Louisville is the hotbed recruiting area in Kentucky. Who comes in at number 2, Lexington or Bowling Green? The Lexington area has had some big players come through lately with Young, Wills, Bolin, Wood, and Harris. With Bowling Green being quite a bit smaller, has produced some good players with Middleton, Fant, Brown, Hayes, and the RB committed to Navy Jamal Carothers. Just wanted to create a little different conversations around here. Thoughts?
Lexington or Bowling Green?
- Thread starter Panther09!
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Interesting question. Individual talent wise I think Lexington has better talent but team wise BG has better football teams no doubt. Bowling Geen has been producing a lot more players recently though.
I put Lexington area and as far as I know Berea/Richmond is in the Lexington area. Yes Drake Jackson is from Versailles which is the Lexington area.
I'd probably guess Cincy South on average. In general where there are large numbers of people you'll have an increased likelihood of decent prospects.
But I'm not sure what region is #2 this yr.
But I'm not sure what region is #2 this yr.
South Warren has a senior named CJ Hayes that committed to Purdue. Plays baseball too and is a pretty good athlete all around. He had lots of scholarship offers from D1 schools but I don't think UK ever offered him. Bowling Green has produced some good athletes over the last couple of years.
Wow, pretty good that there is a discussion on who produces more talent from little ol' bowling green compared to a metro that has around a half of million to bg metro that has about 150k....
Problem with Lexington is the soccer and baseball crowd that prevents athletes to participate in multiple sports, bg is more likely to participate in all and will receive more scholarships per capita than Lexington in multiple sports.
Problem with Lexington is the soccer and baseball crowd that prevents athletes to participate in multiple sports, bg is more likely to participate in all and will receive more scholarships per capita than Lexington in multiple sports.
Lot of people don't know, but Bowling Green is projected to become the second largest city in time. Their athletics will only become more and more powerful.
?????
Over who Lex or Louisville?
How much time?
Bowling Green, like Scott County, enjoys a decent size pool due to lack of schools, but they do have some athletes down there.
Well if Lexington includes every bordering county like some poster above is asserting obviously they do, but just Fayette county vs Warren county, I would say it's super close. Fayette county schools are surprisingly bad at sports. Max Preps KY top 25 has one team from Lexington and 2 from Bowling Green. Northern KY looks like the winner of #2 behind Louisville though with 5 teams.
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Bowling Green will become bigger than Lexington only if it joins the Nashville metro area.
When my son was playing football in Lexington, the kids had "special" rules to "protect" them while in middle school. They got to high school and had never seen a linebacker cross the line of scrimmage. There were other systemic things that made the football worse. At my son's school, you might have had 45 kids out for football including freshmen with most of the kids being underclassmen. Academic ineligibility had the varsity basketball team unwilling to scrimmage an intramural team.
If you're looking from waaaY out in space.
BG will pass Lexington in population when they consolidate with Warren County and take in 200k refugees. Little bit of a ways to go there.
The best Fayette County football team would be the fourth best in Warren County. I've always wondered why Lexington sports were so bad and those middle school rules probably play into it. Just crazy.
With the small number of schools for such a huge population and the talent in town, Lexington teams should dominate.
The best Fayette County football team would be the fourth best in Warren County. I've always wondered why Lexington sports were so bad and those middle school rules probably play into it. Just crazy.
With the small number of schools for such a huge population and the talent in town, Lexington teams should dominate.
I guess it depends on people's view of an area. I consider anything within' 30 to 40 miles within' the Lexington area or the MSA. Sorry to cause an uproar, Berea is no where even close to the vincinity of Fayette county.
Wow , Richmond is not Berea otherwise it would all be called Richmond .
If THIS guy was in Yemen, and he fired this baby off with the intent to hit Lexington(but instead hit Berea)--I'm "giving Lexington" to him
I meant the total amount of football talent not the population. Some posters above were counting Richmond, Berea, Versailles, et all in with Lexington. I was saying if you count every bordering counties football talent then obviously they all combine to have more than Bowling Green, but just comparing Warren to Fayette the amount of talent is close.
If you look at sheer number of FBS players produced, Lexington-Fayette County would likely get the nod. But Bowling Green-Warren County may produce more on a per capita basis, and the overall numbers of FBS prospects are likely closer than they should be considering the significantly higher population of Fayette Co.
