EKY_Football

1. Johnson Central

2. Wayne County

3. Bell County

4. Belfry

5. Pulaski County

6. Somerset

7. Pikeville

8. Corbin

9. Paintsville

10. Russell

 

 

Agree/Disagree?

 

Who should be in? Who would they replace?

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!

What position does he play?

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!!!

Totally agree.

 

No surprise that Belfry's peak during the playoffs last year had a lot to do with Mounts getting healthy.

 

Belfry vs. Pikeville in the regular season completely changed the second he left the game due to injury and then the Panther Offense then got on track mixing the run and pass. Until then Pikeville was struggling to get their Offense going with Mounts getting sideline to sideline.It also helped Pikeville that Dixon missed the game, but that is neither here nor there.

 

Crazy to think that little rural Belfry has had as many kids as they have had in the past decade with D1 offers.

 

Mounts- SIU and Eastern Illinois

Brett Coleman- Miami (OH)

Ben Bentley- Youngstown State

Grayson Cook- Air Force

Taveon Hunter- Morehead State (since transferred to West Virginia State)

Cole Bentley- Louisville

Austin Dotson- UK

Ray Horton- EKU (had FBS offers, unfortunately his career may be over due to injury)

Cameron Catron- EKU (Unfortunately his career may be over after getting shot)

Jordan Scott- EKU

Tony Messer- EKU

Dagen Rash- ARMY Offered, Chose to take PWO at Kentucky

 

That's a pretty impressive run of talent since 2010. It doesn't even take into account some truly great HS players who continued their playing days at smaller schools:

Austin Hatfield- Cumberland

Derek Wellman- Georgetown

Noah Corbett- Cumberland

Sani Warren- UPIKE

Xondre Willis- UPIKE

Austin Lawson- Lindsey Wilson

Justin Barker- Cumberland

John Ashurst- Centre

Ethan Wolford- University of Charleston

 

21 players having an opportunity at college football in 10 years is pretty impressive for a rural County School. Especially with 11 having at least an opportunity for a full scholarship at the D1 level and four kids having the opportunity to compete on the FBS level.

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.

IMO Johnson Central wasn’t better than Alter last yr. That team was loaded with D1 talent up there. Ohio is another animal when it comes to football.

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)

PIKE COUNTY CENTRAL

Nate Roberts - Union College

I'd love to see Alter and Johnson Central hook up.

For the record I'd be rooting for Central.

That would be an awesome game.

Kettering Alter will again be the best non-district game they have. Overall the non-district schedule will be tough, when all is said and done.

Alter wasn't the best team Belfry faced last year, that was Johnson Central. The Pirates were only down 7-0 to Alter in the 4th Qtr on the road, losing 14-0. Alter scored late on a pick six. And the Pirates didn't have their starting QB in that game and lost Dixon in the 1st Qtr.

They never were in the Johnson Central game. JC went to Pond Creek and beat the Pirates 53-16. IMO, Central would have beat Alter by 2 TD's last year.

It's not complete and I don't know the exact dates or times yet but I'll post what I know as of now. This is not in any kind of order of play either. It's just the teams I know Belfry will be playing this year and if their playing at home or away. Another pretty solid schedule for the Pirates that will prepare them for another post season run, IMO. Also, as you can see, they have only nine games so far. Last year they were only able to get a nine game schedule as well and it really hurt them as far as their RPI was concerned. So hopefully Coach Heywood can work his "magic" and add a tenth game. Here's what I know:

5A Pulaski County (Don Franklin Bowl) (A)

2A Mingo Central, WV (Pike Co. Bowl) (H)

(N/A) Archbishop Alter, OH (H)

1A Pikeville (A) (1A Champs)

3A Magoffin Co. (District) (A)

3A Lawrence Co. (District) (H)

3A Pike Central (District) (A)

3A Floyd Central (District) (H)

4A Johnson Central (A) (4A Champs)

* I'd love to see Belfry add a power like Male, a St. X, or a Bowling Green to round out their schedule. They might not be to competitive in a game against one of those teams but it would still be fun to watch and look really good on their resume. Not very likely of a game like that happening, the travel time would be a killer, but one can always hope, right? Lol!

