Aubrey High School in the same delimma?

ntmeangreen11 · September 16, 2005

Click here for article on our one-two punch running back tandem

I do attend Aubrey high school, and our team is 3-0, racking up an incredible 1,254 rushing yards in just three games.

Football: One-two punch

Davis, Griffin have powered Aubrey to 3-0 start

08:36 AM CDT on Friday, September 16, 2005

By Ethan B. Szatmary / Staff Writer

AUBREY — Aubrey has run over its first three opponents this year — literally and figuratively.

Fueled by its high-octane rushing attack, Aubrey leads all schools in Class 3A and smaller in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in total offense with 515 yards per game. The Chaparrals come into tonight’s game against Valley View at Chaparral Stadium and Athletic Complex at 7:30 p.m. with 1,254 yards rushing.

The run-based, Wing-T offense might be becoming extinct in Texas high school football, but it’s alive and well in Aubrey thanks in no small part to the exploits of senior tailback Colt Davis and junior fullback Austin Griffin. Davis and Griffin have formed an unstoppable one-two punch with Davis leading the D-FW area in rushing with 50 carries for 541 yards and seven touchdowns. Griffin is right behind him in second with 516 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 49 carries. Each back has rushed for at least 100 yards in every game this year, and each has a 200-yard game.

Teams can pick their poison — concentrate on stopping Davis, and Griffin runs wild. Focus on Griffin, and Davis goes free. Stack the line to stop both, and junior quarterback Kyle Smith has shown he can hurt teams deep, completing 14-of-24 passes for 315 yards and six touchdowns.

Most of the time, however, Smith just has to turn right or left and hand the ball off to somebody.

“I’m lucky to have them both in the backfield,” he said of his running back tandem. “It makes my job easy. There’s no pressure on me. They just get the ball and run.”

Despite their gaudy numbers, both Davis and Griffin remain humble, just as happy to lay a block into a linebacker as to break open a big run.

“There’s no competition. It’s just I’ll block for you, and you block for me,” Griffin said.

“I don’t even care who gets the ball,” Davis added. “Other people on the team care about who gets the ball more than we do. I don’t even know how many yards I have.”

Then, he turned to Griffin and asked, “Do you?”

Griffin silently replied yes with a sheepish grin as Davis and Smith began ranking on him.

“My Dad was on the Internet last night, and he was like, ‘Come here and look at this,’” defended Griffin as all three boys cracked up.

Head coach Daryl Hellman knew he had enough speed to move the ball on the ground coming into this year. Griffin and Davis joined tight end Ricky Whitfield on the 2005 Class 2A state champion mile-relay team. Davis rushed for 1,256 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, and Griffin totaled 438 yards and four touchdowns before getting knocked out for the season with a broken foot against Argyle in the sixth game of the year.

The surprise with Aubrey’s success in the running game has come from the undersized Aubrey offensive line, where only three-year starter Nate Henry at left tackle and Danny Mohon at right guard returned from last year.

“There are some real hero stories there,” Hellman said. “Not to take anything away from what the running backs have done, but the real key to everything has been our offensive line. Those guys would be nothing if it weren’t for the six guys blocking up front. That’s been the biggest surprise. We knew what these backs were capable of, and we knew what kind of receiving threat Ricky is, but we didn’t know how those guys were going to come along.”

Sophomore Buck Russell is starting for the first time at center — the line’s most important position — junior Kevin Armor is playing both ways for the first time at right tackle and nose guard, Jason McNabb is also starting for the first time at left guard and Whitfield made the move from starting split end to tight end so that he could stay on the field and help the Chaps on every down in an offense where the receivers are only part-time players.

Aubrey’s offensive line averages just 204 pounds per man, and that is weighted heavily by the 270-pound Armor.

“Everybody says they’re undersized, well I think they’re just underestimated,” Davis said of his offensive line. “Our line knows we have speed, and they know if they can block for a few seconds, we’re going to be down the field.”

After that, the defense is in big trouble.

“They both hit the holes we make hard and then break out in the free,” Henry said. “Nobody can catch them once they get in the open field.”

In the past, Aubrey has been a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust running team. Not anymore.

“We used to need 10-play, 80-yard drives to score, really,” Hellman said. “We know now all we need is one second and one play. We don’t have to throw the Hail Mary, we just toss it to Colt or Austin.”

Edited September 16, 2005 by ntmeangreen11

September 16, 2005

Click here for article on our one-two punch running back tandem
I do attend Aubrey high school, and our team is 3-0, racking up an incredible 1,254 rushing yards in just three games.
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Holy crap. That is a lot of yardage.