Colonels_Wear_Blue

Looking back 16 years, the Raceland vs. Paintsville series is knotted up at 8 wins each. In the last 5 years, Painstville is definitely seems to hold the advantage over Raceland, having beaten them 8 of the 10 times they have seen one another on the football field. But twice in the last three years, the Rams have managed to get away with the win the game that counts the most, ending the Tigers' playoff bids in both 2017 and 2018. Despite losing in the 1A finals last year to Pikeville, though, most folks agree that Paintsville is "back" as a perennial state title contender in 1A. Old foe Raceland would certainly like to have something to say about that though when the two face off on Friday. Raceland currently sits at 3-3, with losses to Pikeville, East Jessamine and Ashland, and wins over Greenup County, Washington County, and Fairview. Paintsville is still batting a thousand on the season, with 5 wins in 5 games. Looking at their two common opponents thus far, Raceland lost 35-27 to East Jessamine and stomped Fairview 48-6. Paintsville beat East Jessamine 39-24 and routed Fairview 57-6. Unfortunate for Raceland, they are stepping up against what may be a perfect storm for a big loss. The Rams' offense relies heavily on passing, with two-thirds of their offensive yardage and touchdowns coming through the air, and their defensive weakness leans much more towards rushing, with almost 200 yards given up per game on the ground. On the flipside, the Tigers run a very run-laden offense, with two-thirds of their offensive yards gained on the ground, and little more than 100 yards allowed on the ground per game. Can Raceland shore things up and take care of business on Friday? Or are they looking at a third straight loss to Paintsville? Recent Record 2011: Raceland 47-0 2012: Raceland 57-0 2013: Raceland 32-10 2013: Raceland 42-12 (Playoffs) 2014: Raceland 32-0 2014: Raceland 32-21 (Playoffs) 2015: Paintsville 50-7 2015: Paintsville 20-15 (Playoffs) 2016: Paintsville 27-21 (OT) 2016: Paintsville 21-14 (Playoffs) 2017: Paintsville 32-18 2017: Raceland 31-14 (Playoffs) 2018: Paintsville 6-0 2018: Raceland 14-7 (Playoffs) 2019: Paintsville 19-15 2019: Paintsville 32-18 (Playoffs)

COVID sure hasn't done any favors for the Flyers football in 2020; Franklin County has only been able to sneak in 3 games thus far in the month and a half of football that's been played already this season. But they're making the most of it, with a total 149 points scored this season, to their opponents' collective 36 points in their 3-0 season. Quarterback Nick Broyles has had a big something to do with that. A 77% passer, he's connected with receivers 57 times for 1069 yards and 14 touchdowns through the air in three games. That's an average of over 350 yards per game passing - that's right, average. This week the Flyers take on their district rival Central, who is headed to Frankfort to try to claim the top spot in the district. Although the Yellow Jackets may not have quite the high powered offense that Franklin County has, they're still no slouch. The Jackets are averaging 250 yards rushing per game, but more importantly for Friday's game, Central's defense has only allowed 10 points thus far in their four games this season. They'll be relying heavily on athlete Malachi Williams on both sides of the ball. Williams is their team's top scorer, #2 rusher, and leads the defense in both total tackles and sacks. This is a game that has the potential for a heck of a highlight reel on Friday night.

Coach Herrmann was 7-2 against Cov Cath (all games against Colonels head coach Lynn Ray, I might add). That includes this 13-7 Highlands win in overtime from the 1982 playoffs - Covington Catholic's first ever playoff game.

