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Lucas Lorian is 2013 Offensive Player of the Year
The numbers alone are staggering. Five games of more than 250 rushing yards. Thirty-seven total touchdowns. More the 100 yards in all 13 games.
Football isn't played on a stat sheet, but if it were, South Putnam junior Lucas Lorian would be the winner every time.
His production on the field was unprecedented, but it's his work in the offseason and as a teammate that helped turn Lorian into the 2013 Putnam County Offensive Player of the Year.
"His work ethic is second to none," former South Putnam coach Troy Burgess said. "He's the first guy in the weight room, the last guy to leave. ... It's contagious. I tell guys all the time, being one of the better players isn't easy because all the eyes are on you and how you handle that role.
"He handled it as well as you can."
That type of year-round commitment has helped Lorian become a near expert-level player with still one season remaining in his high school career.
Work ethic like that isn't a given. It takes a passion and joy for Fridays in October to be willing to work in February and March.
"I love running the ball. It's my favorite thing to do," Lorian said. "I had some good talks with some special people, important people to me, and they told me I need to buckle down and work hard in the weight room and do everything I can to get better."
He didn't do it alone. There were seniors and other underclassmen joining him in the workouts.
His offensive linemen and lead blockers made the same commitment, which helped strengthen the team physically, but also emotionally.
The running back-linemen relationship takes time to perfect. They have to read each other on the field, knowing where the blocks will come and what cuts the back likes to make.
Those bonds grew in the offseason and as the season went on, they became even tighter.
"(The blockers) pretty much give me everything I need to work with," Lorian said. "They never let me down. Usually everything is there. Sometimes I make a bad read and I may get them in trouble but they do a good job for me.
"As the season goes on, you get a feel for each other and you pick up on the offensive line assignments and you can adjust to that as they adjust. You get used to each other."
It didn't take long. In the third game of the season, against then highly-ranked Rockville, Lorian ran for 311 yards and four touchdowns.
Against Greencastle two weeks later, a team that limited him to only 44 yards as a sophomore (the only time he's failed to reach 100 yards in a game as a starter), Lorian ran for 161 yards and two touchdowns.
He finished the season with 2,787 yards, nearly twice his total as a sophomore (1,463), and good enough to shatter the school record set two years ago by Rob Gibson.
"Whether or not we knew he was going to be close to 3,000 yards, I don't know about that," Burgess said, "but we were counting on him to have a good year and we knew for us to have the success that we ended up having, he was going to have to have that kind of year."
That success was a perfect record in the West Central Conference, a top-five ranking and a sectional championship.
Lorian said there are a few games and plays that stand out, but the highlight of the season for him was not as a running back, but as a defender.
Leading by seven in the fourth quarter of the sectional championship game at Indianapolis Lutheran, Lorian was in the game as a middle linebacker. He shot through a hole into the backfield, knocked the ball loose and his Eagles recovered to stop a potential game-tying drive.
He later punched in his third touchdown in a five-minute span.
The other highlight of the season, he joked, was when he caught a swing pass in the first-round of sectionals and hurdled an approaching defender. That play was correctly called an unsportsmanlike penalty.
"I don't know if that can count," he said. "I didn't really even think of it at all. It just kind of hit me like that and it happened."
It was one of only two receptions he had all year. Lorian wants the ball in the backfield, and he wants to take it right up the middle. 24-Iso is his favorite player.
Lorian knows things might be tougher next season. All-state tackle Joe Masters will be back, but the Eagles will work in three new offensive linemen. Despite the challenges, he'll keep pushing forward and working hard.
"I want to gain some more weight, I want to gain some more size and get faster," he said. "I need to step it up a little bit. I'm going to be a senior so I've got to lead by example in the weight room and just in general.
"I need to bring that leadership role and just hit it hard, just like I did last year. The more people see me and other people working out hard and doing everything we can hard, they'll pick up on it and they'll work out hard and do everything hard."
That drive has helped make Lucas Lorian the 2013 Putnam County Offensive Player of the Year.