Photos courtesy of Terna Malone (WVSSAC) and Laura Bilson (The Charleston Gazette-Mail).
Welcome back to The Deep Post, a column that dissects the happenings of the area (or in this case the state).
Each year since 2022 I’ve written a Kennedy Award column that breaks down the race following the quarterfinal round. The award is different than most other the WVSWA presents because we submit our ballots after the semifinal round without discussion. Thus as a professional broker of information, I feel it’s important to differentiate first team all-staters from legit POTY candidates. You can read the Kennedy columns from previous years below.
I’ve made my ballot public each year and the player I’ve put atop it has ultimately won dating back to 2021. I’ve also authored the stories on four of the last nine winners (Mookie Collier ’17, Judah Price ’22, Dom Collins ’23 and Brad Mossor ’25) and covered an additional one (Atticus Goodson ’21).
All of this to say I have a good idea of what wins the award and this isn’t your weekly Kennedy poll from somebody’s Facebook page. It’s legitimate exercise amongst voters who take the award seriously.
I did something different this year where I polled a pool of six of my peers in the pre-season who are also voters, asking them to rank their top three picks. That same pool was again gracious with their time in this exercise.
The goal was to get a statewide idea of who the contenders are from the people who cover their areas with diligence.
I always intended to follow up with a midseason poll which is what this is, though it’s a couple weeks late, which is intentional. Coming into the season Morgantown’s Maddox Twigg was the favorite with Martinsburg stars Brian Dick and Boston Todd sitting at No. 3 and 4, respectively. To me that made the Morgantown-Martinsburg matchup the single mot important regular season game of the year.
That assessment may have been correct but not in the way I thought it would.
As a refresher, here’s how the top five shook out in August:
- Maddox Twigg, Morgnatown
- Max Simpson, Bluefield
- Brian Dick, Martinsburg
- Boston Todd, Martinsburg
- Jaden Black, George Washington and Gavin Williams, Bridgeport
After the latest straw poll in which I asked the same panel to rank their top three, here’s how the order looks.
- David Robinson Jr., Herbert Hoover
- Boston Todd, Martinsburg
- Jaden Black, GW
- Maddox Twigg, Morgantown
- Harrison Helbig, University
- Brian Dick, Martinsburg
There’s a lot here so I’ll start with the highest risers and fallers.
First with the faller, Bluefield’s Max Simpson. The trek to the Kennedy is harder for AA players since the split to four classes but Bluefield remains largely insulated from that because it’s a blue blood that won titles at the triple-A level, remains an annual title contender and plays a difficult schedule that makes double-A seem like a walk in the park. Simpson’s issue is Bluefield missed its jackpot opportunities when it lost to Graham and Princeton.
Even if Bluefield goes on to win the state title (still the favorites) it won’t see an opponent of the same quality of those first two teams. The Independence win is a good one but not enough to offset either of the first two losses, much less both.
Twigg was the other significant faller who was really buoyed in this poll by a single first place vote. Otherwise he appeared on just one other ballot and it was as a third-place vote. It’ll be hard to overcome the Martinsburg loss and most of the panelists who have seen one or both Helbig and Twigg favor Helbig. That shifts the emphasis to the Week 10 MoHawk Bowl between Morgantown and University.
Helbig can boost his own candidacy while simultaneously eulogizing Twigg’s or the latter can reignite his own en route to another deep postseason run.
As for the biggest riser and overwhelming favorite in this poll, Robinson isn’t necessarily a surprise. He received only one first place vote back in August but has four now across three of the state’s larger media markets.
The question was always how much of Hoover’s production would be concentrated into one player, especially with a team that can move the ball at will through the air or on the ground.
So far he’s been the most productive player for the top-rated team in Class AAA in the state’s largest media market. He has signature performances against what was highly touted South Charleston team, Class AAAA Beckley and a win over good Winfield team. But the real jackpot lies ahead for him.
Hoover will welcome defending Class AAA state champion Princeton next Friday and close the season with Class AAAA Huntington – a pair of games that can solidify him as the favorite heading into the postseason where the cases are solidified.
Every player I’ve covered who has won the award had Kennedy moment. Mookie Collier rushed for 300 yards in the semis against Bridgeport. Atticus Goodson rushed for 200 in a comeback win over Bluefield in the semis, putting Indy in the spot the program currently sits. Judah Price broke a 100-year-old scoring record and put a running clock on Fairmont Senior in the quarterfinal round. Dom Collins had 300 yards receiving against Bridgeport in the semifinals and Brad Mossor had 240 yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns against Hoover in the quarterfinals.
You need those signature performances/moments against top tier competition to point to. Robinson has those and has the opportunity to add to his resume.
But with that he also has the most to lose.
Ratings projections are tricky because there are so many variables but if Hoover loses to Princeton, that would likely cause a domino effect that moves Princeton (at 8-2) up to the No. 2 seed and pushes a projected 8-2 Bridgeport into the No. 4 seed, setting up a semifinal collision between Bridgeport and a No. 1 Herbert Hoover.
As I’ve said for years – the semifinal game and performance in it seemingly accounts for at least 40 percent of a candidate’s case. Only three players over the last 15 years have won the Kennedy Award without having won or played in a semifinal game (Ethan Payne, Poca 2019, Chazzy Thomas, Morgantown ’13 and Ryan Switzer, GW ’12).
Payne won largely on the back of breaking the state’s regular season scoring record but fell in the quarterfinal round. Thomas is still one of the most contentious discussion points in recent history and Switzer was the incumbent who went on to ply in the NFL.
Where I lean
If I had to vote today I’d slightly lean Brian Dick at No. 1, Robinson at No. 2 and then either Twigg or Todd at No. 3.
I’ll get a look at Robinson next week when Princeton travels there to Elkview to play Hoover but when I’ve seen him in years past he’s been a dynamic player.
The sticking point for Martinsburg and Dick remains the same that it was for me when I voted Koi Fagan at No. 1 over Hoover’s Dane Hatfield in 2024 – top tier quality wins. Martinsburg has won by multiple scores at Bridgeport and Morgantown and will likely host throughout the Class AAAA playoffs.
I am a little surprised by how the race has unfolded to this point. I believed the Kennedy would overwhelmingly be a quarterback award in ’26 and ’27 and that was before Helbig entered the discussion. As it stands the top three candidates are all skill players.
Much can change over the following six weeks that will lead into the traditional post-semi final due date for ballots but now you’ll know who to look for.
