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THE NEWS-ENTERPRISE FOOTBALL 2012 THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2012 5
FORT KNOX
EAGLES
Racing for Success
Eagles are more disciplined and determined after disappointing 2-8 season
By JOSH CLAYWELL
The News-Enterprise
Shawn Thompson envisioned great
things in his first season after taking
over the Fort Knox football
team.
He wanted to lead the Eagles back to the
success they had in the 1980s and 90s.
Growing up in Campbellsville and later
playing for Campbellsville High School,
Thompson knew first-hand just how good
those teams were.
That’s why he was so excited to take the
job when Brandon Combs resigned after
three seasons. Thompson believed he could
get Fort Knox back to being one of the top
teams in not just the area, but the state as
well.
Only his first year didn’t quite go as he
had planned.
As injuries to key players mounted, so did
the losses. Fort Knox went 2-8, losing six
straight after winning its first game, and
missed the Class 2-A playoffs.
“I came out of last season not very happy,
to be honest,” Thompson said. “If we went
2-8 and that was the absolute best we could
do, I would have been happy. But it wasn’t.
We left a lot of things unfinished last year and
let a lot of things go out of our control.
Hopefully we’re going to be the kind of team
that controls our own destiny and not make
silly mistakes that cost us. Hopefully we can
get it turned around and get it going this
year.”
The Eagles think they can and will be racing
for success this season.
They’ve been more disciplined and determined
than last season, and they’re eager
to put last season behind them.
“You don’t look at the past; you just look
to the future,” said senior lineman Aaron
Stark. “The past is the past and you can’t do
anything about it, so you just look ahead and
go from there.”
Thompson said attitudes have also improved
over last season. No longer are players
thinking of themselves first.
Senior quarterback Brandon Franklin noticed
a difference in the team’s first practice.
“I told everybody I’m not going to sit
here and watch people lollygag in practices
this season,” he said. “We’re going to work
hard every time we’re out there. We don’t
have as much talent as we did, but everyone
NEAL CARDIN/The News-Enterprise
Fort Knox seniors Rashaan Allen and Aaron Stark are two of the team’s leaders.
is disciplined. Everyone has been working
hard.”
That’s a change from last season, when it
seemed Fort Knox relied more on making a
big play than hard work.
When the Eagles needed a big play in a
critical situation, they could count on players
like Josh Kleber, Dominic Dingle or Akio
Tonge to come through. This year, however,
Thompson said they don’t have the ability to
wait for someone to come up with a huge
play.
“We just don’t have that big-play ability
we had last year,” he said. “We didn’t make
plays because we executed; a lot of the time,
we made plays just because we were faster
than our opponents. But this year we’re executing
better and getting the right reads and
doing all the right things whereas last year
we lived on the big plays.”
Something else that hindered Fort Knox
was conditioning. If the Eagles were facing a
team with more numbers – like Fort
Campbell and district rivals Bardstown and
Christian Academy of Louisville, for instance
– they wore down quickly.
That was one thing the coaches knew
needed to be addressed this season.
Thompson feels his team is in better shape
than last season, and that should help.
“One of the big things we worked on was
our conditioning,” Thompson said. “There
were several times we would jump on people,
and then we’d just run out of gas. We’ve
addressed that as much as we can. We’ve
gotten a lot stronger and fundamentally
we’re a lot better.”
The Eagles return only six total starters in
Franklin and fellow seniors Rashaan Allen,
Aaron Stark and Andrew Stanley and juniors
Antonio Copeland and Moses Bell. But
Thompson believes they have more quality
depth at each position.
Unlike last season when Franklin, Kleber
and Stark were injured, Fort Knox has players
ready to step in this season. Franklin and
Kleber were hampered by leg injuries, while
Stark played through a nagging ankle injury
that kept getting worse.
Stark had surgery in the offseason and
said he’s back at 100 percent. Franklin is glad
to have him back on the offensive line.
“I feel safer and I trust Stark,” he said. “I
missed him last year. He brings a lot of fire.
He protects me. I don’t have to second-guess
him. I’m going to be able to stay in the pocket
longer.”
Thompson said there’s no way to downplay
how much Stark means to the team.
“He played hurt last year and a lot of people
didn’t know that,” Thompson said. “He
looks a lot different than he did last year. It’s
been great having him back. He makes the
calls for us on the offensive line and he
knows where everybody’s supposed to be
on defense.”
With Stark leading the way, the Eagles
should have a better year defensively. They
gave up 37.5 points per game last season, but
Thompson hopes a switch back to a 4-3 defense
will help.
Fort Knox ran a 3-4 last season.
“I think we’ll be better on defense,”
Thompson said. “We’re young still, and that
kind of concerns me. We may be starting
two sophomores at linebacker. We’re still
working on getting people in the right spots,
but they understand they’ve got to work
hard. And we’ve got more quality depth this
season. We’ll have some people pushing others.”
