[Panther Thunder]

Estep is a great player, but he is no Jeremiah Akers.

I am having a hard time with this one.

Akers obviously didn't get many targets until his junior season, when Chapman came into the picture and Akers moved to WR. People may forget he ran for, I believe, 1,500 yards as a sophomore in 1997. In his final two seasons, Akers basically set most receiving records at PHS. Murray Garvin still has the most Rec TDs in a season, 21. And Tyler Baker broke the Rec TDs in a game, with 4 at Allen Central in 2008 (Not just padding stats, without Baker, PHS loses that game.) Everything else is pretty much Jeremiah Akers.

Rec Yards in a Game: 8 rec, 311 yds Jeremiah Akers vs. Pineville 1999

Career: 173 rec, 3,180 yds Jeremiah Akers

Career Rec TDs: 36 Jeremiah Akers


While the production is limited to basically two years at WR, do not forget PHS threw the ball an awful lot more in the late 90s than the past 3 years. Even so, Cody Estep is on pace to challenge some of these records.

As of today 10/13/13, Cody Estep's stats go as follows

83 Rec, 2,184 yards, and 32 Rec TDs.

He will probably not get 90 receptions over the next year and a half. Akers looks like he will hold onto that.

He will be really close on receiving yardage if he can keep pace this season through next. Needs a couple more games like Middlesboro where he just goes off.

Barring an unseen event, Cody Estep will easily surpass Rec TDs in a career and hold that record on far fewer targets. And let's be honest, he hasn't had Matt Branham or Ben Howard slinging the ball out to him.

To put it in perspective, Matt Branham threw for 3,436 yards in 1999 (14 games). PHS has thrown for 4,107 yards since the start of the 2011 season (34 games).

It was something that I started thinking about after the Middlesboro game. If you were ranking PHS players historically, Estep, if he maintains pace, is approaching 5-Star status. Still a lot of football left, we will see where it takes us. Something to be on the watch for though, the Career Rec TD record could easily fall in the next few weeks. -Last note, Estep gets a few bonus points for the caliber of safety he is. Since the move to safety last season, he has been lights out. 8 INTs over the past 17 games, 4 returned for TDs (one more, but called back due to an unnecessary block in the back), recovered 8 fumbles and taken 3 back to the house. In his career, didn't play much D his freshman year, he has 9 INTs, within reach of the PHS record of 17 in a career.


And I love watching the film of Akers playing, but Murray Garvin was no slouch either. Teams basically knew if the Panthers threw in 1991, where it was going, and they still couldn't stop him. If Garvin played in a spread offense, his numbers would have been obscene.

One thing is for sure though, I wouldn't mind going 4-wide with Estep, Wright, Akers, and Garvin :biggrin: