It is one thing to have a big game or even a big stretch of games. It is another thing entirely to produce at an elite level over the course of an entire campaign.
As we turn the page in the Faulkner football record books, this week's chapter brings into focus the best single season performances by an individual player in program history.
 
OFFENSE
Rushing

• Attempts – All of the single season rushing records in program history belong to one man: Joe Jones. Th icon of the Eagles' ground game turned in a career that saw him average five yards per carry over the span of 40 contests. The 2015 campaign saw the Buford, Ga. native hit the triple digit rushing yards mark three times while carrying the ball 160 times for 829 yards and eight touchdowns. Jones first hit the century mark in the season opener against Southeastern when he ran 22 times for 102 yards. He did a little bit of everything against Campbellsville in the Eagles' first loss of the season on Oct. 3, 2015 when he toted the rock 19 times for 121 yards and two scores while also catching six passes for 54 yards and completing a pass for 33 yards. Jones then went off in Waleska, Ga. a week later when he parlayed 18 carries in 223 yards and three touchdowns. Despite never hitting the 25-carry mark in a single game, he ended the year with 160 carries.
• Yards – If not for being limited to just five carries in each of the last two games of the 2015 season, Jones likely ends the year as the only 1,000-yard rusher in program history. He capped the campaign with 829 yards on the ground, buoyed in part by the 223-yard performance against Reinhardt that still stands as the second-best ground game produced by any player in program history. That game also featured Jones achieving the second longest rushing play by a Faulkner Eagle as he had a 93-yard touchdown run that left his team up 21-3 early in the second quarter.
• Touchdowns – For all that Jones accomplished in his 2015 sophomore season, his eight rushing touchdowns proved the third lowest mark of his career. It was his junior year that saw Jones hit the end zone a dozen (12) times to set the program high. He scored once against Bluefield and then twice a week later against Kentucky Christian. After a week of not greeting the goal line at Georgetown, he got enough visits to the Campbellsville end zone to fill out a punch card and qualify for a free gift. His five-touchdown performance on the road Oct. 1, 2016 matched a program record and helped anchor a season that saw him run the ball 113 times for 639 yards and 12 scores.
  • FROM THE SOURCE: "I just felt like I couldn't be stopped that game. My mindset was 'just give me the ball and get out the way,'" Jones, who spent more than five years as a sports performance trainer before last summer accepting an opportunity as a construction consultant, recalled about the career game against Campbellsville. "When I look back on that 2015 season all I can think about is how much of a blessing that was. Prior to that season I hadn't played in a game in two years." Jones is also sprinting toward his next milestone as he marries his college sweetheart Friday, July 14.

 
Passing

• Attempts – Let me officially welcome you back to the Josh Hollingsworth section of the record book. All four of the major single-season passing records belong to Hollingsworth with three of them stemming from his outstanding 2011 campaign. The Hamilton, Ala. native was not throwing away his shot but he was throwing everything else in his first year under center for the Eagles as he registered 513 pass attempts over 10 games. The former Furman Paladin threw the ball 50-plus times against Huntingdon, Pikeville, Shorter and Campbellsville before launching the ball 74 times against Bethel and 63 against Union.
  • FROM THE SOURCE: "That first season was pretty special. I feel the whole season was a shock honestly. I didn't know what to expect transferring in. I had not played in a game is over two years," Hollingsworth, who is a teacher and coach at Bob Jones High School, reflected. "I just wanted to get back to having fun playing football. It wasn't quite that way when I was at Furman. Of course, the biggest thing that stood out was the final game [against Union]. I was just trying to do the best I could to give us a chance to win each game."
• Completions – It should come as no surprise that the season which produced the greatest number of pass attempts by a single player also produced the most completions. Hollingsworth complete 65.1 percent of his passes that season as 334 of his 513 throws were hauled in by his receivers. He completed 40 passes against Huntingdon, 48 against Union and 50 on a cold night at Bethel.
• Yards – As impressive of a season as Hollingsworth had throwing the ball in 2011, his 3,937 yards passing would only last for two years as the single-season record. That mark fell in 2013 during Hollingsworth's senior year as he led the Eagles to the NAIA playoffs in a 9-3 campaign. He surpassed the 300-yard mark eight times on the year, throwing for 400 yards on two occasions and exceeding 500 yards two other times. He passed for 503 yards against Georgetown on Oct. 5 before lighting up Kentucky Christian for 554 yards on Nov. 16. He finished the year 4,367 yards.
  • FROM THE SOURCE: "The craziest part about 2013 was I cracked the bone in my throwing hand during the second game. There were quite a few times that, if we were up enough, I would come out of the game earlier than normal," Hollingsworth recalled. "I also remember how well we came together as a team that year. We had the taste of success the year before and worked really hard that offseason. We lost the 2 games in a row pretty early and had a bye week. During that bye week we changed our mindset and that is what helped us finish the season. The final game was played in the snow."
• Touchdowns – Back to 2011 for a moment. The Eagles went 3-7 that season but it was not for lack of an ability to make it to the end zone. Hollingworth made certain of that. He threw 43 touchdown passes that year, throwing for multiple scores in every game. The law point came when he tossed two touchdowns at Cumberland on a day that he also ran in two scores. Every other contest saw him complete at least three touchdown passes while he tossed five scores or more five times. The highlights came in a six-touchdown performance against Campbellsville and a seven-score game against Union.

