📰 HEADLINES

  • 🏈 My Top 10s in each class

  • 🏈 Three Points with … Greenup County’s Travis Jones

  • 🔗 Links

🏈 MY TOP 10s

Kentucky High School Daily doesn’t have an official vote in the statewide media poll nor the KSR Top 25, so this is just “for fun,” which is a euphemism for “a reason to invite people to yell at me. (Rationale included for the top three or so; after that, you’re often splitting hairs.)

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CLASS A

  1. Pikeville (7-1; RPI No. 1)

  2. Raceland (6-2; RPI No. 8)

  3. Sayre (8-0; RPI No. 4)

  4. Kentucky Country Day (6-2; RPI No. 2)

  5. Middlesboro (8-0; RPI No. 5)

  6. Bethlehem (7-1; RPI No. 6)

  7. Paintsville (8-1; RPI No. 7)

  8. Louisville Holy Cross (6-2; RPI No. 3)

  9. Eminence (7-1; RPI No. 10)

  10. Covington Holy Cross (6-2; RPI No. 12)

    My rationale at the top: Pikeville’s resume is the cleanest despite featuring a loss (41-0 to Christian Academy of Louisville, maybe the second best team in the state regardless of class). Panthers tightened their grip on the top spot with a rout of previously undefeated Paintsville. Despite having two losses, Raceland gets the nod over undefeated Sayre because those losses were incredibly close (the first was in week one to a still unbeaten Ashland Blazer team in overtime, the other was to Pikeville on Sept. 4). Sayre beat KCD on a field goal as time expired in week one and hasn’t been helped by back-to-back forfeits by opponents.

CLASS 2A

  1. Beechwood (8-0; RPI No. 3)

  2. Owensboro Catholic (7-1; RPI No. 4)

  3. Lexington Christian Academy (6-2; RPI No. 1)

  4. Belfry (7-1; RPI No. 6)

  5. Mayfield (7-1; RPI No. 2)

  6. Somerset (7-1; RPI No. 7)

  7. Danville (8-1; RPI No. 5)

  8. W.E.B. DuBois (6-3; RPI No. 9)

  9. Breathitt County (7-1; RPI No. 8)

  10. Prestonsburg (7-1; RPI No. 10)

    My rationale at the top: I don’t think anyone in 2A has a win as impressive as OCath’s 35-7 victory versus Owensboro, the defending 5A champion. One can argue Beechwood’s over Covington Catholic is just as strong, though, and that combined with the Tigers’ overall resume gives them the edge. LCA’s the defending champ and, honestly, may be my pick to win it all depending on how the travel situations shake out come playoff time, but the Eagles lose out in my “best single win” math (28-27 vs. Lexington Catholic in overtime).

CLASS 3A

  1. Christian Academy of Louisville (9-0; RPI No. 1)

  2. Lexington Catholic (6-2; RPI No. 4)

  3. LaRue County (8-0; RPI No. 3)

  4. Murray (7-1; RPI No. 9)

  5. Bourbon County (7-1; RPI No. 7)

  6. Glasgow (7-1; RPI No. 2)

  7. Lloyd Memorial (7-1; RPI No. 6)

  8. Lawrence County (7-1; RPI No. 5)

  9. Bardstown (6-3; RPI No. 11)

  10. Rockcastle County (8-0; RPI No. 8)

    My rationale at the top: CAL is the No. 2 team statewide. End of story. Lexington Catholic’s a hair away from having just one loss and its other was a tight one at Boyle County. LaRue County proved itself a threat in the non-CAL division of 3A with a win over Glasgow in a battle of unbeatens on Friday. This is the toughest class for me to get a bead on — I think any of the next five teams can make a reasonable case for deserving a spot in the top five.

CLASS 4A

  1. Highlands (7-2; RPI No. 4)

  2. Boyle County (7-1; RPI No. 3)

  3. Paducah Tilghman (8-0; RPI No. 1)

  4. Corbin (6-2; RPI No. 5)

  5. Covington Catholic (5-4; RPI No. 13)

  6. Ashland Blazer (8-0; RPI No. 2)

  7. Spencer County (6-2; RPI No. 7)

  8. Greenup County (6-2; RPI No. 8)

  9. Logan County (6-2; RPI No. 11)

  10. North Oldham (8-1; RPI No. 6)

    Rationale at the top: Highlands beat Boyle County handily, albeit without Seneca Drive on the field for the latter. That matters but, still, one player does not make a team. Tilghman’s got a case for No. 2 but when push comes to shove I’d pick Boyle in a hypothetical playoff match-up today.

