@julian_barbour is reclassifying under the ‘Academic Re-Do Law’ and Coach @lasley_eric and @CavernaHighKY couldn’t be more thrilled about it. @minguabeefjerky @PrepSpin @KyHighFootball @1776Bank

Julian Barbour transfers down to Caverna to play 1A, District 1 football from 3A, District 2 (Hart County)

Big time frame and length just looking for a full season to put it all together

Talk about striking it rich! Man, does Coach Eric Lasley and his Caverna High School Colonels have to be feeling pretty dynamite about an addition to its roster. They have picked up a player whose production, carried forward over an entire season, would really have been staggering.

Ever heard of Julian Barbour? Want to ask people around the Hart County Raiders football program about him?

Julian is a 6-3, 210-pound specimen who played linebacker and running back for the Raiders in Class 3A, District 2 just a year ago. He was listed as a ’21 then and thought of as a primetime, next level, prospect in that class, particularly considering his frame and length, both of which are big time.

Barbour picked up 475-yards rushing a year ago, in his 5-games of action, in only 67-carries. He was second on the team in rushing TDs.

His production was prodigious particularly sharing carries with another big-time player in Dustin Butler. Butler a year ago gained 505 yards in his 5-games of action, in 61-carries, with 3-rushing TDs, third on the team to Jordan Bradley’s 5 and Bourbour’s 4. Barbour was second on the team in scoring (trailing only Jordan Bradley).

Now we see the lengthy second level or even edge defender with good enough wheels to be a thousand-yard ground-gainer if given enough game-action and carries, as a linebacker at the college level. We could see him putting some good weight on his frame and playing DE too.

Last season, in those same five games, Barbour had 62-tackles, 10 TFLs, and the team’s lone QB-sack. Now, lets say Barbour had played in 11-games in ’20, making a first-round exit on the road in the playoffs, when projecting his 5-games of production over to an 11 game season his numbers begin to gain some perspective, some relevance.

For those who want to compare him to yesteryear, high-school football stars, let see what he would have likely done in a full, instead of half, season. Had Barbour played 11-games on the same pace he set in 5, Julian likely registers 136-tackles, 22-TFLs, and 2.5 QB-sacks. That’s pretty good.

Lets make the same calculations using his offensive numbers. Now, Julian rushes for 1,045-yards on 147-carries and scores 13-rushing TDs.

What would we be calling a 6-3, 210-pound LB/RB, like Julian Barbour, coming out of a ’20 season with the full season numbers we have above projected? How would he have been viewed coming from out of a full season of play instead of less than a full half? I believe the words for which we are all searching are college or university football signee.

That’s where he was headed before being derailed by something over which he had no control. That is why he is taking this Re-Do opportunity.

That is also why we fully support his decision. Why shouldn’t a kid, like Julian Barbour, “Re-Do” where it would reverse the effects of something inherently unfair, and completely not his fault? Isn’t this exactly the reason for which the law was passed in the first place. Aren’t kids like Barbour the ones it was intended to help?

Who knows, perhaps we just legislated a way to reveal a morsel of justice hiding beneath volumes upon volumes of inequity? Why not stay back, Julian Barbour? Why not, indeed!

This is HB Lyon reporting for Kentucky Prep Gridiron reminding you that WE’RE JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT! 

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About Henry Lyon 1210 Articles
Have coached at the high school and middle school level. Have worked in athletic administration. Conceal my identity to enable my candor on articles published by this magazine. Only members of the editorial board are aware of my true identity.

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