BluegrassPreps.com rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Crittenden County
4. Beechwood
5. Hazard
6. Frankfort
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Raceland
9. Pikeville
10. Fairview


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Prestonsburg
4. Louisville DeSales
5. Green County
6. Monroe County
7. Murray
8. Newport Catholic
9. Covington Holy Cross
10. Christian Academy of Louisville


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Somerset
4. Sheldon Clark
5. Belfry
6. Russell
7. Paducah Tilghman
8. Union County
9. Breathitt County
10. Elizabethtown


Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Allen County
4. Lone Oak
5. Lexington Catholic
6. Louisville Western
7. Marion County
8. Louisville Fairdale
9. LaRue County
10. Rockcastle County


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. John Hardin
4. Owensboro
5. Anderson County
6. Christian County
7. Ashland
8. Covington Catholic
9. Dixie Heights
10. Letcher Central

Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Louisville Trinity
3. Lexington Henry Clay
4. Simon Kenton
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Scott County
7. Louisville Ballard
8. Louisville Male
9. Louisville Fern Creek
10. Ryle

BluegrassPreps.com rankings ...

Here are this week's Kentucky high school football rankings from Bluegrasspreps.com


Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Crittenden County
4. Beechwood
5. Hazard
6. Frankfort
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Allen Central
9. Raceland
10. Lynn Camp


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Prestonsburg
4. DeSales
5. Monroe County
6. Green County
7. Murray
8. Covington Holy Cross
9. Newport Catholic
10. Glasgow


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Sheldon Clark
4. Somerset
5. Belfry
6. Russell
7. Elizabethtown
8. Breathitt County
9. Spencer County
10. Union County


Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Allen County
4. Lone Oak
5. Louisville Western
6. Lexington Catholic
7. Marion County
8. Louisville Fairdale
9. LaRue County
10. Rockcastle County


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. Owensboro
4. John Hardin
5. Christian County
6. Anderson County
7. Ashland
8. Covington Catholic
9. Dixie Heights
10. Letcher Central


Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Lexington Henry Clay
3. Louisville Male
4. Louisville Trinity
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Simon Kenton
7. Scott County
8. Louisville Fern Creek
9. Ryle
10. Shelby County

Football leftovers ...

Has Paducah Tilghman reached the crossroads of its season?

The Tornado is 1-4 after last week's colossal 53-7 rout at the hands of Fort Campbell, but a cursory inspection of the schedule reveals that Tilghman has five straight winnable games to close out the regular season, starting with this week's non-district matchup with struggling Calloway County.

Running the table, which would also include a big win at defending Class 3A First District champion Union County, would do a lot to restore some confidence in the program, which is waning with Tilghman going 4-11 on the field (3-12 including last season's forfeit for the use of an ineligible player) in Randy Wyatt's 1 1/2 seasons on the job.

Tilghman wasn't going to beat Fort Campbell, even with Vince Lombardi on the sideline, but there are two easily identifiable games that the Tornado could have won — the 17-14 loss to Hopkinsville in which it blew a 14-0 fourth-quarter lead and the 26-21 defeat to Graves County that turned on a muffed punt.

• Tiger tracks: Murray's fast start has raised expectations to the point that non-routs have become eye-openers. Over the last two weeks, the 43-20 win over Fulton County and 59-40 win over Ballard Memorial prompted some people to wonder what's going on with the Tigers' defense.

Talk is that coach Steve Duncan, ever the strategist, has been tinkering with a bigger, beefier defensive front, although indications are that Murray is better with a smaller, quicker unit on the field. Murray was missing one of its top players, linebacker Demoree Fields, against Ballard.

• Bubba the Wildcat: Mayfield pulled out the Wildcat formation against Graves County, finding a way to put the ball in Xavier Shelton's hands. The Cardinals have used the formation a handful of times over the last couple of years, and it's just another way for Mayfield coach Joe Morris to make sure Shelton gets his touches.

Shelton, who is universally known by the nickname "Bubba" within the program, may be the best all-around athlete in far western Kentucky. He's also a fine basketball player who's made some clutch shots over the last two seasons, and his 6-1 frame nd speed makes him tough to defend in the secondary.

Morris said last week that he and Mayfield basketball coach Chris Guhy aren't sure that Shelton is the best natural athlete to grace the school's program in several years, perhaps even a decade or more.

