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Over the last two weeks, we have talked about the county quarterbacks and the wide receivers. This week it’s time to bring you the numbers on our county running backs.

You would thing that stats on a running back are simple. We look at the number of carries, yards per carry, and total touchdowns. But, there is a stats for number of yards after contact, average per carry with at least 8 defenders in the box, and my favorite efficiency. Rushing efficiency is calculated by taking the total distance a player traveled on a rushing play per rushing yards gained. The lower the number, the more of a North/South runner. Now we know why we hear announcers talk about being a North/South runner instead of East/West runner.

In full disclosure, I will stick with the basic running stats. Through week 8, there are 11 backs with over 100 carries. There are 6 backs with over 1000 rushing yards. There is one back, Joshua Lemon (Perry) , who averages over 10 yards per carry. Think about that for a moment, that is a first down every time he touches the ball.

Touchdowns is a huge stat for running backs and the top 3 are Lamier Garrett (McKinley) and Terrance Keyes (Massillon) each seeing the end zone 18 times. Dion Cundiff with 17 td’s.

Like the QB’s, WR’s and now RB’s, picking the all-county running backs will be a challenge. I have an idea, since we are celebrating 75 years of broadcasting high school football, maybe it’s ok to have 75 players on this year’s all-county team. Just a thought.

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Kudos – player of the week goes to running back Terrence Keyes from Massillon. Keyes rushed the ball 30 times, 255 yards, 5 touchdowns and average 8.5 yards per carry.