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.