[Hoot Gibson]

Is JC upperclassmen heavy? Or maybe a down year coming next year or soon? I’m just asking because they’ve been in contention or won it every year for the past how many? Eventually it falls off for a year or two. Even trinity has went down a tad? What’s JC got in the pipes coming up

Johnson Central has a very experienced team at the skill positions this season. Riley Preece is in his fourth season as the starting quarterback, with each of the first three seasons ending in the 4A state championship game. Senior Devin Johnson is JC's leading rusher and senior Seth Dalton is the team's leading receiver. The Golden Eagles will be losing several other outstanding seniors as well.

As others have already said, Riley Preece has got to be one of the most underated players in the state. As a freshman quarterback, he was on the winning end of a 48-0 state title game over Franklin-Simpson. This season, he has completed 74.6% of his passes, averaged 24.1 yards/completion for 17 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions. He has also intercepted 4 passes and returned two of them for touchdowns. Preece is a threat to score anytime that he touches the ball and between quarterbacking, defense, and special teams, he touches the ball a lot. He is the perfect quarterback in Johnson Central's offense.

Johnson Central fans are already aware of everything that Preece has done for the Golden Eagles, but many around the state are not. Preece, Johnson, and the rest of the senior starters will be missed next season.

As for next season being a "down" year, IMO JC has not really had a down year since Coach Matney arrived. Even when they were in the same region as Highlands and Covington Catholic, in most seasons they were very competitive against some of those schools' best teams ever. There were a couple of years when key injuries took their toll, such as Joe Jackson's lost junior season in which JC still made it to the finals, but JC always seems to fill the shoes of its graduating players pretty well.

I really did not expect JC's line and defense to be as good as it has been this season after losing some very experienced linemen last season. As for next year, I expect that JC will probably be facing Wayne County in the quarterfinals again. Beyond that, who knows? It would be great if they could return to the state finals every season but no program is that good.