GAINESVILLE — David Bishop says he almost never listens to any PA announcer during a football game.
But for some unexplained reason last Friday night, the North Hall football coach heard Jody Kinney’s voice break through the din of noise at The Brickyard as if he was whispering in his ear.
“Normally I just tune that kind of stuff out,” Bishop said. “But I guess it must have gotten a little bit more quiet or something and somehow I heard it. It was pretty clear. I was shocked.”
Kinney was letting the Trojan faithful know that North Hall's Kyle Bacus was closing in on a sacred milestone: the senior was just shy of 300 yards rushing for the game and nearing the seemingly-unbreakable TJ Pitts single-game rushing record of 304 that had stood for 12 years.
“I had no idea he was that close,” said Bishop, who was on the Trojans staff the year that Pitts, who still owns the single-season rushing record of over 2,400 yards, set the mark. “I never thought it was something that someone would break.”
Not far down the sideline, Bacus heard it as well.
“I was surprised. I didn’t think I had that many yards,” Bacus said. “I just kind of go out and play and don’t really pay any attention to how many yards I have. I just do what the coaches want.”
The quandary was what to do about it. Bishop said he had already decided that Bacus was done for the night with the Trojans winding down in an eventual 68-42 win over rival East Hall. But he knew he needed to make a decision. And quick.
“He had had a big night and we had a big lead so we were going to give him the rest of the game off,” Bishop said. “But, it’s not often when someone gets close to a record like that. The defense had just stopped them so I had to make a decision. I decided to give him one series to go for it.”
For someone who looks bigger than his 6-foot, 193-pound frame, Bacus is as unassuming as they come, soft-spoken most of the time and humble almost to a fault. But even he understood what the “moment” was all about.
“Really, I just want to do whatever I can to help the team win. It’s a team game. It takes everybody out there doing their job to be successful. I just try to do my job,” Bacus said. “After I heard that I was glad when coach let me go back out there. I had never given something like that much thought.”
He wasted little time. He needed just three carries for 44 yards to break the record and capped a quick drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to boot.
Did the big guys up front -- seniors Austin Lovell, Matthew Sewell, Cameron Jeffery, Sam Delong, Jake Meeler, and junior Trey Pardue -- know what was happening for some extra motivation?
“I don’t know,” Bishop said. “But they blocked pretty well all night so I think it was just them doing their job. But I was glad to see him get it.
“I’m just glad I heard that announcement because I would have felt bad about him getting that close and not giving him a chance to go for the record.”
Bishop could not help but smile after watching his back establish a new North Hall standard.
“I shook his hand to congratulate him and I figured he would say something about it. He just stayed the person he is and gave the credit to his teammates. That’s just the kind of kid he is,” Bishop said.
What was going through Bacus’ mind at the time?
“I’m not really sure,” Bacus tried to recall. “Looking back though it’s pretty cool to be able to do something like that. But again, the guys on the line did a great job and have been all year. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without them doing their job. It’s a team game.”
It was the kind of way most athletes would like to go out in front of the home crowd.
Bacus finished with 337 yards in perhaps his final home game. The Trojans are off this week and already have qualified for the state playoffs so Bacus will get a chance to add to his totals. However, they will take either a No. 3 or No. 4 seed from Region 7-AAA into the playoffs, making it unlikely they will get to play at The Brickyard again until the 2017 season -- long after Bacus has graduated.
Bacus has been among the state rushing leaders most of the season. He came into the Trojans’ final game with 1,222 yards, which was good for 14th in all classifications. He averaged a jaw-dropping 15.3 yards per attempt while totalling 22 carries in his record-setting effort. He finished the regular season with 1,554 yards (155.4 yards a game) and 14 touchdowns. The yardage total could see Bacus finish the regular season in the top 10 and maybe the top 5 in the state depending on how other top backs perform on Friday.
His record game also pushed him past one of the Trojans' all-time rushing leaders in Hunter Wolfe (1,450 yards) for most yards in a season. He sits behind only Pitts, who also had an 1,800-yard season, and Imani Cross, who had a 1,700-yard season.
It’s possible, if the Trojans make a deep playoff run, that Bacus could finish with the second-best rushing season in program history, passing both Cross and Pitts’ 1,800-yard effort. However, if the Trojans advanced all the way to the state title game (5 total games) and he hit his average in every game, Bacus could get within striking distance of Pitts’ all-time single-season record.
Bishop said one of the fun aspects about a record of that magnitude being broken is that it brings back the memories of the past greats.
“TJ was one of those guys that you would go back and watch film and just go ‘Wow!’” Bishop said. “His kind of talent was new to us up here. He was something to watch. Imani was more of a power guy and could just run over people. That’s fun to watch also.”
Pitts achieved his single-season record in just over 200 carries in 2004. Bacus already has 236 carries with at least one more game to go. The rest of the team has 1,283 yards and 13 TDs on 193 carries on the season so far.
“Kyle is not overly fast; he’s not overly big; he just runs hard on every play. He’s just a workhorse,” Bishop said. “He doesn’t have amazing moves but he moves just enough to make people miss and get some space. He won’t outrun everybody but he uses his abilities to their max.
“I do worry about a guy getting that much work for a season but he is not playing on defense or special teams so he’s still fresh as far as where most players are at this stage of the season.”
The Trojans run one of the most beautifully-executed wing-T offenses in the state. Is it the system, or the player, or both?
“It takes a mixture of the system and talent to be successful,” Bishop said. “Kyle is made for this kind of offense, and he is getting the most out of his abilities.”
Bacus said he is looking forward to the playoffs -- the second straight season for North Hall -- and trying to get that first playoff win for the Trojans since 2012, and the first for the outgoing seniors.
“That would be cool,” he said. “I feel like we have a team that can win in the playoffs. But we have to execute and just do what we do best.
“I think all the seniors are looking forward to trying to go out in a big way. We’re going to give it everything we have.”
