After three seasons away, Noel Rash is back on the Beechwood sideline with state championship expectations.
Not that the expectation is any different, but Rash knows what it takes to get it done in November and into the first week of December having already won eight state titles with the program.
The Tigers return a loaded roster featuring Division I-caliber athletes in quarterback Emmett Queen and receiver/defensive back Tyler Fryman, along with plenty of talent and experience across the field. With 18 state championships already in the trophy case, Beechwood has its sights set on No. 19.
Here are five things to know about the 2026 Tigers:
Rash returns
Rash returns to the Beechwood sideline after three seasons away, bringing an extraordinary résumé with him. He won 200 games in his first 17 seasons at Beechwood and eight state championships.
“I’m back at my camelot,” Rash said. “It’s incredible. Facilities are incredible. Kids are incredible. Our kids here live eat and breathe it and that’s what I do. That feels good. If we went six hours a day they wouldn’t bat an eye.”
Rash brings intensity to the sidelines and the locker room.
“I’m a little intense, and that took a minute for them to get accustomed to,” Rash said. “Early on there’s been some hesitancy and they’re thinking.”
He’s been through the pressure of state-title expectations repeatedly. The question isn’t whether he knows how to build a championship team; it’s how quickly he can put his stamp on this particular group.
Offense for days
This might be the most talented collection of skill-position players Beechwood has had in years.
They can score from anywhere on the field, whether it be their own one-yard line or the opponents’. That’s not a secret to anybody.
With Wake Forest commit Emmett Queen returning as the quarterback after throwing for more than 2,700 yards and 39 touchdowns in 2025 in his first year with the offense and weapons like Kentucky commit Tyler Fryman along with swiss-army knife Nathan Pabst, Bo Sowder, Caleb Arrasmith and others, the potency is like a ghost pepper.
The Tigers’ 2025 offense was already among Kentucky’s best, and the overwhelming majority of the production returns. They return its leading rusher (Pabst), five of their top six receivers and essentially its entire skill-position group outside of Brody Aylor, who graduated.
“When you have a class of 22 seniors at a 2A school, things can’t be too bad no matter where you’re at,” Rash said. “There’s so much team speed that’s progressed over the years.”
How do they get even better?
“We’ve got to execute when we don’t get those explosive plays,” Rash said. “Can we control the ball and pull off 14 or 16 play drives.”
More from Queen and Fryman
There’s no doubt of their ability on the field. What Rash wants to see more out of Queen and Fryman is their leadership abilities.
Fryman is an example-setter. You can see it on the baseball field when he’s constantly the one getting his teammates bat off the ground after an at-bat or talking with the next batter after what he saw from the pitcher.
Queen as the quarterback has to be vocal and help dictate the offense on the field.
“They need to take control of this team,” Rash said. “That means connecting with guys while watching them being coached. Reacting and helping them through something. Let the coaches be the bad guys and they pick up the pieces to hold them accountable. Their work ethics are second to none, I’ll never question that from those guys.”
Defense and LOS
In order to pull off those long drives, they’ll need to control the line of scrimmage and win field position battles. Defense and line of scrimmage will be a big key in bringing No. 19 home to Fort Mitchell.
If there’s a question mark for the Tigers, this is where it is.
Beechwood lost some significant linemen from last year’s team, including Austin Stephenson, Chase McDaniel and Carson Eshelman.
In their two losses to Covington Catholic and Owensboro Catholic, they allowed 83 points and struggled to get stops. On the other hand, they gave up 45 points in their 11 other games.
Rash’s philosophy defensively is pretty simple.
“We’re going to stop the run. You’re going to have to throw the football,” Rash said. “Control the ball, play for field position, stop the run and make people drive and keep the ball in front of you.”
Plenty of defensive standouts are back, including the entire secondary, but again the front seven is where they’ll need to improve without the services of Stephenson, McDaniel, Eshelman and Brody Aylor. That’s over 30 tackles for loss and 12 sacks needing to be replaced.
“Up front I’m excited, I know they’re committed to being great,” Rash said. “We just need to find who is in love with the grind.”
Controllables
Beechwood’s pattern the last four seasons: state championship, semifinal loss, state championship, semifinal loss.
The main pattern in those four seasons: 2022 was a home semifinal game, 2023 was a road semifinal game at Mayfield, 2024 was a home semifinal game and 2025 was a road semifinal game at Owensboro Catholic.
Despite being ranked at or near the top in all four of those years, the Tigers had to hit the road in two of those years. It’s pretty simple, Beechwood usually plays a higher level out of state team early in the year (Indian Hill, Ohio this year), beefs up their schedule with 4A, 5A and even 6A in-state opponents and plays in a district that hasn’t offered the slight bit of resistance. While playing up in class certainly helps, playing out of state opponents and district play does not the way the RPI formulates.
The RPI is a computer, Beechwood can’t control that and Rash doesn’t even want his kids thinking about it.
“The long term impact of it we worry about down the road. We can’t think about if we don’t win, we got to play on the roady in November. Win or loss, we don’t want to throw that extra stuff on the players,” Rash said.
So when the Tigers open the season up Aug. 28 against Indian Hill in Fort Mitchell, they’ll most likely be starting behind the 8-ball in terms of RPI standards not factoring in how good the out of state competition is.
“We’re landlocked with seven other states,” Rash said of the Commonwealth. “I feel KHSAA and Julian Tackett are working on that. It’s a formula we’ve had in playing those out of state teams and we’re not going to mess with it.”
A win against neighborhood rival Covington Catholic (4A) would certainly help, something the Tigers have been unable to do since 2021. Wins against Dixie Heights (5A), Simon Kenton (6A) and Campbell County (6A) would also help, but the Tigers need those teams to have winning seasons as well.
“We have to be smart about it. We want to play a schedule that reveals weaknesses. Play a schedule that gets you ready for district and then figure out what to fix, and what direction you have to go,” Rash said. “If we’re still having to do that come November, then we’re in trouble.”
At the end of the day, they can’t control where they’ll be the day after Thanksgiving, but they’ll also carry the mindset of not even thinking about it until it gets to that point.
We’re previewing all 22 NKY football teams from July 27-August 17. Check out five things to know about each team below:
