Coach Lyon’s Class 5A preseason top-10 football poll…

In what has become a tradition at KPGFootball, we are going to make a preseason top-10 prognosis. These teams will be ranked according to whom we believe are the top 10 football teams in each classification. Some of these teams are (unfortunately) in the same district. That aside, this is who we believe to be Class 5A’s best football teams as we head into the 2019 season.

Photo: Lexington Herald-Leader

Class 5A…

  1. Frederick Douglass High School…At the risk of sounding like my favorite villain in a Batman movie, Riddle me this… What happens when you take a Class 6A football team which narrowly lost in the playoffs to one of the State Finalists in Kentucky’s largest classification (6A) in 2018 (Scott County by a single point), retun the best player in Kentucky’s 2021 prospect class (or any other eligible year if we are being accurate), Dekel Crowdus, Class of 2021 (offered by Michigan, Kentucky, Florida State among others); return an elite 2021 OG in Jager Burton (offered by Alabama, Clemson, Kentucky, Ohio State, among others); and return the best OT in the Class of 2020, Walker Parks (offered by Clemson, Auburn, Kentucky, among others)? Sprinkle in the fact its top interceptor, Jaylin Bybee (3 picks for 100 return yards) is back, and one of its leading tacklers, Ramarcus Thompson, returns. When that is added together what solution do you get? At KPGFootball, we believe it adds up to a Class 5A State Football Championship in 2019.
  2. Covington Catholic…It was quite the debate at the magazine as to which team, Frederick Douglass or Covington Catholic, we were going to pick as the top ranked 5A squad. Notre Dame commitment, Michael Mayer, who is a strong Mr. Football candidate in 2019, returns for his senior year. If his senior year comes close to replicating what he did as a junior, his candidacy for Mr. Football would look fairly certain. Mayer caught 46 passes a year ago for 1,029 receiving yards and 12 TDs receiving. That was just on offense. Defensively, he led the team with 98 tackles (80 solos), recovered 4 fumbles, had 18 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, and 3 QB sacks. Caleb Jacob returns for his junior year at QB after completing 146 of his 224 passing attempts for 2,819 yards passing with 28 passing TDs against only 7 interceptions over his sophomore campaign. Still, Casey McGinness is out of eligibility and that is losing quite a bit. McGinness, in 2018, gained 2,140 yards rushing and scored 35 rushing TDs. He also caught 23 passes out of the backfield for 341 yards receiving with 5 TD receptions. The Colonels’ best DB graduated in Jackson Blank and he took 6 of the team’s 17 interceptions with him when he walked across the graduation platform. In the end, we went with the three FBS, Power 5 prospects over the one.
  3. South Oldham…South Oldham is the class of the 4th District and the 2nd Region. It appears the Dragons are regular entrants into the Semis and we believe they will get there again this year. They have some real talent with players the likes of Keaton Martin and Ethan Bednarczyk returning. This is the year to which the Dragon faithful have been pointing as “South’s Year” for several years. They have all the ingredients to make a State Title run.
  4. Owensboro Senior High…Here is a little nugget of information for you about Owensboro Senior High…Imonte Owsley suffered injury at Purdue University’s prospect camp and has been lost for the year. That is one of the most explosive and exciting playmakers in the entire western-end of Kentucky and, with him, Owensboro gets serious consideration for being the top team in the classification. His loss will mean absolutely nothing, district-wise, as Owensboro could win the first district with its JV. They still have Austin Gough, 2021s top linebacker, and a bevy of other stars from out of the best middle school program in Kentucky. Word out of Owensboro is Gough will also double, this upcoming season, in the offensive backfield at RB. If true, that gives Owensboro a 6-2, 215-pound, grown man running the football with 40-speed in the high 4.5s getting down hill at team’s 2nd and 3rd level defenders. Can you say massive headache? Owenboro put Bowling Green out of the playoffs in 2018, 28-21. When they do it again in 2019, that will be two years straight.
