I don’t know whether any of you have ever heard of Houston County’s Jordan Smith. Jordan Smith is a safety
Jordan Smith is 6’2,” 185-pounds, from Warner Robbins, Georgia, and is committed to Georgia’s Bulldogs in the SEC. Smith’s the 57th-overall prospect in the country, sixth highest rated safety, and the seventh highest regarded prospect in all of Georgia (regardless of position). Jordan Smith is a consensus 4-star, likely to move to 5-star prospect.
What does that have to do with KHSAA football? Keep your shirt on…we’re getting there.
Something amazing happened in the Christian Academy-Louisville/Pikeville game you need to notice and of which you should take a note. Here’s a hint: It has nothing to do with the Centurions winning the game in Louisville last weekend 45-7.
Fans care a ton about such things. College coaches really don’t.
If you were to look at a college coach’s notes from the high school action that night, many more of them made a note of Mikey Hager’s speed than whether or not his team won or lost the game. Hager’s speed was special. Hager’s speed was noteworthy.
Hager clipped 20.7 MPH in chasing down Jeffrey Vanzana and saving a TD
Friday Night Fletch
We are about to link a highlight we would like you to watch. Here it is.
What do you see in this highlight? If your answer is, “CAL’s Jeffrey Vazzana (No. 3) ripping off a sizable chunk of his 127-yards rushing on the night before being knocked out of bounds at the two yard line,” then may I suggest to you, sir; you will never work as a recruiting analyst on any college football staff.
The “outcome” of the play is for the parents. The “components of the play” are what the college recruiters see.
It isn’t that you made a tackle. It is where did you make this tackle?
Sure, Vazzana made a great run. It just wasn’t the most remarkable physical feat exhibited on the play in question.
The remarkable thing was Mikey Hager, from Pikeville High School, achieving a speed of nearly 21-MPH (20.7 MPH) to close the gap and save a TD. It was the fact Hager is capable of achieving such a speed which makes him a candidate to play in a Division I, college defensive third level.
Coaches can teach young men the proper technique to play in the defensive third level. Coaches can not teach slow players to achieve close to 21-MPH running speeds in pursuit of a freight train running through the scrimmage line and down the sideline headed for pay-dirt.
College defenses turn away offenses from scoring points inside their own five yard line all the time. Someone has to knock that broken sprint for the goal line out of bounds inside the five. Efforts like what Hager demonstrated save games, seasons, even jobs.
Speed kills. Ask any college football coach.
Speed kills…
Friday Night Fletch
An outfit known as “Reel Analytics,” founded by an MIT grad, developed an algorithm to calculate in game speeds. They calculated the fastest players in high school football last Friday Night, using that algorithm, in something called the Fastest Player Challenge.
Who was the fastest kid in the commonwealth last Friday Night? The answer is Mikey Hager from Pikeville, running (in that highlight) 20.7 MPH. The only faster kid than Hager was Warner Robbins’s Jordan Smith, the 4-star, borderline 5-star safety, committed to Georgia.
So, okay; CAL won the game (decisively) and are 1-0. Good for the Centurions. There is a ton more to the recruiting game than which of the two high school teams were better on any particular night.
Now you know!
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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