There are lots of rating services in existence and each of them are trying to do the same thing. They are all trying to accurately evaluate prospective student-athletes to determine if they are scholarship worthy.
One player awoke this morning significantly more scholarship-worthy than when he went to bed last night. Breathitt County’s William L. Long, II heard the news just this morning that RedZone Prospects had reevaluated him an had awarded him an additional star to his previous ranking.
The fact William Long is an elite high school football player in and around Kentucky is news to no one. His attaining this type of lofty status in light of his physical dimensions is both remarkable and unexpected.
“I was shocked when I got the call and also excited,” William Long said. “It seems people are always discrediting me over something outside my control, my height. I would prefer people focus on my on-field performance and tireless effort exerted toward improvement,” said the 2018 and 2019 Kentucky State Powerlifting Champion in the 250-pound weight class and a kid Bluegrass Rivals just rated the top-Class 2A offensive-lineman in Kentucky, the 10th-best offensive lineman overall (all-classes), and Kentucky’s top-regarded offensive-center.
Long, who has been selected first-team All-State at OL in both 2018 and 2019 (Associated Press), was selected Honorable Mention All-State as a DL (Associated Press, 2019), was selected first-team, Class 2A, All-State (first-team, Bluegrass Preps, 2019), was selected the No. 8 DL prospect in the Appalachia Region according to the Appalachia Prep Combine (2019), was invited to the Blue-Grey All-American combine’s SuperRegional last summer, now appears to have added another feather to his already crowded cap. Long has been awarded, by the RedZone Prospects, a national-ranking of 3-stars.
RedZone Prospects gives players a national star-rating of one-to-five based on the level at which the player projects to play when reaching college. A Power-five caliber recruit is deemed a 5-star, for example, and there are very few of those players anywhere in the nation. A four-star is a FBS-caliber player, a two-star is a FCS or D-II-caliber player, and a one-star is a D-II or NAIA and D-III-caliber player. William Long has been determined by the selection committee to be a 3-Star prospect or a Division-I, FCS caliber player, next level.
The committee which gave Long this rating is chaired by Gus Bell, creator of the Blue-Grey All-American Bowl, but also has serving on it former NFL players Mark MMillian, eight-year NFL veteran; George Teague, nine-year NFL veteran; Arlen Harris, six-year NFL veteran; Randall Cunningham, 16-year NFL veteran; Troy Brown, 15-year NFL veteran; and Brian Dawkins, 16-year NFL veteran together with many other players, coaches, and Administrative-office types from various NFL-franchises too numerous to list here. Here is a link should you want to see the many committee members.
The site maintains their evaluations are often credited by college coaches owing to the site’s past track record and these coaches having faith in the committee knowing exactly for what these schools are looking. Judging by who serves on the committee this looks just about right to us.
This is an exciting development and we would like to congratulate a player we nicknamed “The Tank.” Congratulations, William Long! Keep grinding, the right people are beginning to notice.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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