Glasgow senior Rico Crowder (1) is tackled as he runs the ball in the Scotties’ home scrimmage game against Daviess County on Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. (Grace Ramey/grace.ramey@bgdailynews.com)

GLASGOW – A tough season – by Glasgow’s high standards, anyway – has been plenty of motivation for the Scotties in the preseason.

After opening the 2022 campaign with four straight wins, Glasgow went 2-5 the rest of the way and exited the Class 3A state playoffs with a first-round loss to Union County to cap a 6-5 campaign.

“We’ve had better records, and we knew going into last year with only six seniors and only three of them really played a lot, we knew we had to stay healthy, No. 1 – we didn’t,” Glasgow coach Jeff Garmon said. “We had some injuries along the way, we had some guys that had some discipline issues at the end along the way, then you go look in the playoffs and there’s four or five guys not playing that we counted on at the beginning of the year.

“… This group’s hungry. This group’s playing hard, this group’s playing together.”

The Scotties are well-positioned to improve on last year’s results, and it all starts up front. Glasgow returns all five starting offensive linemen from last season, all seniors. Luke Simmons is back in the middle at center, flanked by guards Rad Gentry and Frankie Cianci, with tackles Ryne Randall and Cam Johnson guarding the edges at tackle.

“We’ve just got to stay healthy in that line,” Garmon said. “We need those five guys out there. It’s a good line. It ain’t going to get much better at Glasgow than how they are.”

That group will provide plenty of protection for returning starting quarterback Easton Jessie, who passed for 927 yards and 13 touchdowns, while also finishing third in rushing on the team last season with 262 yards and six scores.

“I thought he played lights-out, I thought he played super,” Garmon said of Jessie, now a junior. “And we continue to do better this year. We’re in more spread looks this year and stuff. We’re going to try and move the ball around more like that.”

The Scotties must replace leading rusher Keiran Stockton, a longtime physical presence carrying the ball. Senior Gavin Neal (353 rushing yards, 2 TDs last season) will get first shot as Glasgow’s primary ballcarrier after finishing second on the team in rushing last year.

“I think Gavin’s more than capable of handling it,” Garmon said. “He put about 20 pounds on in the offseason. It’s just a matter of him getting his opportunity. We’ve had a lot of good running backs at Glasgow and we’ve got a whole slew of sophomores that are anxious to play and do things too. We’re blessed with some really good skill players.”

That skill extends to wide receiver. Rico Crowder, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound speedster who recently announced his decision to accept a preferred walk-on spot at Kentucky, is back after tallying 11 catches – seven for touchdowns – and 213 receiving yards as a junior. Crowder is also a threat running the ball, totaling 225 yards and three scores last year.

“He went to some camps and things and I know he ran really well in the (Kentucky) camp – he ran like a 4.337,” Garmon said. “He checks a lot of the boxes that they’re looking for as far as height, length, speed. And when you do that, you have opportunities.”

Leading tackler Mason Arms (71 tackles, 2 sacks last year) is back to anchor the defense at linebacker. Fellow senior Cash Wells is another experienced linebacker for the Scotties, along with Davey Williams, Jacob Brunson and Logan Starr (team-high 3 interceptions last year). Junior Max Lee is another potential impact player at linebacker.

The defensive line could see some combination of two-way starters in the rotation, while Glasgow has some holes to fill in the secondary.

“We’ve got to be better, we’ve got to do better, we’ve got to have better attitudes, we’ve got to play more for each other,” Garmon said.

A reshuffled Class 3A, District 2 sees Franklin-Simpson and Butler County join this season, while the Scotties also resume the crosstown rivalry game against Barren County for the first time since 2016.

“Barren County’s week five – we’ll worry about that when it gets here,” Garmon said. “There’s four games before that. It should be a good ballgame. It’s a good program, (Barren County coach) Tommy (Muse) does a good job over there. I’m just glad they wanted to play. It’s good for the community. It ain’t going to make our season, it ain’t going to break our season. It’s one of 10 games. That’s how we treat them all. We try to win them all.”

Glasgow 2023 schedule

Aug. 18 – LaRue County

Aug. 25 – at Russellville

Sept. 1 – Monroe County

Sept. 8 – at Allen County-Scottsville

Sept. 15 – Barren County

Sept. 22 – at Adair County

Sept. 29 – Franklin-Simpson

Oct. 13 – Hart County

Oct. 20 – at Butler County

Oct. 27 – at Somerset{&end}