🎶Thank God for good directions/And turnip greens...🎶
Luke Bryan and Rachel Thibodeau, 2005
Some teams in Kentucky make the playoffs regardless of the regular season performance. There are three and four team districts out there and those districts send them all, as the top four advance. However, like in the case of Muhlenberg County, members of a six team district (District One, 5A: Apollo, Marshall, Madisonville-North Hopkins, Owensboro, Graves, and Muhlenberg), making the playoffs takes a little doing. Muhlenberg County got left without a chair in the musical chair game that is the KHSAA’s first district, 5A classification. The ‘Stangs were 5-5 on the year. We will take a season closing look at the program and its direction. We think your will agree the program is headed in a good direction, in the right direction.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Greenville, Kentucky: One of my favorite songs was recorded as the third single from off a Billy Currington album released around 2005, 2006. The song talks about a young lady getting lost in the country and stopping by a young man, who fancies her, and is selling turnip greens from off his flatbed truck on a roadside.
QB/Safety
As the story goes, he sends her down to get some tea from his momma, who sends her right back to her son, the turnip green, roadside salesman. The closing couplet of the song was, “Thank God for good directions and turnip greens.” Amen, indeed.
There are lots of Mustang fans who are thanking God right now (or should be) for the direction head football coach, Josh Staples, has his Mustangs headed. There are a ton of positives going forward.
The team won five games this season. The team won its final ’25 game and heads into the offseason from a win. Not too many teams get to make such a claim. Such a claim is generally reserved for state champions.
The team won as many as they lost. The team beat most the teams it should have and lost to very few teams to which it shouldn’t. Matter of fact, Muhlenberg was a couple points away from a 6-4 record, losing to Marshall (3-7), 23-21, on September 26, 2025.
Klay Wilken (’27 QB) returns next year. Wilken led the team in passing, passing TDs, rushing, rushing TDs, and scoring. Wilken was among the leaders in tackles, with 32. Look for Wilken to make some preseason “Mr. Football” lists next year, Fall of 2026.
Zachery Stewart and Karson Lynch, a pair of ’28’s, return and both were playmakers on the defensive side. Stewart led the team in tackles and was among the leaders in TFLs while Lynch led the team in sacks (4).
Daylen Hocker (’28) showed he could shoulder some offensive burden this season. Hocker was the team’s second leading ground gainer and second on the team in rushing TDs.
The youth movement of outstanding young talent extends farther than the varsity roster…
Friday Night Fletch
The youth movement is even deeper than the varsity roster as it extends to the JV and freshman rosters. Ethan Jones (’29), PK, set the longest FG in school history record. Jones was the freshman QB and outside linebacker and led that team in rushing. Abram Eaves (’29) found the field for the last two varsity games at corner this season and was an absolute ballhawk.
The Jarvis twins, Corbin (’29) and Trace (’29), are line of scrimmage anchors for both the OL and the DL. Jacob Williams (’29), ILB, led the state in tackles on both the freshman and the JV rosters. Zane Jernigan (’29) is a multipart athlete who can play QB and DB.
The freshmen were 6-0 this past season. The JV went 4-1. The MS, 7th-grade team, was undefeated all the way through the regular season; losing a second round playoff game to Bowling Green Junior High in the KYMSFA playoffs.
Overall, as a program, Varsity through the Freshmen, the Mustangs were 15-6. The middle school team boasted some of the top seventh grade talent in the area.
If you are getting from this article that Josh Staples has this program going in the right direction, then you are picking up what we are attempting to lay down. Good job!
We are going in the right direction; both as a program and under the present leadership. Thank God for good directions, and (of course) turnip greens!
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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