There are obviously some very, very good players that come out of Lexington from year to year (Young last year and Wills in this class being examples of top end talent). That said, the overall level of football played in the area is puzzling, in spite there being several schools with very large enrollments. Lexington area teams just do not typically fare well against good competition from other areas of the state. It doesn't necessarily mean a lot when comparing the amount of talent produced by different areas, but Bowling Green HS would pretty easily handle Lexington's best this season, IMO, and I question whether Lexington area teams would beat South Warren this year either.
In terms of FBS prospects, Louisville metro is clearly number one. Best I can tell, which area ranks numbers 2, 3, and 4 likely varies a bit from year to year with Northern Kentucky, Lexington metro, and Western Kentucky (including BG area) typically in the conversation. The level of football in Kentucky has improved over the years, but unfortunately, none of the areas are consistently producing the number of Power 5 type of prospects that are coming out of pockets of Ohio and Tennessee these days.
There are obviously some very, very good players that come out of Lexington from year to year (Young last year and Wills in this class being examples of top end talent). That said, the overall level of football played in the area is puzzling, in spite there being several schools with very large enrollments. Lexington area teams just do not typically fare well against good competition from other areas of the state. It doesn't necessarily mean a lot when comparing the amount of talent produced by different areas, but Bowling Green HS would pretty easily handle Lexington's best this season, IMO, and I question whether Lexington area teams would beat South Warren this year either.
In terms of FBS prospects, Louisville metro is clearly number one. Best I can tell, which area ranks numbers 2, 3, and 4 likely varies a bit from year to year with Northern Kentucky, Lexington metro, and Western Kentucky (including BG area) typically in the conversation. The level of football in Kentucky has improved over the years, but unfortunately, none of the areas are consistently producing the number of Power 5 type of prospects that are coming out of pockets of Ohio and Tennessee these days.
I see your point.
Lexington should obviously produce more talent than it has.
Having two boys go through high school football I can tell you the main factors why Lexington doesn't:
In Lexington the push to play more than one sport is much less than at smaller schools. A great athlete who prefers basketball and would be very good in football play their preferred sport. Same with baseball kids. It has become a one sport year round deal with many more opportunities to continue to play out of season in a larger city.
We always read about a kid that was their school's best football, basketball, baseball player, and track star in smaller schools.
The biggest issue with Lexington kids are the distractions, distractors, and incredible amount of bad influences. Many of the school's best athletes simply don't qualify due to poor judgement from middle school on up.
County schools and smaller areas can identify a kid in elementary school much easier and provide some sense of direction.
We have so many really good athletes fall through cracks here. And it's not just Lexington, any city this size or larger has the same issue.
As to the Warren County actual totals, I think 2016 was a bit of an aberration.
According to Rival's database of ranked recruits Warren County produced 7 top players to Lexington's 9 this year.
In the previous 2 years Lex held the advantage 8/4 and 9/3, and in 2013 BG had zero.
Next year's group shows 14 Lexington kids to Warren's 4.
Predicting 2018 - 4 are from Lex and zero from Warren County.
Looking from 2013 to 2018 the difference is 47-18 Lexington.
Interesting subject to discuss. I'd love to see more counties like Warren producing these very good athletes.
I feel as if the interest level of high school football in the state has increased quit a bit in the last 10 years. What can we as a state do to try and produce more talent? I don't mean necessarily BCS level talent, but FCS level talent in general. Having more talent come from our state would make recruiting so much easier for UK.
The person that told me that said Louisville will always be the biggest. The rate of growth in BG is why they are projecting it. I don't remember if he told me when that is projected.
I saw BG play one time this year. They had over a hundred players dressed and some not dressed. Can't see them losing many games for a long time. South Warren has really hurt Warren Central. Those three will probably always be top dogs but Greenwood and Warren East seems to have risen some.
I have family in both areas and the number one reason Lexington produces less talent per capita in many sports not just football is the push to go into and concentrate on one sport.
In Lexington(and many other areas) parents push their kids into one sport far too early because they feel pressure if they don't their child will fall behind the other kids in skill sets that really don't mean a hill of beans until they are well into high school. The number one thing coaches look for in an athlete in a particular sport is athletic ability. Kids that play just one sport, have no idea how they would do in another sport if the concentration was not with the other sport all year long for years at a time. THIS is the main reason Lexington sees the drop in opportunity to continue playing at the next level not just in football but in all sports.
JMO
Dave
That is incredibly sad. Not just that it hurts UK, denying potential hometown homegrown talent, but the kids who are being denied free college education somewhere, anywhere even 1-AA or D3 level due to such poor development in the Lexington middle & HS levels.