@DavontayeSaund1 (@EminenceFball) being selected to this year’s All-State football team is looking altogether imminent, at least to us! @minguabeefjerky @PrepSpin @MaxPreps @KyHighFootball @1776Bank

His given name is “Devontaye.” Everyone calls him “Taye.”

Taye’s play makes people wonder if his surname, “Saunders,” makes him related to “Primetime.” He’s not. Deion spells his surname, “Sanders.”

Saunders plays both RB and LB for Eminence High School in Louisville. Eminence is a Class 1A, 3rd-District team which regularly battles both Frankfort and Kentucky Country Day (KCD) for district supremacy. Yeah, it’s a hard district.

Still the little school which could is finding more and more it actually can. Eminence went 7-4 this season under Coach Larry Montgomery and beat a Metcalfe County team (2A), 50-48. This same Metcalfe County team stomped KCD 34-14 on October 29, 2021.

Coach Montgomery will tell you he has some chess pieces on his board. Two of these pieces he believes to be first-team All-Staters.

These two pieces are RB, Taye Saunders, and QB, Blaze Berry. Montgomery has an argument.

Saunders Highlights

This article here will feature the RB/LBer, two-way superstar Taye Saunders. We will get around to Blaze Berry in very short order.

Taye Saunders gained 1,815-yards this year in 11-games over 152-carries for an average of 12.18-yards per attempt. Did we mention Eminence played KCD, Sayre, Metcalfe County, and Frankfort twice?

Taye scored 25-rushing TDs, caught 34-receptions for 724-yards with 14-TDs receiving. All together he accounted for 2,539-total yards and 39 total TDs. That is his case for being an All-State RB. It is an intriguing case…versatile enough to lead his ball club in rushing, receiving, and scoring.

He has a case to press on the defensive side of the football too. Defensively, Saunders registered 97-total tackles. In addition, he logged 4-TFLs and 5-QB sacks. I have seen LBs with much less impressive statistics make All-State teams since becoming a subscribed member of the Associated Press several years ago.

Too many times we want to focus on a player’s dimensions. Well, this particular player is 5-10 and tips the scales in the neighborhood of 190-pounds while clipping off 40-yards in 4.4-seconds, hand-held. He’s a tad out of frame for LBer, next level, but in the “sweet spot” of where colleges like RBs.

What we discount, many times, is a player’s on-field production. We are supposed to be picking the very best football players to suit up on Friday nights across the commonwealth when voting on and selecting All-State teams.

We aren’t putting together an All-College Prospect team ranking the players with the highest upsides. Recruiting services already provide such information.

What a particular player produces on the field must be scrutinized in analyzing which performance either was or wasn’t All-State-worthy in our opinion.

By the way, our opinion counts. KPGFootball is a registered voter. All-State voters are supposed to be recognizing play, not rewarding potential.

Here, we have a RB who was No. 2 in Kentucky (All classes) in Total Rushing Yards, No. 3 (All classes) in Total Receiving Yards; and No. 1 (All classes) in Scoring with 246-points over 11-games. Saunders also set new school records for Most TDs and Most Rushing Yards in a game (7TDs/307-yards).

Is this an All-State performance? How can there be much doubt?

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

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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.

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