Who will replace Tony Brown at East Central? Here are the options.

The East Central High School football staff is not alone in the fact that it has key players to replace from last year's squad, but the Hornets have a bigger hole to fill than most.

East Central has produced some of the state's most prolific running backs over the last five years, but none will be harder to replace than Tony Brown.

The South Alabama signee helped the Hornets build a four-year run of having a running back rush for 2,400 yards. The first two running backs to hit that mark were Nate Cohen in 2014 (2,436) and A.J. Davis (2,893).

Brown followed with two huge seasons to close out his prep career, running for 3,317 yards as a junior and 2,748 as a senior. Considering Brown often sat out the second half of games last year, he could have hit 4,000 yards as a senior if he had stayed on the field.

With Brown now a member of the South Alabama football team, who will fill his shoes?

There is no clear candidate to be the next ECHS star, but there's a healthy group of options.

“We have a pretty good group,” running backs coach Donnie Wallace said. “If we stay healthy we have a chance to be successful. We have a good track record the last four years of producing 2,000-yard rushers. We'll have a lot of people carrying the ball, but we'll try to reach that number again.

“It all starts up front and (coach Sam Huff) does an excellent job with the offensive line.”

Next up

Here are the main options to step up and replace the production lost with Brown's graduation:

▪ Senior running back Cameron Gray missed almost half of the 2017 regular season slate due to a broken collarbone, but he proved explosive with the ball in his hands. He ran 41 times for 794 yards and six touchdowns as a wingback.

Gray runs a legit 40-yard dash of 4.5 seconds and has bulked up to 5-foot-10, 175 pounds.

He is now lining up at tailback and has a chance to be the game breaker that the Hornets need.

The speedy senior is still adjusting to his new position.

“It ain't easy because you've got got to be able to read other guys — linebackers, defensive backs and all that stuff,” Gray said. “We're just going go wide open and get in the end zone every time we can.”

▪ Junior running back Dylan Grinsteinner mostly played in cleanup duty last year, finishing with 59 carries for 467 yards and seven touchdowns. When Brown went down to injury in the first half of the Class 4A state title game against Noxubee County, Grinsteinner carried 14 times for 56 yards.

The 5-foot-4, 165-pound Grinsteinner is a grinder who works well behind the tackles, but he's made progress in getting faster and stronger. He's knocked a couple of ticks off his 40-yard dash with a time of 4.65 seconds. He also has a 400-pound squat and a 335-pound bench press.

“Me and Cam both hit the hole pretty hard,” Grinsteinner said. “He brings aggressiveness and I do too. He has a little more speed, but I think I'm a little more aggressive.”

▪ Senior wingback Ryan Evans is fully healthy after battling through an illness early last season. He's the most experienced of the backs after carrying 101 times for 581 yards and six touchdowns a year ago. He ran 65 times for 770 yards and two scores as a sophomore.

The 5-foot-7, 201-pound Evans, who has a squat of 550 pounds and a bench press of 350, makes the switch from tailback to wingback this year.

“Even though we lost a bunch of great athletes, that's not going to stop us from pushing forward and getting better every day,” Evans said. “We'll still keep the same momentum, keep grinding. We'll keep going.”

Passing game

The quarterback-receiver combination of Rylee Brown and Brad Cumbest helped open things up for Tony Brown and the rest of the East Central rushing attack the last two seasons.

East Central head coach Seth Smith hopes that junior quarterback Will Young and 6-foot-3 junior receiver Matt Stringfellow will continue to present that threat this year.

“(Stringfellow) runs good. He's not quite as big as (6-foot-6, 240-pound Cumbest), but he's big enough to be a target, a threat,” Smith said. “We've got some things we're working on to imply balance like last year.”

Young may prove the most effective new weapon in the East Central offense this season. While Rylee Brown was known as a 6-foot-4 quarterback who could make the deep toss, the 5-foot-10, 188-pound Young is a dual-threat option.

Smith calls Young his “Mini-Tebow.”

“I can run, throw the ball and do whatever coach asks me to do,” Young said. “If I've got to block, I'll block.”

Young claims a 40-yard dash of 4.6 seconds and Smith hopes that speed at quarterback will take some of the pressure off his running backs.

“It's an extra guy you have to defend,” Smith said. “We ask a lot out of our quarterbacks. Not many schools ask the quarterback to block. That gives you an extra man in the running game. Running, he'll allow us to do some different things just because he's so athletic. We've got a couple of things we'll tweak here and there but for the most part you're going to see a lot of the same, just maybe a dynamic or two that's a little different.”

This story was originally published June 26, 2018 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Who will replace Tony Brown at East Central? Here are the options.."