Underrated teams, shocking upsets and payback wins all factor into football playoffs
District champions have been crowned and now the Kentucky High School Athletic Association begins tweaking its six football playoff brackets according to its RPI rating system to help ensure the teams who earned the highest ratings during the regular season have some advantages toward making it to Kroger Field for the state championships in three weeks.
Geography still plays a role in the regional seedings this week as teams in the western districts — 1 through 4 — are seeded separately from eastern districts — 5 through 8 — in classes A through 6A, respectively.
Regardless of how the KHSAA’s brackets appear online this week, they will be reshuffled again to make sure the two highest-rated regular-season teams in each class don’t face each other until the state finals.
It’s a system that seemed to work upon its implementation last year and was revolutionary for Kentucky high school football. Brackets built on geographic rotations and random draws had been the norm forever and remain the way almost every other sport’s postseason is set.
Underrated
There are some interesting kinks in the RPI system this year, mostly because of schedules shortened by COVID-19. Abbreviated schedules have meant that some teams that would expect to have earned higher RPI ratings remained mired in their early-season difficulties.
Class 5A’s No. 9 Frederick Douglass (6-1) represents the most glaring example, hurt by their season-opening loss to 6A No. 2 North Hardin.
The Broncos ranked No. 2 in the final Associated Press poll and No. 4 in the class in the Herald-Leader’s last Cantrall ratings. Douglass received five first-place votes from AP voters.
While Douglass’ RPI doesn’t appear to mean much this week as it will face the same opponent it did last year at this stage — No. 4 Southwestern — the No. 9 rating makes the Broncos a road team this week and mostly likely next week if they advance, a circumstance they would have rather avoided.
“Obviously, this year has been a lot different with everything that’s happened,” Douglass Coach Nathan McPeek said. “We’ll go back to work this week. … With us having those four (COVID-19) cancellations, that really hurt us in the RPI to host home games. We knew that. We’ve just got to continue to move forward.”
In Class 3A, defending state champion and AP/Cantrall No. 3 Belfry comes in at No. 7 thanks to losses that included a one-point setback to North Hardin and a road loss to 4A No. 2 and defending state champion Johnson Central.
Belfry rated similarly low last year due to its difficult schedule, so this isn’t new for the Pirates. But Belfry will have a rematch against Bell County in this week’s regional, a game that was a state final matchup in 2019.
In Class 6A, Male at No. 5 doesn’t seem all that glaring until you realize that if the bracket plays out according to seeding, it will mean last year’s state championship game featuring the Bulldogs and Trinity will be a state semifinal game this year. Trinity and Male rank 1 and 2, respectively, by Cantrall and 1 and 3 by the AP.
Cinderellas
No. 19 Hazard (4-5) shocked the Kentucky football landscape with its defeat of the defending Class A state champ, No. 1 Pikeville, on Friday night.
“Six weeks ago, we knew the score 43-7 didn’t really show what kind of team we were,” Hazard Coach Dan Howard told Unwired Appalachia after the game. “With Garrett (Miller) being back and a couple other guys being back that was huge.”
Having Miller, their senior quarterback at the helm, helped, but the defensive focus and sophomore defensive back Max Johnson’s two interceptions, including the game-clinching pick-six, were the key.
“Our defense was huge,” Howard said. “We knew we had to take (receivers Zac Lockhart and Blake Birchfield) out. We had to limit their touches.”
Hazard, which started the season 0-5, has some good company as regional underdogs this week. The other lowest-rated teams to be playing for a state semifinal spot are 6A No. 12 Dixie Heights, 5A No. 14 Madison Southern, 4A No. 19 Allen County-Scottsville, 3A No. 17 Fleming County and 2A No. 19 Walton-Verona.
Win for the ages
While Murray (7-3) consistently ranks among the best teams in Class 2A each year, it faces a playoff road block against district-rival and 12-time state champion Mayfield, which quite literally owns the series.
Murray’s 28-21 triple overtime win over the Cardinals on Friday was the first Tigers win against Mayfield since 1997 and only second win over them since 1976. Yes, 1976 — not a typo.
The decades of frustration didn’t matter to Murray’s high-schoolers. It was their experience in an overtime win over Caldwell County and and a one-point overtime loss to Mayfield earlier in the season that proved the difference, Coach Keith Hodge told Paducah’s WPSD.
“I got a text this morning about the players having confidence because they’d been here before, and they’d experienced these types of things,” Hodge said to the TV station. “When you’re in these situations, how do you react? How do you respond? We talk about dealing with adversity in and out of football and how you handle things. I’m super proud of that. I think the positions we’ve been in, we’ve been able to fight through it.”
