As teams across the commonwealth of Kentucky go through Spring practice, we make it a custom to sort of do a little Spring Cleaning around KPGFootball too. In that vein today we break down the returning roster for the Caldwell County Tigers. Caldwell County is a powerhouse Class 3A program which vies with Elizabethtown in most years for the west-Kentucky birth in the semi-state. The following is an assessment of how much or little spring commencement exercises will impact next years football team.
Quarterback…
I suppose the first thing we should note is no school in Kentucky coaches-up QBs better than David Barnes and his staff at Caldwell County. Every so many years it seems we are always rattling on and on about the Elijah Sindelar or Shane Burns who has either matriculated to play in College (Sindelar at Purdue) or who has spurned football for another sport (Burns, playing baseball at Murray State). We always forecast the doom of the Tigers and we always look foolish as the next man up aligns under center and puts up similar numbers to the forebear he was supposed to never be able to replace.
Joby Jaggers had a fabulous year in 2018. He was 219 for 351 in the passing game for 2,897 yards with 34 passing TDs and only 13 interceptions. We suppose that would be a reason he is now set to shortly begin practice with Division I, Murray State University, and getting ready to play on Saturdays. The only other QBs on the 2018 roster were freshman, Jack Stevens, and sophomore LB, Russ Beshear. Stevens played in 3 games in 2018 and was 0-1 for 0 yards passing while Beshear did quite a lot of playing but not on the offensive side of the ball.
The early money is on Beshear to start out at QB, owing to his overall football playing ability as most believe Stevens is at least another year away. How will Beshear possibly replace Jobby Jaggers? Under the coaching he will get at Caldwell County HS, he will be just fine. Beshear will give the attack a different dimension in that the Tigers will be a tougher and more athletic ground-based attack. Regardless, KPGFootball isn’t falling for the how in the world will Beshear replace Jaggers trap. We’ve been had before now.
Running game…
On the bright side, for however long it takes Beshear to find his rhythm, Caldwell County returns its leading rusher in 2018. DeEric Hollowell is a Class of 2020, very versatile running-back who is dangerous from scrimmage and slipping out of the backfield in the throw game.
In 2018, Hollowell gained 896 yards in 157 carries (5.71 yards per attempt) with 8 rushing TDs. In the passing game, the rising senior is the leading returning receiver with 26 receptions for 200 yards receiving and 3 aerial TDs caught. Hollowell may be one of the best returning football players on the entire team and will have to carry quite a lot of the load for what will be a young and inexperienced offensive backfield in 2019.
The third leading rusher is also back and will be expected to pick up some of the slack created with the graduation of Jameer Riley. Travion Samuel is a class of 2021 prospect and he gained 102 yards in only 13 carries with 2 rushing TDs in 2018. That works out to roughly 7.85 yards per rushing attempt so it would be wise to expect his attempts to exponentially inflate in 2019.
The Receiving Corps…
This is where the Caldwell County’s offense will suffer its biggest blow via commencement exercises. Receivers Oliver Parker (48 receptions, 894 yards, 10 TD receptions), Travis Newsom (53, 691, 9), Jameer Riley (36, 628, 6), Gabe East (23, 229, 2) and Trel Riley (13, 112, 2) all graduate. That equals 173 of last season’s 219 receptions and 2,554 yards receiving out of 2018’s 2,897 yards thrown. Before we forget, the above list of 2019’s also contributed 29 TD receptions out of the team’s 34 total. All told, that is 79% of the total receptions, over 88% of the yards receiving, and slightly over 85% of the TDs caught from last season’s 8-4 effort.
Now that is a tremendous amount of production gone from a receiving corp who will be fielding passes from a QB who was 0-1 for 0 yards in 3 games of action in 2018. How will they do it? KPGFootball doesn’t know; but every other time Caldwell County High School and David Barnes have found themselves in this position they have mysteriously found a way.
Placekicker/Punter…
Last season Barrett Schultz handled the kicking duties for the most part. However, Blake Vivrette, a Class of 2022 prospect, got considerable action for the Tigers in 2018, particularly in PATs, and did quite well. Vivrette converted on 100% of his PATs (13 for 13) and appears braced and ready to step into the starter’s role.