* I'll post schedules of other Eastern Kentucky teams once I get them. What do you guys think of the Belfry Pirates schedule this coming season?

The format of the All BGP team and the intense research and review makes it very unique. For example, in order to make the team as an ATH requires that the player must legitimately play and contribute in more than one position (i.e., a dual threat QB who only plays Offense is not an ATH but a QB only... a WR who also runs jet sweeps is not an ATH but a WR only).

 

Reese Smith and Michael Mayer are the only two kids who legitimately would have made this team at any of the three options of Offense, Defense, or ATH. That is a huge compliment to those two players. At the same time, Miles Thomas and Izayah Cummings are both guys that deserved to make the team that would not have been able to without one of those two guys being selected on Defense.

 

Reese Smith was most likely the best Safety in all of Kentucky. Mayer is perhaps the best TE in America, but you can argue Smith was the more impactful star on defense of the two.

 

This is not a slight on Smith as a WR, but instead a praise on him as a player overall.

I agree with this 100%. Putting Smith on the defensive team is a testament of just how good this kid really is. Most know how good Reese is at WR, that's kinda what he's known for and what people think when his name is mentioned, but not many know just how good he is on the defensive side of the ball. I'm glad you guys did it this way. Not only does it allow for another great athlete to make this team at WR but it also shines light on Reese Smith's talents on defense.

It is very obvious, to me, that you guys took your time in selecting this team and put alot of thought into choosing these players. Going over different scenarios, doing the research, taking in considerations at every position, and in the end releasing a very nice looking team. Great job!

Scrolling through BGP threads today and came up on this one again. I'm still in total shock that a couple of great players in the state weren't even mentioned on this team although they were mentioned on every other All State/All Star team voted this year. I'm even more shocked that there's a player or two (who literally popped up out of nowhere) all of a sudden became 1st and 2nd team All Staters on this team but can't be found anywhere else.

On a side note, in my honest opinion, I think the BGP All State Team was better than the AP, CJ, or any of the other 2019-2020 All State/All Star teams voted on this year. I'd take BGP's 36 players any day of the week over any of the other teams. It was more accurate, it wasn't political, and I'm pretty sure no Daddies were involved and allowed to cast multiple votes, Lol!

Whoever was on the committee to select the BGP team, kudos on doing an outstanding job of taking the time to do the necessary research in selecting the Top 36 players in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to the best of your ability and for being honest and fair in doing so. Great work!

Nice! This schedule will definitely prepare the Colts for another deep playoff run in 2020. Good luck.

DeSales

Demarcus Avery - Independence Community College

Cameron Beechem - San Bernardino Valley College

Cassius Britt - San Bernardino Valley College

Blake Givens - Thomas More University

Antoine Johnson - Thomas More University

Mekhi Lewis - San Bernardino Valley College

Dejuan Watkins - San Bernardino Valley College

 

Gabriel Marks has a few offers but it looks like he's still trying to make his decision.

Congrats to all these fine football players. On a side note, very odd and rare to see so many players from one team commit to the same college about 3,000 miles away from home on the west coast. Is there a story behind this? I've saw all those kids play in person and I'd almost guarantee they could have stayed in state and played somewhere. Just wondering if there's a story behind it. Regardless, congratulations to all and wish them nothing but the best.

Mekhi Lewis and DeShawn Watkins were dominant football players when I saw them play. Would have almost bet money they would have played at least in the FCS division somewhere.

Henderson

Bryce Galloway- Georgetown College

Welcome to one of the best high school sports discussion sites in the State of Kentucky @CoachBam78! Hope you enjoy.

WOW!!!