SMASHMOUTH

Tustin High Coach Myron Miller thought his senior running back, Branden Malcom, had a good game running the football--217 yards--against Santa Ana a couple of weeks ago. But then he looked at his newspaper the next morning and realized it wasn’t a very big deal.

“He runs for 217 and he couldn’t even get in the top five in the county,” Miller said. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really a running back’s county this year.’ ”

Even if Malcom had run for 300 yards, he would only have rated third in the county in Week 8. Foothill’s Skyler Champion gained a county-record 527 yards against Orange, and Aliso Niguel’s Iman Nikzad rolled up 351 yards against Woodbridge.

Miller, who has coached the run-oriented, double-wing offense for nearly 30 years, was in the stands for Nikzad’s performance.

“It was a thing of beauty,” Miller said. “They weren’t just zone blocking. They were blocking angles and running a lot of pretty sophisticated stuff. They were really breaking a lot of runs clean. I was really impressed.

“In the past, everybody was using the same running plays and when they did run, it was almost by accident. But it seems like this year almost every team is committed to the run.”

That includes Newport Harbor, Fountain Valley and Los Alamitos, teams which typically live and die by the pass. Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes has become known for the Griffins’ prolific and well-orchestrated passing game, but he will lead his team into the playoffs this week against Lakewood with a two-back, run-oriented attack.

For the first time in nine years, Barnes’ team has more yards rushing than passing. Damon Johnson has run for 1,324 yards, which ranks 15th in the county. The last time Barnes had a top-15 back was 1993, when Enrique Bozeman rushed for 1,194 yards.

“It’s not by choice,” Barnes said with a chuckle. “It’s more by necessity.”

It became a necessity after the Griffins’ sixth game, which they won, 14-10, over Esperanza. Quarterback Mike Sanford had been in Indiana for two years in an option-type offense. Barnes said Sanford was simply overwhelmed by the complexity of Los Alamitos’ passing game.

“We weren’t scoring points and I decided we needed to get our offense into a more comfortable situation,” said Barnes, whose team finished the regular season with a record of 9-1. “People were ganging up on us and we weren’t making the plays we needed to in the passing game. I decided we needed to do what we had to in order to win.”

Playing smash-mouth football was the way to go for Barnes, and it seems to be the winning formula for a lot of playoff teams. Ten of the county’s top 15 rushers are going to the playoffs.

Why suddenly is this the year of the running back? Coaches and players say there are several factors. Plenty of teams had inexperienced quarterbacks throwing to inexperienced receivers. Also, there are several quality running backs, many of whom are being recruited by Division I colleges.

“Most of the coaches in Orange County are pretty good and they are seeing that the strength of their team is the running game,” said Edison Coach Dave White, whose normally balanced offense is more run oriented with Darryl Poston, the county’s fourth-leading rusher. “It’s not like college where you can recruit good quarterbacks and receivers every year. You get what you can get. Coaches are simply adjusting to their personnel.”

Those same coaches are also taking advantage of some pretty lackluster defenses.

“Let’s face it, there are some pretty have-not teams,” Miller said. “It’s a little bit of a down year for Orange County in football. So when a good team goes up against a bad one, you see running backs gaining a lot of yards.”

Marina’s Ray Mietiewicz, a 6-foot-1, 240-pound senior fullback in Coach Mark Rehling’s triple-option offense, has had six games of more than 190 yards rushing, including a 322-yard performance against Huntington Beach.

“A lot of teams aren’t that physical up front,” said Mietiewicz, who has played much of the season with a broken left wrist and is being wooed by Pac-10 schools. “Teams are able to exploit that. I know I can’t wait to get out there against some of these teams.”

La Habra’s Josh Herrera, who had a 300-yard game against Sonora and a 302-yard game against Buena Park, feels the same way.

“Everyone is getting 200 yards, like it’s nothing,” said Herrera, a 6-0, 180-pound tailback who is being recruited by most Pac-10 schools. “I don’t feel like I’ve had a big game unless I’m close to 300. It’s weird.”

What’s been weirder than anything for coaches this season is scouting Los Alamitos and realizing that you have to stop the run first.

“I said, ‘Hold it, is this real?’ ” Rehling said as he looked at Los Alamitos game films. “What are they doing out of I-formation?”

Barnes said he is just trying to keep up with the times.

“People are always trying to keep up with the top dog,” Barnes said. “In the ‘90s, they did that with us and that’s why this became a passing league. Now, we’re stealing from other teams, seeing what good running plays we can get.”

But Barnes said he’s not quite ready to be compared to Woody Hayes . . . or Myron Miller.

“I’m a frustrated Don Coryell [known as Air Coryell with the San Diego Chargers],” he said. “But I’m not a frustrated John Barnes because we’re still winning and that’s what counts.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Top individual game rushing performances of 1999 through end of regular season

527 Skyler Champion (Foothill) vs. Orange 11/5

322 Ray Mietkiewicz (Marina) vs. Huntington Beach 10/29

315 Iman Nikzad (Aliso Niguel) vs. Woodbridge 11/6

302 Josh Herrera (La Habra) vs. Buena Park 11/12

300 Josh Herrera (La Habra) vs. Sonora 10/15

287 Marquis Colvin (Villa Park) vs. Canyon 11/5

287 C.J. Zuniga (Costa Mesa) vs. Laguna Beach 11/5

284 Brian Jeffrey (Katella) vs. Orange 9/24

272 Brett Murray (Troy) vs. Ocean View 10/8

268 Shaun Shuck (Huntington Beach) vs. Edison 11/12

264 Marquis Colvin (Villa Park) vs. Foothill 10/15

262 Ao Sualua (Los Amigos) vs. Rancho Alamitos 10/1

260 Branden Malcom (Tustin) vs. Ocean View 11/11

256 Billy Chavez (Loara) vs. Kennedy 10/14

256 C.J. Zuniga (Costa Mesa) vs. Brethren Christian 10/8

255 Bryan Kim (Fairmont) vs. Southern California Christian 10/9

253 Ray Mietkiewicz (Marina) vs. Westminster 10/1

252 Brandon Shepard (Sunny Hills) vs. Troy 10/15