The Air Force Academy’s motto is “Integrity First, Service Before Self, Excellence in All We Do.” KPGFootball has no reason to question the integrity of one of America’s finest institutions of high learning and service academies and their seeking to serve others before themselves is amply support in the annals of this Nation’s history.
We would like to comment on “Excellence in All We Do.” Our comment is this-it would appear (to KPGFootball) the Falcons are looking for some linebacker/end defensive help. They couldn’t have made two more excellent choices among likely Kentucky candidates than who they have chosen to evaluate.
Devin Johnson, Johnson Central High School, and Grayson Cook, Belfry High School, are attending the Air Force Academy prospect camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We would like to break down these particular two prospects.
Devin Johnson, OLB, 6-1, 212 pounds, Johnson Central High School…
This is a prospect we have before featured many times and selected to our 2017, sophomore, Kentucky All-State football team. He is a former Kentucky Future Star and considered among the top linebackers in Kentucky by anyone who knows anything about football. He is a football player’s, football player.
Devin currently holds two Division I offers (Morehead State University and Youngstown State) and is a prospect who would be rated much higher, and have many more offers, if he played football in a less remote area than Paintsville, Kentucky and that is just a fact. In 2018, Johnson recorded 107 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, with 5.5 QB Sacks.
At RB (which should give you an idea about his speed) he gained 1,218 yards rushing in 108 rushing attempts with 14 rushing TDs. With Devin Johnson in the lineup, JCHS has gone 35-6, played for the Class 4A State Football Championship all three years, winning it all in 2016.
Grayson Cook, OLB/DE, 6-4, 220 pounds, 80-inch wing-span, Belfry High School…
We have before called Grayson Cook the commonwealth’s best 2020 linebacker and he, like Devin Johnson, was a member of KPGFootball’s sophomore All-State football team in 2017. Also like Johnson, Cook is a former Kentucky Future Star. Cook is also a player which presents the Falcons a whale of an opportunity to swoop in and get a commitment from an undeniably-framed-out, FBS, Power-5 player at an all too important defensive position.
Cook has consistently run his 40s in the 4.7 range and runs the pro-agility shuttle (5-10-5) in 4.30 seconds. His runs the “L-cone drill” in 6.5 seconds. His short-shuttle and L-cone give you an idea about his bend, athleticism, and change of direction speed which is why he gets looks at DE.
Grayson has consistently shown, both while playing for Belfry High School and attending different combines during one on ones or seven on sevens, that he has the ability to rush off the edge, close the formation, or hold the point versus the strong-side run, while exhibiting the ability to make plays as a cutback defender, and also display the athleticism to drop in coverage.
This past season, while missing two games with an ankle injury, Cook tied for third on the team in tackles with 86, collected 5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, and registered an interception. Grayson was 42 of 46 in PATs, and kicked a couple of field goals. Grayson also handled the punting duties where he averaged 43 yards per punt-attempt, all for which he was selected to the AP’s All-State Football team.
Cook also has a 32 inch vertical, a 9’10” broad jump, a 19’6″ long-jump, and a 40-foot triple jump; the long and triple-jumps registered as a member of the Belfry’s Track & Field Team. Grayson carries a 3.6 GPA in advanced placement classes with a 25-ACT and has been invited to both Cornell and Yale. Like Devin Johnson, Grayson would be one of the heaviest recruited linebackers in the Southeast if he lived in a more urban sprawl than the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.
As you can see, the Falcons have done an excellent job identifying two prospects both of whom can certainly play at the requisite level of competition and both of whom are exemplary as students and citizens. The Air Force Academy seems to be doing a better job evaluating Kentucky prospects than the schools located within the confines of the commonwealth.
If we were one of Kentucky’s big-time Universities hoping to field a competitive football team, and we know we aren’t; but, if we were…we would be very concerned an institution which thrives both on and off the football field is “flying over” and picking off targets we should be recruiting and right under our very noses. Then again, what should one expect from a service academy known for being “Excell[ent] in All [they] Do?”
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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