Offensively, the Eagles are still running a
hybrid version of the spread offense – which
is tooled to better utilize Franklin’s talents.
“We’re not going to change much,”
Thompson said. “We’ve added a couple of
wrinkles, but overall what we’re doing is not
going to change. I think the offense plays to
our strengths.”
With better attitudes and work ethics, the
Eagles believe they are destined for big
things this season. Even with the disappointment
of last season still lingering, Thompson
does too.
All the Eagles have to do, he said, is keep
doing what they’ve done this preseason.
“I had to look at everything we did last
year and had to figure out some things,”
Thompson said. “We lost a couple of kids
from last year that would have helped us out.
But I like where our attitudes are and I like
where we’re at right now.
“The team is better off this season. It’s a
different team,” he added. “They know what
the goal is, and they know we’re capable of
it. We don’t have the athletes we had last
year, but I think we’ll be better this season.”
Josh Claywell can be reached at (270) 505-1752
or jclaywell@thenewsenterprise.com.
The United States’ 400-meter relay team of Carmelita Jeter, Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix and Bianca Knight won gold in record time.
Throwing Events
Brandon Franklin primed for breakout year after changes in the offseason
By JOSH CLAYWELL
The News-Enterprise
Shawn Thompson
admits he’s noticed
some big changes
in senior quarterback Brandon
Franklin.
Sporting an improved attitude
and having become
more of a leader, the secondyear
Fort Knox coach said
Franklin has grown up quite
a bit since last season.
“I’ve seen a lot of changes
in him,” Thompson said. “I
think he’s starting to understand
it’s his last year of highschool
football. I don’t want
to say it’s his make-it-orbreak-it
year, but it’s now or
never.”
Franklin realizes this is his
last chance to do something
at Fort Knox.
He’s not going to be able
to rely on his older brother
Josh Kleber, or other players
like the graduated duo of
Akio Tonge and Dominic
Dingle. This year, it’s up to
him.
“I think I’ve grown
tremendously,” Franklin
said. “My whole mentality
has changed this year. I’m a
senior now and people look
up to me. And my training
technique has gotten better.
It’s my last chance in high
school; I’ve got to go out
with a bang.”
Some of Franklin’s teammates
have noticed the
changes as well.
Senior lineman Aaron
Stark said Franklin has done
a better job of putting the
team first instead of himself.
NEAL CARDIN/The News-Enterprise
Fort Knox senior Brandon Franklin passed for 1,685 yards and
18 touchdowns last season.
“His leadership and dedication
is a lot better this
year,” Stark said. “He’s disciplined
and he knows what to
do. He just does everything
110 percent.”
Senior receiver Rashaan
Allen, who becomes Franklin’s
top target this season,
agreed.
“He’s grown a lot,” Allen
said. “He’s been stepping up
as a leader – on and off the
field. He’s a lot better as a
player and a person.”
Thompson started noticing
the changes in Franklin
when he started watching
film of himself. That helped
Franklin see what needed to
be improved instead of just
being told by coaches what
he needed to work on.
“When you get in the season,
you can’t correct that
problem,” Thompson said.
“You just need experience
and time and you don’t have
enough time to do that during
the season. But I think
when he sat down and
watched film of himself and
saw what he was doing, I
think he understood what
we’re trying to do on offense.
“I don’t know if he’ll put
up the big passing numbers
he had last season, but I
think he’ll have a better year
in the offense,” he added.
“He’s probably going to run
the ball a little more. He
doesn’t have the big-play receivers
he had last season,
but he understands it’s not
about throwing the ball 50
yards every play.”
Franklin has improved so
much, Thompson is letting
him make some play calls at
the line of scrimmage. If
Franklin sees something in
the defense, Thompson has
enough trust in him to switch
to something else.
“He understands what
he’s looking at defensively
and he’s got complete command
of the passing game.
He understands our running
game better,” Thompson
said. “I don’t know if he’s
gotten that much better talent-wise,
but his understanding
of what we’re trying to
do is a lot better.”
Thompson also said
Franklin has improved at
recognizing different options
in Fort Knox’s hybrid version
of the spread offense.
He understands that if a play
breaks down, he has other
options to work with.
That’s something Franklin
struggled with last season,
Thompson said, but has
done a much better job at
this season.
“The offense is catered to
his talents, and we’ve
tweaked some things to
where he can show off what
he can do,” Thompson said.
“Brandon is a smart kid and
he can read stuff and he can
see what’s going on. The one
thing about this offense is
there are always options.
Even though we’re a quickpassing
team or whatever
you want to call it, there’s always
an option to do something
else. Brandon has gotten
to the point where he understands
what those are.
Last year, if I called a play
and the team lined up to
where they had it defended
pretty well, we couldn’t do
anything else.
“Now he understands we
can do other things and how
to get us into situations
where we can be successful.”
Josh Claywell can be reached
at (270) 505-1752 or
jclaywell@thenewsenterprise.com.
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