Dividing ball carrying becomes less unusual in high school football

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

Parents face the daily task of keeping their children fed. The more kids they have, the harder they have to work to make sure everybody in the household is happy.

There's a lot of similarity between family providers and some high school coaches nowadays: The more capable bodies you have, the more you have to do to make sure they're all content.

A lot of coaches have started using backfield platooning. Instead of letting one featured back run the football 25-30 times a game, a lot are dividing those carries among two or three ball carriers - or in the case of Tyner, sometimes seven or eight.

"The players all seem to enjoy it when they get their chance to carry the ball," Rams coach Wayne Turner said. "I think they give more effort when they get their chance, too. When players come here, they see how things are run, and we use a lot of backs. If you practice hard, you'll get an opportunity.

"I've never liked to put all my cards on one person. We always have fresh legs when we're running the ball, and they all bring something different. Some run better inside and some run better outside."

Ooltewah has four guys who have more than 100 rushing yards so far this season, led by T.J. Davis with 328. Coach Shannon Williams said it's a nice problem to work in four capable runners.

"We do it some by necessity," Williams said. "All four of them play defense, so we not only look for the hot guy, but we try to find the freshest, too. All of the guys think they should have the ball with the game on the line, and you want that.

"It's challenging to know who to go with and when, and you have to be right, but it's nice to turn around and have another guy that runs a 4.5 [40-yard dash]."

The graduation of Patrick Lindsey seemed to pave the way for McMinn County junior Dre Sanders to load up on carries this season. Sanders led the Cherokees in rushing last season with more than 900 yards, but former Walker Valley standout Kelvin Wells Jr. transferred to the Athens school, meaning another backfield combo.

Through three games, the Cherokees are ranked eighth in the state in Class 6A. McMinn coach Bo Cagle has been split carries between the two, and Wells is the leading rusher in the area with 469 yards on 56 carries, while Sanders has 328 yards on 54 attempts.

The Cherokees adjust to their two biggest threats being running backs by using a two-back set to take advantage of both players' talents.

"I've known Kelvin for a long time. I knew he was a good player that would help the team out, so I wasn't worried about it," Sanders said. "We feed off each other and we've got great chemistry. Teams have to prepare for both of us. He's faster than me, but I'm quicker and stronger. We both practice hard to make each other better, and we play hard."

Said Cagle: "We can split one guy out wide if we need to, but we just had to find the best way to utilize them. Honestly, I didn't think that Kelvin would be as good as Dre -- he never did much against us [while at Walker Valley] -- but he's come in and worked hard."

Bradley Central coach Damon Floyd remembers when he didn't even have a backup running back. Now three weeks into the season, he's had a player go over 200 yards in a game (Logan Fetzner) plus a backup, Baylor Terrell, who topped 100 last week against Soddy-Daisy when Fetzner was limited.

"We stress being a teammate and not an individual," Floyd said. "The guys who get touches are the ones who have earned that right. Most of our players have played together since they were little, and they understand their role.

"It's a good problem to have."

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