He’s Running Into the Record Book : Football: Jeff Andrews, who had second thoughts about playing after high school, now approaches the Fullerton College rushing mark.

FULLERTON — Jeff Andrews will take a handoff and most likely step into Fullerton College history during tonight’s Mission Conference football game against Golden West at Fullerton.

Andrews, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound sophomore tailback, starts play with 2,018 career rushing yards, 18 short of the Fullerton record held by Andrew Greer (1986-87).

“I haven’t really thought that much about the record,” Andrews said. “I’m a team player. I’ll do anything to win. That’s what’s fun about football for me.”

But there was a time in high school when football wasn’t such a good time, and he was ready to quit.

As a junior at Diamond Bar High School, he moved to the varsity and became the starting fullback. He preferred tailback, but that position was taken, and he wanted to play. So despite being just 5-feet-10 and 170 pounds, fullback it was.

As a senior, he was kept at fullback and managed 700 yards. But he had no scholarship offers to four-year colleges and wasn’t really sure if he wanted to play football again.

He took a visit to nearby Mt. San Antonio College but didn’t take it very seriously.

“I really didn’t want to play anymore at that time,” Andrews said. “I just wasn’t into it anymore.”

But a meeting with Fullerton Coach Hal Sherbeck changed all that.

Chuck Wilford, a high school teammate of Andrews’, was coming to Fullerton for a visit and asked Andrews to tag along.

“It was just something about meeting with Coach Sherbeck that made me want to play for him,” Andrews said. “I asked him if he wanted me to bring any game film of myself, like some coaches do, and he said, ‘No. Just show me what you can do on the field.’ ”

Andrews arrived at Fullerton in 1987 but decided to redshirt because he wasn’t going to play much with Greer in the starting lineup.

While Andrews was learning the system, Greer set the Fullerton career rushing record.

Last season, with Greer having moved on to Ohio University, Andrews started at tailback and ran for 1,520 yards, a Fullerton single-season record. He ran for more than 100 yards in eight of 11 games and averaged 138.2 yards a game.

This season, he has rushed for 498 yards and had more than 100 yards in three of Fullerton’s five games. His total could be higher, but he has come out three games before the fourth quarter because the score was so lopsided.

“My friends come up to me and say that I didn’t get that much yardage,” Andrews said. “But I say that we won. That’s what’s important.”