This is a common practice at KPGFootball. For every team we select we make it a common practice to defend our selections. We do it for several reasons. First, we only think it right for the subscribers and readers of KPGFootball to know that we haven’t haphazardly, willy-nilly, selected just some players we like but we have tangible, defensible reasons for each and ever player selected. Secondly, we feel it helps accentuate to future players, desiring inclusion in future years, to know the criteria the selection committee felt compelled to reward and maybe even the areas of a player’s game which needs improvement to raise that player’s level of play to an All-State level. In this first defense, we are looking at the QBs. The first responsibility of a QB is to lead his team to wins. Playoff advancement was scrutinized pretty carefully, especially among the sophomores. We looked at yards thrown, yards gained from scrimmage rushing for the dual threat guys, completion percentage, and TD:INT ratio. We also looked at frame, but recognized we were rewarding football players over football prospects. Here are the glory boys, the QBs, beginning with the sophomores…
Class of 2021 Quarterbacks;
Arren Hash, 6-1, 150 pounds, Campbellsville High…Arren Hash, whom this publication nicknamed The Rifleman, when he was still just in middle school has started at Campbellsville High School since his freshman year, where he entered the lineup after Campbellsville started off 0-3 in 2017 and led them to the State Semis before they lost to 2017 State Football Champion, Beechwood. This year, he followed up his freshman performance with taking his team to an 11-2 mark and a berth in the Regional Championship game where they lost, again, to 2018, State Champion, Beechwood. On the year, Hash completed 116 of his 229 passing attempts (.50655022 completion percentage), for 1,915 yards with 30 passing TDs against 10 interceptions for a 3:1 TD to Interception ratio. In two years at the helm of the Campbellsville High School offense, Hash has thrown for 3,618 yards passing with 43 TD passes against 27 interceptions while leading his team to an overall record of 18-6 as a starter. We will put up The Rifleman’s numbers, and on-field success, against any QB in the 2021 class other than the other QB we have below selected whose numbers may even be better. This selection was NOT very vigorously debated.
Brady Worley, 6-0, 175 pounds, Knox Central High…Worley is a prime example of why KPGFootball leans so heavily on its selection committees. If KPGFootball were to pick these teams alone, our teams would be confined to just the areas we frequent and be comprised of the kids with whom we regularly associate. The Worley kid is someone we knew nothing about (at KPGFootball) until the selection committee convened. We believe he helped lead his team, Knox Central, to its deepest playoff run in program history (State Semis) or further than we have ever before known them to advance. Worley should have made the freshman team last year and our missing him was a complete oversight. Last year, as a freshman, Worley started 12 games, completed 105 of 180 passes (.58333 completion percentage) for 1,706 yards passing with 10 TD passes against 6 interceptions while leading Knox Central to an 8-4 finish. This year, as a sophomore, Worley completed 181 of his 300 passing attempts (.60333 completion percentage) for 2,921 yards passing and 29 TD passes against 14 interceptions for a two year total of 4,627 career passing yards (to date) and 39 TD passes against 20 interceptions, all while leading his team to a combined, two-year mark of 18-8 (8-4 in 2017; 10-4 in 2018 losing in the State-semis to Johnson Central). Just like we said about Arren Hash above, this was an easy selection which required very little debate.
Class of 2022 Quarterbacks;
Isaac McNamee, 6-4, 225 pounds, Pikeville High School…We will begin by saying we have seen years in Kentucky were freshmen were much more utilized than they were this year at some positions. Look at the freshman numbers of the Class of 2021 QBs, above listed, and you might get the impression that neither of these quarterbacks would have made the freshman team were they Class of 2021 members instead of Class of 2022. Well that impression is misleading. McNamee is (in KPGFootball’s opinion) one of the top five or so college prospects at the high school level in any year across the entire Commonwealth. He had the misfortune of playing behind an All-State caliber QB in Connor Roberts who was a senior this past season and the good fortune for playing for a team which blew out a ton of folks permitting his accumulating some solid numbers. In mop-up duty this year, McNamee completed 27 of his 43 passing attempts (.62790698 completion percentage) for 465 yards passing and 6 passing TDs against 2 interceptions for a 3:1 TD to interception ratio. McNamee has a D-1, Power 5, frame already at 6-4 and 225 pounds and Pikeville returns enough starters off a team which lost the State Championship to Beechwood by one point for every Panther fan to expect a return trip to Lexington with McNamee, and not Roberts, under center. Isaac’s numbers next year at the helm of the Pikeville offense will be sick, you watch and see.
Preston Agee, 6-0, 162 pounds, Campbell County…Preston is a kid who had limited Varsity run this year while killing it in Junior Varsity play. Preston is also a kid who had a very ballyhooed and accomplished middle school career at the position playing for several Team Kentuckys so everybody was aware of his prodigious skill set to play the position. Preston played in two games for the Class 6A, District 6 football team which will lose its starting QB to graduation, giving him every opportunity to battle for the opening in 2019. The only other candidate he will battle will be a rising senior, Nick Cartwright, who only attempted two passes himself over the course of his junior season. So Cartwright will not be any more seasoned than Preston entering camp. Agee, making the most of his appearances, did register two QB sacks in the two games where he saw action in the defensive backfield, demonstrating the moxie and verve which will make him attack the QB competition this Spring and on into next Fall. In a year where freshman across Kentucky didn’t play Varsity as often as the Freshmen played in last year’s class, this was a hotly debated selection where most felt he just didn’t play enough on Friday night to warrant inclusion. Still, this is a kid whose skills and abilities are well-known to this committee.
Well, that is the defense of our selections at QB for both the Classes of 2021 and 2022. KPGFootball is quite sure these may not be the best four QBs in the two respective classes but they are four QBs we believe to be among the best at the position. All of these players have distinguished themselves both on the field of play and in the class room. It shall be fun to follow these guys as they continue to develop and play football next Fall. You will hear plenty from these four players next year, we assure you.
Reporting for KPGFootball, this is Fletcher Long reminding all of the ballers out there that #WeGotUCovered and to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE.
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