With an ever-changing landscape in the first-district of the 4A classification brought about by graduation, it seems hard to pick a favorite in that particular district. Madisonville was perfectly ravaged by graduation losses right where it hurts, along the offensive front and the defensive front-seven. They lost plenty in the offensive and defensive backfields too, don’t kid yourself.
Logan County lost plenty too off a senior class which took the program to unforeseen heights in the history of its program. That includes losing its program-best signal caller in Tyler Ezell.
Hoptown, the traditional “bully” in District-one, and the District-one team seeded 1st entering the 2019 KHSAA playoffs (though they lost the district title to State semi-finalist, Madisonville) lost a QB which completed 160-passes for 2,408-yards and tossed 28-TDs against only 9-interceptions in an offense which largely relied on the down-field “throw game” in going 8-4.
That isn’t all the Tigers lost either as both offensive tackles from last year signed to compete in college as athletes. One tackle, Keane Mumford, signed to the “field team” at TSU and the other tackle, Quinton Carlton, signed an LOI to play on Saturdays.
Defensively, the Tigers lost tremendous second-level playmakers in the Lackey twins and Jaxon Davis to go with the loss of the region’s fastest player and its most reliable 3rd-level defender, JeVon Leavell. Leavell is also headed to play college football AND run track.
Hopkinsville hit big-time on the transfer-market as a QB who played his middle school football at Hopkinsville Middle School appears to have moved “back home.” Treyvon Jefferson, @TreyvonJeffers1 on Twitter, is a 6-5-inch, strong-armed QB already offered by Eastern Kentucky University and someone training with Elite-3 out of Nashville.
Jefferson played some QB at Bayshore High in Bradenton, Florida. According to the statistics entered on-line, Jefferson played 8-games in 2019 at QB and completed 60 of 134 passes for 671-yards with 7-TDs against 6-picks.
On the ground he rushed it from scrimmage 9-times and lost 16-yards, but scored a rushing-TD. At receiver, where we are told Treyvon ended the season for Bayshore, Jefferson caught 6-passes for 27-yards with no registered TD-receptions.
Bayshore shouldn’t be mistaken for the other team in Bradenton, Florida, the IMG Academy. Bayshore really struggled in 2019, going 3-7, not making the playoffs, and being ranked by the MaxPreps computer algorithm as Florida’s 330th best high-school football team and the nation’s 6,499th best team.
Now we know it is Florida, and we are familiar with the state’s impressive reputation for football teams. However, there are 431-high schools fielding football teams in Florida. Being ranked by the MaxPreps computer at 330 means you are in the bottom quarter, or bottom 25%, of the Florida’s high-school teams.
You know Florida has “bad” high-school football teams like any other state. Bayshore appears to have been one-such team.
Now, the team Jefferson is joining, the Hoptown Tigers, are coming off a solid 8-4 season, finished 2019 as Kentucky’s 58th-best football team (Kentucky has 222-teams, so Hoptown closed 2019 in the top 25% of Kentucky football teams) and the nation’s 4,993rd-best football team.
That number, 4993-Hoptown, KY versus 6,499-Bayshore, FL, has significance. You recall we have before told you there isn’t a more reliable indicator of “who beats who” than the Calpreps.com algorithm. It is used by Kentucky to rank its teams, top to bottom, and the same algorithm is employed by MaxPreps to rank US high school teams, top to bottom.
Had Hoptown played Bayshore on a neutral field in 2019, Hoptown would have routed Bayshore. We’re probably talking 28 to 36-points better than Bayshore.
Come to think of it, according to the computer algorithm, Hoptown beats Bayshore anywhere, home, away, neutral-field, doesn’t matter. So Jefferson has a great opportunity to join a program in Hopkinsville moving in a totally different direction than Bayshore. Bayshore looks likely to struggle (again) in 2020. Jefferson coming back wouldn’t have changed their fortunes.
We have never seen Bayshore play. We are just reading the “tea-leaves” here.
We have seen Hoptown play a bunch, both historically and recently. The Tigers aren’t a team one relishes turning up on one’s schedule.
Now Jefferson is a plus athlete, with tremendous frame, who is a very good athlete. With what returns upfront for the Tigers, it would be wise for Treyvon to tuck the ball away and go get the Tigers some yards with his feet when the opportunity presents itself.
Why? Well, If for no other reason, it will slow down a pass-rush which will be dead-set on trying to get in his head and limit his time to find Reece Jesse, Jr. down the field.
Speaking of Reece Jesse, Jr., he is a top-five prospect in the 2021-class in the commonwealth and returns off a stellar season which should have answered any and all lingering questions about his ability to produce between he chalk-lines. Jesse caught 67 of Bland’s aerials, for 1,184-yards, with 15-TD receptions ranking among Kentucky’s top performers in all three important statistical categories.
Reece is a returning all-stater (AP, Coaches) and will provide a “hard-to-miss” target down the field for the only other player on the Tiger team as tall as Reece (Jefferson). Both of these prospects work, off-season, with Elite-3 Foundation.
With Jefferson under center, fulfilling his enormous potential and playing up to his physical talents, there is no reason Hoptown shouldn’t come storming out of District 1 with an eye toward winning the whole enchilada. Welcome (back) to Kentucky, Treyvon, and Hold That Tiger!
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
If you enjoyed this article and wish to gain full-access to the site, then subscribe monthly to Kentucky Prep Gridiron by following the prompts!
© The information contained on this site is the copyrighted intellectual property of KPGFootball. Any unauthorized dissemination of this material without the author’s express written consent is strictly prohibited!
Leave a Reply