Rising 9th-grader hopes to get some varsity “run” this coming season
Mullins is a guy our agent in Rockcastle County tells us Coach Chris Larkey and staff will be turning to for early PT when the Friday Night Lights illumine both in and around Mt. Vernon, Kentucky in ’23. He is a RB/LB combo guy who has plenty of natural ability at either post. Mullins figures to be a two-way guy at some point. Most young players so described tend to start out on defense. Either way, this is the type talent which build programs.
Fletcher W. Long, Chief of Scouting, KPGFootball
People forget this, but Kentucky Prep Gridiron started out a magazine devoted to the coverage of middle school football. There was a reason for this.
One of our founders, Fletcher Long, was coaching middle school ball in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. He had four (4) players who made the prestigious Kentucky Future Stars team. The middle school across town, Christian County, boasted of three (3).
Long attempted to get a local paper to cover what he thought to be a story. The newspaper’s sports editor remarked the paper didn’t cover middle school sports. So Long and his partner, Greg Gough, from Owensboro, Kentucky, decided to start their own publication and fill this coverage void.
The rest has been history. As Long says, “Don’t rely on someone to do something for you which you are better able to do than the person you are asking in the first place.”
Don’t rely on someone to do something for you which you are better able to do than that person in the first place
Fletcher Long, circa, the beginning
Now covering middle school athletes is no easy cover. If you don’t believe me, learn the identity of the best middle school football player in your town, city, or county and then Google his name. There is an 80% chance you won’t find anything substantial, or really, anything. We call the phenomenon around KPGFootball, being a digital ghost.
It is like the kid doesn’t exist. We are set up to attempt to alleviate this condition as best we can.
Now Blake Mullins is an example of this condition. He has a Twitter account, sort of (it is under @abmullins08) but that account doesn’t tell us what position or positions he plays, doesn’t contain any film or highlights, doesn’t have his height or weight. Doesn’t provide his GPA.
It tells the curious that Mullins is in the ’27 graduating class. It relates Mullins lives in Rockcastle County, Kentucky. That is pretty much it.
Mullins is a long way from being recruited. He’s entering the 9th-grade.
Still, there is a larger point to be made here. If you want to be recruited, if you want to be covered, you should have a Twitter account which lists your positions, your height, weight, reach, speed, quickness (5-10-5 time), and any salient statistics which “sell” you (Tackles, TFL’s, TD’s, rushing or receiving yards…etc.). It should also contain your GPA and registered test score when the time comes.
Back to Mullins; we have agents spanning the entire commonwealth who report to us enabling our coverage of even the more obscure portions of Kentucky. We are told Mullins is a fine player, an upper-level athlete, who Coach Larkey and staff are keen with whom to work going forward.
Mullins is put together well, is a natural “runner” with the football, can play any of the second level defensive positions, and was an abundant contributor to the middle school team in ’22. Consistently welcoming talent of the sort onto future varsity rosters at Rockcastle County will be key to returning “The Rock” to its glorious past when another Larry, named Tom, roamed those self-same sidelines.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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