The Deep Post: Football season primer, notable returners and storylines to watch

Welcome back to The Deep Post, my weekly column/notebook.

After a summer hiatus The Deep Post is back ahead of the 2024-25 school year. This week’s edition will hit on the top storylines of the 2024 prep football preseason as well as the dramatically different landscape teams will traverse this fall.

The Recap

I’m a fan of One Piece and believe those story recaps before each episode are useful. It’s been nine months since the 2023 football season ended on Wheeling Island and A LOT has happened since then. Here’s the recap.

• The four class proposal passed and extended to football. It made waves throughout the state and the area. Attached are the schools and respective classifications they’ll participate in over the next four years. Final Copy of WVSSAC Competition Models - 2023 Version 3
• Surprisingly, Charleston won the bid for the football state championships meaningly Laidley Field will replace Wheeling Island Stadium as the host site for the next four years.
• Southern West Virginia produced its third straight Kennedy Award winner in Dominick Collins.
• Josh Evans (Summers County), Jason Spears (PikeView) and Maurice Gravely (Mount View) all stepped down from their head coaching positions.
• The transfer portal opened up and a few area teams are better for it. Devin Richardson, who threw for 996 yards with 12 touchdowns, transferred from Beckley to Oak Hill while former Graham, Va. defensive lineman and Penn State commit Daniel Jennings transferred to Princeton, his home district school. For a  well-compiled list of transfers around the state I highly recommend checking out the transfer tracker established by our friends at Coalfields and Co.

Notable Returners 

Transfers alone don’t change the landscape of the state, graduation does as well. Here is a list of notable returning area players that either earned all-state honors, threw for 1,000 yards, rushed for 1,000 yards, had 1,000 yards receiving, finished in the top five last year in either of those categories or scored more than 10 touchdowns

• Chance Barker, Princeton (QB, Jr.) – As a sophomore Barker threw for 3,602 yards and 48 touchdowns with just four interceptions.
• Kadien Vance, Westside (QB, Sr.) – Vance threw for over 1,700 yards with 23 passing touchdowns. He added 557 rushing yards and eight scores on the ground.
• Kaiden Sims, Meadow Bridge (RB, Sr.) – Sims rushed for 1,605 yards and 15 touchdowns a year ago.
• Marquel Lowe, Princeton (RB, Sr.) – Lowe led the area in rushing with 1,731 yards and 22 rushing touchdowns. He also caught 17 passes for 308 yards and six more touchdowns.
• Ryan Oliveros, Summers County (UTIL, Sr.) – Oliveros erupted last year, catching 65 passes for 1,177 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also rushed for 476 yards and six scores.
• Brad Mossor, Princeton (WR, Jr.) – Mossor caught 46 passes for 821 yards and eight touchdowns as a sophomore.
• Tyson Adkins, Summers County (RB, Jr.) – Adkins compiled over 1,000 yards from scrimmage with 15 touchdowns.
• Layton Dowdy, James Monroe (QB, Sr.) – Dowdy threw for 1,183 yards last season with 17 touchdown passes.
• Jaylen Younger, Montcalm (QB, Jr.) – Younger threw for 1,378 yards with 16 touchdown passes.
• Brody Hamric, Greenbrier East (QB, Jr.) – Hamric threw for 1,537 yards and 13 touchdowns for East as a sophomore.
• Alex Blankenship, Independence (OL, Jr.) – Blankenship thrived in his first season at Indy, earning first team all-state honors.
• Brady Baker, James Monroe (OL, Sr.) – Baker was a first team all-stater last year, anchoring a talented offensive line. He’s drawn interest from several DI schools.
• Jaedan Francisco, Bluefield (OL, Sr.) – Francisco is the center piece of trench group that should lead the Beavers. He earned second team all-state honors last year.
• Landon Riddle, Independence (LB, Jr.) – Riddle led a stout Indy defense with 11.5 sacks last year, earning second team all-state honors.
• Kalum Kiser, Princeton (DE, Jr.) – Kiser excelled as an edge rusher last year, earning second team all-state honors.
• Coleton Hellems, Nicholas County (QB, Jr.), – Hellems threw for 1,198 yards with 11 touchdown passes in his first year as a starter.

All caught up? Let’s dive into the storylines to watch for this season.

Can Princeton replicate last season’s success?

Princeton wasn’t considered a title contender this time a year ago but with a favorable playoff bracket and a dynamic offense that fired on all cylinders, the Tigers roared to the Class AAA state championship game where they ran into the same brick wall (Martinsburg) every other Class AAA team has for the better part of a decade.

