POLSON — Polson quarterback Jarrett Wilson is on track for a record-breaking season, averaging 384 passing yards per game and leading the No. 4 Pirates to a 5-0 start to the season.
According to the Montana High School Association, the 11-man record for passing yards per game is 376.8, set by Butte's Dallas Cook in 2013. It's a pace that Wilson has exceeded so far, but like any quarterback would tell you, his stat line would look very different if it wasn’t for his offensive line.
"They are great and obviously we could not be doing what we are doing without them" said Wilson." I am very grateful for those guys and I am excited to see what they will do as the season moves on."
"If one of screws up, we all screw up. My job is to protect Jarrett and I am going to do it well," said offensive lineman Mason Smith.
And this front line has been doing it well. Actually, extremely well. Polson's offensive line has given up just four sacks on 139 passing attempts so far this season. Offensive line coach Pat Danley says a lot of their success this season comes from what they worked on in the off season.
"The biggest thing is we wanted to be more physical sometimes when you are a pass first offense like us you have a tendency to be a little more passive and so it was really one of the things that all us coaches wanted to do was to make sure we were more physical this year. We were way too passive last year," Danley said.
That passiveness hasn’t completely gone away however, at least, off the field. Every offensive lineman, at every level, will tell you the one thing they don’t want is attention. As good as they are at deflecting defenses, they are just as good at deflecting compliments.
"We are really trying to be a unit and sometimes playing offensive line is not a glory position and you don’t get a lot of credit and so we have to play for each other," said Danley.
Polson hosts Columbia Falls on Friday at 7 p.m.
