First of all we wish to wish everyone out there a pleasant Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Day. It is a federal holiday and one absolutely worthy of cherishing and celebrating. There are no days off in football or football reporting it would seem, so here are the freshman All-State defenders…
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the KPGFootball Freshman All-State Defense…
DE- Xavier Campbell, Beechwood. He doubles as a dangerous fullback on offense who is a fabulous lead blocker and a threat on the swing out of the backfield if that gives you any indication as to his mobility. On defense, this freshman who played like anything but a freshman, played in 12 of its 14 games on a semi-finalist in Class 2A. Beechwood doesn’t report its stats to the KHSAA so we don’t have his complete stats. We have watched his film and he was one of Beechwood’s best up-front defenders this year for the Tigers. The stats, which aren’t complete, credit him with leading the team with 2 recovered fumbles out of 7 all year. Also credited with 2 of the team’s 6 QB sacks, had way many more TFLs and QB sacks than those numbers reflect just from off his season highlights. I would write this name down and remember it for later, if I were you.
DL- Matt Alex Ladd, Trigg County. We know everyone thinks of Ladd as an offensive center, but his play on defense for the Trigg County Wildcats really stood out this Fall. One of the strongest and more powerful kids in Kentucky in his graduating class, this 5-11, 265-pound interior “flat-backer” has a bright future along the interior defensive front. In fact, we are starting to be sold on him there as a primary deployment, though we are sure he will continue to play along the offensive front too. Ladd played in all 11-games for Trigg County and registered a couple of tackles for loss among his hand full of tackles but interior guys can’t be judged alone on tackles stats. This guy “held point” in there this past season for a defensive front which struggled at times. He will only get better as he matures and gains in mobility.
DL- Isaac Blue, Daviess County. This is a guy who (especially for a freshman) tore it up playing against the highest level of competition Kentucky boasts, the 6A classification. In 10-games of action, Blue tallied 51-tackles, 6-TFLs, and 3 QB-sacks. His efforts were good enough to gain him selection to an All-American game in Fort Myers, Florida but that has very little to do with why he was selected here. We picked him because his production on Friday nights, particularly against the level of competition against which he played, warranted it. All-American games are great, but if a player has the frame and doesn’t even darken the field on Friday nights and is willing to pay the freight, he can still gain selection to some All-American game, somewhere. We select players because of what they are doing, not because of what they may do some point in the future.
DE- Rudy Blackwell, Jr., Belfry. Belfry would call him a LB but OLB’s in the Belfry scheme are hybrid DE/OLB’s if we are being accurate. Rudy had 48-tackles manning the end opposite a player in every opponent’s scouting report, All-State, Air Force Academy signee, Grayson Cook. Blackwell contributed 2 QB-sacks to go along with his nearly 50-stops and who knows what his numbers would have been had he played “starter’s snaps” in all of Belfry’s 14-games and not missed 4-games with injury. Rudy, at 6-3 and 180-pounds, has the long, lean frame Belfry has had a penchant for starting at its hybrid OLB/DE slot through the years. In a lineage which includes Grayson Cook and Seth Mounts, this is just another reason why Belfry is always in the hunt for State Championships.
LB- Peyton Ledford, Franklin County.
We don’t have a “Player of the Year” for either the offense or the defense. We feel being recognized as an “All-Stater” is its own reward. We aren’t saying we will never do it we just don’t do it presently. Now, if we were to do it, Peyton Ledford would receive strong consideration for the Freshman, Defensive, POY. For starters, he played at a freshman for a Class 4A, football powerhouse in Franklin County. Getting on the field for any team playing at the highest levels of any of the classifications during one’s freshman year is worthy of some sort of award. Ledford may have been his defense’s best player, as only a freshman. Peyton had 64-solo stops, 71-assists, 135-total tackles, with 11.5 TFLs, and 1.5 QB-sacks. That level of production, from only a freshman, is astounding. It is certainly all-state level play.
