AHSAA 3RD ROUND: Cobb sets goals to Win titles, not break records

Jeremiah Cobb has gaudy numbers for Catholic but he’s more interested in helping Catholic win a state title. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

He’s closing in on yet another milestone, but Jeremiah Cobb doesn’t ever look at the numbers.

The Catholic senior needs just 231 rushing yards to hit 2,000 yards for the third consecutive season but it’s doubtful if he’s even aware of it. If he just gains 100 yards on Friday night, it’ll mark his third consecutive season with 10 or more 100-yard games, another accomplishment that would probably surprise him.

 “I don’t ever pay attention to it,” Cobb said. “I’ll look at it at the end of the season, but I don’t pay attention to it.”

This area has produced its share of big-name tailbacks over the years, but Cobb’s career numbers are likely alone at the top, simply because running backs at larger schools don’t get an opportunity to put up big numbers until their sophomore year.

One of the state’s most prolific runners, for example, was Mountain Brook tailback Major Ogilvie, who had 2,505 yards in 1976, but there were fewer games in the 1970s (and still fewer in the 1960s). By the time Robert E. Lee’s Larry Ware piled up 2,111 yards in 1986, his total was the single-season high point for local rushers and seventh all-time in Alabama High School Athletic Association contests.

Today, Ware ranks 88th and was passed in 2021 by Cobb, who had 2,163 yards. That trails Carver’s Andrew Pitts (2,229 in 2008), Wetumpka’s J.D. Martin (2,305 in 2017) and Lanier’s Keldrick Williams (2,518 in 1999).

Where Cobb has made his mark is the stability at the top. He had 2,013 yards in 2020, another 2,163 in 2021 and currently has 1,769 despite missing parts of three games with an ankle injury. Entering Friday night’s 4A quarterfinal matchup with Handley. Cobb has 6,320 yards and 73 touchdowns on 606 carries, an astounding average of 10.4 yards per carry. That average currently ranks atop the AHSAA record book for career yards per carry.

“He would have 2,000 already if he wasn’t injured for two games,” Catholic coach Kirk Johnson said. “The thing I love about Cobb the most is he’s OK with Caleb (McCreary) getting his carries, and Luke (Harkless) and (EJ) Babies. These other guys (at other schools) have 150 more carries than he does, but he has more rushing yards.”

He also would have 2,000 yards this season if he carried the ball more, but he’s content to let others run it at times.

“I sit back and say I’m fine because I love watching all our different weapons we have on offense go out there and play,” Cobb said. “And me go out there and block for them. I love watching them get their chance.”

 Cobb wasn’t the featured back at Catholic until his sophomore season, but he had already turned heads in practice.   

“He was scout-team running back and made a play on the ‘ones,’” Johnson said. “Spin, juke, break it. As an eighth grader. We were like, ‘this guy is going to be good.’ Now, he was 125 pounds.”

He gained enough weight to earn the starting position as a sophomore at 155 pounds, but is now 185 pounds. While he is track-speed fast on the corners -- winning the 100-meter (10.88 seconds) and 200-meter (22.21 seconds) runs in the state meet as a sophomore -- he actually prefers to get the ball between the tackles.

“Our offensive coordinator thinks it’s best for us to get it down the field (quickly) and end up scoring, but I love to run it as many times as I can against a team like (Andalusia),” said Cobb, saying the bigger the challenge, the more he wants the ball. “Even when I was little, I’ve always wanted to go in between the tackle, downhill, inside zone. I love doing that.”

He even more dangerous as a receiver, accounting for 1,192 yards and 15 touchdowns on 53 receptions, an average of 22.5 yards per catch. If he gets to use both his speed and his elusiveness, he makes it doubly tough on opposing tacklers trying to bring him down. Maybe that’s why he wants to return more kickoffs.

“He complains and he fusses that he doesn’t return kicks now,” Johnson said. “I’m like, ‘for what?’”

Cobb has just three kickoff returns for 100 yards and a touchdown, but admits he would like to see playing time as a return specialist.

“I do sometimes,” he admits. “I think sometimes (the coaches’ decision not to let him return kicks) just keeps me from getting hurt.”

If he can avoid getting hurt, and keep his team in the championship chase, he could reach the statistical milestones that he pays so little attention to. Standing in the way, however, is a Handley team that has made five trips to the semifinals and won three state championships in the last 14 years.

“They’ve won a lot of games in the last five years, so you’re not playing a team, you’re playing a program,” Johnson said. “And programs are harder to beat than teams.”

Both teams featured explosive offensive attacks and stout defenses.

“It is kind of like looking at ourselves in the mirror,” Cobb said. “I think we’ve prepared well, been practicing really well, now we just have to go out there and play our game. We’re the only team that can beat ourselves.”

Catholic will face Handley at home tonight with a kickoff time set for 7 p.m.