When it comes to sports, there are numbers everywhere. You can practically see them floating in the air above each player's head. Every action that takes place on the field or the track or the court causes numbers to change - batting averages, completion percentages, scoring, race times, minutes played, the list goes on. While these numbers are practically infinite (and no one tracks them all, but plenty of people track lots of different ones), when the totals start to mount up to something greater than anyone from that team, or school, or conference, or state has ever accomplished before, that gets some attention.
As an aside, I can speak to this angle personally. Sort of. I wasn't a tremendous athlete in high school, I'll admit, although I was a two-year starter in football and earned two letters in track and one in baseball. I got to play quite a bit, is what I'm saying. although it was a smaller school (class 2A in football at the time, anyway. They've now dropped to A). My junior year we had a track meet at Keota, which at that time still had a 440-yard cinder track, after almost every other school had gone to 400-meter tracks. Our coach, Bob Gerard, made sure to tell us that since this could be the final time our school ever competed on a 440-yard track, we had the chance to set some school records that would never be surpassed. That stuck with me. If I recall correctly, the 4x440 relay team I was a part of that day did indeed set the school record, so somewhere in a dusty book where all the numbers are recorded, my name is included in that list and it will never be erased. So that's pretty cool. (It might have been the distance medley relay team, but I don't think I ran in that until I was a senior. And it might have even been the 4x880 relay. Look, it was a long time ago and there's been a lot to stick in my brain since then, like the lyrics to Kesha's "Tik Tok" or the "Nationwide is on your side" jingle. Priorities, man!).
This is a long introduction, but what I'm getting to is that, barring injury, several Xavier school records are likely going to fall this football season. So let's take an advance look at the probabilities (so we don't miss the moment when and if it comes).
RUSHING
We'll start with some rushing records. Xavier has had a lot of great feature backs in their history, but Will Martin and Brendan Miller stand out. Martin was a key part of the 2005-06 Saints squad and helped lead the team to the 2006 state title. His scoring records still stand. Miller (2012-13) broke Martin's yardage records, after stepping up to replace Cal Stovie when he was injured in the third game of the 2012 season (unfortunately for Cal, who was on a ridiculous early pace of over 10 yards a carry and 163 yards per game).
Maliki Wilson has an excellent shot to surpass Miller's school record for rushing yards. Miller carried 441 times for 2498 yards in his two seasons (both school marks), for an average 5.7 yards per carry. Wilson - who electrified a lot of Xavier fans when he burst on the scene with the sophomore squad in 2014 - had 183 carries for 1273 yards last year, in only 10 games. Some simple math breaks that down to 7 yards per carry and 127.3 yards per game, both really high numbers.
Wilson doesn't even need to rush for more yards this year than last to take over the school record, as he's just 1225 yards away. Remember, too, it took Miller 28 games to set his mark (25 as a starter) and Wilson has only had 10. It's still going to take a great season - 136 yards per game to catch Miller in the 9 games before the playoffs start - but Maliki has an excellent shot.
His chances at the records for carries and touchdowns are most likely out of reach, though. Wilson would need 258 rushes to match Miller (and the school record for a season is 263). He'd also need 27 rushing touchdowns to catch Martin's 39, and again the current season record is 29. So, it's possible, but it would take a nearly historic performance.
PASSING
Again barring injury, a change in these records is pretty much a sure thing. A caveat, though - Bryce Schulte played in five games as a freshman in 2013, and 2016 will be his third year as the starting quarterback for Xavier. No other Saints quarterback has started for three seasons, including Bryce's brother Reggie, who currently holds almost all the Xavier passing records.
Here are the current school records, held by Reggie (2010-12, although I think he played in only one game as a sophomore in 2010, and that briefly. I think he threw two passes and one was intercepted):
- Pass attempts: 389
- Pass completions: 265
- Passing yards: 4002
- Passing touchdowns: 39
And here is where Bryce stands at the start of the 2016 season:
- Pass attempts: 326 (63 to tie)
- Pass completions: 176 (89 to tie)
- Passing yards: 2749 (1253 to tie)
- Passing touchdowns: 26 (13 to tie)
In addition, Reggie holds the school record for total offense at 4092 yards (obviously all but 90 of those yards were passing); Bryce is currently at 3147 (including almost 400 yards rushing) and is 945 yards away from tying the school mark.
Again, Bryce has the advantage of an extra year as a starter, which doesn't diminish his skills in any way (he's a darn good quarterback, makes excellent decisions on the field, throws with good touch and protects the ball very well). In fact, he's played in 28 games total so far (23 as a starter), while Reggie had 28 games as a starter over his career, so comparing totals right now gives you a good comparison of the two. Bryce's averages over the past couple of seasons are 1505 yards in total offense, 160 pass attempts, 85 pass completions, 1333 passing yards and 17 touchdowns, so he could come in with a slightly below average season in 2016 and still surpass his brother's records.
Oh, yeah. There's a third Schulte brother on the way up. Quinn Schulte will be a sophomore this year.
I'll be keeping track of these numbers as they change over the heads of Schulte and Wilson over the course of the season, so if you tune in to KMRY radio on Friday nights, hopefully I can call the moments when and if these records fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment