2018 Bear Tracks

Only about a week and a half until the Bears emerge from hibernation. Before then, we take a look at the stats and trends put up by last season’s Bears.

Last season BHP turned in another superb performance going 9-3 with a second place finish in region play and the school’s 25 playoff appearance. That performance was led by 20 seniors. Even with the large number of graduating players BHP returns key players from last season’s team. The Bears return there 2017 top rusher, passer, and two of the top 3 receivers which the Bears will lean on this season.

Last season BHP showed a very balanced attach between rushing and passing by gaining 175 yards per game on the ground and 157 yards per game in the air. With this BHP averaged 28 points per game and tallied 41 offensive touchdowns last season, 26 rushing and 15 passing.

Also last season, the bears were led in rushing by returning running back R.J. Ellis. Ellis gained 1,414 and scored 17 touchdowns. Ellis was 5th in rushing touchdowns, 1st in rushing attempts, and 6th in rushing yards in 4A last season.

Along with Ellis, BHP returns their only passer from 2017, Camden Bratcher. Bratcher turned in an impressive season ranking 4th on the all-time season passing list with 1,890 passing yards. The Bears also return two of Bratcher’s top targets Braylon Oliver and Xavier Nance. Nance is already 4th all-time in career receptions at BHP.

The Bear defense showed its dominance as well. Allowing 19 points per game (15 points per region game), allowing less totally yards from the year previous and nearly doubling their turnovers from the 2016 season. In region play last season BHP gave up the least amount of points among the region teams.

The defense was lead by predominately seniors unlike the offense. The defense will look to replace 53% of total tackles, 56% of tackles for lost and 49% of sacks from last season. This is mostly to the graduation of BHPs Austin Daniel who was 2nd in 4A with 10 sacks and 6th in 4A with 20 tackles for loss.

Special teams could be the phase of the team the Bears lost the most from graduation. The major factor was the graduation of Lance Jones. Jones has 8 career all-time records at BHP including: most kickoffs attempted, kickoff average, most PATs, best PAT percentage, most points by a kicker, most scoring games, most consecutive PAT kicks, and consecutive PAT kicks in a game.

Although the most prolific kicker in BHP history is gone BHP returns their starting punter Camden Bratcher who finished the season with a 35 yard per punt average last season.

Next week is game week! We will be putting out two post to get you ready for the opening game of the 2017 season. Make sure to check us out on facebook and twitter to stay up to date.

RJ Ellis did have an off-season injury and will miss time this season. He is a retuning player but the injury will unfortunately limit him in the 2018 season.