LB- Jerrod Smith, Somerset. Great year for this young linebacker. If we are being honest great year for the entire program. Smith had 30s, 25a, 55 total tackles, 4.5 TFLs, 3.5 QB sacks; 3FFs all from his linebacker slot. On offense, which gives you an inkling as to his athleticism, Smith scored 4 rushing TDs and a two-point conversion doubling in the offensive backfield as a fullback/tailback. Smith tallied 45 carries for 296 yards rushing, and we didn’t select him on that side of the football.
LB- Josh Johnson, duPont Manual. At 6-2, 220-pounds, if there was an all-frame team, this guy would make it. While his numbers were just okay, he tallied a dozen or so tackles at LB and played some at FB mostly in blocking situations, this is a kid who found the field in 12-games, on Friday night, playing for one of Kentucky’s very best football teams in its or any other classification in 2019. Manual finished 9-3 in 2019 losing in the second round to St. Xavier. When you play 6A football in Louisville, Kentucky it is like playing at the NCAA, D-II level. Finding the field at all, much less in all 12-games, is an achievement standing alone.
LB- Carson Wright, Pikeville. Carson Wright being the top linebacker in his class is no secret. Like so many on the freshman All-State team he was on our MS All-State team a year ago. All he did this year was proved how good we are at predicting kids who will go on to be stars at the next level and, maybe, the next two levels. Carson played in 12 games registering 34 tackles and 2 TFLs. On offense, Carson, who is also one of Kentucky’s best ball-carriers in his graduating class, carried it 30-times for 341 yards rushing with 7-rushing TDs. Not too bad for a State Championship football team which ran the clock on the runner-up in Lexington this past year.
DB- Jacob Smith, Somerset. Guess what? This guy (we have been led to believe) is the other Smith’s twin brother. How about that? That had nothing to do with why Jacob joined his brother on this team any more than one of the Sayers twins helped the other get selected. Each player here had to stand on his own merit. Jacob played in 15 games for the Kentucky Class 2A Football Champion team which finished 14-1 in 2019 and beat Mayfield to claim the program’s first title. This Smith had 23-tackles, 2 TFLs, 2 QB sacks, 2 FFs and 1 FR for a stat-stuff of a stat-line which would merit any player’s inclusion on this team regardless of to whom the player may be related.
DB- Daisjaun Mercer, Hopkinsville. People around the commonwealth think of basketball when they think of Mercer and he is one of the commonwealth’s elite basketball prospects in his graduating class. Well, he made the KPGFootball MS All-State team a year ago so we made him an All-Stater before any publication did so in basketball, so there! We lay claim to him for our sport! Mercer, in 12 games for Hopkinsville, picked off 8 passes to tie for the most interceptions recorded by any player in Kentucky regardless of classification. We’re told he really had 9 and that Hopkinsville’s stats are out-of-date, which sounds right, which would mean he led Kentucky in that statistical category all by his lonesome. This electric and explosive athlete also tallied 127-return yards with his picks and took one all the way to the house. He may be the best freshman DB (at least statistically) we have ever had make this team.
DB- Mason Lawson, Johnson Central. For all those who want to claim their program doesn’t start freshmen, explain Mason Lawson. Is there a better program in Kentucky at any classification than Johnson Central? Not many, if any. Lawson didn’t start the year on the first team, but he ended it there and with the way he performed it doesn’t appear he will be going anywhere anytime soon. Lawson had 28-tackles, 1-TFL, 2-interceptions playing in at least parts (and toward the end “most”) of 15 games.
DB- Cade Sullivan, Southwestern. Cade Sullivan played in 12 of Southwestern’s 13-games. Southwestern competes in Kentucky’s second largest classification, 5A. Any freshman who regularly able to see PT on Friday nights in either 5 or 6A football is really doing something worthy of attention, in and of itself. Sullivan is a 3A Team Kentucky FBU, 3X Team Kentucky Future Star, 2X FBU Top-Gun, and a State Track qualifier in the 100, 200, 400, 800, and the long-jump. He has consistently been timed at 4.6 in the 40-yard dash making him one of Kentucky’s fastest and most athletic and explosive members of the 2023 graduating class.
There it is folks, that is our Freshman All-State defense. Keep checking the site for the posting of the sophomore team.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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