Receiving

• Receptions – Faulkner's all-time single season high for catches is 70, a mark set by Reagan Amos in 2017. The Woodstock, Ga. native played four years for the Eagles and ended his run with 151 catches for 1,527 yards over 39 games played. That an average of 10.1 yards per catch. But the bulk of his numbers came during his junior season when he hauled in 70 passes for 770 yards and eight touchdowns. Amos opened the season with six catches at Kentucky Christian before putting together consecutive double digit reception performances the next two weeks. He caught 10 passes against Georgetown and 14 versus Reinhardt. He went on to catch at least seven passes in a game on four more occasions that season, proving the greatest beneficiary of a Clayton Nicholas-helmed offense that accounted for 3,521 yards through the air. On the whole, Amos was the recipient of 24.4 percent of Faulkner's complete throws that season.
  • FROM THE SOURCE: "That year was the closest tight knit football team I had ever been on. And we treated each other as such. It wasn't about individual stats. I mean even the receivers blocked because we didn't want our brother getting hit. We enjoyed spending time with one another even outside of practice. Not many teams can say that," Amos, who has been working with the Oxford church of Christ for three years, said. "I do remember I only got to play eight full games that year because I broke a bone in my toe lol was super salty." Amos and his wife, Katie, recently celebrated the birth of their daughter, Karsyn Jane Amos. "God has blessed me beyond measure and I pray that I will spend the rest of my life serving and living for Him," Amos said.
• Yards – Delray Beach, Fla. native Rob Lockhart wasted little time asserting himself after transferring from Hinds Community College in 2014. The. 6-1 wideout caught 50 passes for 774 yards that year, a mark that topped the team and stood as the third best campaign in program history. A year later, Lockhart shattered the receiving records with 1,155 yards receiving. Nearly a decade later, he is still the only receiver in Eagle history to turn in a 1,000-yard season. Lockhart's special junior year had him exceed the century mark six times in 10 games, boosting his final tally dramatically with a 187-yard performance against Campbellsville and a 165-yard outing against Kentucky Christian. That production came alongside A.J. Stevenson, who went for 914 yards that year as the talented tandem topped an offense that threw for 3,855 yards.
• Touchdowns – Courtney Pete for six proved a common theme of the 2011 season as the La Mesa, Calif. Native visited the end zone in nine of the 10 games in which he competed. Pete's production was steady and he hauled in five touchdown passes in four weeks to open the year before being kept out of the end zone Oct. 15, 2011 against Cumberland. From that point forward, Pete's output found entirely new levels. He scored three touchdowns a week later against Campbellsville and accounted for four scores at Bethel seven days afterward. He capped the season with a three-touchdown game against Union, giving him 16 for the season. Pete and teammate Chris Kordakis from Placerville, Calif. Became the first Eagle receivers to account for double digit touchdowns over the course of a season. Faulkner has had eight such individual performances with A.J. Stevenson going off in 2013 to match Pete's 2011 touchdown output. A Birmingham native and Cisco College transfer, Stevenson put his 6-4 frame to work early in his Eagle tenure, becoming a preferred target of then senior quarterback Josh Hollingsworth. Stevenson caught multiple passes in every game he played, scoring a touchdown in 11 of the 12 outings. The long shutout came against Georgetown but he more than made up for it with multi-score games on four occasions, highlighted by a three-touchdown outing against Kentucky Christian.