• Patriot games: Massac County's amazing comeback against Harrisburg hasn't decided the River-to-River Conference race, which is just a week old, but it might be the game everyone points to when the season is over.

The conference race is projected to go down to Massac, Harrisburg and Herrin, which got off to a surprising 0-3 start before hammering West Frankfort. And the Patriots still have to play at Herrin, a place that hasn't been very kind to the Patriots over the years.

More football musings ...

Lone Oak's breakthrough win over Lexington Catholic overshadowed one glaring problem in the Purple Flash's defense — a secondary that was ripped to shreds, particularly during Lexington Catholic's fourth-quarter comeback that erased a 22-point deficit.

"We've got time to work on that," Lone Oak coach Jack Haskins said. "I'm just glad we were able to overcome that."

The Flash rotated several people in and out of the secondary throughout the evening, and tonight's game with Caldwell County's spread offense could show whether or not some improvement was made this week. Calloway County showed a solid passing game with freshman quarterback Tyler Greer in last week's 50-33 loss to Mayfield, and it's the Lakers that are the only thing standing between Lone Oak and a Class 3A district title. The two renew their deliciously fierce rivalry in three weeks.

If Lone Oak survives the visit to Lakerland and knocks off Class 2A power Green County, chances are the Flash will be 12-0 when Allen County rolls into town in the third week of the playoffs.

Haskins a builder: Is there any doubt that no coach in western Kentucky can turn around a program like Lone Oak's Jack Haskins?

Nearly four decades ago, he took Heath's program to the varsity level and had the Pirates in the Class A state championship game in five seasons. Two years ago, he took Lone Oak to the Class 4A state finals in his fourth season in purple.

The guy also won big at Ballard Memorial, a program that enjoyed very little success before or since his tenure.

It brings to mind a bet I had with a longtime Heath supporter some five years ago, just after Haskins left Graves County to take the Lone Oak job. The guy has a great deal of respect for Haskins, but bet me that he wouldn't post a winning record at Lone Oak. Haskins went 6-5 in his first year at Lone Oak, and his teams are now 45-18 there. Needless to say, I collected on that bet long ago.

Amazing for a program that, when he took over, had just one winning season since 1984.

More offensive: Graves County coach Lance Gregory, who was the defensive coordinator at John Hardin before taking over the Eagles last spring, admits he stressed defense early in preseason practice "because my thinking is that's where you win games."

Brad Lawson, the former defensive coordinator at Mayfield and Paducah Tilghman, handles that responsibility for the Eagles, and Gregory runs the Wing-T offense he inherited from predecessor Mike Rogers. Gregory has plenty of familiarity with the offense from his time at John Hardin, which is coached by Wing-T guru and former Rogers mentor Mark Brown.

As Gregory has grown into the role, so has the Eagles' offense. They scored 10 points in the opener, a turnover-marred win over Trigg County, then put up 28 against winless Muhlenberg County and 26 in last week's win over Tilghman.

"I spent eight years coaching the offensive line (at John Hardin), so I understand how defenses approach it," Gregory said. "It made this a lot easier transition."

Chasing perfection: Could Mayfield and Crittenden County both tote unbeaten records into their Week 9 game at Marion? Both figure to be 8-0 and playing for the Class A district title.

If the Rockets could pull out the win, they could stage a similar battle the next week against Murray, which has an excellent chance to put together that school's first unbeaten regular-season mark.

Bluegrass Preps rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Beechwood
4. Crittenden County
5. Hazard
6. Frankfort
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Allen Central
9. Harlan
10. Williamsburg

Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Louisville DeSales
4. Prestonsburg
5. Monroe County
6. Green County
7. Murray
8. Covington Holy Cross
9. Newport Catholic
10. Glasgow

Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Sheldon Clark
4. Somerset
5. Belfry
6. Breathitt County
7. Russell
8. Elizabethtown
9. Paducah Tilghman
10. Spencer County

Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Allen County
4. Lone Oak
5. Lexington Catholic
6. Louisville Western
7. Marion County
8. Bullitt East
9. Louisville Fairdale
10. Rockcastle County

Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. Owensboro
4. John Hardin
5. Anderson County
6. Christian County
7. Ashland
8. Whitley County
9. Letcher Central
10. Dixie Heights

Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Lexington Henry Clay
3. Louisville Male
4. Louisville Trinity
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Simon Kenton
7. Scott County
8. Louisville Fern Creek
9. Ryle
10. Boone County

Football musings ...

