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The final numbers are staggering.

Two hundred eighty-two carries — yep that is right you aren’t hallucinating 282 — 2,531 yards gained and 29 touchdowns. That is an average of 8.79 yards per carry, almost a first down every touch. No matter what the level of competition, those numbers are flat-out jaw dropping.

Anyone who has followed football in the Northland this year has a good idea who owns those numbers — Winnetonka senior running back Darrell Jobe. For those accomplishments, Jobe has been named the Sun News Boys Athlete of the Fall.   

Even more amazing is that Winnetonka football coach Ken Clemens said the numbers could have been bigger if he wanted them to.

“We thought he was going to be able to gain 2,000 yards, and he made it look pretty effortless,” Clemens said. “Had we set a goal of 3,000 he could have gone ahead and done 3,000 yards this year.”

For all his critics, Jobe is the toughest one on himself. He looks at the numbers and still does not feel a sense of satisfaction.

“I could have done better,” Jobe said. “There were plays where I could have caught my footing at a better time, I could have broken another tackle or I could have done an extra move to pick up extra yards.”

Then Jobe would have the audacity to walk back to the huddle and apologize to his teammates he had not done better.

“Sometimes they would just look at me and be like, ‘What are you talking about? You just broke like a 25-yard run,’” Jobe laughed. “The only thing I could say was that I was sorry and going to do better.”

Jobe is not the biggest back in the state, but he is among the fastest. Despite not being your prototypical “big back,” Jobe still packs a punch when he carries the ball. Never shy to put his pads into an opposing tackler, he tries to model himself after Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.

“He is hard-nosed, and he really doesn’t care who is in the way,” Jobe said. “If you are in the way he is either going to truck you, spin, juke or out run you. I just look up to him.”

Clemens and the rest of the coaching staff — and even Jobe’s teammates — really did not know they had a “Mini Me” version of Peterson in their backfield until the second week of the season.

“Almost every game looks like a highlight film, it doesn’t look like a game,” Clemens said. “It looks like a Darrell Jobe highlight reel. Probably the run that stands out against all others was against Grandview. He jumped over two guys who were engaged with our receivers and standing up. He came down on his feet on the other side and scored.”

In a season full of gaudy numbers, some of Jobe’s more complete performances came in the last weeks of the season. It was at that time Jobe and his linemen finally got on the same page.

“I would say at the end of the season we went out with a bang,” Jobe said. “The game that stood out to me the most was our second game against Park Hill South (in the regional playoffs). The line blocked that first play perfectly when I scored that touchdown. That is when I felt like everyone had high hopes. It was there earlier in the season, but that is when I felt it really sink in.”

One of Jobe’s biggest wishes was for another year as a Griffin, but he knows that is not possible. When he thinks of how far he has come since being a newcomer nobody really knew in June to being someone the whole school knew by November, he can’t help but smile and enjoy the moment. It was a job well done.

Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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