Whitwell's Josh Wingo has prep performance of the week

Staff photo by Doug Strickland / 
Whitwell's Josh Wingo (3) runs for a touchdown past Signal Mountain's Jake Woodlief (35) and Davis Payne (55) during their prep football game at Signal Mountain High School on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, in Signal Mountain, Tenn.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Whitwell's Josh Wingo (3) runs for a touchdown past Signal Mountain's Jake Woodlief (35) and Davis Payne (55) during their prep football game at Signal Mountain High School on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, in Signal Mountain, Tenn.
photo Staff photo by Doug Strickland / Whitwell's Josh Wingo (3) breaks past Signal Mountain's Campbell Garner (24) during their prep football game at Signal Mountain High School on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018, in Signal Mountain, Tenn.

So far this season the only frustrating part of Friday nights for Josh Wingo has been getting enough opportunities to show what he can do.

Because his Whitwell High School football team had averaged beating its first three opponents by 49 points - most of the points coming in dominating first quarters - Wingo and other starters simply weren't getting very many carries.

But last Friday, against Class 3A Signal Mountain, Wingo and the rest of the Tigers starters finally were able to get a full game's repetitions. The 6-foot, 205-pound senior ran 20 times for 291 yards and three touchdowns, including two in the second quarter, in a 41-10 win over the Eagles.

That output earned Wingo this week's BMW Performance of the Week.

"Honestly, our first few games it's been hard to balance wanting to get our kids conditioned to playing for four quarters but also not wanting to run up the score too bad," Tigers coach Randall Boldin said. "We've got some tougher games coming up, so it was good that our starters were able to get in that much work, and Josh really got to prove what he can do. He had only been able to average about four or five carries a game until last week.

"When he walks out on the field, every other coach comments that he's a lot bigger than he looks on film. He's gotten a lot stronger since last year but still retained his speed. We've got several guys we know we can count on, but Josh had the hot hand Friday and we just decided to stay with him."

Whitwell (4-0), which is ranked No. 5 in this week's Associated Press Class 1A state rankings, ran for 396 yards and totaled 518 against Signal Mountain. The Tigers scored on six of seven possessions in the second and third quarters, when they put the game away.

"I didn't know I had that many yards until sometime late in the third quarter when they took me out and our stat guy came over and told me I was close to 300," Wingo said. "I've had some games with 200, but I don't think I've had a game with that many yards before. It felt great and our line has really been making our job as runners pretty easy."

Wingo also had three solo tackles, an assist and a sack as Whitwell's defense held the Eagles to 46 yards in the second half.

"He's one of those guys we can count on to help us in a lot of ways," Boldin added. "The offense and defense feed off each other.

"Josh has gotten better at anticipating where the holes are going to be and getting to them quick. Last year we lived on getting to the edge, but now we can run the ball in a lot of different angles with several guys, and that makes us tougher."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.

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