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Rex Brown

Daniel High School’s Michael Wingard breaks into the open field during the Lions’ season-opening win over Easley at Singleton Field in Central. Wingard and backfield mate Brandon Anderson have combined for 1,563 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on the season for the top-ranked and undefeated Lions.

CENTRAL — If there’s been one constant with the Daniel High School football team over the years, it has been its ability to run the football with authority.

Much of the Lions’ reputation has stemmed from their ability to pound out the tough yards on the ground, with decorated running backs like Javis Austin, Vare Hamilton, Jovan Kirksey and Chris McIntosh helping to bring plenty of notoriety to the Daniel offense.

But in recent years, it’s looking more and more like those kind of feature backs are part of a dying breed around Central, as the Lions have opted to move away from the heavy rushing attack that former head coach Allen Sitterle used to employ.

Instead, the Lions like to run more of a balanced offense these days, showing a once incomprehensible ability to effectively put the ball in the air.

But as long as the team is still wearing blue and gold and still bears the Daniel name, there’s no way for the Lions to lose sight of just how important it is to run the football.

“We still have that pride of the old days where we want to be able to run when we want to run,” Daniel head coach Randy Robinson said.

And when the Lions opt to keep the ball on the ground, they’re doing it with a two-back system, which currently features Brandon Anderson and Michael Wingard splitting the workload.

It’s a different school of thought for Daniel to subscribe to than in years past, but it’s a system the Lions have come to embrace, as the results have been solid so far this season.

“I think it pushes us more because we know we have to be just as good as the other person to keep it that way and keep the same number of carries,” Anderson said following practice on Wednesday evening.

So far this season, the running back duo has piled up 1,563 yards and 13 touchdowns this season, while combining for an average of 5.6 yards per carry.

Wingard, a senior who has just 17 more carries than Anderson, found himself in a similar situation a season ago with then-senior Trenton Walker, who seemed to emerge out of nowhere to become the Lions’ second-leading rusher.

Now with Anderson, a junior, emerging this season, Wingard once again has no problem sharing the load and is plenty happy to throw a block for his backfield mate instead of toting the ball each time he’s on the field.

“Both of us are expected to be able to block or run,” Wingard said. “You don’t want to bear that on just one person, and it makes it harder for defenses to know who’s going to get the ball.”

It didn’t come easy for the duo early in the year though, as both Anderson and Wingard worked to establish their roles behind a young offensive line during non-region play. But as the year has worn on, Anderson said things have begun to roll along better from week to week.

“We did start off pretty slow working together, but we finally got it to where we’re working just as hard in practice as we are when we go out there and play the games,” Anderson said.

In addition to giving opposing defenses two different backs to prepare for, splitting carries also helps the Lions cut down on turnovers, which Robinson has always seen as a drawback with using just one running back.

“We’ve had some great backs here, but you always worry about that,” Robinson said. “Now on a given night, they each touch it about 15 times and that really complements each other, and they do a good job protecting the football.”

With the two-back system, the Lions won’t have a running back pining for a 1,500 yard season like in the old days, but they’re still getting the results they want, which is their first undefeated regular season since 1999.

But still, there are some lofty goals left for the Lions’ rushing attack.

“We’d like to get both of them over 1,000 yards,” Robinson said. “We have to play a few more games to get there.”

That journey will start tonight at 7:30 p.m., when the Lions kickoff against Fairfield Central in the second round of the Class AAA playoffs in Central.