PIGSKIN CLASSIC

The 12th Annual Cumberland Falls Pigskin Classic is 60 days away. Pigskin fever was in the air last week as the Corbin Redhounds hosted its annual golf scramble and press conference at the Tri-County Country Club.
This year’s event will be held, Saturday, August 26 at Campbell Field. The Pikeville Panthers will take on the Jaguars of East Jessamine in game one at 6 p.m., followed by the Redhounds and Oldham County Colonels at 8:45 p.m.
East Jessamine finished last season with a 3-7 record along with the Oldham County Colonels. Oldham County won last year’s meeting between the two teams, 23-13.
“We don’t have a lot of depth this year,” said East Jessamine coach Mike Bowlin. “We struggled last year and got off on the wrong foot. We could be a little better this year, we just have to see who shows up.”
“We struggled with some growth and changes last year,” said Mike Jackson of Pikeville High. “We had some changing of the system and the kids responded really well. By the end of the season we were a much better team.”
“We had some kids that played real well down here at Corbin,” said Jackson, whose team beat the Redhounds 34-0.
“I think we have a better grasp on who should be where after a year under our belt,” said Jackson. “We lost 10 kids from graduation and seven of those were contributors on offense, defense and special teams. We lost seven really quality kids.”
“We lost Chase Huffman, who had a great game down here,” said Jackson. “He is going to pitch at Morehead State.”
“We pretty much have to retool our offensive line,” said Jackson. “We have a lot of holes to shore up on our offensive line. Defense should be one of our strengths this year.”
“We finished the season 6-6,” said Corbin coach Steve Jewell. “We finished strong, we felt really good about the end of our season even though we lost a double overtime game there at the end against DeSales.”
“The kids gained a lot of confidence from the end of the season,” said Jewell. “We lost eight seniors, basically we have seven returning on offense and eight on defense. “We lost some good skill positions.”
“We lost two people that accounted for 80-90 catches,” said Jewell. “We got a quarterback in Casino that throws the ball extremely well.”
“Right now we have to have some kids to step up and be our go-to receivers,” he said. “The backfield come a long way last year. We feel like our line is going to be extremely strong this year.”
“We’re looking for big things right now, but we’re missing several pieces,” said Jewell. “We feel like we have some kids that can step up and we’ve had about four kids come back out that didn’t play as freshmen and they are out now as sophomores and I can see the impact already that they can have.”
“We have basically the same defense,” said Jewell. “We lost our defensive quarterback in Mallard. You are talking about a kid that had over 100 tackles.”
“We feel like we have a lot of depth, we’re just putting in the missing pieces.” Jewell said.
“He’s talking about finding one or two guys and we’re talking about finding seven or eight,” joked Oldham County coach Lonnie Oldham.
“I took over for coach Jackson (Pikeville) and he left me about 15 players I think,” said Oldham. “We had a decent year last year but a lot of those players have graduated.”
“We have one starter back on defense,” said Oldham. “And three on offense.”
“We’re basically going to be starting six or seven sophomores on both sides of the ball,” said Oldham. My sophomore class and freshmen class to be are pretty strong.”
“I think we will have a combined 25 players in the junior and senior class,” added Oldham. “Trying to play 4A football with 25 juniors and seniors is going to be a tough season.”
“I’m really excited about our kids because they are going to be green and have not been put to the test,” said Oldham. “They will have one game under their belt, so I hope they play pretty decent.”
“We really liked the experience of coming down here last year,” said Oldham. “We are really starting all over again from scratch because of the two football classes that came through Oldham County that wasn’t very good.”
“So, we’re actually building at Oldham County,” said Oldham. “I hope to be able to come back in a couple of years, because we will be pretty good then.”
“I don’t know a lot about Corbin other than they are close to the Tennessee line,” said Oldham. “I know they have a real good team coming back. I’ve watched DeSales and Western battle and I know they took DeSales in double overtime.”
“Corbin is going to be a tough test for us even though we are a 4A school,” said Oldham. “They have a lot of tradition down here and it’s going to be a tough test for us.”
“I’m in the same boat as coach Oldham, I don’t know a lot about Oldham County,” said Jewell. “The biggest thing for us, we have to get out of the box quick.”
“We started 0-5 last year and that was a big difference in our kids mentality, so we have to get out quick. We have to have some positive things to go right for our kids,” said Jewell.