That all came with the Kennedy Award winner Dom Collins and Stydahar finalist Eli Campbell anchoring the offense. Both have since graduated and moved on to DI schools. The cupboard isn’t bare though with the trio of Chance Barker, Brad Mossor and Marquel Lowe back. Defensively Penn State commit Daniel Jennings and all-stater Kalum Kiser should anchor a standout defensive line.

To top it all off Princeton benefits from dropping to the new Class AAA, a more appropriate alignment based on attendance. The Tigers should be a title favorite coming into this season alongside Fairmont Senior and Bridgeport. Fairmont in particular has loaded up in the transfer portal, sparking an arms race in Class AAA.

The biggest question has to be along the offensive line where the Tigers need to replace most of their core.

What should we expect from Bluefield and Independence?

I’ve given this A LOT of thought since the classifications were approved and released in December. Where do Bluefield and Independence fit in their respective classes?

Bluefield squeezed into the new Class AA and sticks out like a sore thumb. On the strength of historical pedigree and a weaker field, the Beavers should be a lock to play in the semifinals but it’s a weird year for this program. For starters almost every recognizable name is gone. Sencere Fields, R.J. Hairston, Gerrard Wade, Tyquise Powell, etc. have all graduated. From what I gather, they don’t have a player on the roster with more than 30 career carries (JoJo Campbell and Willis Wilson had 21 carries each last year).

The Beavers do have a talented middle school crop coming in but getting up to speed takes time. So where’s the strength?

The offensive line.

The Beavers return a few starters along the front and had some talented transfers slip over from Montcalm. I suspect they’ll lean on the ground game, especially with offensive coordinator Fritz Simon stepping away after 20 years.

Independence falls into the same vein for me, but has to traverse that road in a loaded Class AAA. Tyler Linskweiler, Trey Bowers and D Hypes, the last remaining pillars of the 2022 state championship team, have graduated. Alex Blankenship, a first team all-state lineman last year, and Sylas Nelson, who started at QB the second half of the season, are the most recognizable returners.

Independence has a strong freshman group highlighted by Brock Green but acclimating will take time. Adding intrigue is a schedule featuring six playoff teams from a year ago and there aren’t any gimmes. In order, Indy will play Herbert Hoover, Brooke, Nicholas County, Scott, Bluefield, Oak Hill, Westside, Mingo Central, Princeton and Summers County.

Will Nicholas County rebound?

Luck plays a role in every sport and football is no different. Most of Nicholas County’s luck was of the bad variety in 2023. The Grizzlies finished 5-5 but the record doesn’t tell the full story. Their first three losses were by a combined six points.

Statistically speaking there’s usually a correction in those coin-flip type games from year to year. It’s a good reminder that almost every play matters and three plays were essentially the difference between a 2-3 and 5-0 start for the Grizzlies.

The good news? Nicholas County hasn’t missed the playoffs in back to back seasons since 2006, nearly 20 years. Returning a solid core, the Grizzlies are primed for another postseason push.

What does Greenbrier West have in store for an encore?

Greenbrier West’s defense was historically great last year, helping the program to the state title game where it fell to Williamstown.

Now the Cavaliers will have to replace nearly 20 seniors from that runner-up squad including all-staters Jake Pate, Cole Vandall, Jacob Whitt, Ethan Holliday, Tucker Lilly and Hayden Ridgeway. That’s a talented group that helped West to four consecutive playoff berths during their time in Charmco.

Helping the Cavaliers in their reload is the fact they landed in a Class A field where there aren’t a lot of programs that should finish ahead of them in the playoff field.

What programs stand to benefit/suffer the most from the classification shakeup?

I’ve mentioned a few of them but Bluefield, Greenbrier West, Westside, Meadow Bridge, Montcalm and Princeton are seemingly the biggest beneficiaries of the reclassifications. All should be playoff teams with Bluefield and Princeton bumping into title contention.

When I think of teams that suffer the most, PikeView is the first one that comes to mind.

The program has struggled to field over 30 kids the last several years and probably landed a classification too high. The Panthers ended up in the new Class AAA and fought that decision to no avail. They’ll still largely play the same teams they did when they were in the old Class AA but condensing the field and putting them into what I believe will be the most competitive class in Class AAA does them no favors in their efforts to build the program.

Can the area produce another Kennedy winner this year?

The last three Kennedy winners have hailed from the southern part of the state. Atticus Goodson picked up the torch in 2021, passing it to Judah Price in ’22 before Dom Collins raced away with it last year. After awhile fatigue starts to set with voters who are human.

I’ve written about it at length before but Martinsburg hasn’t had a Kennedy winner in 20 years and may be due for one. Still, each year stands on its own merit. There’s a short list of contenders in the area but I’d be lying if I said either of the last three winners came into the year as favorites.

All had been first team all-staters the year before winning the award but those conversations take care of themselves. Until then every player in the state has four months to make their case.

Email: Tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94