Harrycrane
Well-known member
Coffman RB Shaun Jones 2007-2009
The scene was Gahanna High School and round two of the 2007 Central Region play-offs vs. Pickerington Central . It was a cold night and the parking was tight as the crowd filed in. Parked across the street from the front entrance. Remembering walking up to the ticket window and seeing a handful of kids with Louisville letter jackets on . Funny what you remember over 10 years ago . Also noticed after getting into the stadium , Davidson jackets walking towards the visitors side { Davidson suffered a rare 7-3 non play-off year, which Coffman would duplicate themselves the next year }
The visitors side was then on the west side and smaller than the now visitors side which is on the east side of the stadium. Coffman was the visitor as the 3 seed to PC'S 2 seed . Stands were pretty full as we entered. My young daughter was with me as we sat with her friend from school who had 2 brothers on the team along with other friends with kids on the team . On the old huddle there was some good banter going on as both fan bases were pretty confident going in . Some good smack talk back and forth as I remember . I recall thinking that PC might be a year away and didn't have quite enough to beat Coffman , but would be really good the next year . They were. They won the region and lost to Elder 24-14 in the state Semi. Lost their war horse and leader Zach Boren in that one and the game slipped away after that .
Coffman had some size advantages in this one and was more Senior oriented. Huge passing attack with Zack Stoudt{ Louiisville, Ole Miss transfer} putting up record numbers that year throwing to a great stable of receivers including Ohio State recruit and a few year NFL guy Jake Stoneburner. Coffman's second play from scrimmage Stoudt hit Stoneburner over the middle on a slant and Jake did the rest rambling 56 yards running through a tackle on his way to the end zone . Stunned silence from the PC home side that was over 80 percent filled [Coffman smaller visitor side was filled completely } Rocks starting RB was Jr. Jared Phillips and he had a very solid year as the main back in the one back Coffman spread.
Phillips was a bigger back at about 6-1 190 with decent speed and was a productive player. He took a few big shots early on as the Rocks offense stalled a bit . Game stayed 7-0 towards the end of the first half but the Tigers would score late to tie it on a pass at the back of the end zone to Pat White a D--1 Jr. athlete [DB- WR} . Second half starts and noticed that Phillips wasn't going back in as the shots he took included a hellacious one to his shoulder which would keep him out the rest of the season. The one thing the Rocks loaded Senior class { 5 power five recruits and a handful of other really solid kids and athletes who would go onto play football or other sports in college } didn't have was a starting level RB.
Enter Sophomore Shaun Jones who only was used sparingly as a back-up and accumulated 130 yards total for the season. Shaun was probably 5-9 160 and change at this point. Rocks got the ball and after being chided by the Rock faithful for not throwing the ball more in the first half when Phillips was taking his punishment , the Rocks coaching staff ignored the grumbles and came out and ran the ball with the seldom used Sophomore who ran behind a veteran unit who was using their size to give some creases to Jones who took advantage . Jones carried the ball 7 times on the 80 yard drive for 48 yards and scored from the 7 yard line to give the Rocks a 14-7 lead and they never looked back . Slot athlete Trey Fairchild off of an injury came through with a few first down catches , Stoneburner was a handful all night finishing with 7 catches for 163 yards .Jones ran another 8 times after that back breaking long drive finishing with 82 yards on 15 carries. Rocks rolled to a 35-9 win dominating the second half and Jones more than did his part really stepping up as a young back in a big game.
The next week the Rocks played Hilliard Darby who had their best team in school history { To this day as well} with stud athletes like QB Jeremy Ebert { Northwestern- Receiver } Powerful RB Jordan Richeson a 6-1 210 beast D-1 player , WR Robbie Anzuini and Georgia tech signee BJ Machen at LB . Jones was now RB 1 if you will . He had a solid game as the Panthers did a nice job overall vs the run on another cool night at the
'Marv " in Upper Arlington . Rocks relied more on the pass that night as the usual suspects of Stoneburner , { Another first drive long catch and run TD} and Fairchild did their thing { 2 TD'S} . Rocks up 28-21 4th quarter , Rocks ball after a Darby TD pass{ Ebert to Anzuini } gave them the momentum back and a glimmer of hope . Rocks give the ball to Newbie Soph. Scooby Jones and he gets through the wash on the LOS and leaps over the crowded second level players on the ground and takes off on a long game clinching TD run .
