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MOUNT ULLA — For those who love stats, there were plenty of eye-poppers put up during the 1999 football season. From North Rowan quarterback Mario Sturdivant’s passing yardage (2,346) to A.L. Brown quarterback Justin Hardin’s touchdown to interception ratio (17 to 3) to the number of tackles (278) for which Davie’s kid linebackers Neil Rice and Patrick Lowery accounted.
But the most numbing number of the statistical year had to be West Rowan back Jonathan Diggs’ astonishing number of yards per carry. In 68 rushes, Diggs crashed and smashed for 677 yards, a ridiculous 9.96 yards per pop. In other words, Diggs was a human first down.
West coach Scott Young could certainly dig what his big guy accomplished. “Diggs,” says Young, “was real special.”
And this year, Young plans to take full advantage of his 5-foot-11, 205-pound senior bruiser’s talents. As a junior, Diggs was a change-up for the bread-and-butter forays of Scooter Dalton. Dalton was a relentless rock, a thick-muscled workhorse who pounded out 1,186 yards while getting nearly three times as many carries as Diggs. But in 2000, with Dalton at Western Carolina, Diggs will have every chance to be the man.
“One thing’s for sure, if Diggs gets 10 yards per carry this year, he’ll set every record there is,” says Young. “Because he’s going to get the ball.”
All of which sits just fine with Diggs, a polite, mellow youngster who liberally sprinkles his conversations with “Yes, sirs.”
“Looking forward to the carries,” said Diggs. “It’s fun to have everybody lookin’ up to me to do the work.”
The scary thing about Diggs is that despite his bulky body he is much more than just a bulldozer. He’s got legitimate 4.6 speed and last year had a bevy of breakaway runs of 40 yards or more. He sprinted by North’s startled secondary for 74 yards and six points in one memorable adventure.
“I give the offensive line credit for the big holes and I give the coaches credit for not just using me to run up the middle,” Diggs says. “They pitched it to me a lot to let me get outside. And they throw it to me, too.”
That’s a good point. Diggs will be counted on heavily in the Falcons’ passing game this year, because graduation took away West’s two defense-stretching wide receivers Justin Davis and Scooter Sherrill. Diggs’ speed will be a nice compliment to possession guy David Terry, who projects as this year’s top end. In practice Thursday, West QB Jared Barnette found Diggs open more than anyone else.
“Diggs doesn’t necessarily look pretty catching the ball,” laughed Young. “But he catches it.”
Diggs is such a force that there’s little doubt West would’ve crashed the playoff party last season had he not gone down with an ankle injury in West’s devastating home loss to Northwest Cabarrus. Diggs also didn’t play the next week against A.L. Brown and was limited severely in Week 8 against Concord. West lost tough scraps to both the Wonders and Spiders.
The injury was to the inside of Diggs’ ankle and still lingers a bit. But just a bit.
“I’m 95 percent recovered now,” said Diggs. “And when I get taped up good and tight, I’m 100 percent. I’m ready for a big year.”
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UNKNOWN SOLDIER: West assistant coach Darrell Misenheimer says there’s no question who West’s most underrated player — maybe even it’s best player, period — is.
“Taurus Cunningham,” says Misenheimer, pointing at West’s massive 270-pound offensive left tackle. “Absolutely great feet and a great kid. He doesn’t get beat by anyone when he doesn’t want to be beat. Taurus is dominant. He needs more press.”
Maybe all Taurus really needs is a nickname. Since he can move as nimbly as one of those fierce raptors from Jurassic Park, how about the “Taurusaurus?”
Then again, Taurus the Bull is one of the signs of the Zodiac. That fits, too.
“I’ve only seen two aggressive offensive linemen in my life,” says West linebacker S.J. Culbertson. “One was Danny Misenheimer. The other is Taurus. Taurus even gets in my face and that ain’t supposed to happen.”
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MIGHTY MARLIN: The unfortunate guy usually lined up across from Cunningham in Falcon practices is right defensive end Brant Marlin. Marlin, a rugged 245-pounder, may not beat Cunningham very often but he figures to beat a lot of the linemen who try to block him on Friday nights.
To get ready for this season, Marlin spent a lot of time working in the offseason with Danny Misenheimer.
“Danny said for me to follow him around and do everything he did and I’d get a Division I scholarship,” said Marlin. “And that’s exactly what I did.”
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BIG D: Marlin is now working under the supervision of Darrell Misenheimer, who has been entrusted with the defensive ends, rather than his usual specialty, the offensive line.
“Scott will probably give me the offensive line next year after we lose all these good seniors,” he chuckled.
Misenheimer added that he’s really enjoying being at West, where he can keep an eye on three relatives. His nephew, Ben Hampton, is the starting fullback for the Falcons, while his nieces, freshmen Hillary Hampton and Jacqueline White, are two of the Falcons’ top incoming athletes.
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TAKING THE HEAT: Like every other team, the Falcons, who stopped work at 5:30 Thursday, are suffering though the severe heat and humidity that hit as soon as August rolled around.
And that makes veteran trainer Larry Sides as important as anyone in camp.
“We’re using ice towels, lots of water and frequent breaks to keep going,” said Sides. “We weigh the kids after each practice to make sure they’re not losing too much weight. If they don’t gain the weight back right away, we have them sit out a day of practice.”
Sides said that Wednesday, when the heat index reached 100, was the worst day so far. Thursday, the heat index stood at 96.
“The rain Wednesday night cooled things off,” said Sides.
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HIT OF THE DAY: Little defensive back Brandon McCarty (5-6, 150) actually managed to tackle 205-pound Jonathan Diggs, but only after being trampled for a big gain.
“Yeah, but you went down. You went down,” McCarty reminded his burly teammate.
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WATCH THIS GUY: As high as he is on Diggs, Young is just as excited about fullback Ben Hampton. Big Ben, a Legion baseball star, appears ready to clock some people this fall on the gridiron.
“Ben can throw, catch, block and he runs like a deer,” said Young. “We’re blessed with 400 pounds of athletes with Ben and Diggs in the backfield.”
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GOTTA PROVE IT: Young has lost 35-40 pounds since his first year as head coach and his team appears to be in just as good a shape as he is.
Young’s proud that his team is finally being mentioned as a contender for the first time by opposing coaches around the league, but he isn’t ready to get carried away.
“We have a chance to be good if we stay away from injuries and don’t get overconfident,” he said. “But we’ve got a ways to go. We’ll find out a lot about where we stand against Davie on Friday. They’re really good.”
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