Not since another pair of Northwest Georgia high school standouts were slicing through opposing defenses has a Chattanooga-area running back put up the type of video game numbers Chattooga’s Zayden Cook is generating this season.
Reminiscent of former area stars Jahmyr Gibbs (Dalton) and Rob Brown (Trion), Cook continued a magical season for himself and his team Friday night, carrying the ball 45 times for 465 yards and six touchdowns in a 56-36 win at Dade County, a crucial GHSA Region 7-A Division I victory for the Indians.
It ranks No. 4 among single-game rushing performances in state history, according to records at the Georgia High School Football Historians Association’s website, and was just 21 yards shy of the all-time mark set by Pepperell’s Devyn Collins against Rockmart on Oct. 10, 2014. Cook, though, does now own the single-game record for the Chattanooga area, breaking Brown’s mark of 448 (against Social Circle in the second round of the Class A playoffs on Nov. 13, 2021) while also passing Gibbs’ high of 420 yards (against Ringgold in the season opener on Aug. 23, 2019). Like the current Chattooga star, Gibbs — now in his second NFL season with the Detroit Lions — and Brown were seniors when they had their biggest nights.
Cook is Georgia’s leading rusher this season at 2,414 yards with at least one regular-season game and at least one playoff game remaining for the Indians. The 5-foot-11, 195-pounder had touchdown runs of 7, 53, 2, 40, 3 and 48 yards — giving him 27 scores this season — as the Indians (6-3, 3-3) put up more than 600 total yards at Dade to end a three-game losing streak after they started 5-0. Cook also added nine tackles and two interceptions defensively.
Brown holds the area’s single-season rushing record with 2,758 yards in 2021, a mark Cook could threaten as early as next Friday, when the Indians face one-win Coosa as they seek to secure a top-16 seed for the playoffs.