Darby did score another TD late with under a minute left but Rocks won 42-35 . On to St X the number 4 team in the nation which I have talked about many times , Rocks lost a heart breaker 10-7 finishing up 13-1 . Jones had a nice game ripping off a few good runs against a stacked ST X defense with more than a handful of D-1 recruits .
2008 was a year of a few 'Lasts" for the Rocks program . It was the last time the Rocks missed the play-offs and it was the last time the Rocks used a two back set in the backfield on a regular basis as Phillips and Jones shared the backfield . Jones was the main guy with the bigger less shifty Phillips used more as a blocker . They complemented each other very well with Jones hitting 1000 yards . Rocks lost three games to three play-off teams by a combined 15 points { Kilbourne by 10 in the worst game of the year, 4 to Davidson and a tough 7-6 loss to UA on a rainy night to knock them out of the play-offs with American Idols David Archuleta singing the National anthem} .
Coffman was back in the one back set in 2009 with Sr. RB Jones poised for a big Senior season as were the Rocks as a team. 10-0 regular season two play-off wins that I have talked about and will again and a tough loss to Davidson 22-7 as a - 3 TO margin and only 7 points on 285 yards of offense doomed them . Jones had an excellent year with 1145 yards and 11 Td's as the Rocks finished 12-1 and had a few key injury's that hurt them as well [Starting D-1 QB , first team all state LB } But Jones finished his career strong in the one back set and was a very productive and versatile performer running back kicks and could catch the ball out of the backfield and at about 5-10 180 his Senior year was a durable productive performer . He had 2693 career rushing yards . College career never really materialized despite his talent but definitely an All Time Rock RB in my era of following Coffman .
The scene was Gahanna High School and round two of the 2007 Central Region play-offs vs. Pickerington Central . It was a cold night and the parking was tight as the crowd filed in. Parked across the street from the front entrance. Remembering walking up to the ticket window and seeing a handful of kids with Louisville letter jackets on . Funny what you remember over 10 years ago . Also noticed after getting into the stadium , Davidson jackets walking towards the visitors side { Davidson suffered a rare 7-3 non play-off year, which Coffman would duplicate themselves the next year }
The visitors side was then on the west side and smaller than the now visitors side which is on the east side of the stadium. Coffman was the visitor as the 3 seed to PC'S 2 seed . Stands were pretty full as we entered. My young daughter was with me as we sat with her friend from school who had 2 brothers on the team along with other friends with kids on the team . On the old huddle there was some good banter going on as both fan bases were pretty confident going in . Some good smack talk back and forth as I remember . I recall thinking that PC might be a year away and didn't have quite enough to beat Coffman , but would be really good the next year . They were. They won the region and lost to Elder 24-14 in the state Semi. Lost their war horse and leader Zach Boren in that one and the game slipped away after that .
Coffman had some size advantages in this one and was more Senior oriented. Huge passing attack with Zack Stoudt{ Louiisville, Ole Miss transfer} putting up record numbers that year throwing to a great stable of receivers including Ohio State recruit and a few year NFL guy Jake Stoneburner. Coffman's second play from scrimmage Stoudt hit Stoneburner over the middle on a slant and Jake did the rest rambling 56 yards running through a tackle on his way to the end zone . Stunned silence from the PC home side that was over 80 percent filled [Coffman smaller visitor side was filled completely } Rocks starting RB was Jr. Jared Phillips and he had a very solid year as the main back in the one back Coffman spread.