DEFENSE

• Tackles – It should come as no surprise that the first Faulkner football player inducted into the school's Hall of Fame is in the record book for one of the greatest seasons in program history. Sean Thom was sideline to sideline in every respect in 2008, hitting the double-digit tackle mark 10 times in 11 games. He tallied 18 stops twice, hitting the mark against Huntingdon on Sept. 13 and at Lambuth on Oct. 18. He added a 17-tackle performance against West Virginia Tech Nov. 1 to go along with three 15-stop outings as the Destin, Fla. native concluded his season with 157 total tackles.
• Sacks – Andrew Mahan was really difficult to block in 2013, so much so that he got at least a half sack in nine of 12 games played, finishing the season with 13.5. The Selma native announced his presence in a major way to open the 2013 season, recorded four sacks against Webber International Aug. 31 in a contest that also saw him force a fumble and breakup a pass. He capped the season with a performance that may have been more impressive in its own right as he tallied 3.5 sacks on the road against Saint Francis in the playoffs.
  • FROM THE SOURCE: "We had so much talent on that team that year, at every position. We all pushed each other. We also had coach that did an excellent job scouting other teams. So, when it came Saturday, we played lights out," Mahan, who is now the owner and general contractor of A.M. Site Development in Selma, Ala. said. "I have three beautiful daughters, an outstanding son, and a beautiful wife."
• Tackles for Loss – If you got to the quarterback 13.5 times, you probably also caused plenty of other havoc in the opposing backfield. Mahan did just that in 2013 as 19 of his 59 total tackles came behind the line of scrimmage. Six of those occurred against Webber International and 4.5 came against Saint Francis. He also had multiple TFLs in three other games.
• Interceptions – The 2013 season was some kind of special for Faulkner as the Eagles made the NAIA playoffs for the first time in program history. One of the numerous highlights from that memorable campaign was Lake Forest, Calif. native Donny Ruggles. The Golden West College transfer intercepted a program record six  (6) passes on the year, surpassing his own program record of five that he had achieved a season earlier, matching the efforts of Quentory Braswell (2008) and Fred Poindexter (2007). Marte Sears strolled onto campus from Fresno, Calif. and matched that mark a season later, pulling six picks in 2014.
  • FROM THE SOURCE: What stands out to me about the 2013 defense and the team as a whole was how close we were. I still talk to a lot of the guys from the team. It really was a team effort. I would not have that record if it wasn't for the pressure the defensive line put on the opposing quarterbacks. I also would not have had as many opportunities for interceptions if it wasn't for the offense scoring 40-plus points a game and forcing the other team to throw the ball that much more," Ruggles, who returned home to Southern California and now works as an EMT at Children's Hospital of Orange County," said. "Of course, I also want to thank the coaches, Coach Houston in particular, for putting me in a position to make plays."

SPECIAL TEAMS

• Field Goals Made – Let's stay with 2013 for a moment. Having read that seven of the program's individual season records came during that memorable year, it might be easy to forget that Faulkner had just two NAIA All-Americans. One of them was Josh Hollingworth. The other scored 118 points on the season and made at least one field goal in nine of the 12 games played. West Palm Beach, Fla. native Cameron Golob knocked through 17 of 24 field goal attempts with a long of 44 yards coming against Webber International on Aug. 31. He made at least three field goals on three different occasions and was perfect on extra point attempts in all but two games. Golob made at least five PATs nine times, finishing a nearly flawless 67-for-69 after touchdowns.
• Punts – Jared Corder probably had no idea how much work he was going to get when he came to Faulkner from Eads, Tenn. for his 2009 junior season. Corder got three field goal attempts on the year and nine in his two-year Eagle career. But punting proved an entirely different story. Corder boomed the ball away 47 times in 2008, his first season in the heart of our fair Southland, but he was called upon much more in 2009.  Corder punted the ball an astounding 80 times that season for a total of 2,804 yards. He launched a punt of 45 yards or more in eight out of 10 games played, eclipsing the 50-yard mark in six games and surpassing 60 yards twice.
• Return Yards – It is only fitting that this story should culminate with one more visit to 2013. In this instance, it is Trump Harrison whose standout performance continues to live on in the records. Harrison, the diminutive dynamo from Pasadena, Calif., racked up 941 return yards in 12 games for the Eagles. He ran back 27 kickoffs for 626 yards while also amassing 315 yards on 21 punt returns. That's an average of 19.6 yards per return. Additionally, he caught 53 passes for 866 yards and nine touchdowns and rushed the ball once for a yard. That also gives him the all-purpose yards mark for a single season with 1,808 yards.