Payback games
Every district championship matchup resulted from a playoff structure put in place last season that is the norm in every other sport but rather rare for Kentucky football, which had put such matchups further down the line in past formats.
Close regular-season district contests signaled tough escapes for some top teams and a number of revenge-game wins for supposed underdogs.
Madison Central needed an onside kick recovery and a 40-yard field goal to escape Woodford County’s upset bid. Louisville Holy Cross had to squeak by Bethlehem 28-27 in overtime Saturday after an 11-point win earlier in the season. Paintsville needed overtime to thwart Raceland’s attempt to knock of last year’s Class A runner-up.
But Southwestern turned the tables on Pulaski County after losing to the Maroons earlier this season. The same went for Owensboro Catholic’s win over Hancock County, Metcalfe County over Edmonson, Christian Academy-Louisville over Mercer County, Bell County over Rockcastle County, Bowling Green over South Warren and Franklin County over Central.
And there were bigger turnarounds, too. Glasgow converted a 35-15 loss to Taylor County into a 14-0 win over the Cardinals. Hopkinsville suffered a 31-7 defeat in mid-October and got a 42-20 win Friday. Dixie Heights lost by 30 to Ryle on Oct. 16 and pulled out a 41-36 trophy win.
Franklin County has been on both ends of the “payback game,” having won the regular-season game last year only to lose to Central in the district finals and reversing the result in 2020. The 18-16 regular season loss at home on Oct. 24 was definitely an extra motivating factor.
“I think when we lost to them, especially the way we did late in the game, having played really well that game and coming up short, we had our kids attention,” Franklin County Coach Eddie James said. “They knew that they left some opportunities out there. From a coaching standpoint it was a lot easier to get them motivated and get them focused.”
His players responded with a 42-6 shellacking of Central in Louisville on Friday, but James doesn’t think he’ll be tanking regular season games to try to get that edge again in the future.
“Home field’s pretty nice,” James said, laughing. “To go on the road and be able to do what we did was a testament to our kids and our staff.”
Regional finals
(All games Friday, time local)
CLASS 6A
No. 6 Paul Laurence Dunbar (6-2) at No. 3 Bryan Station (10-1), 7 p.m.
No. 10 St. Xavier (5-2) at No. 2 North Hardin (9-0), 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 McCracken County (5-2) at No. 5 Male (6-1), 7:30 p.m.
No. 12 Dixie Heights (6-3) at No. 1 Trinity (7-0), 7 p.m.
CLASS 5A
No. 9 Frederick Douglass (6-1) at No. 4 Southwestern (10-1), 7 p.m.
No. 14 Madison Southern (6-3) at No. 3 Covington Catholic (9-1), CANCELED.
No. 11 Fairdale (7-0) at No. 1 Owensboro (10-0), 6 p.m.
No. 8 North Bullitt (8-2) at No. 5 Bowling Green (7-2), 7 p.m.
CLASS 4A
No. 19 Allen County-Scottsville (5-3) at No. 7 Franklin County (7-1), 7:30 p.m.
No. 18 Rowan County (4-3) at No. 1 Boyle County (8-0), 7:30 p.m.
No. 3 Corbin (8-1) at No. 2 Johnson Central (9-0), 7:30 p.m.
No. 14 John Hardin (5-2) at No. 12 Hopkinsville (6-2), 7 p.m.
CLASS 3A
No. 12 Bell County (6-3) at No. 7 Belfry (6-3), 7 p.m.
No. 17 Fleming County (4-3) at No. 2 Ashland Blazer (8-0), 7:30 p.m.
No. 19 Union County (5-4) at No. 1 Elizabethtown (10-0), 7:30 p.m.
No. 9 Christian Academy-Louisville (6-2) at No. 8 Glasgow (7-2), 7 p.m.
CLASS 2A
No. 14 Metcalfe County (5-2) at No. 1 Lexington Christian (7-1), 7 p.m.
No. 19 Walton-Verona (7-4) at No. 2 West Carter (9-1), 7:30 p.m.
No. 12 Breathitt County (6-1) at No. 4 Beechwood (7-2), 7 p.m.
No. 11 Owensboro Catholic (7-3) at No. 9 Murray (7-3), 7 p.m.
CLASS A
No. 19 Hazard (4-5) at No. 4 Paintsville (7-2), 7 p.m.
No. 11 Nicholas County (6-1) at No. 10 Williamsburg (5-2), 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 Newport Central Catholic (7-2) at No. 1 Holy Cross (Louisville) (7-1), 7 p.m.
No. 6 Crittenden County (7-2) at No. 2 Kentucky Country Day (8-1), 7:30 p.m.
This story was originally published November 29, 2020 at 4:18 PM.
