Troxell receives preferred walk-on offer from EKU

By Steve LeMaster
stevelemastersports@yahoo.com

RICHMOND – McCreary Central High School senior Brandon Troxell has received a preferred walk-on offer from the Eastern Kentucky University football program.
Troxell lived up to his preseason billing as one of the top running backs in Class 3A during the 2017 season. In only eight games, Troxell rushed 184 times for 1,248 yards and 18 touchdowns to lead the Raiders on the ground.
The talented Troxell averaged 156 yards and 2.3 touchdowns per game and also contributed 20 tackles on the defensive side.
Following a loss on Oct. 27, McCreary Central ended its 2017 season 2-7. The Raiders missed out on advancing to the Class 3A State Playoffs.
McCreary Central’s latest campaign included wins over Fort Knox and Laurence Dunbar.
Eastern Kentucky competes in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). The OVC also includes Jacksonville State, Austin Peay, Eastern Illinois, UT Martin,. Southeast Missouri, Tennessee State, Murray State and Tennessee Tech.
Eastern Kentucky’s 2018 football recruiting class is ranked 11th in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) according to rankings by 247Sports released on Feb. 23.
The Eastern Kentucky class is rated higher than such programs as Jacksonville State, James Madison, Montana, North Dakota, Southern Illinois, Furman, Illinois State and Sam Houston State.
Eastern Kentucky head coach Mark Elder has engineered three straight top-25 rated recruiting classes. Despite having less than two months to put together his first class, Eastern Kentucky’s 2016 class was ranked as the 23rd best in the nation by HERO Sports. Elder’s second recruiting class was rated as the 14th best.
Eastern Kentucky’s class includes 18 high school seniors, two junior college transfers and four Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) transfers. FBS transfers do not factor into the 247Sports rankings.
The top-ranked FCS recruiting classes belong to Princeton and Yale. Others in the top-10 include North Dakota State (5th), Harvard (7th), Mercer (8th) and Eastern Washington (10th).
Eastern Kentucky has won two national championships, 21 conference titles and has made 21 playoff appearances. No other FCS team has won at least two FCS national titles and 20 or more conference championships. The Eastern Kentucky football program has had 66 All-America selections and 33 NFL draft picks.
The Colonels are slated to host in-state rival Morehead State for their 2018 season opener on August 30.