21 teams in 21 days: Ryle football preview

While the Ryle football team may possess a lot of youth, they have the most experience at the most important position in the game.

Quarterback Logan Verax has over 30 starts under his belt, his moxie and leadership abilities should be able to help offset a varsity roster of nearly 75 with about a dozen of them seniors.

The Raiders are coming off a 6-6 campaign in 2022 in a season of what could have been. Two close losses should fuel the team for 2023, a 38-31 defeat to Simon Kenton that determined the district champion and a 26-14 loss to Ballard to end their season in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs.

Mike Engler enters his 10th season with the team and despite the amount of underclassmen, return quite a bit of production even outside the quarterback position.

While Engler has all the faith in the world in Verax at quarterback, he’s pretty high on some others too and that starts up front. Of the seven that will play on the defensive line and linebacker, only one or possibly two of them will be a senior, an area Engler thinks is one of the strongest on the team outside of the gunslinger.

Two of those seven were freshman and sophomores and leading tacklers in 2022. Jacob Savage and Beau Faul with 93 and 76 tackles, respectively. Savage plays linebacker while Faul is on the defensive line, but could also see some time at linebacker. The two highlight the defense that had an unfortunate injury in the offseason when senior linebacker Dawson Brandt was lost for the season.

“He’s a huge leader and will still be a big part of this team. We’re sad he won’t be able to see the field. Despite the injury, he’s missed just one practice and that was because of his surgery,” Engler said. “We need to find someone to step up there.”

Faul is joined by Landon Slomer and Jake Stewart on the interior defensive line with depth added from Dillon Smith, Jason Yarbrough and Kelvion Douglass in his first season of playing football and has picked things up quickly.

“If Kelvion played all four years he might be a Division I prospect. We’re excited for how quickly he’s picked things up,” Engler said.

They also return three starters along the offensive line, Jack Gatlin, Michael Coleman and Stewart, who is spending more time on defense. From there is a rotation of guys that will be slotted in.

“We got some pretty good size up there and guys rotating,” Engler said. “We feel good about those guys and will be really looking forward to midseason and the strides they make.”

Back to the quarterback. Verax, the Raiders senior is on the verge of etching himself at the top of many record books in not only program history, but NKY history. Verax enters the season with 369 career completions, 4,714 passing yards and 38 TDs, all within range of Raiders alum Tanner Morgan, who put up his career numbers in two seasons at Ryle after transferring from Hazard High School. Morgan, who was recently signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers after the 2023 NFL Draft, finished his Raiders career with 398 completions, 5,421 yards and 48 touchdowns.

Verax already holds the program’s single-game record with five passing TDs. He’s No. 2 behind Morgan with 429 single-game passing yards. He’s been threatening Morgan’s single-season passing yards record of 2,747.

Verax is Northern Kentucky’s active passing yards leader by more than 1,000 yards and second in passing TDs.

“I’ve coached seven Division I quarterbacks from my time at Lex Cath to now. They’re all different, but all the same in the sense of competitiveness and work ethic. All those guys including Logan have the drive to be better,” Engler said. “They know what to study. Difference is they all have different athletic parts to them. Logan is probably a better runner, he was our leading rusher from last year and wouldn’t surprise me if he’s a 1,000 yard rusher this year. He’s at his best when he’s outside the pocket.”

Logan’s brother Nathan will back him up and should see some playing time to have him ready for the future.

Despite losing two of his top four targets in Kaden Gardner and Jayce Harden to graduation, he’ll have Landon Lorms and Grady Reynolds back, the two combining for 49 receptions, 643 yards and three touchdowns. Engler also feels Dylan Lee will progress of his 10 reception, 139 yard season last year as the team’s deep threat. Lee will also be one of the very few two-way players in the Raiders secondary.

Lorms and Reynolds provide big targets for Ryle, Lorms at 6-foot-3 and Reynolds at 6-foot-5 at tight end. Reynolds can play out in the slot as well and provide mismatches out wide with his big frame.

“Grady Reynolds will be the biggest surprise to the area. He didn’t do the camp circuit this summer, so he’s a little behind in the recruiting stuff but he has a lot of schools looking at him,” Engler said. “He was our leading receiver over the last five games last season and if he stays healthy he’s one that will jump off the chart.”

Dillon Smith and Jason Yarbrough can also slot in at tight end if the Raiders go with heavy packages and put Reynolds out wide.

A couple will tote the rock in the backfield led by Cooper transfer JR Hayes.

“He didn’t play running back at Cooper and he’s come on pretty strong. He’s got good speed, good quickness and we’re excited to see what he can do,” Engler said.

It will be a committee from there with Savage and Jaden Galicia in the mix for some carries.

Much like any other team across the state, the Raiders will have some new faces in district play. Simon Kenton and Campbell County remain, but with Dixie Heights dropping down to 5A, Great Crossing enters as the fourth team in the Class 6A, 6th District. The Warhawks were 8-3 in 2022 playing in 5A and losing to Covington Catholic in the first round of the playoffs.

“We have a lot to learn about them but by the time we play them, we’ll know a lot about them,” Engler said. “Simon Kenton we know them like the back of my hand, we know what they run and they know us. Campbell County will be much better. It’s an exciting district and hard to say who is the favorite, but I like our chances.”

Prior to district play that starts Oct. 6 with Campbell County, the Raiders face Covington Catholic to open the season on Aug. 18, followed by Conner, Cooper, Highlands, Christian Academy-Louisville and St. Xavier out of Louisville.

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