[Scotty_Bronson]

I'm not understanding all the hype for Paintsville this year. Paintsville hasn't come close to Raceland in recent history. I do think this year's Raceland team will not be quite as good as last year's team primarily due to the loss of Messer, a player that other team's had to key on. You just don't replace his athleticism. However, is that drop off enough to allow Paintsville to contend with them? I don't think so. Paintsville lost two pretty good athletes as well in Belcher and Hendricks. IMO, Raceland is still the overwhelming favorite in the east. The only reason they didn't make it to BG last year was that Williamsburg had a senior heavy great team.

That is my argument as well. Paintsville will have an experienced line, a pretty good receiver in Trimble, they get Kent Phelps back who was a 1500 yard rusher in his freshman year, and they have Kash. BUT, Raceland will return their entire front 7, their entire backfield, a DB that saw plenty of time steps in at CB in Austin Howard and Nathaniel Davidson will be taking the vacated safety spot left my Messer and John Cherry will take the other CB spot if I am not mistaken. So from a defensive standpoint, we will be more physical upfront, more physical in the secondary and a little faster at one CB position. Our defense will be better this year than last year. I don't know if Paintsville has closed the gap enough yet or not. They are the only team though, that I see having enough to knock us out of a 3rd regional title and shot at BG.

Offensively, again, we return all but one lineman that is being replaced by a kid who is quicker and just as, if not stronger, who had a pretty good camp in Caden Townsend. Have our entire backfield back, Nathaniel Davidson has started on both Def and saw a lot of time on the offensive side of the ball at RB, he had a really good camp, and looks to be settled in at his newly found QB position.

You don't replace a Connor Messer, he is a once in a decade type of kid. But what you can do, is fill that void with a handful of guys who can get the job done. We have all the pieces there to be better this year than last year. We have a large amount of depth on the line, at RB, and a LB. So we should be able to be pretty fresh. We also have 60 kids out this year, so that only adds to the depth with a very capable FROSH class, that has some really nice skill guys that aren't far away from being factors in the rotation as well.