The honeymoon era of Logan County football is over. The headlines of a team rising from years of turmoil to produce consistent wins won’t take anyone by surprise now.

The expectation at Logan County is to win and win often. The Cougars return many of the skill players who have built the program into one of the best turnaround stories in the state. Now with a beefed-up schedule and expectations set, Logan County wants to show it belongs in the conversation as truly one of the top programs in Class 4A.

“Last year, coming into the playoffs and the year before that, we didn’t hardly get any respect coming into the playoffs and nobody really knew who we were because we weren’t playing anybody is what some people would say,” senior quarterback Tyler Ezell said. “We’re just here to show who we are and that we can play with anybody in the state.”

Logan County has gone 19-1 in the regular season the past two years after a three-year winless stretch. The Cougars were the story of the state in 2017 by going undefeated in the regular season before bowing out in the second round of the playoffs. Head coach Todd Adler was voted Coach of the Year and the Cougars went 9-1 in the regular season a year ago.

Adler has his fourth-year starting quarterback in Ezell, record-setting running back in Gary Hardy and second-leading tackler Zach Yates returning on defense at linebacker.

“These guys have gotten under the leadership of some of the guys we graduated last year and understand the process and how to work now,” Adler said. “Our expectations continue to be high for this team. We do have a lot of talent. We may not be as deep at as many positions, but our talent level at each position is pretty close to the same.”

Adler said his biggest concern is depth at the line of scrimmage. The Cougars will have to fill a big loss left by lineman Caden McKinnis, whose two-way skills earned him a scholarship playing at Austin Peay this fall. Hardy and Carson Bradley will join in that rotation at linebacker.

“I think that’ll get deeper as the year goes along and guys get more experience,” Adler said. “That’s the only thing we’re struggling with right now. We have guys that can do it, but they don’t have the experience the guys that graduated had.”

Ezell enters his fourth year as the starting quarterback and has over 6,500 yards and 70 touchdowns between passing and rushing. Hardy will be right beside Ezell in the backfield for a fourth straight season. The running back became the school’s first 1,000-yard back since 1998 in 2017 and posted 1,483 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns last season.

Receivers Anthony Woodard, Maurice Gordon and Tristan Blake will add to the confident group of playmakers.

“There’s some things we need to work on,” Woodard said. “Offense looks really good and the line looks solid. With a great quarterback like Tyler, we should be able to do what we want to do.”

Logan County has added more local flare to the schedule this fall by playing three teams from Warren County for the first time since 2014. The Cougars play in the Justin Chaffin Allstate Insurance Game at Warren East on Sept. 6 and host Greenwood two weeks later. They’ll wrap up the regular season at reigning 5A state champions South Warren.

Eight of Logan County’s 10 games last season were won by no less than three scores, and seven of its regular-season games in 2017 were won by that same margin. But both seasons came with overwhelming losses in the second round of the playoffs.

Adler hopes this change will better prepare his team for a postseason run.

“Each week I think the competition level is going to stiffen up a bit,” Adler said. “I think it’s ultimately going to help our guys for the postseason play and that’s where we’ve struggled the past couple of years. When we get there, we don’t know what it takes to get over the hump. I’m hoping the strength of schedule will help us learn from adversity a bit and be ready for that postseason play.”

2019 Logan County Schedule

Aug. 23 – Butler County

Aug. 30 – Muhlenberg County

Sept. 6 – at Warren East

Sept. 13 – at Russellville

Sept. 20 – Greenwood

Sept. 27 – at Madisonville-North Hopkins

Oct. 3 – at Hopkinsville

Oct. 18 – Hopkins County Central

Oct. 25 – Calloway County

Nov. 1 – at South Warren{&end}