  5. Bowling Green Senior High…This team may make it to the Semis and has as much talent on the roster as anyone. Bowling Green has one of Kentucky’s top TEs in Jordan Dingle (2021) and its very best DB in DeVito Tisdale (2020). Terrion Thompson (2020), along the interior defensive front for the Purples is an absolute beast and look for DE Bridger Knee to come on this year in a big, big way to develop into one of the best up-field, edge, bender’s in Kentucky’s Class of 2022. Evan Spader (2020) is a returning AP All-State football player and back-end star for the Purple’s third level. Growing up Spader doesn’t hurt the old football IQ either.
  6. Pulaski High…Pulaski, 11-3 a year ago, has one of the top athletes and WR’s in all of Kentucky back for another tour in Jake Sloan (2020). Sloan is now sporting an EKU offer. It will be a big effort for this team to finish ahead of Southwestern once the district and the first two rounds of the playoffs shake out in 2019. Southwestern lost Larry French to Middlesboro but are coming off a 10-3 year themselves and Somerset, Kentucky seems to stockpile considerable prep football talent around its area.
  7. Madison Southern…This is a ball club which made a run to the 5A championship game in 2017 and finished 11-4. Then, last year, they finished 2-9. Southern boasts one of Kentucky’s very best along the interior offensive line in Dane Jackson who is not only the little brother of preseason All-SEC offensive center, Drake Jackson (UK), but has committed to play for North Texas, an FBS, Division I program.
  8. South Warren…Probably should put Buillett Central here as they will likely still be standing when the Regional Finals open. They seem to be the favorites in a weak district (District 3) in a watered down classification not nearly as formidable as it was a year ago. However, South Warren would run the clock on Buillett Central and probably Madison Southern and we just can’t rank them any lower just because of its misfortune of being in the second district with Bowling Green, whom they could beat by the way. South Warren won the entire classification a year ago and went 15-0 along the way. They sustained key losses at key positions from linebacker (Pete Cross), to the DL (Jacob Lacey), to DB (Clayton Bush), to QB (Gavin Spurrier). We have no idea how this will effect the Spartans. They may reload and be just fine. They are well coached and there’s plenty of talent on hand in Warren County to re-stock anyone’s cupboard.
  9. Highlands…District Five always is and will always be a Highlands/Covington Catholic battle. Highlands is catching up to Covington Catholic and is getting close to where it used to be, the class of the entire commonwealth in football. The Bluebirds won’t overtake Catholic this year, however, but the gap between the two is ever narrowing. Brycen Huddleston (2020) is a bone fide superstar at ILB and is committed to Eastern Michigan.
  10. Southwestern…Southwestern lost Larry French to Middlesboro but they are coming off a 10-3 year themselves and Somerset, Kentucky seems to stockpile considerable prep football talent around its area, as we above said. We know he’s just a freshman but look out for Cade Sullivan who is one of the best football players entering high school this Fall. Sullivan, anatomically, is anything but a freshman. While Southwestern lost Drew Sawyers from a year ago, who threw for over 1,100 yards and ran for over 1,200 yards, they do get back 2022 superstar Chase Doan. Doan nearly eclipsed the 1,000 yard rushing mark as only a freshman in 2018 (145 carries, 916 yards, 10 rushing TDs).

There it is folks, the KPGFootball, preseason top-10 football teams in the 5A classification. Join us tomorrow as we publish our top-10 preseason teams in Class 6A.

This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!

If you enjoyed this article and wish to gain full-access to the site, then subscribe monthly to Kentucky Prep Gridiron by following the prompts!

© The information contained on this site is the copyrighted intellectual property of KPGFootball. Any unauthorized dissemination of this material without the author’s express written consent is strictly prohibited!

About Henry Lyon 1210 Articles
Have coached at the high school and middle school level. Have worked in athletic administration. Conceal my identity to enable my candor on articles published by this magazine. Only members of the editorial board are aware of my true identity.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply