper made the state title game two years ago and then returned the majority of their starters for this past season. They were able to handle the pressure of being the hunted and made it back again. Ryle will be in the same boat next year. Ryle isn’t sneaking up on anyone next year, and will have the attention of the rest of 6A now. As they have shown a NKY 6A can compete.  So Ryle will need to keep that same work ethic and answer the call of being the team others are looking to knock off now. I definitely think they have the team to make it back again next year. 

Just now, futurecoach said:

Ryle will be in a similar position as Cooper was this year. Cooper made the state title game two years ago and then returned the majority of their starters for this past season. They were able to handle the pressure of being the hunted and made it back again. Ryle will be in the same boat next year. Ryle isn’t sneaking up on anyone next year, and will have the attention of the rest of 6A now. As they have shown a NKY 6A can compete.  So Ryle will need to keep that same work ethic and answer the call of being the team others are looking to knock off now. I definitely think they have the team to make it back again next year. 

Exactly my thoughts @futurecoach!

17 hours ago, StraightShooter said:

Ryle welcomes back the vast majority of their top players for another shot at winning their first 6A state championship in 2025. Even though the 2024 season was very successful, the Raiders fell short of their goal to "hoist the hardware at Kroger".

Highlights included the first half running clock defeat of St. X in round 2 of the playoffs, 8 straight running clock victories, the 4Q comeback win at CAL and the OT win over Highlands.

You always have to replace good players and Ryle has some solid underclassmen to fill gaps. Stud DE Dillon Smith and WR Landon Lorms are their 2 most notable losses to graduation. I believe the Raiders return 15 starters including Jacob Savage and Dylan Lee both ways plus QB Nathan Verax. Jacob should be a leading candidate for Kentucky's Mr. Football this year: 

The players and staff will put in the work required to compete for the state championship. A challenging non-district schedule that includes Covington Catholic, Cooper, Highlands, CAL, and St. X will have them well prepared for district play and the playoffs.

Thanks to Coach Engler and all of the dedicated coaches. Best wishes to everyone associated with the Ryle Raider football family for an outstanding season.

What are your thoughts about the 2025 Ryle Raiders?

They will be a handful for most teams on their schedule.

It all starts up front, I feel Ryle has the skill players to accomplish anything, BUT the overall difference maker will be whether they have a solid offensive line that can protect QB1 next season, if so, then they’ll have a great opportunity against someone such as Trinity in the 6A State Championship

Best of Luck to the Raiders, they’ve been champions their entire career for the 2026 Class and hope they can add to it winning 6A in December 2025.

From ASAP at Covington and this is former Ryle great, Lex Sowards, doing the instructing:

?JANUARY LINEMAN TRAINING?
Former Indiana State (and Ryle great) offensive lineman Lex Sowards will be hosting Offensive/defensive lineman group training on Saturdays this winter. It will be 30 minutes of lineman specific training and 30 minutes of speed & agility.

Limited Availability. 16 spots. Please Venmo me (@lexsowards) and include your son’s name and age in the description

Schedule 
January 11th 10am-11am
January 18th 10am-11am
January 25th 10am-11am

$75 for all 3 sessions. Venmo @lexsowards to reserve your spot.
Contact Lex @ 859-663-0683 or message us to reserve your spot

Ryle has a lot coming back and I absolutely love the Savage kid (best on ball linebacker in the state this past season) but I don’t think they will have enough to beat Trinity or FD and you can never count St. X out.  Ryle will be the bridesmaid again in 2025.

As to Ryle's 2025 schedule, the Raiders renewed with CAL but not St X. Fern Creek becomes the new Tigers on the schedule. 

Ryle will put a running clock on Fern Creek early and often. 

Ryle lost a few key athletes, no doubt. I'm hearing that they believe they will improve. They are very excited with what they have coming up and coming back.  Will they be better than this year? We'll see. Either way it's must see tv in NKY.

41 minutes ago, Who Knew said:

Ryle lost a few key athletes, no doubt. I'm hearing that they believe they will improve. They are very excited with what they have coming up and coming back.  Will they be better than this year? We'll see. Either way it's must see tv in NKY.

Looking forward to the trip to Union this upcoming year, albeit with a different team this time around.  I'm guessing when you say "what they have coming up" you mean moving up from JV?  CAL played the Union Raiders last year in 8th grade and CAL put a running clock on them, almost in the 1st half.  Their 8th grade class was decent, but nowhere close to their 7th & 8th grade classes that consists of the 2024 juniors & seniors.  Honestly, four years ago, you almost knew Ryle would be in the position they were this year and possibly next year based on the middle school talent they had then.  It's almost like the 8th grade class from Elkhorn that will be moving up to Franklin County this year.  If those kids stick together, I predict Franklin County will win a state title in the next 3 to 4 years.

7 hours ago, Unrivaled97 said:

Looking forward to the trip to Union this upcoming year, albeit with a different team this time around.  I'm guessing when you say "what they have coming up" you mean moving up from JV?  CAL played the Union Raiders last year in 8th grade and CAL put a running clock on them, almost in the 1st half.  Their 8th grade class was decent, but nowhere close to their 7th & 8th grade classes that consists of the 2024 juniors & seniors.  Honestly, four years ago, you almost knew Ryle would be in the position they were this year and possibly next year based on the middle school talent they had then.  It's almost like the 8th grade class from Elkhorn that will be moving up to Franklin County this year.  If those kids stick together, I predict Franklin County will win a state title in the next 3 to 4 years.

Yes, from Jv. I doubt any of the middle schoolers moving up will see any varsity time. There was a time we had dominate talent in 7th and 8th grades that never translated to varsity wins. That subtle breeze is blowing a bit different the last few years.

On 1/3/2025 at 9:34 PM, StraightShooter said:

... A challenging non-district schedule that includes Covington Catholic, Cooper, Highlands, CAL, and St. X...

The brutal reality of 6A... if Ryle doesn't go 4-1 or 5-0 against that list, they're almost assuredly not going to have a real chance at winning 6A. 

On 1/6/2025 at 9:04 PM, theguru said:

From ASAP at Covington and this is former Ryle great, Lex Sowards, doing the instructing:

?JANUARY LINEMAN TRAINING?
Former Indiana State (and Ryle great) offensive lineman Lex Sowards will be hosting Offensive/defensive lineman group training on Saturdays this winter. It will be 30 minutes of lineman specific training and 30 minutes of speed & agility.

Limited Availability. 16 spots. Please Venmo me (@lexsowards) and include your son’s name and age in the description

Schedule 
January 11th 10am-11am
January 18th 10am-11am
January 25th 10am-11am

$75 for all 3 sessions. Venmo @lexsowards to reserve your spot.
Contact Lex @ 859-663-0683 or message us to reserve your spot

This is great.  Line coaching and specific training is really hard to come by.  This should really help anyone wanting to up their game.  I also feel line coaching is subpar in most high schools (Not Ryle as Ryle always seems to have linemen that do well technique wise).