By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          As it turns out, Nick Woodford would actually have fallen short. Doesn’t happen often.

          In August of 2023, before the start of his junior year, the Northeast running back sat at a table during Bibb County’s public school preseason football media day and said he really wasn’t in the condition he should have been as a sophomore.

          He turned heads en route to rushing for 2,728 yards that year, the best single-season mark in Bibb County and Central Georgia, and at the time, 14th best in state history.

          So, if he wasn’t in prime condition and had such a season, what should we expect in 2023?

          “How many you want?” Woodford said with a big smile, which he employs often. “I would say 3,200.”

          A knee injury in the sixth game ended his junior season, with 951 yards and 11 touchdowns through barely five games. The opener with Mary Persons was called early in the second half because of weather – and he had 134 yards on 21 carries at the time – and three carries for 47 yards in that sixth game when he got injured.

          It was an ACL injury with meniscus damage, so there was natural concern as to how good would Woodford be as a senior. As it turns out, there is no such “what could’ve been” scenario from a knee injury stifling a career.

          After the surgery, Woodford began rehabilitation with Heath Mills, co-owner of Hometown Ortho and Sports Rehab in Gray. Mills was on Bibb County sidelines weekly as a trainer/physical therapist at Piedmont Orthopaedic before opening his own operation.

          “Oh, he's incredible, an incredible trainer, therapist, everything, life coach,” Woodford raved. “He does it all. He told me there would be times (during rehab) when I was down, and then I’d get up, then there’ll be a stopping point, like, ‘Am I moving somewhere?’

          “Then once we got over those couple months, then it was just a jump.”

          Woodford has hardly lost a step, and has been back on track in 2024 to help Northeast reach its second quarterfinal in four seasons, and in history.

          He sat out the opener against Peach County, went for 127 yards on seven carries in limited action against Southwest, and was right back to sophomore and junior form in the third game, getting 18 carries and 218 yards to go with four touchdowns in a 42-9 win over Washington County.

          Woodford was back. And entering Friday night’s GHSA Class A/Division I quarterfinal game at Fannin County, it’s hard to remember he ever left.

          “I feel like through all the conditioning, getting strength back in the legs, maintaining proper eating habits, I feel good,” Woodford said after an early-week practice. “I feel 100 percent. I still play with the brace on. Playing with it on, it (was) challenging at the beginning of the year. but now, it’s nothing that’s going to stop me from being at my best and who I am.”

          Who is he? One of the state’s top – and more underrated – running backs, and one of the best ever to play in Central Georgia and Bibb County. Even having missed all of his freshman season, half of his junior season, and the opener to his senior season, Woodford is unofficially the No. 2 rusher in Bibb County public school history, and in the top 10 in Central Georgia history.

          Woodford isn’t much into talking about the numbers, staggering as they are. The numbers, actual and potential, say plenty.

          The eyebrow-raising 2,728 yards in 2022 were No. 16 all-time in the state entering this season, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, a site not associated with the GHSA or GIAA that keeps massive historical records.

          He’s 23rd all-time in rushing touchdowns, although the website doesn’t update the lists until after the season. The 40 touchdowns as a sophomore are tied for eighth most in a season.

          The site’s cutoff for career yards is 6,000, which covers – entering the season – 29 rushers, and it includes Westside’s Travis Evans, who racked up 6,279 yards from 2000-03, ranking 25th, just behind Central Georgian Darius Marshall of Baldwin (6,338, 2003-06) and just ahead of Central Georgian Marteze Waller of Putnam County (6,260, 2008-11).

          Both are ahead of one Herschel Walker (6,137, 1976-79).

          During that sophomore year, it was no stretch to look ahead and wonder when, not if, he’d catch and pass Evans.

          Woodford was averaging 158.5 yards a game as a junior when he got hurt in the sixth game. At that point, Woodford had 3,679 yards in 17 games, an average of 204.4 per outing. The Raiders lost in the first round last year, so Woodford missed five games. At his season’s average of 158.5, he’d have gained another 792.5 yards, putting him at 4,471 yards for his two-year career.

          Woodford sat out this year’s opener, and played sparingly a week later in a romp over Southwest, yet still got 127 yards in seven carries.

          But had Woodford – whose football days at Appling had him at linebacker to start with - played a full season as a junior, he’s projected to be – with good health – gained 1,743 that year, in an 11-game season.

          That would put him at 4,471 entering his senior season at 203.2 yards a game. Even dropping down that average to, say, 175 yards a game this year, with Woodford being pulled earlier in routs to cut down on wear and tear, and he’d be at about 6,265 yards going into Friday’s game, good enough to make that all-time list.

          He would also be in the top 10 all-time in career touchdowns with more than 100.

          Easily forgotten is how many yards he’d have gained as a freshman – and he would’ve gotten quality snaps – had that season not been erased by a spring knee injury, a fractured tibia suffered during practice with the varsity.

           “He was running past people, he was running over people, and the speed he had,” head coach Jeremy Wiggins said of the pre-high school Woodford. “Those three things stood out.

          “We were gonna use him a pretty good amount. We had two or three packages with all three of them (including rising seniors Tyler Terry and Kalik Evans) in the backfield.”

          Evans got hurt late in the year, which would have expanded Woodford’s role.

          “We were thinking about five to 10 carries a game from him his freshman year,” Wiggins said. “That was always the plan.”

          Woodford shakes his head.

          “Man, I would’ve been a better back than I ever was before,” he said. “Then, I was moving. Good speed, good feet. And I was already going against the good defenses we had.”

          Things worked out anyway.

