2026 Football Preview: Greenup County Musketeers

LLOYD, Ky. — Haven’t we seen this before?

Greenup County head coach Travis Jones has a lot of familiar faces and opponents awaiting this season. That familiarity has the Musketeers’ fourth-year head coach approaching the season with cautious optimism.

“We should come in a very confident football team. All our guys have been there, done that. They’re playing the exact same schedule as last year,” Jones said.

Losing just two senior starters to graduation from a 4-7 team has the Musketeers returning 9 starters on offense and 9 on defense.

“We lost receivers on offense and secondary guys on defense,” said Jones. “We started about eight sophomores last year.”

The key returning figure in the offense will be senior quarterback Jasper Davis (6-1, 200) who had more than 2,000 yards of total offense as he threw for more than 1,400 and ran for another 600 plus.

“He’s a good player for us. He’s the leader of our team. He’s exactly what you want the quarterback to be,” said Jones. “He played defense as a freshman and he played wide receiver for us as a sophomore,” said Jones.

“He’s a good athlete. He wants to play college football. He has one offer and more are going to come throughout his senior year.”

On the receiving end of Davis’ passes will be returning senior starter Landry Lewis (5-9, 165) who had more than 600 receiving yards last season. Added to the receiving corps will be sophomore Nolan Clarkson (6-1, 210)

“We have a lot of depth at receiver,” said Jones.

Others expected to be in the rotation are sophomore Jacoby Holland (5-8, 150), junior Brody Howard (6-0, 195), and speedy freshman Kayden Taylor (5-8, 140).

The Musketeers are going to go with a two-back set in the backfield and utilize four different running backs.

The top two backs from last season were junior Ashur Wireman (6-0, 180) and senior Eric Campbell (5-10, 190). The other two backs expected to rotate are sophomore Noah McCullough (5-9, 165) senior Collin Melvin (5-9, 205).

The offensive line returns all but one of the five interior starters.

Junior Max Moresea (5-9, 225) is back along while sophomore Landon Williams (6-0, 210) returns at left guard. The right guard slot is between junior Jaxon Law (5-9, 220) and senior Keegan Brien (6-1, 275).

Returning for the third straight year at right tackle is senior Sawyer Murphy (6-2, 260) with junior Josh Wells (6-0, 235) back on the left side.

“We really struggled up front last year. We were young for one with three sophomores. We were tiny, undersized. We just weren’t physically able to get the job done,” said Jones.

“Those guys worked hard in the offseason. We feel really good about our offensive line going into the season. We still might play some teams that are bigger and stronger than us, but our guys had a good offseason and prepared themselves to compete a little bit better against the teams that are a little better than us up front.”

While the Musketeers were productive on offense last season, Jones thinks with the year of experience and growth, this team could surpass last year’s numbers.

“We have a lot of hope going into the year. We scored about 26 points per game. We should be pretty good on offense if we stay healthy,” said Jones.

Most of the offensive starters will flip over to the defensive side.

“All of our best players are on both sides of the ball,” said Jones.

The defensive line will have Murphy and Wells at the tackles, but Jones said senior Keegan Brien (6-1, 275) and senior Barry Zornes (6-4, 300) will rotate inside.

“Zornes didn’t play last year, but at 6-4, 300, he’s a good guy to get back out,” said Jones.

Melvin and junior Jacob Bratchett (5-11, 185) are expected to be the ends with senior Gavin Johnson 5-9, 180) creating a trio of players at the position.

Both inside linebackers Law and Campbell return with McCullough playing the third linebacker. Law had more than 100 tackles last season.

The cornerbacks will be Lewis and Wireman with Taylor getting playing time as well. The safeties will be Davis and Clarkson.

“Davis is our quarterback and Clarkson our backup quarterback. They direct the offense and they direct the defense, too,” said Jones.

Overall, Jones likes his defense this season.

“We haven’t been really good on defense the past few seasons. This should be the best defense we’ve had,” said Jones. “We have more speed, more size than we’ve had. We’re playing physical.”

Senior Carter Nunley returns for his third season as the Musketeers’ placekicker. Battling for the punting job are Clarkson and Taylor.