It’s been the question on everyone’s mind this week: What’s going on at Paducah Tilghman?

The wild week that was in Tornadoland has football fans wondering if Tilghman will experience a meltdown similar to last season, when it finished 2-8 (including a forfeit loss for the use of an ineligible player) and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1984.

Gleaning together information from various sources, this is what we know:

Head coach Randy Wyatt met with parents, players and school administrators on Thursday afternoon and expressed contrition for some statements he has made to the team in recent days, especially in the aftermath of last week’s 21-12 loss to Mayfield.

Wyatt, in his second season as the Tornado’s head coach, doesn’t back down from the fact that he often takes a “tough love” approach to coach-player relationships — it’s a style that he feels worked well for his high school coach, Allan Cox, and one he experienced when he spent a couple of years playing for Howard Schnellenberger at the University of Louisville.

Unfortunately, some of those methods don’t always set too well in today’s society. And it apparently didn’t work well for three key players, all of whom left the team this week.

Among them are Kirk Sanderson, a 6-foot-4, 280-pound senior and a four-year starter on the offensive line. John Meza, a 275-pound senior, started the first two games at right tackle.

Linebacker Jim Hank also started as a freshman and has been battling a hip problem that will require surgery, although sources indicate his decision to leave the program isn’t entirely because of his medical issues.

Clearly, when players of that stripe choose to leave the program in midstream, there is some kind of disconnect between player and coach. This also seemed to be an issue last season, when the Tornado imploded after a promising start.

For whatever reason, be it coaching or discipline issues or some combination thereof, Tilghman has been a big-time underachiever since the start of last season, going 4-9 on the field. A team that should have been playing in the state semifinals for the second consecutive year never got to the postseason in Wyatt’s first year at the helm, and the second season is off to a 1-2 start that includes a fourth-quarter collapse against a Hopkinsville team that appears to be that program’s least talented team in at least a decade or two.

What’s in store for Tilghman the rest of the season? Who the heck knows? But tonight’s visit to Graves County should provide us with a few clues.

• Unbeaten Tigers?: There is growing sentiment that Murray could finish with the school’s first perfect regular season, and it wouldn’t come as a shock if the Tigers were 12-0 with two-time defending state champion Fort Campbell rolling into Ty Holland Stadium for a third-round contest in the Class 2A playoffs.

The biggest obstacle to the milestone season would have been Mayfield, which looks like a top contender in Class A. Head coaches from both programs — Murray’s Steve Duncan and Mayfield’s Joe Morris — have confirmed that the two teams discussed renewing their dormant series, one of the oldest in western Kentucky, but neither team could find an open date in common.

As it stands, a season-ending tilt with Crittenden County, a top-five team in the Class A rankings, might be Murray’s deepest pothole on the road to perfection.

• Back in the saddle: Lone Oak coach Jack Haskins has been working from atop the press box in the Purple Flash’s easy wins over Ballard Memorial, Reidland and Marshall County, but he expects to be back on the sideline for tonight’s game with Lexington Catholic.

“You can see a lot more stuff up in the sky,” Haskins said, “but it’s frustrating because you can’t have face-to-face conversations with your players. I haven’t done that in my head coaching career. The only time I did was when I was an assistant at Paducah Tilghman (from 1989-1996).”

Haskins had surgery in late summer to repair a blockage in the carotid artery in the right side of his neck. Part of the reason for his being in the press box was to avoid the risk of taking a hit on the sideline.

“I can’t yell as much as I normally do, either,” Haskins said. “Some of the kids probably like that.”

• Around the horn: A Reidland win over Webster County would give the Greyhounds a rare two-game winning streak, something that hasn’t happened since the 2005 season ... Heath is trying to extend a two-game winning streak against Jo Byrns, a school east of Clarksville that was the Tennessee Class A state runner-up last fall. The Pirates haven’t put together back-to-back-to-back wins since a four-game streak early in the 2005 season.

Bluegrass Prep football rankings ...