Phillips was a bigger back at about 6-1 190 with decent speed and was a productive player. He took a few big shots early on as the Rocks offense stalled a bit . Game stayed 7-0 towards the end of the first half but the Tigers would score late to tie it on a pass at the back of the end zone to Pat White a D--1 Jr. athlete [DB- WR} . Second half starts and noticed that Phillips wasn't going back in as the shots he took included a hellacious one to his shoulder which would keep him out the rest of the season. The one thing the Rocks loaded Senior class { 5 power five recruits and a handful of other really solid kids and athletes who would go onto play football or other sports in college } didn't have was a starting level RB.
Enter Sophomore Shaun Jones who only was used sparingly as a back-up and accumulated 130 yards total for the season. Shaun was probably 5-9 160 and change at this point. Rocks got the ball and after being chided by the Rock faithful for not throwing the ball more in the first half when Phillips was taking his punishment , the Rocks coaching staff ignored the grumbles and came out and ran the ball with the seldom used Sophomore who ran behind a veteran unit who was using their size to give some creases to Jones who took advantage . Jones carried the ball 7 times on the 80 yard drive for 48 yards and scored from the 7 yard line to give the Rocks a 14-7 lead and they never looked back . Slot athlete Trey Fairchild off of an injury came through with a few first down catches , Stoneburner was a handful all night finishing with 7 catches for 163 yards .Jones ran another 8 times after that back breaking long drive finishing with 82 yards on 15 carries. Rocks rolled to a 35-9 win dominating the second half and Jones more than did his part really stepping up as a young back in a big game.
The next week the Rocks played Hilliard Darby who had their best team in school history { To this day as well} with stud athletes like QB Jeremy Ebert { Northwestern- Receiver } Powerful RB Jordan Richeson a 6-1 210 beast D-1 player , WR Robbie Anzuini and Georgia tech signee BJ Machen at LB . Jones was now RB 1 if you will . He had a solid game as the Panthers did a nice job overall vs the run on another cool night at the
'Marv " in Upper Arlington . Rocks relied more on the pass that night as the usual suspects of Stoneburner , { Another first drive long catch and run TD} and Fairchild did their thing { 2 TD'S} . Rocks up 28-21 4th quarter , Rocks ball after a Darby TD pass{ Ebert to Anzuini } gave them the momentum back and a glimmer of hope . Rocks give the ball to Newbie Soph. Scooby Jones and he gets through the wash on the LOS and leaps over the crowded second level players on the ground and takes off on a long game clinching TD run .
Darby did score another TD late with under a minute left but Rocks won 42-35 . On to St X the number 4 team in the nation which I have talked about many times , Rocks lost a heart breaker 10-7 finishing up 13-1 . Jones had a nice game ripping off a few good runs against a stacked ST X defense with more than a handful of D-1 recruits .
2008 was a year of a few 'Lasts" for the Rocks program . It was the last time the Rocks missed the play-offs and it was the last time the Rocks used a two back set in the backfield on a regular basis as Phillips and Jones shared the backfield . Jones was the main guy with the bigger less shifty Phillips used more as a blocker . They complemented each other very well with Jones hitting 1000 yards . Rocks lost three games to three play-off teams by a combined 15 points { Kilbourne by 10 in the worst game of the year, 4 to Davidson and a tough 7-6 loss to UA on a rainy night to knock them out of the play-offs with American Idols David Archuleta singing the National anthem} .
Coffman was back in the one back set in 2009 with Sr. RB Jones poised for a big Senior season as were the Rocks as a team. 10-0 regular season two play-off wins that I have talked about and will again and a tough loss to Davidson 22-7 as a - 3 TO margin and only 7 points on 285 yards of offense doomed them . Jones had an excellent year with 1145 yards and 11 Td's as the Rocks finished 12-1 and had a few key injury's that hurt them as well [Starting D-1 QB , first team all state LB } But Jones finished his career strong in the one back set and was a very productive and versatile performer running back kicks and could catch the ball out of the backfield and at about 5-10 180 his Senior year was a durable productive performer . He had 2693 career rushing yards . College career never really materialized despite his talent but definitely an All Time Rock RB in my era of following Coffman .
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