Dual threat QB, ’25 prospect, proving to be right at home behind the Purples center
Deuce Bailey is among the more exciting and accomplished backfield weapons still alive and playing Kentucky high school football entering the championship weekend. He is explosive, has nimble, quick feet, and an arm sufficiently strong enough to deliver all the throws any route tree would require a QB to make. He is also a “Mr. Football” candidate in the ’25 graduating class.
Fletcher Long, Head of the Scouting Division, KPGFootball
There is a Dixieland Jazz standard entitled “Won’t you come home Bill Bailey.” It was written by Hughie Cannon in 1902 when he was working as a bar pianist at a saloon in Jackson, Michigan.
As the story goes, Bill Bailey was a jazz musician and a regular customer and friend of Cannon’s. Bailey told Cannon of the difficulties in his marriage caused by his unusual and often long working hours together with his undertaking other unsavory and unfaithful conduct in regards to his wife, Sarah.
Cannon wrote the song, “Won’t you come home Bill Bailey?” Bailey took it home to his wife, Sarah, and she wasn’t too pleased. The parties ultimately divorced.
Bill Bailey died in 1954. His ex-wife, Sarah, died in 1976 at the ripe, old age of 102.
The dispositive lyric which is a well known segment of this song and which inspired this particular piece published today is, “Won’t you come home, Bill Bailey/ Won’t you come home?” We would suppose a similar question was once posed to sophomore QB for the Bowling Green (Senior) High “Purples,” but to a different and unrelated “Bailey.”
The Purples version of the song would go, “Won’t you come home Deuce Bailey/ Won’t you come home?”
Of course, in our version of the song, “home” is in the offensive backfield running the Purples, high-octane offensive attack. By the way, Deuce would tell you, unlike Bill, he feels right at home.
That is how the splendid sophomore, and ’25 Mr. Football candidate, is playing coming into the 5A championship game upcoming with Frederick Douglass. Deuce Bailey is playing like he’s already home.
This past weekend, in the semis, Bailey, a 6’0,” 160-pound dual-threat QB, was 11 for 16 for 159-yards and 4-TD’s in leading the Purples to a 47-20 pasting of formerly 13-0 (now 13-1) Southwestern High. BG, as the locals commonly reference the high school, is 12-2 and hunting the program’s 8th-title, having just won the 7th-title in 2020.
Bailey had 2-rushes for 44-yards in the Southwestern game. You will find that Bailey is prone to take off and gash you down the field with his feet when defenses forget they have to account for that prong of the attack as well.
Now, this particular dual-threat throws it around just fine, thank you. On the year the sophomore has completed 204 of his 325 passing attempts for a completion percentage a shade under 63%. Bailey has thrown for 2,923-yards and 33-TD’s versus only seven (7)-picks.
Bailey is dangerous with his feet. Bailey has, this season, scored three (3)-rushing scores out of 62-carries gaining 375-yards on the ground.
You know who would like to see Bailey not come back around to his new-found home? Frederick Douglass, that’s who.
They may even hunt a piano bar for him to hang out in a few hours this coming Saturday. Something tells me that won’t work in this instance. Big difference between 1902 and 2022.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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