Everyone wants to talk about Sheron and Grundy, but what about Mikey Garland?
Somerset has a lot of star power returning to the roster in 2020. What with Kaiya Sheron (QB, headed to UK) and Kade Grundy (baseball commits to UofL) headlining, guys like Mikey Garland can get overlooked. BIG MISTAKE!
If you have ever had to play against Mikey Garland, believe us, you remember him. The memory tends to linger.
Sheron is spectacular. He threw for 3,218-yards in 2019 and threw for 28-TDs against only 5-picks. He also completed 68.5% of his passing attempts. I suppose that is why he is headed to the SEC to play collegiately.
Sheron also lead the team in rushing. He nearly clipped 1,000-yards for the year, finishing with 959 with 8-TDs rushing. Sheron didn’t lead the team in TDs carried over the goal-line. That honor was split between a guy who has graduated (Alex Miller) and Mikey Garland.
Kade Grundy had 68-receptions in 2019 for 1,441-yards and 15-TDs receiving. Those are incredible numbers for a guy who’s not going to play football in college, opting rather to play baseball. Make no mistake about it, Grundy is capable of playing both at the FBS-level.
Mikey Garland, who plays LB for the Briar Jumpers had quite the year on both sides of the football. In many ways, he is every bit as important, coming back, as Sheron or Grundy.
Garland had 90-tackles, 10 TFLs, 3-sacks, 1-interception, 2 FFs, 2 FRs, and a scoop and score. Talk about a well-rounded, stat-stuffer!
Offensively, Garland really came on after Miller succumbed to injury in the Hazard game. Mikey had 52-carries, 250-yards rushing, and 12 “pound the ground” TDs. As above stated, he tied for the team lead in TDs rushing. Garland even caught 6-passes for 99-yards in and amongst everything else he did.
Lots of people are interested about whether Somerset can repeat as the classification’s Kentucky State Football Champions in 2020. Any team with players the ilk of Seth Johnson (C), Kaiya Sheron (QB), Mikey Garland (OLB/RB), and Kade Grundy (WR/DB) returning can defend its title.
That being said, the Briar Jumpers really struggled with Lexington Christian the two times those two played in 2019 and most of LCA’s players were sophomores then. Those sophomores aren’t “young” anymore.
There is also Danville with whom to contend in that district. No one should ever discount a program located in a town called “Title Town” by the entire commonwealth of Kentucky. The Admirals are a threat any year.
That is where Garland is particularly well-situated to kill an opponent. With everyone else they have in the locker room for coach Robbie Lucas’ team, he gets sort of lost in the scouting report.
That killed teams in 2019. It looks capable of killing teams in 2020.
We are sure of this, if the Briar Jumpers emerge from week 2 of the KHSAA playoffs having beaten either LCA or Danville, whatever the case may be, we pick them to repeat. However, we aren’t entirely sold on their being better than LCA; though we do think them quite a bit better than Danville.
Don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see this play out. We know Garland will be right in the middle of the action and on both sides of the football, pretty much like he always is!
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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