On paper, the outcome should have been much different. Sure, PRP boasted WKU commitment, Shannon Bishop, but BGHS has Zion Kenner, Vito Tisdale, and Justice Dingle. BGHS has Kevin Wallace. On paper, there is no question who should win this game. Louisville Pleasure Ridge Park (PRP) had replaced Jason Hiser, who stepped down in January after winning 54 games in 8 seasons and having gone just 7-5 in 2016, with a 30 year old Head Coach named Tommy Williams. Who the Hell is Tommy Williams? Bowling Green is coached by Kevin Wallace, the winningest coach in school history with a record, coming into this season, of 245-38. You know, the Kevin Wallace with State Championships in 2011, 12, 13, 15 & 16 and who had lead the Purples to 28 straight wins coming in to the game with Williams’ PRP team. There just isn’t any conceivable way the Williams kid is going to overcome the Purples’ Juggernaut, is there?
Well, one of the more quoted maxims in football, from origins unknown to me, is that’s why we play the game. There was no way Appalachia State was going to upset Michigan in The Big House in 2007. Yet, there they were at the game’s conclusion celebrating what many, still today, consider the quintessential David/Goliath college football upset.
There was no way Broadway Joe Namath was going to QB the Jets over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in 1968. Yet the brash, cocky, arrogant kid who had played for Paul Bear Bryant at Alabama was on Television guaranteeing the victory and then boldly delivering on his promise.
To similar degrees to the above cited examples, there was supposed to be no way Tommy Williams’ PRP squad was supposed to be able to overcome the team from Bowling Green and its march toward its September 1, 2017 game at home against Louisville St. Xavier. None of the three were likely, but all three occurred. Perhaps, that is why we play the game on the field and not on paper.
BGHS’ Zion Kenner returned PRP’s opening kick-off 99 yards to stake the Purples to a 7-0 lead in the game’s opening moments and it was pretty much all PRP from there. Dwayne Hall knotted the score at 7 with a 21 yard scoring run for PRP. PRP’s Quarterback, B.J. Bishop, scored on two carries from 15 and 2 yards respectively and WKU commit, Shannon Bishop, scored on a 46 harder himself in a game that really never was a game in spite of Kenner’s staking the Purples to an early lead.
Of course, it would be disingenuous for me to maintain PRP’s beating Bowling Green High School is anywhere on par with the other upsets I have mentioned, or is it? Sure, PRP was preseason ranked number 5 in Kentucky’s Class 6A, but APSU in 2007 had won consecutive FCS National Championships and would win a third that year and, the Jets, after all, were in the Super Bowl, although heavy underdogs. All of the similarities aside, the facts remain PRP never looked back at the preseason, consensus, number 1 rated team in Kentucky’s 5A Classification. Coach Wallace and the Purples don’t have time to feel sorry for itself as it turns around and has to get ready to host another Class 6A powerhouse, Louisville St. Xavier, on September 1, 2017.
Like we said at the onset of this article, not many people expected PRP to beat the Purples, especially not by the margin it did, coming into the game, whether PRP was highly regarded in 6A or not, at least…not on paper. Then again…games aren’t played on paper are they Lloyd Carr, are they Broadway Joe, are they Tommy Williams, are they Kevin Wallace?
This is Fletcher Long reporting for Kentucky Prep Gridiron reminding you to never take any opponent for granted and, oh yeah, I almost forgot…PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
Leave a Reply