Who’s the best running back in the Kentucky 2023 class? Well, for our money here at KPGFootball, we would submit the name Korbyn Goff, from the Northern Pulaski Maroons, into nomination. Korbyn’s is not a name unknown to KPGFootball, whether or not you have heard of him. We wrote an article about him just this past offseason when Northern Pulaski hired Team Kentucky’s FBU head coach to coach its football team immediately after G.J. Wooldridge had finished leading Team Kentucky FBU to the National Championships in Naples, Florida. Coach Wooldridge led the Kentucky team to a National 6th place finish, by the way.
This past season, the Maroons, who narrowly lost the State Middle School Championship game to Johnson County, wasn’t short on playmakers. The Maroon roster boasted 5 players running the 40 yard dash under 5 seconds. In spite of having 2022 kids the likes of Trey Price (6’1″ 200 lb. RB/WR/LB) and Drew Polston (5’10” 170 QB who threw for around 50 TDs in 7 games at the UK 7 on 7 last summer), no one in Kentucky, not even the Maroons, could claim anyone with more big play ability than Korbyn Goff. Korbyn is a burner for his size and considering his age especially.
Goff played this past season as a 5-5, 150 pound player and logged a forty yard dash of 5.0 seconds, when the Kentucky Future Stars combined in Glasgow, Kentucky. As we have abundantly memorialized, the combine in Glasgow had the kids running forties in a marsh pit. Korbyn has been clocked as low as 4.7 seconds, hand timed, and we believe his true time to be closer to 4.7 than 5.0. In any event, either time is flying for a 2023 player. Korbyn, for those Future Stars aficionados out there, reminds this analyst of Ethan Mills (2021) who rushed for 36 TDs for the middle school Knox County’s Panthers, a few years ago. Mills, also a Kentucky Future Star in middle school immediately cashed in on that projected stardom upon reaching high school. Mills gained close to 1,000 yards, this past season, in high school varsity play. That kind of production is special for a freshman RB in the 5A classification. That explains why Ethan Mills was easily selected to our AFI-KPG Freshman All-State Football team. It is easy to see that kind of future and, even immediate, stardom for Korbyn Goff upon his reaching high school varsity play.
If there is one thing coaching middle school football in Kentucky taught me, it’s there aren’t many 7th graders who are good enough to play on an 8th grade team, much less good enough to be ridden to a State Championship game appearance. Those type of 7th graders are once every decade types. As a rule, physically, 7th graders are not ready to contribute very much on an 8th grade football team. The same is generally true of 6th graders, being counted on in 7th grade football. Northern Pulaski learned that Goff was no ordinary sixth grader when the Maroons relied on the young running back to help lead them to the 7th grade State Championship. This immediate past season, Northern Pulaski’s belief in the extraordinary ability of Korbyn Goff was, again, confirmed as Goff, again, played up a grade and helped lead the 8th grade team to the very cusp of back-to-back Championships. Now, it is time for Korbyn Goff to lead this 7th grade Team Kentucky Future Stars team to victory over its Tennessee counter-part. We at KPGFootball are excited to see how far the Korbyn Goff train can take us!
This is Fletcher Long reporting for KPGFootball reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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