EKY_Football

I like your rankings and I'd have the same teams but mine would be just a little different. This is how I'd rank them: 1 Johnson Central 2 Belfry 3 Somerset 4 Pikeville 5 Bell County 6 Wayne County 7 Pulaski County 8 Corbin 9 Russell 10 Paintsville

Alright guys, who you got and why? Yeah, I know its WAY to early but what else do we have to talk about, right? There's no wrong answers, just opinions. And you don't have to give a champ in all six classes if you don't want. Here's what I think will happen: 1A Pikeville: The Panthers were so dominant last year it allowed their backups to get PLENTY of quality playing time against other teams starters. What they did lose to graduation their backups are more than prepared to step in an take over. * Who could prove me wrong: Paintsville 2A Somerset: Jumpers repeat. Sheron, Grundy, and Garland all return. They lose ALOT of seniors but you won't catch me betting against QB Kaiya Sheron, especially when his top target at WR, Kade Grundy, will be joining him for another year. Oh yeah, RB Mike Garland returns as well. *Who could prove me wrong: LCA 3A DeSales: The Colts get their revenge. I think the top three teams will be DeSales, Bell County, and Belfry. Bell County returns the most but they lose their leader and best player on both sides of the ball in Landon Stephony. The kid "was" Bell County football this past year. Belfry graduates a MONSTER class. But they return some very nice players in Dixon, Coleman, and Mounts but it won't be enough for a repeat. DeSales loses one of the best D-Line's in the state but they have some good, solid athletes ready to step in and fill those voids. *Who could prove me wrong: Bell County (Don't be SHOCKED if this will be the last year you see legendary coach Phillip Heywood roaming the sidelines on Pond Creek) 4A Johnson Central: FLY EAGLES FLY! Coach Matney isn't done yet, either is his boys from Mighty Johnson Central. They lose a ton but so does the other State Championship team, the Boyle County Rebels, who lose a MONSTER class. I do think it will be the exact same 4A championship game next year with the exact same champion but by a little larger margin of victory. The Eagles lose alot off their O-Line but do return "Mega-Stud" Grant Bingham. Coach Matney, along with Coach Heywood at Belfry, are two of the very best at developing offensive linemen and next year both coaches will repeat this feat. My only concern is how do the Eagles replace Ryley Preece? Not sure how they'll do it but I'm sure they'll figure it out. My guess, Grant Rice will take over as QB1 for the Eagles. *Who could prove me wrong: Boyle County (NOTE: Being from Eastern Kentucky I'm not even going to pretend that I know anything about the two biggest classes, 5A and 6A, in Kentucky High School Football. I'll leave that up to the folks from area's that have alot of those programs. So my next two classes will be short and sweet, and above all, a guess.) 5A Frederick Douglas: The Breds have been close but just haven't been able to get over the hump, YET. They finally made it to the "Game" last year. Now all they have left to do is win it. I think they do this year and win their first football State Championship in school history. Especially now that "All World" Michael Mayer is no longer at Covington Catholic. *Who could prove me wrong: Covington Cath. 6A Trinity: Well, because its Trinity. If I'm not mistaken, the Rocks return their starting QB and starting RB from last years squad (atleast I think they do) and who knows what other D-1 talent will emerge from that great, historic program and lead them into the future. Until someone else steps up and is able to win more than one State Championship in a row in 6A it's going to be Trinity and everybody else. *Who could prove me wrong: Not a clue!

Offensive Tackle. He's 6'6", 302lbs. He also has offers from Toledo and Western Michigan.

My guy, Grant Bingham, just picked up an offer from Michigan State and he's just a sophomore. Only the beginning! And there will be more. Go Eagles!!!

Very impressive. On a side note, some of these players are no longer playing or never played. Jordon Scott is now an assistant coach for Belfry and Dagan Rash never played for UK. He's going to school at UK but decided not play. Also heard that Ethan Wolford had two D-1 offers, partial scholarship at Memphis (where the coach that recruited him at Concord went) and to Tennessee Tech but he wanted to go where he'd have a chance to play right away.

That's awesome!

Johnson Central's Grant Bingham has reportedly picked up an offer from Michigan State. Just the start for this young man.

Kids a player. Health has been an issue for him since Middle School. But, when healthy, he's one of the top LB's in the state. Congrats to the kid. I'm sure there's more to come.

Can't figure out how to upload photos on here from my phone but here are two that come to mind for me: Will Wolford - started his career at St. Xavier High School as a player then went on to play college football at Vanderbilt. Was drafted in the 1st round of the '86 draft by the Buffalo Bills. He played in 3 Super Bowls, was a 3 time Pro Bowler, and was a 2nd team All Pro in '92. He played for 13 years in the NFL, a total of 191 games, and started every one of them. In my opinion, Wolford is one of the most underrated players in NFL history. After retiring from the NFL he came back home to coach his Alma Mater, St. X. David Jones - Coach Jones played for Belfry and helped the Pirates win their first 2 State Championships in school history in '03 and '04. After high school, Jones played four solid years at the University or Kentucky. After college he signed a undrafted FA contract with the Baltimore Ravens but never played a game in the NFL. Afterwards he came home and was an assistant to Coach Philip Heywood at Belfry before taking the HC job for the Phelps Hornets. To say that he turned that very small 1A schools football program around is a HUGE understatement. Jones left the Hornets to become the Head Coach at 4A Bourbon County last year and just completed his first year as the head man for the Colonels football program.

Seth Mounts - Belfry

The Dixon kid from Belfry. He had a great year this past year. He missed 4 games and still ended up rushing for over 1,000 yards. He had 227 yards and 3 touchdowns in the 3A championship game alone. In the games he did play he had to share carries with Ben Bentley and Peyton Hensley, both these two also rushed for over 1,000 yards themselves last year. Dixon will no doubt be the primary workhorse for the Pirates next year. This kid is special and if he can stay healthy he may end up breaking some records before its over. Belfry also returns 3 of their 5 starting O-Linemen from last years squad. But they did lose their All State center Ethan Wolford and one of their tackles, Sean Cochran, to graduation. But there's still plenty of big, healthy young men ready to step in and fill those wholes and block for Dixon when the time comes.

Just shows us how being loaded with D-1 talent is overrated sometimes. Not arguing with you here my friend, we all have our opinions and I respect yours, but sometimes I think we get caught up way to much in this "D-1" thing. Sure, D-1 is the "big time" but I'll tell you something, I've seen with my own eyes D-2 players absolutely light up a big time D-1 prospect. On lines of scrimmage and at skill positions. Sometimes the only thing that separates a D-1 player from being a D-2 player is maybe an inch or two in height for a lineman or a couple tenths of a second faster on a 40 time for skill players. Is that much of a difference? I dont think so. There's alot of great athletes that miss out playing at the top level because of those very things. So to me, I'd rather have a team that knows how to play together that's loaded with D-2, D-3, and NAIA players any day of the week than I would a team that has 4-5 D-1 players that can't play together. But that's just me. Not saying Alter wasn't a good team. I agree with you, they were and had a couple nice looking stud players but JC was the all around better team, IMO.

I saw both games, live. In my opinion, JC would have thumped Alter. Like I said, Belfry went to Alter and was only down 7-0 deep into the 4th Qtr. JC beat Belfry like a drum on Pond Creek and that's not easy to do.

Nice win for the Tomcats. I thought they would win, but not by 20. I honestly thought Russell would end up losing by 5-10 points. I believe Rowan will be Ashlands toughest opponent in the region. But I still think Ashland will represent the 16th in Lexington.

JOHNSON CENTRAL QB Ryley Preece - Morehead St. (Baseball)