Edmonson County lost about 80 percent of its starting offense from last season.

That’s not ideal.

There is a silver lining for the Wildcats, though. Much of the returning on-field experience is along the offensive line, and that’s just the place coach Nathan Smith wants it.

“It looks really scary on paper, but we’re bringing back a lot of our offensive line,” Smith said during Saturday’s Paul Gray Prep Sports Media Day at 6-4-3 Sports Bar and Grill. “We bring back four of our starting offensive linemen from last year, so that really makes it a little bit easier.”

Edmonson County senior Logan Hagan (6-foot-5, 330 pounds) is one of those returning starters, and the Wildcats tackle has the size and strength to play college football.

“He was hurt last year, so he doesn’t have a lot of film right now,” Smith said of Hagan. “He got hurt in the second game of the season last year, somebody hit him in the knee. I think if it wasn’t for that, he’d be getting a lot of looks. He’s lost about 35 pounds this offseason, and I think his quickness is going to be vastly improved.”

Sophomore Jace Conder (6-3, 275) offers more size at the other tackle spot, while Daniel Pereria, Hunter Frederick, Devin Smith and Michael Shaw provide reliable options up front.

The Wildcats tend to lean heavily on the running game and that should be the case again this season. For the past several seasons, that load has been largely carried by former standout Daniel Caudill and last season by Brayden Carey.

This year, Edmonson County will have several options to run the ball.

“We’re going to do a few things differently,” Smith said. “The last couple years with Caudill and Carey, we’ve had a guy I really felt like needed to carry the ball a significant amount of times. This year I feel like I’ve got five or six kids that can all carry the ball pretty well and we can distribute that a little bit better than we have in the past.”

Senior Kenny Logsdon will get a chance to make an impact running the ball after largely playing a complementary role in the backfield last year. Logsdon is looking forward to that opportunity.

“I’m more of like a power runner,” Logsdon said, “just a few hard yards at a time.”

Smith thinks Logsdon is ready to step into a more prominent role.

“He’s gotten significant minutes since he was probably a sophomore running the ball, he just hasn’t had a lot of carries,” Smith said. “So we’ll probably rely on him a bunch to kind of carry that load.”

“We did graduate a lot last year, probably 80 percent of our offense,” Smith said. “But we had a bunch of young guys last year that have kind of played behind that group for a really long time. They’ve all been really good players.”

Senior twins James and Jonathan Hollis will also get carries out of the backfield, and both are returning starters at outside linebacker in the Wildcats’ 42 defense.

Logsdon has long been a playmaker at defensive end, and Pereria is also a returning starter on the opposite side.

Smith said he expects senior linebacker Grayson Perdue “to get a ton of tackles” this season.

The Wildcats, who finished 6-5 last year and lost in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs, are still a bit of a mystery to Smith with so many new faces stepping into starting roles.

“We’re just trying to put a good product on the field,” Smith said. “We’re losing a lot so the first couple of games will let me know where we’re at. These younger kids, I like the group that we’ve got but they’ve never had to do anything.

“They’ve always been able to take a minimal role. I’ll be really interested to see what all they can get done in the first couple of games.”

2018 Edmonson County Football Schedule

Aug. 17 – at Caverna

Aug. 24 –at Butler County

Aug. 31 – Grayson County

Sept. 7 – at Warren East

Sept. 14 – Metcalfe County

Sept. 21 – at Elizabethtown

Sept. 28 – Adair County

Oct. 6 – OPEN

Oct. 12 – at Hart County

Oct. 19 – LaRue County

Oct. 26 – Barren County{&end}