Carey's Corner
FROM THE MALVERN ARCHIVES
A LOOK BACK
November 2020
I have recently seen a new phrase pop up in football lingo. Remember when successful plays that generated anything above 30 yards used to be called big gains? Now, they are simply called “chunk plays”.
That got me thinking about certain Malvern players who made significant offensive contributions to their teams to continue growing the legacy of MP football. You can imagine in a successful program like Malvern Prep, there might be quite a few players to highlight. But in order to look at it from another perspective, let’s take a dive into which former Friars gained the most “chunks.” I came up with a category called “Chunky Players”. First off, it has nothing to do with their weight. Call it a badge of honor, a well-earned title. The following players statistically accumulated large amounts of real estate on any given play. Stats are pulled from 1982 on, courtesy of Ted Silary (www.tedsilary.com)
As with any article, if any alum has stats from before 1982 please send to me at Rcarey5171@aol.com. I am trying my best to research and backfill years before 1982.
Math errors are not intentional.
Below are the rushers, receivers and passers who I would call Malvern Prep’s chunkiest players. List is based on the leading rusher, receiver or quarterback in that year.
RUSHERS BY YEAR- 8 YARD AVERAGE OR MORE
HONORABLE MENTION CHUNKERS- 7 YARDS PER CARRY
RECEIVERS BY YEAR- 20 YARDS PER CATCH OR MORE
HONORABLE MENTION CHUNKERS-17/18/19 YARDS PER CATCH
QUARTERBACKS BY YEAR- 20 YARDS PER COMPLETION OR MORE
HONORABLE MENTION CHUNKERS- 17/18/19 YARDS PER COMPLETION
OTHER NOTES OF INTEREST
Talk about a list of talented Malvern football players. From top to bottom, there is ample firepower to cause any Defensive Coordinator some immense headaches. Regarding the QBs, all of them played for Gamp except Alex. And as anyone who followed the “Gamper Years” knows , the legendary coach was not exactly an air it out, throw the ball on every down kind of guy. He was a run-first offensive play caller who embodied the often-used football phrase, “use the run to set up the pass”. When Joe Sells (OC) and Gamp decided to pull the trigger and throw, it usually did huge damage on the defensive side. It helps your game plan significantly when your QB can turn around and hand the ball off to players like Toby, Chris, Mike, Troy, James and Lonnie, et al.
Mike Ryan threw the ball 171 times his junior year in 1998. He threw the ball 42x less his senior year but generated just 19 less yards. Main reason for the difference? Mike Ambrose. Mike had 149 carries his junior year in 1998. He carried the ball 56 more times his senior year and went from 609 yards to 1,351. Gamp’s thought was that if he could run the ball effectively, he was not going to throw. If defenses attempted to sneak up and stop the run, that’s when they found themselves in trouble. When you look at the yards-per-catch ratios of the top receivers, you can understand why 20 yards is a really, really meaningful chunk of yards
Dan Onorato is the only Gamp QB to throw the ball more than 30 times in a game. Don’t forget Gamp was at MP from 1978 to 2008. Just let that stat sink in. Only once in Gamp’s MP career, spanning 313 games, did he throw the ball more than 30 times. Dan’s 35 throws actually came in a 42-30 loss to very talented GA team in 2003. It was one of the few times MP scored 30 points and lost which, asa matter of record,has happened only 5 times since 1950.
Hats off to the runners, receivers and quarterbacks who routinely covered large amounts of real estate with every touch and contributed to the success of the Malvern Prep football program. “Chunky Players” who excelled behind all the big fatties up front.
As I continue to dig into articles and stats, it truly is amazing how many very good football players have come through the program. Every year there seems to be new players who step up, stand out and become CHUNK PLAYERS!
Special shout out. Its not what you know but who you know. I now have someone who can help me make these stories look more professional. Thanks to my former player Chris Mueller. He will be pitching in on future articles.
More to come……………
11.16.20
