Caden Sheppard

Oldham County running back Caden Sheppard wins First Down Friday's Play of the Week for Week 1.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Oldham County running back Caden Sheppard is Week 1's winner of the First Down Friday Play of the Week.

The 250-pound senior showed off his physicality and power on a bruising run for a big gain to help set up a later touchdown in a 35-14 Colonel win over Lafayette. 

Caden Sheppard bulldozes his way for a big gain.

It was a tight race to win the season-opening award. Sheppard beat out Manual's Cameron Jessee by just 11 votes.

"I was able to make my own play," Sheppard said after also crediting his quarterback and offensive line. "As big as I am, a few dudes get bounced off of me, and I kept going."

That's how Sheppard wants to keep playing, running between the tackles to help set a tone for the Colonels under first-year head coach Sean Little. The running back said he looks up to a throwback bruiser for his playing style: former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Mike Alstott, a fullback who rushed for 5,088 yards and 58 touchdowns over an 11-year NFL career.

"I'd tell them to go look up Mike Alstott on YouTube," Sheppard said with a grin when asked how he would describe his style to people. "That's how I play."

"Shoot, you look at Alstott, you look at (William) 'Refrigerator' Perry and those big dudes from back in the day, which outdates me too," Little said with a laugh. "I'm not above checking out some plays that were designed for Mike Alstott that we can figure out how to implement into our system. So, I do think having him is a huge advantage. He's hard to tackle. And when he's running, he moves forward. So, he's not a big tackle-for-loss kid. He's going to gain yards."

Little took over as head coach of the Colonels this season after serving as the offensive coordinator at Ballard. He came in and talked to Sheppard about what the senior wanted to play, which was running back. So, Sheppard lost 25 pounds to get to 250 and gain some speed.

"I was working my tail off in the weight room and working out on the field," Sheppard said. "I knew that the more weight I'm down, the faster I'm going to be and the better I'm going to be."

"It fits what I want us to be," Little said. "I want Oldham County football to be known as a hard-nosed, tough football team that's going to just come out there and be physical, run downhill and just get after it."

The Colonels did just that in their first game, which was the type of debut Little wanted to see. Now, the first-year head coach and his bruising back want to build on it. 

"That was huge," Sheppard said. "It's just a confidence booster."

"That was really my biggest focus throughout the week was finding a way to get the kids success, for those players to step off the field on that Friday feeling like we are going in the right direction, resetting the culture here at Oldham County and really pushing forward with what we're doing and what we want to be," Little said. "So, that just kind of helped propel us forward and solidify some of that."

Copyright 2023 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.