Much has been said about the number of carries Ethen Knox (pictured) received in 2022, so I thought I'd look at offensive stats by Dan York-coached teams of the past. At 38.5 carries per, you'll notice they are higher than usual. And I'll leave it to the reader to decipher the numbers.

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I will say I asked the coach after the first week of practice what the strengths of this year's team were. He said (1) line, (2) linebackers and (3) running back -- the backs were all good, but not up there with  Knox.

 

As you can see by the table, in prior years there other were backs on the team who gained a lot of yardage themselves. And as for York not liking to throw the ball, the stats bear that out. Only Cole Findlay in 2024, Holden Stahl and Dylin Chapin had 1,000 yard seasons throwing the ball, at least since 2009.

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The Oilers completed only six passes in 2022, but at least they were efficient -- three going for touchdowns.

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This season (2024), the Oilers threw the ball a lot until the running game was settled by the end of the season. Then they pretty much went back to run, run, run. Their "three-headed"  tailback of Dawan Cruz, Steven Heise and freshman Shia Sanchez teamed for more than 1,300 yards. Findlay added 256 and WR De'Vaughn Griffin contributed 18/126 when he was in at TB.

 

I will also mention again that there were two would-be starters on the OL who elected not to come out for the team, and another, James O'Dell, was injured midway through the season. So, you can talk about that big offensive front Knox had at his disposal, and he did, but it could have been bigger and deeper, which would have helped as the season ran its course.

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Getting back to Knox and his carries: he had two games of 50 plus. Consecutive games of 53 and 54 against Hollidaysburg and Conneaut. That got them yapping on the internet. One guy huffed that there should be a limit -- a rule -- for carries in high school ball. Well, Knox not only had 385 but started on defense at safety. In other words, he was on the field All. The. Time. But he ended the season standing upright.

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(Stats have been updated to include the 2024 season.)

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