The NKyTribune will be offering focused coverage of NKY high school football throughout the season, thanks to support from St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine. See all our pre-season features on each of NKY’s 21 high school football teams and follow our coverage, including roundups each week at Northern Kentucky High School Football.
By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The changes Ludlow football coach Rick Hornsby and his staff made in the offensive lineup over the summer worked out so well that the Panthers averaged 346 yards per game in their first two victories. That’s an impressive statistic for a team that has a sophomore quarterback, three first-year starters on the offensive line and a wide receiver who had never played varsity football before.
“Pretty much all we did in June and July was a lot of teaching,” Hornsby said. “You just hope when you finally get the pads on they understand and can start getting things done. It’s all worked out because they’re good kids and they’re willing to learn.”
In his first two games as a starting quarterback, sophomore Justin Blackburn led the Panthers to victories over Newport and Bracken County. He rushed for a combined total of 168 yards and four touchdowns in those two games while completing 12 of 22 passes for 304 yards and three TDs.
Blackburn played a few downs at both quarterback and running back as a freshman last season. That’s why the coaching staff selected him to run the spread offense on this year’s team.
“I was kind of nervous at first because I had to know all the (pass) routes and everything,” Blackburn said. “But I feel comfortable with it now. It started to get easier as I completed more passes.”
The sophomore passed for 223 yards and three touchdowns in a season-opening win over Newport. Two of his scoring passes went to senior wide receiver Kalib Mitchell, the starting point guard on Ludlow’s basketball team who decided to play football this year.
In last week’s game against Bracken County, Blackburn passed for just 81 yards and threw two interceptions. But he scored two of the three rushing touchdowns that carried the Panthers to another victory.
“He’s obviously not all the way there yet,” coach Hornsby said of Blackburn’s transition to quarterback. “He’s still learning. It was only his second game that he played at quarterback so he’s making mistakes. But the good thing is he makes up for it with his athletic ability.”
Blackburn gives much of the credit for his early success at quarterback to Ludlow’s new offensive line that includes center Matthew Gibson, tackles Hunter Rahe and Jake Holbert and guards Jamin Garrett and Dale Holbert.
Gibson and Garrett are the only returning starters from last year. Hornsby said putting Rahe up front along with the Holbert brothers, who both weigh less than 160 pounds, has worked out better than he expected.
“I think this is our best line since I’ve been here,” Hornsby said. “We’ve got a couple kids who are kind of small, but overall our kids have good feet and move really well. Our only problem is making sure they don’t take a couple plays off. We’ve got some big guys who go both ways (on offense and defense) so it’s pretty tough on them. We try to sub as much as possible during games.”
The retooled Ludlow team faces a major test in Friday’s game at Paris. Over the last two seasons, Paris has a 4-0 record against Ludlow, including wins in the first round of the 2013 and 2014 Class A playoffs.
Hornsby said his team wasn’t mentally ready going into last week’s game against Bracken County and struggled in the first half, but he doubts if that will be the case when they take the field against Paris, which is also off to a 2-0 start this season.
“They better be ready because Paris is a good team,” Hornsby said. “They got us for two years now, so it’s time for us to get them.”