Like muscle cars and long sideburns, there is still a place for the old-school style of pounding opposing defenses into submission — rather than spreading them out and throwing the ball all over the field.
As high school football season began last week, nearly a half-dozen teams in the Chattanooga area put the ball — and the game’s outcome — in the hands of one back who answered the call by delivering on the ground time and again.
Led by Baylor senior Caleb Hampton, who rushed 29 times for 297 yards and four touchdowns, those ball carriers carried the brunt of the load to ensure their team opened with a win.
“We want to be as balanced as we can, but when you’re averaging 9 yards per carry, you run the ball,” first-year Baylor coach Erik Kimrey said. “A lot of times coaches want to look cool and run fancy plays but then wind up beating their heads against a wall. I’d much rather find something that works and then run it until the defense adjusts.
“There’s always a delicate balance, so you want to feel things out as the game goes and see who can gets the hot hand.”
Hampton, a 5-foot-10, 205-pounder who’s committed to the South Carolina Gamecocks for baseball, averaged just more than 10 yards per carry, while the other Red Raiders rushers averaged a modest 3 yards on 10 carries.
“In my mind, he’s a Division I running back who just happens to be a really good baseball player,” said Kimrey, who was a Gamecocks football assistant last season.
East Hamilton senior Juan Bullard, who led the city with more than 1,800 rushing yards last year, had yet another phenomenal performance, gaining 246 yards on the ground despite having to play quarterback due to a season-ending injury to incumbent starter Lake Clark in a scrimmage. Bullard ran for 191 of that toal in the first half, accounting for all but 28 of his team’s total yards.
Meanwhile, Class 1A’s Whitwell went on the road to beat 4A foe Cumberland County thanks to its own battering ram of a quarterback as sophomore Brandon Easterly (6-3, 200) ran for 241 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries. The rest of the backfield added 110 yards on the ground as the Tigers won their opener for the first time since the program’s state championship season in 2018.
“As a former running back myself in high school, I like running it at people,” said Tigers coach Rocky Stephenson, whose team used a 13-0 third-quarter run to put the game away and avenge last year’s loss to the Jets. “I’m just a little bit old school. If you can run it on someone, you know that’s safer than having to put the ball in the air.
“Brandon is our best player, and the way he was running last Friday, there was no need to throw it. I think he may have started wearing on them and really took over in the second half. It was great to see.”
While the importance of a good ground attack never completely diminished, the previous decade’s increased popularity of pass-happy spread offenses provided the prep game with noticeable change. The 1,000-yard rusher, once an annual staple of most area teams, was replaced by the 3,000-yard passer and 1,000-yard receivers.
“It’s funny that it all cycles around,” said Trion coach Sean Patrick, whose Bulldogs rushed for nearly 400 yards in last Friday’s win over Gordon Lee. “You had the spread fad, and now it’s two tight ends and everybody is running it again.”
Patrick has coached both styles. He was the offensive coordinator at Houston County when the Bears were quarterbacked by Jake Fromm, who went on to star at Georgia.
“We threw for 4,000-plus yards with Jake,” Patrick said. “I can remember with Jake, defenses would have only four or five defenders in the box daring us to run the ball. Everybody was doing it until defenses started adjusting.”
Fast-forward to this past Friday’s eye-opening numbers. Only one quarterback in the Chattanooga area, North Murray’s Seth Griffin, passed for more than 250 yards, and there were only five receivers who had 100 or more yards.
On the other hand, area ground games were in peak form early. In addition to the six backs who eclipsed the 200-yard rushing mark — which included Dalton’s Tyson Greenwade getting nearly 400 — there were 16 more who went over 100 yards.
The old-school approach isn’t really old school, though. The spread offense hasn’t gone anywhere, but coaches have learned that spreading defenses out is often more beneficial for the running game than the passing attack.
“Everybody is getting to the point where they spread you out to run it,” said LaFayette coach Andy Scott, who had one of those 200-yard rushers in sophomore Khalas Finley. “The need of having to cover people makes it more alluring to run the ball.”
RUN GAME RULES
Here are the Chattanooga area’s six 200-plus-yard rushers from Week 1.
Tyson Greenwade (Dalton): 28 carries for 374 yards and 6 touchdowns
Caleb Hampton (Baylor): 29 carries for 297 yards and 4 touchdowns
Khalas Finley (LaFayette): 19 carries for 257 yards and 5 touchdowns
Juan Bullard (East Hamilton): 16 carries for 248 yards and 5 touchdowns
Brandon Easterly (Whitwell): 17 carries for 241 yards and 3 touchdowns
Logan Eller (Trion): 20 carries for 204 yards and 5 touchdowns
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com. Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.