2026 Rafferty’s Bowl – Nightcap!

6A Bullitt East Chargers (0-0) vs 5A Bowling Green Purples (0-0)

Located at Western Kentucky University’s Houchens Industries – L.T. Smith Stadium at 7:30 pm Central                     

Streaming:         Home | Sporting Times                 

GOOD MATCHUP TO END THE OPENING WEEKEND OF THE 2026 HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!

Rafferty’s Bowl Intro

The Rafferty’s Bowl has another year of strong teams continuing its trend as one of the better opening weekend bowl events around.  This night cap features 2 strong football programs both with high hopes for the 2026 football season in the Bullitt East Chargers (6A) and the Bowling Green Purples (5A).  That being said, both teams lost some fine football players to graduation and will need to form their own identity for this season with new players in new positions.  Always interesting to see how that develops.  

All Time Series:  Bowling Green leads 1-0.  The Purples won a home State Semi-Finals Game the day after Thanksgiving back in 2005 over the Chargers by a score of 42-14.  I don’t remember much of that game, but pretty sure I went.  Must be getting old!  This was back in 3A days with Mike Settles leading the Chargers and Kevin Wallace leading the Purples.  Bullitt East was undefeated coming into that game having defeated always tough Boyle County 35-33 in the Regional Final Round.  BG also had a strong team only giving up 40 points total in the 13 games that preceded this Semi-Final Game.  The Purples would fall to Lexington Catholic in the 3A Final at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium the next week 49-21.

Bullitt East Chargers – 6A District 4 – 2025 Record:  7-5

The Chargers are led by the 2022 NFHS Kentucky Football Coach of the Year Keegan Kendrick.  Coach Kendrick is starting his 5^th Season as the Chargers head man with a 36 and 14 record and the memorable 2022 6A State Championship.  The Chargers come into the 2026 Campaign without graduating SRs including QB Cole Cornell, their top 3 RBs and 11 of the top 13 tacklers on defense. 

But according to our head BGP Charger, @BEChargers, the Chargers should return 2 or 3 OLinemen.  And it appears JR Will Egan, younger brother of 2022 KY Mr. Football Travis Egan, will assume the reigns at QB for the Chargers, although he didn’t play at the Ballard scrimmage as I understand.  Sounds like JR Isaac Payne will get most of the RB duties.  The Chargers do return all of their WRs from last season, so that is likely an area of strength for this team.  And this unit is led by SR Evan Butler who had 40 pass receptions last season for 477 yards and 4 TDs.

Defensively though, you would expect to have a few growing pains losing 11 of your top 13 tacklers from last season especially in the beginning of the year.  But SRs Evan Clan (SS) and Camren Covyeow (DT) are very good football players and should lead this defensive unit!    

Bowling Green Purples – 5A District 2 – 2025 Record:  6-7

The Purples are led by the 2024 NFHS Kentucky Football Coach of the Year Mark Spader.  Coach Spader is beginning his 9^th season as Head Coach with a 77 and 30 record with 3 State Titles (2020, 2023 and 2024) and 1 State Runner Up (2022).  With those accolades, the 2025 football season for Bowling Green was a tough pill to swallow.  While most knew it would be difficult to replace the leadership and poise supplied by Deuce Bailey and company, the perfect storm of additional waves over the Purples bow included key injuries, over-zealous scheduling, and simply just never seemed to gel both offensively and defensively produced the first losing record for BG since 2002.  But you’re not going to win them all or every year.   Onward!

The best part of the 2025 season for me was the sparkling play of true-freshman QB Anthony Davis who passed for right at 2,000 yards and 21 TDs vs only 4 INTs the whole 11.5 games he played.  Outstanding!  BG returns their second leading rusher from last year SR Nick Graham (530 yards on 96 carries and 5 TDs), but he didn’t play in the Male scrimmage.  And look for SO Zyrek Burton to get some carries as well as he is an exciting young runner.  The WR unit is a bit unknown, as BGs top 5 2025 WRs graduated.  The young WRs in the Male scrimmage looked good, but that was just a scrimmage and this game will be for real.  Oline loses 4 starters.  But BG wasn’t strong on the Oline last season, so certainly hoping for better in 2026.

Defensively, 4 of BGs top 5 tacklers depart and they were each fine football players.  So, BG will need to retool this unit and the ability to do so may be the key to BGs entire season.  The younger guys below the graduating players are good solid players as well, but they will need to step up this season on the varsity stage.  Some important defensive players this season for BG will include SR Embree Dotson (S), SO Jett Reynolds (DB), SR Keaton Vinegar (DL), SR Taiyon Parker (DL), and SO Zyrek Burton (OLB).  If BG expects to make it anywhere this season in the playoffs, this defensive unit must form a cohesive unit similar to years past.  We shall see. 

2026 Rafferty’s Bowl Preview

With so many new faces on the field for this the opening game of the 2026 Season for both teams, I expect a lot of nerves and uncharacteristic plays from both teams before the game settles down into one with more strategy-laden structure. 

For Bullitt East on offense, I look for QB Egan (or whomever is over center) to be able to make some quality passes in the early downs to keep things on 3^rd down manageable.  Defensively, @BEChargers reported the Chargers would be retooling their secondary.  So, I expect them to blitz a little more than normal to try to take the pressure off their coverage guys and test BGs untested new OLine.