Johnson Central is currently enjoying a 20 game win streak, and has won 33 of their last 34 games. They also have one of the state's top running backs in rushing and scoring in Dillon Preston, who is averaging 162 yards and 3.5 touchdowns per game. They have combined to outscore their five opponents 240-49 this season. The Golden Eagles may be the assumed King of the Hill (or maybe more appropriately, King of the Mountain) until they're knocked down, but Letcher County Central is locked in on becoming the team to do the knocking on Friday. The Cougars are also one of the 6 undefeated teams currently prowling around 4A football in Kentucky. They're coming off an two weeks away from action, and after a not-so-fantastic 4-7 football season in 2019, Letcher Central has also done a number on their competition this year, combining to outscore their four opponents 131-37. A couple of reasons to keep your eyes on this game: 1) Both teams played fairly similarly against 4A Harlan County. Johnson Central beat the Black Bears 33-2 last week, and Letcher Central beat the Black Bears 24-7 back on October 2nd. 2) With Dillon Preston rushing behind D1 recruit Grant Bingham, the Golden Eagles' offensive game plan has been "hey diddle diddle, we're running up the middle." They've only passed for a total 292 yards this season (and that includes a 74 yard connection from Grant Rice to Toby Spriggs against Perry Central on Oct 9). On the flip side of that, Letcher Central's defense has been holding most of their competitors to little more than 225 yards total offense, and on top of consistently shutting down passing, they have been able to stand strong against the run game...and Johnson Central is definitely going to be bringing the running game, averaging almost 400 yards per game on the ground.

Herrmann's 1978 coaching staff. Coach Herrmann second from left.

Roger Walz coaching staff, 1975. Bill Herrmann kneeling, at bottom left.

Herrmann (right) in 1972 as an assistant to Highlands Coach Mike Murphy.

One of Barry's boys?

I definitely think it's fair to say that Campbell County has improved on their weaknesses since Week 1. I guess my point should have been more that, Cov Cath really, REALLY improved drastically since Week 1. Like more than I would have ever expected any aspect of a freshman team to improve over the course of a season, much less the course of two weeks.

Lurkers are always welcome here on BGP, but when you've got good stuff to add to the conversation...and you just did...we're definitely really glad to have that too. Welcome to BGP, @observerbynature!

I went back and watched pieces of a couple of the Cov Cath freshman games over the weekend. Owen Leen and Casey Bir both give me some glances back to a couple of guys who played around the same time I did. Leen has a kind of a scrappy, tough little guy quality to him like we saw out of Galen Healey (CCH '95), Jeremy Madden (CCH '98) and Cole Chadwick (CCH '01) - especially the "give me eighteen inches of daylight" ability that Chadwick had to squirt through and make positive yardage happen. Then Bir has a little bit of John Dailey (CCH '95) in him...stout guy, good on their feet, good ball carrier whether or not he has to bowl right through somebody to pick up a few yards. I like it.

I've watched all of Cov Cath's freshman games, minus the game last week against Conner. The Colonels only score in regulation was on a pick-6 by Willie Rodriguez, who may well be the best athlete on the team. The Cov Cath offensive line was pretty much listless in Week 1 against Campbell County. Their first downs were all a result of their quarterback scrambling and then throwing the ball away to open receivers at the last second, or else their running back Owen Leen, who is also one of the best athletes on the team, simply broke free of tacklers and managed to pick up some yardage by sheer force of will. Campbell County's defensive front was pretty solid, and they were able to foil the offensive line and/or break down the pocket virtually every play. But Campbell's tackling was very inconsistent, and their defesive secondary didn't do well at all covering Cov Cath's receivers. The overtime result was a credit to the skills players for Cov Cath. Simon Kenton's freshman team has a lot of room for improvement, to put it nicely. Having the Pioneers as a Week 2 opponent was a good opportunity for Cov Cath's offensive line to improve in a game-play situation. The improvement by the Colonels' O-line from Week 1 against Campbell County to Week 3 against Highlands was quite honestly remarkable...so I give a lot of credit to the coaches and the players both for that. My point, here, is that if Cov Cath and Campbell County were to face off at this point in the season, I think you'd see a drastically different outcome. I haven't seen anything from Ryle (or any other team) to give my any kind of real educated opinion on those teams, but just based upon what I've seen out of Cov Cath and their competitors, I think it's hard to judge Campbell County with Cov Cath as a measuring stick just because the measuring stick has notably changed.