The preseason top-20 Defensive Lineman list is out…here are our thoughts (Featured Photo of Dearinger: Chris Leach, Anderson County News)!

Photo: Chris Leach, Anderson County News

First, we will (once again) start off by making the same disclaimer we make every single time we publish one of our own All-State Football Teams (Middle School, 9th, and 10th-grade). Every single team ever published has undervalued players (players honorably mentioned who should have made the regular squad), overvalued players (players listed who many profess confusion about how that player made the team), and glaring omissions (needs no clarification).

Keeping with tradition we will not comment on kids we believe are being overvalued as that is just needlessly criticizing a high school kid. We will not do that. However, people omitted from the list we believe should have been included and players we think should have been placed higher on the list are topics we consider fair game.

First of all, we want to point out this list, like the list of offensive linemen, has a considerable higher-classification bent. Only three players, of the twenty listed, played football below the 4A classification (Sebastian Lawrence, Class 2A Murray High School; Dylan Hammond and Broc Bridges, Class 1A Fulton County High School).

There were no players from schools like Paintsville, Pikeville, Mayfield, Caldwell County, Breathitt, Bell, Belfry, Paducah Tilghman, DeSales, Danville, CAL, etc., etc. You want to see some fans go nuclear on their team’s players being omitted, you wait until this list hits the Cardinal-Nation (Mayfield) as the day languishes. Still, that is a whole slew of historically premier programs unrepresented; but, it is what it is.

They will argue many of these kids listed wouldn’t even start for them. I don’t believe that is true but you will see it written and hear it said, you watch and see.

Also, none of the top-30 preseason offensive linemen made this list in spite of several of the O-lineman playing both ways and quite well in some instances. Just as a for instance, Ryan Stratton plays both ways for Anderson County and is easily (in our opinion) among the best 20 down-linemen on defense in the commonwealth.

Another glaring omission is William L. Long, II, from Breathitt County. Consider that Long had 90-tackles in 2019 from NG. This went along with his 21-tackles for loss, 3 forced fumbles, 2 fumbles recovered and a sack. Not bad for a guy who consistently fought double and even triple teams all season, and hardly saw the field the second half in 12 of his team’s 14 football games.

Consider also Long made the Associated Press’s Honorable Mention All-State team as a DL after making First-Team on the other side of the football. William was, finally, the District 7, 2A-classification’s Defensive MVP (Jackson Times-Voice) in 2019. William is being recruited and projects to play on the defensive side of the football in college where he enters his senior year already offered.

Regardless, every single entrant on this list of linemen belongs. What we mean by that is there is a legitimate argument to be made for why each young man deserves inclusion.

That being said, this particular guy, known only (to us) by his BGR (Bluegrass Rivals) handle of “BoyleCo” and someone who appears to be a “Statistician,” annually publishes this list. He has done it every year KPGFootball has been online and I believe we write about it every year.

He always lists more OL than DL. This is the fewest number of D-Linemen we have ever seen him list. We don’t know why he lists more OL than DL every year, but that is the case. Maybe he thinks he knows more about OL play than DL play. Who knows?

As for the undervalued, we want to first note that the team is heavily populated by players who play at the 4A classification or higher. As an example, among the top-10, Dylan Hammond, who coincidence has it we featured just today, is the only 1A, 2A, or even 3A lineman listed, and the highest rated 1A lineman (#9). Every other member of the top-10 play on the 4, 5, or 6A level. (Dearinger 54A, Brown 6A, Hearn 6A, Rowe 6A, Fletcher 6A, Zeismer 4A, Jefferson 6A, Manning 6A, and Warner 5A). In fact, of the top-20, 17 (our count) play 4, 5, or 6A football.

As for undervalued defensive linemen, we believe Sebastian Lawrence from Murray High School is a top-5 guy to us. Also Braeden Babin wasn’t on this year’s preseason list and was on the list in both 2018 and 2019. Looking at Babin’s numbers from 2019, in ten-games Babin had 83 tackles, 13-TFLs, and 2-QB sacks playing inside (like W. Long).

What did he do to play himself off this list? We don’t get it, but oh well.

Please don’t interpret this article as being critical, we are just saying there are guys ranked 10-20 who could have been 2-10 (Nobody’s better than Dearinger). As far as we are concerned there is a legitimate argument to be made for why every member of that list is among Kentucky’s top-20 preseason defensive linemen.

There are others who could have been honored (like Babin and Long) and had they; there would have been an equally legitimate argument to be made for their inclusion. There are members of the list who could have been ranked even higher and members who could have been ranked lower.

The list has done exactly what it is meant to do. We are sitting around in the middle of a National State of Emergency discussing it and not how the pandemic is ruining this offseason opportunity for so many kids. For that, BoyleCo, whoever you are…thank you from the bottom of our hearts. 

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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