Update: Liberty quarterback still has chance to attain 4,000/4,000 milestone

NOTE: Eariler this year, I published an article about this subject which contained incorrect statistical information. I thank the readers for bringing that to my attention. This article contains the correct statistical information and current projections for Anthony Gonzalez’ quest toward becoming the second 4,000/4,000 quarterback in state history.

Before the start of the 2007 high school football season, Pennsylvania had never had a quarterback rush and pass for 4,000 yards each in his career.

Now, by the end of 2009, the Keystone State could see a second quarterback accomplish the feat in three years.

The only quarterback with both 4,000 rushing and passing yards each in his career was Terrelle Pryor, Jeannette’s phenomenal quarterback. Pryor finished his career with 4,250 rushing yards and 4,340 passing yards, according to the Pennsylvania Football News’ Resource Guide.

Pryor currently starts at quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and helped lead the scarlet and silver to the Fiesta Bowl.

Now, Liberty quarterback Anthony Gonzalez could join Pryor in the 4,000/4,000 club. If Gonzalez is successful in reaching the milestone, he’d be in the company of an athlete who is considered to be one of Pennsylvania’s greatest.

By now, you’ve seen Gonzalez’ 2008 season stats published in some written form, whether on this website or in a Lehigh Valley newspaper. But in case you hadn’t seen the season Gonzalez had in 2008, he totaled 1,697 rushing yards and 1,585 passing yards. He ran for 24 touchdowns and threw for 12 more.

But it’s the 2007 season stats that few may remember. Liberty’s football website usually kept accurate season statistics for passing, rushing, and receiving yards, that is, up until this season. The 2007 season stats weren’t accessible on the site, and the 2008 numbers only went through the first two games of the season.

So the question became this: what were Gonzalez’ sophomore season stats? Liberty hasn’t made submitting statistics to Maxpreps.com a weekly habit as most schools have, which is OK. In that sense, statistical accomplishments remain anonymous. Football, after all, is a team sport.

Gonzalez’ 2007 stats, according to his recruiting profile on ESPN.com, list 1,200 passing yards and 600 rushing yards for his first season as a varsity starter.  The profile didn’t list touchdown totals, but that’s all right.  Yardage is the number in question, anyway.

As it stands today, Gonzalez’ career yardage totals, through 28 varsity football games, sit at 2,785 passing yards and 2,297 rushing yards.  Now, here’s where the numbers get tricky.  Get out your calculators and bear with this former Communications major through the math portion of this.

Gonzalez’ career per game averages check in at 99.4 passing yards and 82.0 rushing yards, or 181.4 yards per game.  His 2008 season per game averages were similar – 99.0 passing yards and 106.1 rushing yards, or 205 yards per game.

Here’s where the projections get rather interesting.  If Gonzalez equals his output from a season ago, assuming Liberty plays for another PIAA title in ’09, he’ll be sitting at 4,370 passing yards and 3,994 rushing yards, just shy of becoming the second quarterback in the state to hit 4,000/4,000.  If he keeps along his career per game averages, again, assuming a 16-game season, Gonzalez would throw for 1,590 yards, but only run for 1,312.  That rushing total would leave him 391 yards shy of 4,000.

Here’s one last caveat:  Liberty has one more PIAA football championship in its football history than it does 4,000-yard rushers.  So Gonzalez could do something that not even impressive runners like Dan Persa, Charles Irving, Ahkeem Smith, or Brendan Brader did.

If all goes well, and #8 can amass the 1,703 rushing and 1,215 passing yards he needs to reach the 4,000/4,000 milestone, one can only imagine how many comparisons to Terrelle Pryor will start springing forth on the sports boards.

Gonzalez is up to 10 Division-1 offers at this juncture, with Clemson being the latest school to extend an offer.  Florida State, West Virginia, Missouri, Vanderbilt, and Maryland also extended offers.