Player of the Week: South Aiken's Edwards turns in another record-breaking performance in opener

South Aiken head football coach Chris Hamilton had a message for his offensive linemen during last Friday's season opener against Silver Bluff.

The T-Breds have a veteran group up front, and it's also the position group Hamilton watches most closely. That's his unit, and the expectations are always high even when he's not looking at a line of returning starters.

He saw some of the usual first-game missteps, the kind of thing he knows can be fixed as the T-Breds progress through the season. It's also the kind of thing that having a great running back can help mask in real time.

South Aiken has that in senior star Jevon Edwards, the top player to watch this season in the Aiken Standard coverage area. As it turns out, it's not just fans and opponents who are watching - his linemen got caught up in the show a few times, too.

"I get it, you want to watch Jevon do something spectacular, but you're just going to have to wait until film," Hamilton said this week, referring to a few situations where the linemen were caught watching Edwards go to work and didn't finish their blocks, allowing Silver Bluff defenders to eventually make the tackle.

That didn't stop Edwards from rushing for 303 yards and four touchdowns on 37 carries in a 35-18 win, becoming South Aiken's all-time rushing touchdowns leader while adding to the career rushing yardage record he already held. For that, Edwards is the first Aiken Standard Player of the Week of the season.

"He broke one of my other favorite kids, Chris Roberts, he broke his touchdown record. That's big," Hamilton said. "I've been really fortunate, and God's blessed me with some really talented kids that are not just talented, just the way they act, the way they do things, it's been really good. The Lord just continues to bless me with that. It makes coaching fun. It really does."

Edwards was held out of spring ball due to a hamstring injury he sustained at the Region 4-AAAA track and field championships. Could he have taken some snaps? Probably, but he had nothing to prove to Hamilton and it wasn't worth risking any potential further injury that could very well have ended up nagging him months later during football season.

So he waited, maybe not always patiently, and was limited in scrimmages leading up to the opener.

It can be tricky to go from healing into game mode, and there's a lingering temptation to try to do too much right out of the gate to make up for lost time.

Not for Edwards. He stayed within himself and within the T-Breds' offense, sticking to the game plan to help his team start the season 1-0.

"I knew this was going to be a long haul, and he's going to carry the load a lot," Hamilton said. "I think he's done a good job of understanding that and getting his reps where he needs to get them. He understands how big the games are going to be and how he's going to need to go the whole season."

Of course Edwards was going to be ready for the season opener. This is the same guy that, two years ago as a sophomore, upon hearing that the T-Breds had won the opening coin toss blurted out that they wanted the ball - only to be reminded by his fellow captains that, no, the plan was to defer to the second half.

He started the game with some short carries here and there, moving the pile forward against a Silver Bluff defense that no doubt got tired of hearing throughout the offseason that they were opening the season against one of the best running backs in the state.

Then came the big runs. Seventeen yards here. Twelve more there. Fifteen more after that. He was up to 79 yards by the time he scored his first touchdown of the night, 126 for the second, then 180 as he bolted 43 yards for his third score of the night to push South Aiken's lead to 21-12 early in the third quarter.

He was well over 200 not long after that, ripping off a 56-yard run deep into Silver Bluff territory to set up his fourth score of the night, a 10-yarder on the first play of the fourth quarter to put the T-Breds back up by 10.

Hamilton knew he was giving Edwards a lot of carries but didn't realize until after the game that it was 37. Still, Edwards showed no sign of slowing down despite the heavy workload, and he was even ready to go back in for more when he was given the rest of the night off with the game in hand.

"He's just a competitor, and it's not a selfish thing. He just wants to make sure he helps his team where he can," Hamilton said. "I think that's the thing that's so big, is that he understands he's got to save himself for the games and make sure we're ready to go, and he just works really hard."

He's now three clear of Roberts with 54 career rushing touchdowns, and at 4,518 yards he's 361 ahead of anyone else who has ever toted the rock for South Aiken. Those gaps will become gulfs over the course of the season, especially considering Edwards' work ethic.

That was on display this week when Edwards felt under the weather and missed the T-Breds' 6 a.m. Monday practice. He came back Tuesday morning and was given limited reps, went to all of his classes and then went right back into the weight room to complete the lifting session he missed on Monday.

"That's just the kind of kid he is," Hamilton said. "He's just going to go to work. He understands what it takes, and the special ones do. He's one of them guys."