Class A

1. Lexington Christian
2. Mayfield
3. Beechwood
4. Crittenden County
5. Frankfort
6. Hazard
7. Louisville Holy Cross
8. Raceland
9. Harlan
10. Williamsburg


Class 2A

1. Fort Campbell
2. Corbin
3. Green County
4. Louisville DeSales
5. Prestonsburg
6. Newport Catholic
7. Danville
8. Monroe County
9. Murray
10. Owensboro Catholic


Class 3A

1. Louisville Central
2. Mason County
3. Breathitt County
4. Sheldon Clark
5. Belfry
6. Somerset
7. Paducah Tilghman
8. Russell
9. Elizabethtown
10. Spencer County

Class 4A

1. Boyle County
2. Bell County
3. Lexington Catholic
4. Allen County
5. Marion County
6. Bullitt East
7. Louisville Western
8. Lone Oak
9. Rockcastle County
10. Louisville Fairdale


Class 5A

1. Fort Thomas Highlands
2. Bowling Green
3. Owensboro
4. John Hardin
5. Whitley County
6. Anderson County
7. Letcher Central
8. Christian County
9. Ashland
10. Dixie Heights

Class 6A

1. Louisville St. Xavier
2. Lexington Henry Clay
3. Louisville Trinity
4. Louisville Male
5. Lexington Bryan Station
6. Simon Kenton
7. Scott County
8. Boone County
9. Ryle
10. Louisville Fern Creek



6. Simon Kenton vs. Shroder, OH
7. Scott County at #2 Henry Clay
8. Boone County at Anderson, OH
9. Ryle at 2A #6 Newport Central Catholic (9/12)
10. Fern Creek at Meade County

Football extras ...

Murray coach Steve Duncan laughed at the joke comment that he considers "pass" to be a four-letter word.

"People laugh at us for it," said Duncan, whose club has thrown six passes in 85 offensive snaps in wins over Madisonville and Calloway County. "We want to throw the ball more, and we work on it in practice. But we just want to win, we have big tackles and we can block for a good stable of running backs."

The Tigers lack of an air show is even a running gag on the sidelines. After running back Matt Deese connected with Jarvae Langford on a 50-yard touchdown pass against Calloway County that resembled a can of corn hit to shallow center field, part-time quarterback Christian Duncan — the coach's son — arrived on the sideline and told an assistant coach "It's bad when you have to have your running back throw a touchdown pass."

Steve Duncan insists that the passing game has been a focal point of practice this week. "It sounds crazy," he said, "but we really had too much passing stuff in the offense. Our receivers didn't always know where they were supposed to be. We have quite a bit of the Franklin system in with our play-action package, but we felt like we had to narrow it down a little bit."

• More passing fancies: Massac County is employing a three-quarterback rotation in its spread offense, with coach Kelly Glass unable to determine a regular just yet.

"Someone told me I'm supposed to know that by now," Glass said. "I told them they need to see what I see in practice. One day one guy looks good. The next day it's another guy. Who it is depends on which day you talk to me. It's a dilemma that isn't going to go away."

The Patriots, who host Fulton County tonight, used Caleb Crim, Logan Wheeler and Daniel Duncan at quarterback against Crittenden County. Jarelle Johnson has been expected to be part of the rotation, but he's been battling a sore arm.

"We would like to keep Jarelle in the slot we had Byron Bailey in last year," Glass said, "where he lines up all over the field and the defense has to look for him. He's pretty good at whatever he does, but if we have him at quarterback we end up moving two people out of position."

Johnson also starts at free safety, and we was in on plenty of action on that side last week. "I bet he had 20 tackles," Glass said. "When your free safety has that many, you know you're having trouble stopping people."

• In the Cards?: Here are two more reasons to like Mayfield's chances of advancing to the Class A state finals, assuming the Cardinals stay healthy and they can get by a fine Crittenden County club that beat them twice last season.

Neither Beechwood or Frankfort, the two teams that would be likely semifinal opponents, are as formidable as expected. Word is that Beechwood, which thumped Crittenden 34-0 in the semifinals last year en route to its second consecutive state title, is beatable this year, and a 47-7 loss to Dixie Heights last week seems like confirmation of that.

Plus, Frankfort tailback and two-way star Quan Weaver, a Louisville commitment, is out for the season with a torn ACL. Frankfort's leading returning receiver is also out indefinitely with an injury.