Outlook: Wes Arnold begins season three of this head coaching stint at Fort Knox (after taking a year off because of the pandemic) with lots of positives and some interesting question marks. Despite winning three games (one of the losses was a forfeit), the offense struggled at times and the defense did cave in a little late in the season. Arnold returns only two players from the 2019 team and will start a different guy under center while revamping the offense a bit. Also, the added factor of new facilites will hopefully help raise the team moral as well.
Offense revolves around Thorpe. With James Rowsey gone, the offense will be in the hands of junior Jayden Thorpe, who only threw six passes in 2019, but ran for 114-yards and a touchdown. Arnold has sculpted the attack around a Wing-T offense with reads out of the gun with options and it should allow Thorpe more freedom with backs like Dre Wilson ( a transfer from Texas) and Kenlin Ortiz (from Virginia). Arnold has also said that the Eagles will operate from one-back set formations as well. With Sidney Grandney, Juilian Slocum and Chase Bellamy gone, wide receiver will be a question mark. The addition of LJ Taylor, a track star (who helped Knox win the State Championship 4×1 team) from North Carolina should give them some speed. AJ Murray comes over from baseball and will help out at wideout. The Offensive Line lost Romie Craig, James Turner, Andrew Carson, Kaden Dwyer and Nevelle Francis so Arnold will look for replacements. Easton Colvin, who is the strongest kid on the team will help (he come from Spain last season). Junior Jacob Vaughn will replace Carson at center.
Eagles could get better with returnees. Despite the lack of offense, the defense did allow fewer points in 2019 and could be better if several starters show improvement. The DL will go through some changes for a defense that did allow fewer yards on the ground than the season before. Linebackers could have a brand new look as well. The secondary did lose Sidney Gradney (67-tackles) and Tanner Bellamy (7-sacks) and Juilian Slocum from a group that intercepted 5-passes in 2019, but will have AJ Murray in the secondary.
Kicking Game. With Kohlton Reardon gone, Arnold will look for another kicker as well, however Thorpe will do the punting.
A .500 record could happen, but will require some work. Fort Knox play play their first game in nearly two years on August 20th @ Shawnee (1-6) and then @ Sayre (8-1) and will continue their road show at Eminence (4-6) on September 3rd , before finally coming home to play Nicholas County (7-2) and then Fort Campbell in the Army Bowl. A trip to Campbellsville (3-3) and then for a two game homestand against Jenkins and then Holy Cross (Louisville) (7-2) before traveling to Bethlehem (6-3) and then Caverna (0-5) for their final home game. The Eagles will play four teams with winning records and a couple which sat out last season like them. A .500 record could be possible if they improve from 2019.
Summation: Success is always difficult in any program, but with an every changing lineup like Fort Knox it can be very frustrating. With a added disadvantage of no spring football practice and taking a year off, the Eagles had less practice time to work with the existing pieces. Still, Arnold has some players to work around and if they can adapt to his modified system then the win total could gradually improvement. If Thorpe, Brown and Tacy can keep the chains moving, the Eagles could move up to four maybe five wins with a little luck.
