[EKUAlum05]

Pikeville will be fine, they are just a 1A team dealing with a common problem for small schools. The Panthers are in a bridge year right now. They just had a solid team last year with a "once in a decade" type of player and they lost several of those key pieces to graduation. The panthers Freshman and Sophomore Classes are loaded with talent, but they simply are too green right now.

As a 1A school this is the ebb and flow you will have. Larger schools have a larger talent pool to pull from for guys who can be those stop gaps while the younger stars emerge, 1A teams typically don't have that luxury. Even some of the bigger name schools in the Mountains go through this, Belfry in 2009 was way down finishing 8-4 after a run of being "up". The Pirates took their lumps and lost in the 2nd Round with a very young team. The next year looked to be even worse as they had lost Mr. Everything Thomas Varney (very similar to Maynard) and they hopped through a bridge year at 6-4 entering the playoffs. In the playoffs though those Freshman and Sophomores were now essentially a year older and Belfry got hot and reached the State Finals. Now those Fresh-Soph are Jr-SR and Belfry is absolutely loaded and experienced.

Be patient wit Pikeville. By season's end expect those young players including the QB who struggled mightily Week 1 to look completely different.