Something we take very seriously around the magazine is our obligation, as subscribed members of the Associated Press, to thoughtfully and wisely utilize the vote membership entitles us to cast. We take seriously this privilege and strive, every week, to cast the vote seriously, wisely, and only after studying the week’s results and pouring over the statistics from the weekend’s games.
You, as our subscribed members get to see how we vote before anyone else. In keeping with this tradition here is how we voted this week in the top-ten polls for each classification:
In the 1A classifiation…
You see we were impressed with Pikeville’s 28-7 win over Raceland at Raceland from Saturday night. We also felt Raceland’s not being completely humiliated the way Pikevielle is prone to do to its 1A brethren convinced us to hold the Rams in there at 8th in spite of losing its opener. Paintsville beat Class 5A, East Jessamine, by 15 on the road, something you don’t see 1A teams pulling off all the time.
In the 2A classification…
Lexington Christian appears to be the class of this division. Their beating Class 3A semifinalist, DeSales, in Louisville, Saturday night, was impressive. Superstar linebacker, Tyler Morris, was credited with 3 QB sacks on the evening. Now, that is called being a holy terror. Beechwood’s beating Corbin (4A) in Corbin made us jump them over Breathitt. Breathitt needs to improve on defense, giving up 43-points to 3A-Estill County will not do going forward. The offense hanging a 60-spot on Estill was pretty eye-popping and freshman Austin Sperry’s catching 7-balls for 177-yards on his first night of varsity action at WR was one of the finest performances of the first weekend in all of Kentucky. We dropped Mayfield way down the list for its showing in Paducah against 6A McCracken. Yeah, we know McCracken is 6A but they are District 1, which is kind of (historically) the little sisters of the poor in the 6A classification, though that may well not be true this year. McCracken hammered Mayfield (42-7) and, frankly, embarrassed the Cardinals. Mayfield and McCracken play yearly and Mayfield wins that matchup most years. We were, all preseason, wrong about Owensboro Catholic. They showed us Friday night they will be better than we thought. They beat a really good Mt. Vernon (Indiana) team which entered the game with Catholic undefeated.
In the 3A classification…
What can be said about Belfry other than WOW! They beat a really good Class 5A squad and Mr. Football candidate, Isaac Dixon, accounted for over 300-yards of total offense by himself. We dropped Bell County considerably as they got completely smoked by Johnson Central. Johnson Central is a top-5 team in KY overall and really good but Bell County shouldn’t be getting the clock run on them at home by the Dallas Cowboys. Hard to drop DeSales too far down for losing by 4 to LCA. Yeah, LCA is that good. If CAL gets by Boyle County at home this coming week, we may jump them over the Pirates into the top spot in next week’s poll.
In the 4A classification…
Johnson Central blowing Bell County out, and its defense blanking them, was unexpected. Sure, we picked them to win on the road but Bell County is a tough place to run the clock on the home team. Hopkinsville was the big mover for us this week beating Class 6A Henderson County by 11 (27-16) at home. Reece Jesse, Mr. Football candidate, took a pair to the house. Still, according to a few of our scouts on that side of the commonwealth, the Tigers were pretty porous up-front and QB, Tre Jefferson, was literally running for his life on too many plays. Knox Central has a really fine one-two punch in the offensive backfield with Huff/Mills.
In the 5A classification…
Christian County, coming off a 16-game winless streak, came from no-where, preseason, to the 10th spot in this week’s poll, for us anyway. Why? Well, lets just say we were impressed with their going to Madisonville and beating a highly regarded Class 4A team, 28-20. The Colonels get Hoptown on Friday night in a game which doesn’t have a true “home” team. The Colonels will get to prove whether they are really back, or whether Friday night in Madisonville was just lightening in a bottle. With new superstar freshman, Jordan Miles, one of our top-rated players in his class (No. 9, KY-wide, Class of 2024), on the roster and LeRay Coleman doing his thing, the Colonels (we believe) are back. How about Owensboro (Senior)? We thought they would beat Apollo (Class 6A) but 50-13? That is ridiculous. Of course the Red Devils have 2021’s top linebacker in Austin Gough (our opinion) and one of its top QBs in any class in Gavin Wimsatt, a 2022 kid already sporting FBS, power-5 offers from teams like home-standing UK. Bowling Green beat its former head man who now coaches at St. Xavier. Bowling Green is sporting some of Kentucky’s very best on its roster and has to contend with South Warren, Christian County, and Greenwood just in district. What do people say about iron sharpening iron?
…and in the 6A classifcation…
Many of 6A’s best teams are Louisville public schools which didn’t open this weekend and won’t open until the coming one. McCracken County beating Mayfield 42-7 was impressive. There are teams in Kentucky which transcend its classification. Regardless of enrollment, teams like Pikeville and Paintsivlle (1A); Somerset, LCA, and Beechwood (2A); Belfry, CAL, and DeSales (3A) can beat any team, in any classification, at any time. Often times, they do just that. Mayfield is one of those teams almost every year. The next few weeks will tell us whether Mayfield is “down” or whether McCracken is just really good. We think it is McCracken’s being really good which is why we voted them 3rd in this week’s poll.
Anyway, the above is how we voted in each classification and why. Join us again next week. What the heck, we may as well do this again at that time. Look forward to it.
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