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There seems to be no conflict between Harding’s team goals and the potential individual conquests of junior running back Rod Smith.
If Smith does well, the team wins. If the Hawks keep winning, Smith can reach some lofty career rushing records in the school, the SAC, the area and the state.
At this point, the only thing Smith needs to set rushing records seems to be playing more games. So, Smith needs help from his teammates to keep the wins coming in the postseason, which extends the amount of games he could play over the next two seasons.
“He will get his 20 to 30 carries a game, and it is up to him to gain the yardage,” Harding coach Sherwood Haydock said.
The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Smith, who rushed for 1,885 yards as a freshman, 1,200 as a sophomore and 495 so far as a junior, enters a big Week 4 matchup against Class 2A top-ranked Bishop Luers (and its three straight shutouts) with 3,580 career yards.
He is 309 yards away from Tarvar Baskerville’s school record of 3,889 rushing yards. And with a strong senior season, Smith could reach Wayne’s Ray Byers’ SAC record of 5,328.
“I am just trying to help my team out anyway possible,” Smith said Wednesday. “If I break the records, that would be great just so everybody remembers who I was and people try to beat my records.”
Smith would need about 24 games or so (at his current pace of 165 yards a game) in the last two years to reach some of the higher marks such as the northeast Indiana record of 7,303 yards set by Heritage’s Brandon Robinson and the state record of 7,560 set by Cathedral’s Otis Shannon.
To play about two dozen more games might be asking a lot of Harding. It would take deep postseason runs this year and next. That’s a lot considering the 2A No. 8 Hawks play in a sectional that also features No. 1 Luers, No. 3 Fairfield and No. 9 Jimtown.
Smith is on pace for these records, but if the games don’t come he may have to pick up the pace.
And whenever Smith wants to compare his mind-boggling numbers, all he has to do is call up another chart-topping junior in Fort Wayne and good friend – Bishop Luers’ Deshaun Thomas.
Thomas (1,453 points) is on his way to becoming the top career scorer in the city (1,823) and could challenge Damon Bailey’s state record of 3,134.
Besides the pursuit of career records, Smith and Thomas have a lot in common with state championship rings (Smith as a freshman and Thomas last year as a sophomore), and they played on the same AAU basketball team a few years ago.
“So far, he has been dominating the city in basketball, and I have been dominating the city in football,” Smith said. “We like to brag (to each other), but it is all love.”
Frankly, Smith is just happy to be playing. An academic issue forced Smith to miss the final two games of the boys basketball season, the Class 3A semistate and state title games.
“That let me know I have to take everything serious instead of just sports,” he said.
