We must confess we almost don’t know where to begin this particular article. We mean, what does one even say about the poise, the throws, the athleticism, the ups, the downs, just any of it? What can be said?
For those of you scratching your heads wondering just what in the Hell we are even talking about, we must assume you weren’t at Fortera Stadium today. You must not have seen the Kentucky-Tennessee Future Stars Classic unfold on the campus of Austin Peay State University and for that; we are truly sorry.
Saying a star was born today on that turf field is not really true. It is dramatic but inaccurate. Joshuah Keith was a star before he took the field for Kentucky this afternoon. He did make the Bret Cooper Junior All-American Football team, and is the top-ranked (by KPGFootball) dual threat QB in Kentucky’s Class of 2024. He was also one of only two 7th graders to make the Kentucky Middle School All-State football team.
He got off the bus at the stadium a star. What he did today may have made him a legend, it may have made him a mythical figure, it may even have made him a hero. Regardless of what he either is or isn’t now, what he did, his performance, was both mythical and heroic in any one’s book.
The diminutive, Russell Wilson-clone, entered the lineup with Kentucky trailing 7-6 and threw this pass to put Kentucky on top 12-7. You might turn your sound down, that is his mother screaming on the linked video. That fade in the linked video, put where only his receiver had a chance to come down with it, staked Kentucky to the lead.
Tennessee came back down the field and regained the lead in the fourth quarter, 14-12. Tennessee’s drive was largely a down-hill, physical run-game reminiscent of the work we saw, in 2017, from Kentucky’s Offensive MVP, Austin Gough. Gough ran over Tennessee in route to victory in 2017 and the big RB from Tennessee ran over Kentucky in an attempted, 2019 pay-back.
With the ball, now trailing by two, Kentucky went back to Joshuah Keith. Keith, perhaps showing his tender years, slid down on third and long, short of the yardage marker, leaving it 4th and 1.
On a disastrous attempt to pick-up the fourth down, Keith pulled out early from center, dropped the snap, resulting in a turnover, whether on downs or recovered by Tennessee didn’t matter, it netted the same effect. Keith looked, at that moment, to be the goat, in the old-fashioned, negative connotation. Keith looked dejected as he slumped off the field.
However, isn’t life an interesting journey full of both second chances and opportunities for redemption? Isn’t the athletic field one of the more outward manifestations of that principle?
The Tennessee QB, under a furious pass-rush, threw the ball against his body back over the middle of the field, something QBs are taught never to do. He was intercepted by Defensive MVP, Uriah Virzi, in a fine illustration of why a QB shouldn’t do what this one had.
Coach Nino White could turn the reins over to last year’s hero and Offensive MVP, Cole Hodge, to QB the last opportunity to win the game. Or…he could put the ball back in the hands of the kid who had just faltered the previous possession.
White went back to Joshuah Keith. We don’t know why he did it. We were sitting in a box next to his Dad, Darell Keith, who didn’t know why Coach White had done it. He expressed to KPGFootball surprise Coach White would trot Joshuah back out there in that situation over a guy who had come up aces for Kentucky just the previous year. Regardless of whom was surprised, out came Keith.
Let us paint the situation for you. With scarcely a minute left in the game, Joshuah had Kentucky at Tennessee’s 10 yard line. The possession had begun just inside the 30 and Coach White called a run play. Tennessee must not have expected that, as the running back burst through to just outside the 10.
Keith on first down, tried to throw another fade to the corner of the end-zone. While the receiver caught the ball, he was ruled out of bounds though, were he in, it would have scored. The incompletion did stop the clock. There was scarcely a minute in the game remaining for the next call.
The call came in from the sideline, mesh right. The play was intended to hit the right slot on a corner route to the rear-corner of the end-zone. The secondary receiver, Lincoln Mitchell, was dragging the field short of the end-zone, as a check-down, in case the Safety sat on the corner route.
As the players were running to the line of scrimmage from the huddle, Keith looked at Mitchell and said, Lincoln, keep running, the Safety has been cheating over on top the other guy all afternoon. If he does it this time, I am going to hit you across the middle.
With the game in question, and the Safety cheating toward the corner route just like Keith predicted, Joshuah Keith hit Lincoln Mitchell to win the game, 18-14. Here’s the video of that TD.
So here we are, attempting to capture in an article what we just witnessed in the Kentucky-Tennessee Future Stars game. We are attempting to put into words something we saw, but are unsure of what it even was.
Did we see a star? Certainly, we did. We didn’t see his birth, at least not today, but he is certainly a bone fide, football star. Did we see a mythical figure? Not sure KPGFootball could even describe what makes one “mythical” but accomplishments like those of Joshuah Keith, which we witnessed today in front of thousands of fans, seems to be a start.
Did we see the creation of a legend? We may well have. What Keith accomplished today will be legendary in the lore of Future Star Classics to be yet played similar to Cole Hodge’s leading Kentucky back to tie a once 28-7 deficit, with about 7 minutes remaining, to knot the score at 28-all and then win it in overtime, in 2018.
Maybe it is best put in this way…we didn’t watch a middle school quarterback today. We didn’t watch a Bret Cooper quarterback today. We didn’t even watch a Todd County Central quarterback today.
What KPGFootball saw today was the birth of a quarterback that has grown bigger than the county or city where he lives and the roster-spot he occupies. Joshuah Keith belongs to all of us now.
Joshuah Keith, in about 90 seconds of game play at the end of the football game, took us into the end-zone. Keith took us onto the champion’s platform, into the winner’s circle, and, in so doing, forever became Kentucky’s quarterback.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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