One of my favorite excuses when caught by my parents doing something I had been expressly instructed to not do was, Everyone one else is doing it! I am sure I am not the only one. Yeah, it never worked for me either. Well, there is something which we have learned at Kentucky Prep Gridiron that everyone else is also doing across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Apparently it has become in vogue to plug-in the stud freshman into the lineup and see if he can’t win it for you, notwithstanding his youth. That is exactly what happened Friday night in the Knox Central vs. Letcher Central Game.
I know what everyone is thinking. Hey, wait a minute, I thought Knox Central had stud running back Donovan Arthur carrying the load. You would be right, but Arthur went down in the first series and Knox Central had to turn to Jermel Carton and freshman, Ethan Mills, to carry the load thereafter. How did they do? Jermel Carton ran for 150 yards from scrimmage with three TDs and the freshman, Ethan Mills went for over 100 yards from scrimmage and provided the winning margin in what ended up 27-20 in Knox Central’s favor. According to The Times Tribune, Mills TD at the 4:33 mark sealed the Knox Central win.
Now, we hate to perpetually ring our own bell at KPG (please denote sarcasm) but we first told you about Mills on April 3, 2017. Traveling down memory lane, we predicted over 4 months ago that…Kentucky Prep Gridiron believes Ethan Mills is a Varsity Letter Winner as a freshman in High School, at the very least, and may be a freshman starter. We predict he will certainly be in Clarksville, Tennessee playing for KY Future Stars…Emphasis not in Original. Shall we say bingo?! Enough with the patting our own backs. It really wasn’t that much of an outlandish prediction. We had seen the kid play in FBU and Future Stars and were aware of the mind boggling statistics he put up in Middle School. We also compared an up and comer to Mills on July 6, 2017 in an article we wrote about the North Pulaski Middle School team’s superstar 2023 RB, Korbyn Goff.
I was talking with a HS coach who quipped that the conventional thinking in HS football used to be you could count on a loss for every Sophomore Varsity starter one played. Well, the young kids upcoming are arriving ready to play in High School right out of Middle School, something we have taken great pains to demonstrate. Far from causing Knox Central High School to lose, Ethan Mills, a freshman, assured his team of a win Friday night. I can’t believe how deep and talented the Commonwealth’s 2021 class is and how many of them are factoring mightily into his HS’s game plan, not in the future, but right now.
So, go ahead and plug that freshman into the lineup. Why not? Everyone else seems to be doing it! This is Fletcher Long reporting for Kentucky Prep Gridiron reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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