2025 Mr. Football Watchlist (12/2)

[DevilMayCare]

State Semifinal Round 

Evan Hampton (RB, Owensboro)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🗞️ | With another stroke of his quill, Hampton is penning his magnum opus while running toward a horizon so bright, you can't look directly into it. His recent escapades are reaching mythical degrees of omnipotence. The rambling rampage continued with 317 yards (266 rushing/51 receiving) from scrimmage and four touchdowns on nine touches to lead Owensboro’s unexpected demolition of Wofo. He's running like a man possessed. Will the madness continue in Lexington? If so, a state championship isn't the only hardware he's lifting.

Season so far: 162 carries for 1,927 yards and 28 touchdowns | 280 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns

Miles Edge (RB/LB, Owensboro Catholic)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
🗞️ | He's basically Jacob Savage packed into a 5’7”,185 pound frame. That's as much a compliment to Ryle's ailing star as it is to Edge. The comparison is especially relevant after he totaled 203 yards (156 rushing/47 receiving) from scrimmage and two rushing touchdowns on a hearty 33 touches and recorded a sack to avenge last year's finals loss to Beechwood. He's mounting a late charge, surpassing several other candidates since the start of the playoffs. 
Season so far: 171 carries for 1,221 yards and 20 touchdowns | 39 receptions for 438 yards and 4 touchdowns | 101 tackles | 14.5 TFL | 5.5 sacks | 3 forced fumbles

Kaleb Evans (QB, Lloyd Memorial)
⭐⭐⭐
🗞️ | Valiant in defeat, Evans’ stock rose after winning the one-on-one battle with Robbins, but ultimately losing the war to Murray. He accounted for 302 yards of total offense and three touchdowns, but tossed two interceptions, including a costly fourth quarter pick in Murray territory while trailing by a score.

Season so far: 159/230 (69%) for 2,471 yards and 36 touchdowns with 7 interceptions | 2 rushing touchdown

Marlon Harbin III (ATH, Saint Xavier)
⭐⭐
🗞️ | Did anyone get the number of that Truck? It appeared early on that X was going to go blow for blow with Trinity following Harbin's 68 yard catch and run to the endzone. That turned out to be the only tooth the Tigers had, as the Rocks poured it on from there. Harbin's other six touches yielded just fourteen yards.
Season so far: 57 receptions for 688 yards and 10 touchdowns | 53 rushes for 355 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns | 2 kick return touchdowns | 47 tackles | 3 interceptions | one scoop and score 

Mason Trimble (QB, Saint Xavier)
⭐⭐ 
🗞️ | Outside of the touchdown strike to Harbin, not much else was working for Trimble. Trinity took away his legs, leaving him with a net loss of -30 yards rushing, and held him to 48% on his completions. It was a disastrous night for both of X's candidates.
Season so far: 165/242 (68%) for 2,142 yards and 26 touchdowns with 4 interceptions | 309 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns

Kaleb Miller (RB, Bell County)
⭐⭐ 
🗞️ | It was like running uphill in the mud against CAL, but Miller did manage to get loose one last time for a 53 yard touchdown run in defeat. He ran for 73 yards on the night, just enough to eclipse two thousand for the season.
Season so far: 192 carries for 2,003 yards and 30 touchdowns | 1 receiving touchdown | 42 tackles | 1 interception 

Wyatt Robbins (QB, Murray)
⭐ 
🗞️ | Good news, bad news for Robbins against Lloyd Memorial. The Tigers made it out of Erlanger with their unbeaten record intact and a shot at CAL for the 3A championship in front of them. Robbins was having a subpar night - 6/13 for 69 yards and an interception with a rushing touchdown - before exiting the game with an apparent ankle injury. Like everyone else, he lost a ton of ground to Hampton and needs a game for the ages and upset of CAL to make that ground up. That's assuming he's even a go for this weekend.
Season so far: 187/269 (69%) for 3,199 yards and 35 touchdowns with 5 interceptions | 533 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns

 

