@russosb_3 heading his class and plenty of other classes too for @SVCoachHiatt’s Wildcats. @Minguabeefjerky, @PrepSpin, @KyHighFootball

Graphic sent to KPGFootball
Osborne

The selection committee for the KPGFootball undergraduate All-State football teams (Freshmen and Sophomores) has convened and we are hard at work. What won’t be very hard at all are selecting some of these freshmen, offensive skills players whose performance has just jumped off the page at the committee.

Before anyone gets impatient, we scour the data available to us to arrive at the very best players in the freshman and sophomore classes, just as we do the middle schoolers. Before the first complaint is logged, we will not get them all.

There will be glaring omissions, players with superlative performances unknown to us, and statistics made available to us differing from what the KHSAA has online. If we have an agent or committee member who has seen the kid live or has access to the staff, we will defer to what that guy tells us over some assistant or head coach who has done a piss-poor job updating the commonwealth run site.

We know how “of little importance” many of the contributors to that site hold its accuracy. Therefore, where we can, we access “better information.”

One of the offensive side of the football slots we won’t have much about which to debate will be one of the slots we reserved for QB-Freshman Team. Our entire committee is blown away by the performance, this year, of Shelby Valley’s freshman signal-caller, Russ Osborne.

First of all, Shelby Valley is primarily a power run scheme. We are accustomed to running backs compiling statistics for the Wildcats from Pike County, Kentucky; just not passers.

He doesn’t even look like a freshman

Russ Osborne had an incredible year in every statistical category imaginable. Osborne ranked 39th all-classes, in the statewide Leading Passers category, regardless of classification. Among Class 2A QB’s, Osborne was 6th, Kentucky-wide.

This superb frosh QB had numbers, rivaling or surpassing, any freshman QB we have ever before honored. Osborne completed 92 of his 173-passing attempts for 1,891-yards with 22-TDs against only 7-Ints in his 11-games of action. He ran the football 77-times, gaining 580-yards, and scoring another 6-TDs with his feet.

The most important statistic for QB’s will always be wins/losses. He led his charges to an 8-3 finish with the 10th-highest RPI score at the close of calculations in the 2A classification.  

If we would have told Coach Hiatt, a few years back, he would have to rely on a freshman to run his offense but would still win 8-games in an 11-game season, we are quite sure he would have canceled his subscription. Why do I want to follow these guys, they are quite obviously crazy, we are sure he would have either said or thought.

Still, here we are looking back on the year; and, sure enough, the Wildcats from Shelby Valley were led by a newbie who played like a grizzled veteran. This Russ Osborne is a player of whom you should take note and be aware, at least for those of you out there who believe yourselves accurate forecasters of future college-level talent.

This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and 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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