Offensively overall…
The number one job of any offense is to score points. We would be exceedingly remiss to leave any discussion of offense without mentioning the following statistic. Last season (2018), Caldwell County posted 384 points in 12 games. Of that 384 points, 276 is set to graduate at the end of Spring term. Yes, that is nearly 72% of the points scored.
The Defense…
We would be lying if we didn’t readily admit the returning defense paints a much rosier picture than its offensive counter-part. Sure leading tackler Caleb Burden is graduating (137 tackles, 10 TFLs, and 4 QB sacks in 2018) but there is quite a bit returning about which to be enthused.
Upfront, the most important returning starter is KPGFootball freshman All-State NG, Layton Davis. Davis, is a class of 2022 prospect who may have been, in 2018, the entire commonwealth’s premier player at that particular slot for his class of prospect. Layton, while only a freshman in 2018, had 64 tackles, 4 TFLs, with a half a sack all while fighting through double-teams in the center of the offensive line all year long. His production, as he matures and strengthens, has the chance to be quite startling.
Russ Beshear, who will double as the QB, was the second leading tackler a season ago and he was only a sophomore in 2018. Beshear contributed 92 tackles in 2018, with a team-leading 22 TFLs, combined with 11 QB sacks, while forcing two fumbles. Devin Kilgore also returns and performed quite well in 2018. Kilgore had 82 tackles, 20 TFLs, and 7 QB sacks. Also returning is Tate VanHooser, making Caldwell rivals wonder if the Tigers will ever run out of VanHoosers to plague them? Tate had 72 tackles overall, 6 TFLs, forced a fumble, and picked-off three passes floating between the 2nd and 3rd levels of the Tiger defense.
VanHoower aside, the third level, or back-four of at the defense, will be the level most heavily hit by graduation on the defensive side of the ball. Eleven of the team’s 15 intercepted passes will walk across the graduation platform in a few short weeks. Gabe East and Trel Riley led the defense in interceptions a year ago with 5 a piece and Caleb Burden snagged himself a pick too.
Kick/Punt return game…
There just wasn’t a more dangerous deep man on punts or kicks in 2018 anywhere this side of Louisville’s Milton Wright (CAL) than Trel Riley. In fact both Rileys (Trel and Jameer) made numerous All-State teams and composed two of the better athletes to have worn the Caldwell colors. Their production will be missed, their swagger will be missed, they will be difficult to replace.
Coaching…
KPGFootball doesn’t say this lightly but there isn’t a staff anywhere in Kentucky High School football which gets anymore out of its talent than the one on the Caldwell County sidelines. They have an outstanding group of coaches from the varsity level down through the middle school and it really shows with the sustained amount of success the team continues to have year in and year out. Caldwell County hasn’t had a losing season in football since finishing 5-6 in 2011. That is seven seasons straight during which time the Tigers have won 11, 12, 11, 10, 8, 10, and 8 games. We don’t know for sure, but feel relatively comfortable saying, they graduated seniors each and every one of those previous 7 seasons.
KPGFootball’s overall impressions…
As Caldwell County enters Spring, we believe there are significant pieces remaining, especially on defense, for the Tigers to be quite formidable in 2019. A lot will be determined by whether Hollowell can carry the offense until the new QB, Russ Beshear, gets his “sea-legs.” Replacing the Rileys will be tough, as athletes like the two of them don’t come around often. Replacing a QB like Joby Jaggers would be a near impossibility for any staff other than the one in Princeton, Kentucky who replaced Sindelar with Burns and Burns with Jaggers.
We believe Caldwell County is always a threat to win in any classification or district, but they should be a quite formidable team moving down to Class 2A. They will battle both Mayfield and Murray High for the district so the load got a little heavier in that respect, but it isn’t like they aren’t used to playing a tough district opponent as they used to have to battle it out with Paducah Tilghman. We believe Mayfield, with Stinson back at QB and with a tradition of always playing championship-level football, will be the class of its district again in 2019 but Caldwell and Murray should really battle for the second slot come playoff-time.
Reporting for KPGFootball, this is F.W. Long, reminding all of you ballers out there to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE.
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