Heading into the 2020-season, the toughest district in 2A, and one of the toughest in all of Kentucky football regardless of classification (District 4; Somerset, LCA, Washington County, and Danville), is being heavily discussed.
That is what happens when the classification’s state football champion hails from your district. Even more true where the Kentucky Football Champion (2A) entered the playoffs a district No. 2 seed.
People are talking about the tough LCA team which split a couple of games with state-champion Somerset inspire of starting 8 or so sophomores in what has to be the best 2022 crop of talent in Kentucky. If you don’t believe it just look at our KPGFootball Sophomore All-State selections from a season ago.
People are talking about Somerset. They are coming off a championship with its signal caller, Kaiya Sheron (UK commitment) returning and his primary target, Kade Grundy (UL baseball commit), back as well.
People are even talking about Washington County which finished 2019, 5-6. Same record as 2018, but suffered losses to graduation people figured would detrimentally impact its 2019 fortunes in a district toughened by realignment.
People seem to be forgetting a team which has won 11-Kentucky Football Championships. People aren’t talking much about a team which was 15-0 as recently as 2017.
People aren’t talking very much about the team which has struggled, post Dmaurie Vancleave, but who battled valiantly in 2019 in spite of a freshman starting under center much of the season (QB, Sage Dawson) and a sophomore ending the year the primary ball-carrier.
That sophomore ball-carrier is Caleb Burns. Caleb Burns is a budding superstar.
Caleb Burns, in only 9-games in 2019, gained 1,156-yards from scrimmage in only 160-carries (7.225-yards per carry). Caleb burns tallied 15-TDs rushing, or a TD between every 10th to 11th-carry.
Caleb Burns just may be the way back into the Kentucky-title picture. Caleb Burns has excited the citizens around a program located in a town nicknamed “Title-Town” because it is expected for them to contend, every year!
First of all, the kid is scintillating, particularly in space. We would be remiss in not pointing out that the sophomore gained over 100-yards and scored a rushing TD against the 2A Kentucky football champions at Somerset in the first round of the playoffs. It would be error to not note that the sophomore “ran all over” this same team when they met in the regular season (12-carries, 148-yards, 2-rushing TDs).
That is twice he ran against the classification’s champion. That is twice he ran for over 100-yards against a front-seven which was among the best in the class, if not the commonwealth, a year ago.
He also burned Allen-County Scottsville (4A) for 151 yards and two TDs. He carried it 21-times against ACS. He torched Washington County for 280-yards from scrimmage and 2 rushing TDs in 27-carries.
Point is, he wasn’t stockpiling these numbers against a bunch of “Joe Slappies.” This kid is doing this against top-flight, Kentucky competition.
Burns is winning “one on one” matchups with 2nd-level defenders post-season awards pickers and college scouts have told us are pretty good at football. The young sophomore last year was shaking and baking his team’s future prospects back onto the sunny-side of the street.
Is he good enough to bring the Admirals back? Can the Admirals once again assume the position atop the classification the Danville, Kentucky school is accustomed to occupying yearly?
We believe he is. We look forward to seeing what Dawson and he, together with their other top-flight, young talent, can do for the Admirals in 2020.
For the immediate future, Somerset and LCA are still huge, in-district obstacles to overcome. Looking on down the line, we certainly think it would be wise to remember who has, historically, been Daddy around here.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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