          Whether his high school career ends Friday in Blue Ridge or is extended, Woodford goes down as one of the best in Bibb County and Central Georgia to ever suit up.

          He has been a top cog, with plenty of help, in lifting Northeast to the top of the Bibb County mountain.

          The Raiders are in their second quarterfinal in four seasons. Of the five other Bibb County public-school teams, Westside has three quarterfinal visits in the last 20 years.

Yearly stats
Year           Carries     Yards        Avg/carry         Avg./game  TDs
Soph.         273             2,728           10.0             227.3          40
Jr.                95               951             10.0            158.5          11
Sr.               173             1,794           10.4            163.1          29
Totals         541             5,473          10.1             188.7          80

          The last 10-win season in the group came in 2009 when Westside went 11-2. Northeast is 43-16 in the last five seasons, the best mark among county public schools since Westside went 45-13 from 2008-12, covering Robert Davis’s final year and Spoon Risper’s first four.

          Woodford has teamed with junior quarterback Reginald Glover for two-plus seasons to spark the offense, while the defense has progressed almost as well.

          Woodford isn’t much into the stats and history, and his legacy is seriously enhanced by what does off the field. He currently ranks as his class salutatorian, and has been a 3.5-plus GPA student throughout high school.

          “I didn’t even know I was going to be in that position,” Woodford said. “For me, with school and all, I always want to know the subject that I’m learning about. I just always want to learn, but it was never to a point where I wanted to be, how can I say it, a genius or something. There wasn’t a goal or anything to be a valedictorian or salutatorian.

          “God put it in my hands to be in that position to be either one.”

          His classroom goal was simple.

          “I just wanted to have all A’s,” he said with a shrug. “It wasn’t hard for me to learn different things.”

          He said his aunt Kesia was a valedictorian. His mother Natasha works at the Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity Council and owns a laundry service, and an aunt is a president at Stafford Builders and Consultants.

          Being a good student wasn’t a task.

          “Just doing right,” he said. “Doing right, and you try, and you can’t go wrong with doing the right thing, and trying. My mom always taught me wrong from right, so doing those things was always something that wasn’t a big deal.”

          Academic success somewhat complicates his recruiting, because it opens the door to schools like the academies to be interested a powerful back with speed who is also an upper-level student who prioritizes the classroom more than the field.

          But the right fit academically is of more importance than on the field, and he’s in no hurry.

          “My recruiting has been a marathon, because my career has been very interesting,” he said of the injuries before his freshman year and during his junior season. “My options are still open (for) whatever school has the best interest in me. Wherever I go, just the environment, it’s got to be a place of good people.

          “Faith. I have faith. That’s one thing my mom and my family has instilled in me. So having faith, no matter what. God has a plan for me. I just have to continue doing what I can, controlling what I can control.”

          He said he doesn’t have a list yet, but seemed to favor Georgia Southern and Wake Forest a little bit, also hearing from Army and West Virginia a good bit, among othersothers.

          Mom Natasha, grandmother Brenda, grandfather Jerome, and sister Tanelia were among the group Woodford was to spend Thanksgiving with, a gathering he expected to be around at two dozen, before young ones are counted. No doubt keeping an eye on Woodford’s trips through the food line was a priority.

          There was almost no chance, though, of him overindulging on his go-to grub choice, which isn’t on nobody’s turkey day menu: Honey Bunches of Oats.

          “I love that,” said Woodford, whose father Cornelius Davis also played at Northeast. “And I like chocolate almonds. I can eat grilled chicken and rice every day.”

          Barney Hester has seen thousands of high school players in his long coaching career, mainly at Tattnall and Howard from 1982-2017, and then as Bibb County athletics director from 2018-2021.

          It was in that latter role that Hester was checking things out at county high schools and middle schools, and was at an Appling Middle School game.

          “He was a man among boys,” said Hester, soon to be sworn in as a new member of the Bibb County Board of Education. “He was one of those guys that could take it to the house any time he touched it. He had outstanding balance, even as a seventh- or eighth-grader. His balance was unreal.

          “And I’m sure his vision had to be good. When he wasn’t outrunning people, he was able to maneuver down the field. And he has better speed and acceleration than you think.”

          Two plays last week against Lamar County showed both. First, he peeled off a 37-yard run, weaving through traffic and spinning, almost pulling away. Then he went left after handoff, read the blocking, bounced outside, was almost dragged down, spun and bounced off the defender on the ground, put his hand down to stay up while his right knee was inches from the turf, then tightroped down the sideline for a highlight-reel 13-yard 

          Hester has watched Woodford grow into more than just a great player, aware of his academic success but also Woodford’s personality and maturity.

          He sat earlier this week to talk for a little more than an hour, and didn’t fidget or sigh or look at the time or digress into short answers. He has conversations with people, not at them. To see him accept any of the nearly dozen Macon Touchdown Club player of the week honors is to see somebody greet the trophy presenter with a smile and firm handshake, pose for a picture, smile and shake the hand again, and depart.

          And as much as he loves football, there’s much more there.

          “He’s thinking long term, he’s thinking about his future past football,” Hester said. “That’s very mature for a young guy.”

          Woodford is just doing what he’s always done, with a smile or a shrug.

          “Everybody that comes in an encounter with Nick always talks about how much of a good kid he is, a good person,” Wiggins said. “That’s the first thing they say. Then they say, ‘I love watching him run the ball.’ I’m glad we got a chance to have Nick around and coach him.

          “(He’s) a good spotlight for our school and the state of Georgia and for Middle Georgia.”

          Whose light will keep shining whether Friday night is his last game or not.