Porter-Gaud Had Outstanding 2024 Football Season
Porter Gaud senior RB Tony Brown came into the finals having rushed for 1,339 yards and 17 touchdowns
From Staff Reports
Charleston – Porter-Gaud finished an impressive 11-2 during the 2024 football season and they fought Hammond hard in the SCISA AAAA finals at Charleston Southern in mid- November losing to the Skyhawks 28-21 in a very competitive game.
(Please see game story in front of this issue).
Prior to the state title game head coach Brad Bowles told David Shelton of the HSSR, “We start in August and we talk about winning a state championship. All coaches do,” Bowles said. “There are so many little things that you have to do to make these big things happen. You have to lift, work, show up with the right attitude every day. You need some luck; you need to avoid injuries. Fortunately, we have had the right mindset and good things have happened.”
Bowles says there is a strong sense of family within the program. Chemistry is clearly a strength and that comes from developing players early on.
“We have Porter-Gaud kids,” he said. “We don’t go out and get a lot of guys from everywhere. A lot of these guys have been in our program for four years, or longer. We have a year-round program that the kids are committed to. They want to work hard. We have a great group of seniors and we’ve had some underclassmen really step up.”
Porter-Gaud has been a balanced team all season with a solid offense, defense and kicking game. The offense is predicated on the run game and the Cyclones average 372 yards per game on the ground with 56 rushing touchdowns. As a team, they average 9.3 yards per rushing attempt.
Senior JJ Fludd led the ground game with nearly 2,000 yards and 31 touchdowns. Senior Tony Brown came into the finals having rushed for 1,339 yards and 17 touchdowns and senior quarterback Nolen Shuman came into the Hammond game with 700 yards rushing and another 640 yards through the air.
“We feel like we have three guys who can get what we need and we have a really good offensive line,” Bowles said. “It is comforting to know you have three guys who can get it done. And those guys up front love to get physical.”
The starting group along the front includes tackles Frank Schmidt and James Temple, guards Kyler Boggan and Alex Stiglic, and center Haze Marchant.
Senior Grayer Hyatt is the primary target in the passing game with more than 400 yards and six touchdowns going into the Hammond game, while Cole Thornton is the starting tight end.
Defensively, the Cyclones allowed just 100 yards rushing per game. Opponents average 174 yards through the air as most teams are playing catch up. The unit forced 20 turnovers and registered 26 sacks during the season.
Tackle leaders coming into the game against Hammond included linebacker Mills Knapp with 123 tackles, including 11 hits for loss. Safety Chase Anderson had 107 tackles and three interceptions while Austin Smith had 92 tackles, 11 for loss prior to the gold medal game.
Brown and Fludd are two-way performers. Brown has 92 tackles and three interceptions while Fludd has seven interceptions prior to the finals. Ben Tolley had 71 tackles and four sacks while Daven Brown had five sacks.
“They have been good all year,” Bowles said. “At the beginning of the year we changed our defense, had a couple of new guys in there, so there was a period of transition early. We’ve had so many guys step up. They’re great practice players, they watch film. They do the things you have to do to get better. They’re a tough, physical group, and they’re smart kids. We do a lot of different things and they’re able to pick it up. We have a great coaching staff and a great structure, plus we have physically tough kids.
“We go into every game expecting a fight. We don’t look past any team. We have to play to our identity, which is great effort, physical football.”
As a team P-G rushed for 3,226 yards during the 2024 season and scored 43 touchdowns.
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