CLASS 5A

  1. Pulaski County (8-0; RPI No. 1)

  2. Woodford County (7-1; RPI No. 3)

  3. Scott County (7-2; RPI No. 6)

  4. Owensboro (6-2; RPI No. 5)

  5. Atherton (7-1; RPI No. 7)

  6. Cooper (6-2; RPI No. 9)

  7. Madisonville (7-1; RPI No. 4)

  8. Collins (6-3; RPI No. 11)

  9. West Jessamine (8-0; RPI No. 2)

  10. Bowling Green (4-4; RPI No. 15)


    Rationale at the top: Pulaski County is No. 1 until proven otherwise, which at this point won’t occur until deep in the postseason if at all. Woodford County proved it’s No. 2 on Friday night in Georgetown, but Scott County also proved it’s very much deserving of high placement still as it nearly rallied from behind. The Cardinals will be without QB Charlie Ellison (broken collarbone) for the rest of the season, though, so that bears watching.

CLASS 6A

  1. Trinity (8-1; RPI No. 4)

  2. Frederick Douglass (8-0; RPI No. 1)

  3. Manual (7-1; RPI No. 2)

  4. South Warren (6-2; RPI No. 5)

  5. Madison Central (7-1; RPI No. 3)

  6. St. Xavier (3-5; RPI No. 10)

  7. Male (5-3; RPI No. 16)

  8. Lafayette (7-1; RPI No. 6)

  9. Ryle (4-4; RPI No. 14)

  10. Bryan Station (4-4; RPI No. 9)

    Rationale at the top: Easiest trio of the whole state. Don’t think it requires justifying.

🏈 THREE POINTS …

… with Greenup County’s Travis Jones!

Greenup County defeated Johnson Central (3-6) for the first time since 2003 on Friday night. I caught up with the Musketeers’ head coach, Travis Jones, over the weekend to talk about ending that streak and more.

Questions and answers lightly edited for clarity and flow.

  1. Historically, Johnson Central and Ashland Blazer (whom Greenup County lost to 35-21 on Sept. 25) have finished 1-2 this decade. If you win out you’ll finish as the 2-seed. How’d it happen and how’s it reflect your goals for the year?


    Travis Jones: We’ve had a good year. We lost in overtime to Russell and fumbled four times that game, we really should have won it, and then Ashland we were tied in the fourth quarter and they popped a long run (for a TD) and then they stopped us on 4th and 1 the next drive. We had a chance to beat them. So I hope we get a little respect.

    It’s kind of unfortunate that everybody says “Johnson Central’s down and that’s why you beat them.” I mean, they aren’t as dominant as they’ve been, but they’re still a really good football team, man. All their losses coming in were to teams ranked in the top 25 regardless of class. They played Corbin with a couple of touchdowns at their place just a couple weeks ago, only lost to Belfry by six.

    We were hoping to win the district but our goal at the beginning of the year was to have a home playoff game. (Note: Greenup County last hosted a playoff game in 2022.) It’s a tough district and I’m really happy that we still have the opportunity to achieve that goal. Saying that our goal’s to host a playoff game doesn’t sound that big, but when you’re in a district with Ashland and Johnson Central, and Boyd County’s been really good too, that’s a tough ask.

  2. You were up 19-0 and the final score was 25-19. How’d the game shake out and where’d the resilience come from?

    Jones: We just completely dominated the first half. They had 25 yards, I think, at halftime, and we had the ball three times and scored all three times. Just some long drives that ate up the clock. At halftime I told the guys, “we can really put this thing away if we come out and score,” cause we had the ball after the break.

    Unfortunately, a couple times in the second half we didn’t make the plays we needed to, had some drops and stuff like that. They stopped us and scored, and then we scored on our second drive to make it 25-6 or 25-7, I can’t remember; we were both alternating missing PATs all night. Then they scored again, they started doing some spread stuff and had more success. We obviously hadn’t prepared for that all week going up against them.

    Their third touchdown made it a six-point game with about one minute left. They just threw up a prayer; it bounced off two our guys hands into one of their guys’ hands in the end zone on fourth down. I about had a heart attack after that one but we recovered onside kick and were able to take a knee to win it.

  3. Who are some guys who’ve made a major impact in your bounce back this year? (Greenup County was 4-7 last season.)

    Jones: I would always like for people to recognize our offensive line. We’d had a couple good seasons in a row and then last year we started four sophomores on the offensive line and we struggled really bad. But man, we’ve really turned it around. Our offensive line coach Nevan Johnson has done an excellent job, our offensive line has dominated every game we’ve played. The defensive line has played really well too.

    Johnson Central stopped our run game the most but we threw the ball well against ’em. Jasper Davis, our quarterback, he had a heck of a game, had like a 75% completion rate and we had three big drops in the second half. He and our running back Ashur Wireman both ran the ball for 85 yards. Nolan Clarkson and Landry Lewis both played really good at receiver.

    Defensively, we play most of the same kids both ways. And it’s kinda crazy, most people wouldn’t do this, especially a 4A team, but Jasper — our quarterback — against Johnson Central was kind of a rover linebacker sitting back about 10 yards and making plays for us (note: he assisted on 10 tackles against Johnson Central). It’s just a team effort to take down a team like that.

Greenup County (6-2) closes up district play Friday at Rowan County (4-4) before hosting Montgomery County (0-8) to close the regular season on Oct. 30.

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