Warren Central football coach Howard Feggins recently gave his players a take-home test to assess what they’d learned from the previous week of practice.

The Dragons (3-1) are still grasping their new spread offense, but their marks have been pretty high so far.

“When you have some success and show signs of being an explosive offense, the young men buy into that this offense can be really good,” Feggins said. “I’m adjusting to them. The more we learn, the better offense we’ll become.”

Feggins drastically overhauled Warren Central’s offense when he was hired in April. The Dragons previously ran the run-heavy wing-T offense under former coach Mike Rogers.

They’ve shown good balance this year – with a heavy dose of the passing game – and the result has been an average of 47.5 points per game through four contests.

“Last year, you could say we ran up to 70 or 80 percent of the time,” said junior quarterback Chance Shanklin, a first-year starter. “This year, it’s all throwing. When I did play last year, I was a throwing quarterback, so it was easier for me to adjust to.”

The offense isn’t necessarily all throwing, but the passing game is flying higher than it has in recent years.

Shanklin is a big part of that, passing for 786 yards and nine touchdowns and rushing for another. He emerged from a four-person QB battle in the offseason.

“Chance is doing well,” Feggins said. “When I say the growth of the offense, it’s more about the quarterback. I would love to have a quarterback like a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, where if something happens out there that I’ve called, you can get the coach out of it. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there.”

A big addition to the offense has been Feggins’ son, senior receiver Jensen Feggins. The former Highlands standout has 37 catches for 465 yards and five touchdowns this season.

“We’re learning more plays and getting the chemistry down,” Jensen Feggins said. “We’re starting to build more of a bond together.”

Jensen Feggins is drawing a lot of attention from defenses, but the Dragons have options elsewhere.

LaDarius Mitchell, Keaton Ausbrooks, Chris Amos, Chauncey Greer and Malik Peele are factors at receiver. Senior running back Colin Burnam has seven touchdowns and three games with 105 rushing yards or more.

Couple that with an offensive line improving under former Kentucky coach Guy Morriss, and Howard Feggins likes the potential, especially since he’s installed just a portion of the offense.

“We all get touches,” Howard Feggins said. “The quarterback is a weapon. Colin Burnam is a weapon. Jensen Feggins is a weapon. Damani Walker, who we haven’t seen play much offense, will be a weapon. LaDarius Mitchell is a weapon. I know teams are going to try to defend my son, but you better be afraid of these other guys, too.”

Barren making strides

Barren County coach Jason Esters thinks his teams have largely been victims of a brutal schedule the last few years.

“I don’t think we’ve had real bad football teams,” Esters said. “We’ve just played a murderous schedule. When the teams you go against are going to the state finals and winning state finals year after year, you get beat up and demoralized. It takes a while to recover in the games after that.”

The Trojans are finally pushing back.

Barren rallied in the fourth quarter Friday for a 20-17 win over Monroe County – its first win over the Falcons since 2007. The Trojans are off to a 3-1 start for the first time since 2005.

“We’re playing as a team,” Esters said. “We’ve had someone different step up every week for us. They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now. We got down (Friday), and they weren’t shook. They just kept fighting and kept coming back. We haven’t had that the last four or five years.”

Now the Trojans will try to carry that momentum through the toughest part of their schedule, which is the district slate. Up next is a road game at Warren Central, followed by a home meeting with three-time reigning Class 5A champion Bowling Green.

“We’re all realistic,” Esters said. “We know we haven’t got to the toughest part of our schedule yet. That’s coming up in the next few weeks, but to start off with three wins in the first four weeks is a huge boost of confidence.”

Twitter Pick ‘Em

The winner of the Daily News’ weekly football pick ‘em challenge on Twitter was @SirBryson, who correctly picked nine of 10 high school, college and NFL games.

The contest continues each week through the rest of the season. The 10 games the BGDN staff will pick each week will be posted Wednesday on Twitter at twitter.com/zach_greenwell, along with a tiebreaker question involving the total points scored in one game.

Tweet your predictions to @zach_greenwell for a chance at a shoutout in Monday’s edition.

Other notes

A few observations from week four:

• The 13 football teams in the Daily News’ coverage area are a combined 32-18. The five schools in Warren County are a combined 15-5, including undefeated Bowling Green and South Warren.

• Bowling Green sophomore running back Jamale Carothers set a school record with 336 rushing yards and four touchdowns in Friday’s 42-34 win at Owensboro. The win was BG’s 48th in a row, giving the Purples the second-longest win streak in state history. But the victory came at a price, as senior tight end Cameron Wallace – who leads the team in catches, receiving yards and TDs – suffered a torn ACL in his knee and will have surgery. Junior running back Jacob Yates also missed Friday’s game with an undisclosed injury.

• South Warren has allowed the fewest points (24) in Class 3A among teams that have played four games. In 21 games since Oct. 26, 2012, the Spartans have allowed 120 points – an average of 5.7 points per contest. They’ve allowed more than eight points just three times in that span.

• Russellville tried out sophomore Jaylin McMurray at quarterback Friday against Logan County, but the move didn’t slow down the former QB, senior Tecorian Darden. Darden rushed for 93 yards and two touchdowns on four carries at running back, and also intercepted three passes in the defensive backfield. 

• Glasgow senior running back Marquez Trigg has shouldered a heavy workload early in the season. The Western Kentucky verbal commit is averaging 26.5 carries per game and has 563 rushing yards with 11 total touchdowns.

— Follow assistant sports editor Zach Greenwell on Twitter at twitter.com/zach_greenwell or visit bgdailynews.com.