While this may not be reconstruction in the traditional sense, Death Valley is in many ways a construction site these days.

Not the facility, although improvements continue to be made after the significant improvements made a year ago. This year, most of the work will be done within the program as a new coach and young team look to get Lincoln County football back on the path to consistent success.

Levi Rogers, a 2008 Lincoln University graduate who took over as Patriots coach earlier this year, said there is no need to tear down the program and rebuild it from scratch, but he added there is and still is a lot of work to be done.

“I don’t know if it’s necessarily a rebuild, but more of us doing things differently,” Rogers said. “We’re going about things a little bit differently … so we’ve just got to adapt to those things and build and really get everyone on the same page because I think we’ve got some pretty good talent.”

Character is the focus in the opening pages of Rogers’ handbook, and he hopes improvements in that area will be noticeable Friday when Lincoln opens its season against Garrard County in the PBK Bank-WPBK-FM Death Valley Bowl.

“The effort we play with and, I think, the discipline, you see immediately,” he said. “We’ve focused on building character and giving the guys as much experience as possible, but that discipline is what really counts.”

He said discipline will enable young players to develop consistency in their training and playing habits, which in turn will lead to improvements on the field.

There is still room for improvement in a program that has had just two winning seasons and four playoff victories in the 16 seasons since Rogers’ senior year.

However, there are also a lot of young and inexperienced people on the team, and Rogers said there is also a leadership gap that needs to be filled.

“We’ve tackled a lot of new things with a new team and we’ve taken some of it pretty well, but there have been some areas of difficulty because they’re doing different things than they’re used to,” Rogers said. “I’ve talked to our guys about leadership because not a lot of guys are coming back (and) we need to figure out which guys are going to take the leadership role.”

The positive thing is that the numbers are increasing and that, according to Rogers, there is a lot of support for the program.

“My phone won’t stop ringing, but I think they’re excited,” he said. “Lincoln County is a place that’s always had support … and being from here, I think that adds some excitement. Hopefully we can get some wins, and I really think it’s going to go through the roof if we can do that.”

Rogers, who served as head coach at Casey County for one season and whose 12 years as an assistant coach included seven at Lincoln, went to school with some of the parents of his current players and met those players during his final year with the Lincoln team when they were in eighth grade.

The program has grown to about 62 players since the start of the school year. Juniors make up about a third of the squad.

However, only four starters return on offense and three on defense, meaning many players will have to adjust to playing their first major games at the college level.

“It’s going to be a big jump, but they’ve adapted well,” Rogers said.

Returning offensive tackles include senior wide receiver Gavin Douglas (15 catches, 246 yards, 3 TDs), junior running back Bob Floyd (289 yards, 4 TDs) and junior lineman Grady Foster. Another junior lineman, Matthew Sneed, is recovering from a knee injury that sidelined him for most of last season.

Douglas and Floyd also return to the defensive secondary, and senior Canaan Dawson returns as linebacker and will also play on the offensive line.

On offense, junior Kash Smith, who played very little his first two seasons and is fresh off shoulder surgery, will run the ball and catch passes, while senior Damon Spigle will also carry the ball and junior Johnny Adkins will catch passes.

Sophomore Clay Pendygraft, who hasn’t played football since elementary school, will start at tight end and outside linebacker, and senior Bradley Cole will play wide receiver and defensive back.

Senior Malaki Stewart and junior Gunner Shelton will bring size to the defensive front and senior Jayden Patel will start at safety after a strong summer.

The quarterback position was in competition throughout the preseason between sophomore Tucker Foster and junior Brennin Hazlett, who attempted a combined 14 passes last season.

Rogers said both do a number of things well and he sees no need to announce a starter before opening night.

“I’m not really letting the cat out of the bag because I think it made them both better. The competition made them both progress,” he said.

The coach said it’s possible that both Hazlett and Foster could see some action, but also said that based on their performance in the Patriots’ final preseason scrimmage last Friday, it’s likely that one of them will get more playing time in practice this week.

“We might look at playing two guys, but I plan to reduce the number of appearances,” Rogers said. “Depending on how it goes in the first game, we might see both guys, but if one comes in and plays really well, I probably won’t take him out.”

Rogers expressed hope that Lincoln would have a balanced offensive.

“I think we have the ability to be balanced based on the quarterback play because I think we have the receivers, the tight ends and the running backs to be able to do all of that. We just need to make sure we get the quarterback play down before we really rely heavily on the passing game,” he said.

He said defenders quickly grasped this system, which is based on a three-four scheme but also uses some four- and five-man fronts.

“So if we put the guys in the right spots, I think we’ll be in a good position defensively to start,” Rogers said.

Rogers said he is excited to coach the home team in the Death Valley Bowl – his Casey team beat Lincoln last year – against a Garrard team led by his cousin, former Lincoln coach Spencer Crutchfield. The ties between the two coaching staffs and the two schools are close.

“It will be exciting, it will be packed and the family will be everywhere for all of us,” Rogers said.

The Patriots and Golden Lions last met in 2018. Lincoln won that game 35-20, but lost four of the last five meetings.

Lincoln has four games to play before its district opener on Sept. 20, and Rogers said he hopes to see steady improvement in the weeks leading up to that game against Russell County.

“There will be mistakes, so we hope we try hard from the beginning and just keep getting better,” he said.

In the meantime, Rogers is also working to adapt the program to the middle school program led by Mark Davis, another former Lincoln player, and the youth soccer program.

“We’re trying to get them to use the same basic things we use,” Rogers said.

Lincoln County at a glance

Trainer: Levi Rogers

Record 2023: 4-7

Top returnees: Canaan Dawson, Sr. FB-LB; Gavin Douglas, Sr. WR-DB; Bob Floyd, Jr. RB-DB; Grady Foster, Jr. OL-DL; Matthew Sneed, Jr. OL-DL.

schedule

August 23, GARRARD COUNTY, 8:00 a.m.

August 30 BULLITT CENTRAL 7:30

Sept. 6 in Danville 7:30

September 13 BOURBON COUNTY 7:30

September 20, Russell County, 7:30 a.m.

27 Sept in Somerset 7:30

Oct. 4 in Wayne County 7:30

October 18 BOYLE COUNTY 7:30

Oct. 25 in Taylor County 7:30

November 1 MERCER COUNTY 7:30