For the Purples, based on the above, I would expect Anthony Davis to be throwing early and often to see if he can connect with his WRs early before the game settles in.  It will be interesting to see if BG can get their run game going in the early season.  Bullitt East had a tough time with tough rushing Madison Central in the first scrimmage so we will see.  That would certainly help Davis.  Defensively, I would expect BG to try to keep everything in front of them and put timely pressure on the young Chargers signal caller.  Going to be an interesting game that could go either way.

Who do you have in this great opening weekend game?

I want take a minute thank Rafferty's for all of their support of Kentucky High School Football.

https://raffertys.com/

I like the Purples to get the win. BE rebuilding on defense will play a factor as to why the Purples win.

Bowling Green easy.

Bowling Green has lost three consecutive Rafferty’s Bowl games. Against good opponents, sure, but starting hot hasn’t been in the Purples make up the last few seasons. I don’t think BGHS will have it easy in any of their out of district games this year, including this one.

Better preview than I could have done @Purple88 . BG will get the votes and one poster has them winning easy, but I hope that's not the case. The Chargers defense is a complete rebuild. That will make this a tough game for them to win. I hope the offense can keep them in the game and give them a chance to pull the upset. Will Egan hasn't taken a snap in either scrimmage while he gets back to 100% from an injury. The only good part about that is that their QB2 who is a soph., and QB3 who is a frosh have both gotten some good reps and show a lot of promise for the next 2 or 3 years in Mt. Washington. Both threw TD's and looked good against Ballard last night. The Chargers defense has to grow up quickly for them to compete in the first two weeks against BG and Franklin County. We will find out Saturday if they have made that much progress and are ready. Just hope it's a little cooler next Saturday. Will be there for both Rafferty Bowl games ! Good luck to both teams !

A lot of question marks coming into this one, from both sides. The QB news would be concerning if I were a Chargers fan. For the Purples, can Davis get time to work the field with his new core of WR’s?

Defensively for BG it’ll be fun to see the new faces. Can always expect a gritty defense, lost some key pieces that helped propel them to be a formidable opponent last season. My only question come Saturday evening will be whether or not they can stop the run.

Breaking the Rafferty’s Bowl streak, 28-14 Bowling Green.

BG in a close one.

There just doesn’t seem to be the hype for BG this yr. There’s also no a “stud” coming back that can take over a game offensively (aside from Davis). He might have to do it all. Now, that being said, one of these young kids could step up early. All that being said, they will win this game.

Purple88. I want to compliment you on your write ups. Wow! Love it! You got a gift for sure!

On 8/15/2026 at 8:22 PM, BillNye said:

Bowling Green has lost three consecutive Rafferty’s Bowl games. Against good opponents, sure, but starting hot hasn’t been in the Purples make up the last few seasons. I don’t think BGHS will have it easy in any of their out of district games this year, including this one.

It might be imperative that the Purples win this game, because the schedule escalates quickly.... St. X, Scott County, South Warren, Barren County, and CAL all in a row for anyone wondering where BG goes from here. And Barren doesn't look like a pushover based on early feedback.

It's not hard to imagine another 1-5 start if the ball doesn't bounce their way a little. That seemed incomprehensible a couple of years ago, but it happened last year and it's on the table again.

18 minutes ago, DevilMayCare said:

It might be imperative that the Purples win this game, because the schedule escalates quickly.... St. X, Scott County, South Warren, Barren County, and CAL all in a row for anyone wondering where BG goes from here. And Barren doesn't look like a pushover based on early feedback.

It's not hard to imagine another 1-5 start if the ball doesn't bounce their way a little. That seemed incomprehensible a couple of years ago, but it happened last year and it's on the table again.

I agree with you, all of that is in the realm of possibility.

Starting a bunch of sophomores against a grown man’s schedule is going to prove to be difficult. What that record will be, I have no idea. I expect them to be competitive and make meaningful strides from the previous year. All that being said, the worst BGHS team in two decades (IMO) went 0-4 starting out last season and still made the regional final and played CAL to the very end. If history tells us anything, it’s regional title games aren’t what this program shoots for, but I still think even if they have a lackluster regular season record that Bowling Green will be much more complete as a whole with these games under their belt.

I don’t want to dismiss improvements from Barren County or Greenwood, they both have kids who can play and very experienced coaching staffs… but if I’m being truthful with myself, if either of those games are lost there will be way more concerns internally than just talent/competing and the season is ultimately a colossal failure.

Lastly, this is as unknown of a year the Purples have walked into in recent memory. I'm excited but cautious about what the year will bring. We will see how this Purple group can establish themselves.

I'm taking BEast in a very close game,

20-17

Here are your mid-week Rafferty's Bowl nuggets:

1. Ticket Information can be found here:

24th Rafferty's Bowl

Sat Aug 22nd @ WKU

Boyle Co v Owensboro Catholic 4:00 pm

Bowling Green v Bullitt East 7:30 pm

2. This will be the last year that the Rafferty's Bowl will be held on the campus of WKU. Future games will take place at BGHS. I don't know the reason for this. I have a guess, but that's all it is.

3. BG will have BJB stickers on their traditional gold helmets this season in honor of Ms. Betty Jo Beard who recently passed away at the age of 95. The Beard Family and BG Football go hand and hand.

4. Coach Kevin Wallace will be in the broadcast booth this Saturday filling in "for the vacationing" Roy Beard on the D93 broadcast. So, it will be great to have Coach Wallace back on the BG side of things! The link to that version of the broadcast is here:

   https://www.facebook.com/D93Rocks/

Inching closer to game day!!!