Trending Up 📈
Ji'Dyn Smith-Hisel (RB, Boyle County)
🗞️ | Someone from Boyle always seems to pop up at some point every year. Smith-Hisel is a longshot, but the last two weeks have made him impossible to ignore. He broke Rees McShara’s school record with 440 yards rushing in a rout of Covington Catholic. Last week saw another 163 and two scores as the Rebels squeaked by Corbin in a thriller. He's thrown his name into the hat, let's see if he can pull a rabbit out of it.
Season so far: 186 carries for 1,609 yards and 16 touchdowns | 229 receiving yards and 1 touchdown

[Tigerpride94]

I think Evan Hampton has to be the leader as highest rated player in a state championship game. 73 yards away from eclipsing 2000 yards rushing.

[Brown]

Today Evan Hampton signed with Vanderbilt.  Hampton the #27 running back in the nation, #1 RB in KY according to ESPN and Rivals.   Hampton originally Committed to play baseball for UK after his freshman year.  Recruited for his baseball skills.  Ran a 4.42 at UK camp after his sophomore season and offers started piling in after a hugely successful campaign - which included torching South Warren for over 200 yards and 3 TD’s in the playoffs of 2023 and another 43 yards receiving.  53-22 blowout of favored south warren.

Offered by Michigan, NC state, UK, Louisville, North Carolina, Illinois, Virgiina Tech, West Virginia, Syracuse, Indiana, Stanford,  Minnesota, TCU,  Purdue, Boston  College, Arkansas, Duke, Cincinnati, Ohio, Buffalo, EKU, Penn State, Illinois State, East Tennessee State

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

So the KFCA has flip-flopped around their rules for their final ballot of Mr. Football candidates on almost a yearly basis, and they've also magically had a Mr. Football be announced without even publishing a list of finalists for a year or two now out of the 7 years that they have been awarding the state's Mr. Football award.

The KFCA seems to be mirroring the exact behavior that the Kentucky Associated Press exhibited in their administration of the Mr. Football award....which ironically was the KFCA's principal reasoning behind forcing a takeover of the award.

So do we have any clarification THIS YEAR for how the KFCA is going to come up with their ballot of Mr. Football finalists or what the voting process is? Or are they going to continue to muddy the water even more for this award?


Timeline:

- October 2018: The KFCA announces that they are going to begin awarding their own Kentucky Mr. Football award each year.

- December 2018: The KFCA names their first Kentucky Mr. Football winner, Wan'Dale Robinson, who also won the Kentucky AP Mr. Football award. Robinson was selected from a ballot of 6 finalists.

- December 2019: The KFCA names Michael Mayer their second Kentucky Mr. Football winner. Mayer was selected from a ballot of 11 finalists.

- November 2020: In an article from the Lexington Herald-Leader, the KFCA discloses that all district and class-wide players of the year are eligible to be voted for as Kentucky Mr. Football.

- December 2020: The KFCA names Cameron Hergott as their third Kentucky Mr. Football winner. Hergott was selected from a ballot of 15 finalists, despite the KFCA naming 48 different district players of the year that season.

- December 2021: The KFCA names Isaac Dixon their fourth Kentucky Mr. Football winner. Dixon was selected from a ballot of 11 finalists.

- December 2022: The KFCA names Travis Egan their fifth Kentucky Mr. Football winner. No ballot of finalists is publicly circulated by the KFCA, but word-of-mouth from coaches holds that the finalists were the KFCA's 6 class-wide players of the year for 2022. 1 of the 6 class-wide players of the year in 2022 was a junior, thus presumably making the ballot of finalists a 5-player list.

- December 2023: The KFCA names Daniel Thomas their sixth Kentucky Mr. Football winner. Thomas was selected from a ballot of 9 finalists, meaning the ballot was neither the 6 KFCA class-wide players of the year, nor the complete list of KFCA district players of the year. No clarification offered by the KFCA on their selection process for the final ballot of finalists.

- December 2024: The KFCA names Montavin Quisenberry their seventh Kentucky Mr. Football winner. No official ballot of finalists was circulated, but the ballot was reportedly comprised of the 6 KFCA class-wide players of the year for 2024.