The state’s top two total offense QBs of all-time are Jake Browning (left) of Folsom & Jayden Daniels from Cajon of San Bernardino. Both are shown in photos from high school years. Photos: Mark Tennis & YouTube.com.
It’s a continuing process of adding categories and doing updates to the exclusive Cal-Hi Sports state football record archives. This week, we’ve added new categories for total offense by individuals. This includes yardage, scoring and points accountable for during a season and career. Go inside to see why we got motivated to add these categories to our all-time state lists.
Note: We hope you enjoy this free post on CalHiSports.com. All of our actual state record files and all-time state lists are for Gold Club members only. To check out getting a Gold Club membership to see all of those state record lists plus all new state rankings, totally authentic historical features, recruiting player ratings and more, CLICK HERE.
FOR THE NEWLY ADDED TOTAL OFFENSE INDIVIDUAL STATE RECORD CATEGORIES (GOLD CLUB), CLICK HERE.
FOR THE HOME PAGE TO SEE ALL OF OUR STATE FOOTBALL RECORD CATEGORIES, CLICK HERE.
Perhaps it’s because of the possibility of Jake Browning getting his first NFL start as a quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals or perhaps it’s the Heisman Trophy candidacy of LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, but in the last few weeks it became the perfect time add total offense categories for individuals to the all-time state football records maintained by Cal-Hi Sports.
Since Browning had such a prolific passing career during his years at Folsom High from 2012 to 2014, including 91 touchdown passes (national record at the time) in his senior year, most would assume that the Bulldog great also would have all of the state records for total offense (combining rushing and passing yards).
That’s not the case, however. Browning, who later became a standout at Washington before battling some injuries in later years, wasn’t that much of runner. Daniels, who initially went to Arizona State after starring at Cajon of San Bernardino from 2015 to 2018, was very much of a runner and with his rushing yards added on is still the current state record holder for most total offense yards for a season and career.
Browning, who won the Bengals’ back-up QB job this off-season and in August where he plays behind Joe Burrow, also did not get any games in at Folsom as a freshman. He still finished with 16,915 total offense yards. Daniels did play as a freshman during the 2015 season and helped with his 3,579 career rushing yards he easily moved past Browning’s record in his senior year. Jayden ended with 17,406 yards in 54 games played.
Those are the only two QBs in state history who have had more than 16,000 career total offense yards. There’s also only one other QB who was even able to have more than 15,000 career yards. That would be Hank Bachmeier from Murrieta Valley of Murrieta, who had 15,340 from 2015 to 2018. Hank’s younger brother, Bear, is the current quarterback of the Nighthawks and still has the rest of this season and next season (he’s a junior) to perhaps set some records of his own. Hank is now playing not far from Jayden Daniels at Louisiana Tech (previously at Boise State).
Kaiden Bennett quarterbacked Folsom to CIF D1-AA state titles in 2017 and 2018. Photo: Willie Eashman.
The first of the many Folsom quarterbacks to really make a name for himself as a total offense stat fiend was 2010 State Player of the Year Dano Graves. He set the state record with 85 combined rushing and passing touchdowns in that season when he led the Bulldogs to a victory over Serra of Gardena in the CIF D2 state title. Browning broke that record four years later with 96 (91 of those TDs via passing).
Not all of the Folsom quarterbacks have been able to have that long of a career as they had to wait for their turn behind those like Browning and Graves. In 2011, in his senior year, Tanner Trosin had the reigns of the offense and racked up a total offense number with 6,354 yards that Browning did not surpass in his 2012, 2013 or 2014 seasons. Trosin’s total is still No. 2 all-time and was broken by Jayden Daniels of Cajon with 6,431 in his 16-game junior season (2017).
Two others from Folsom also are on the short list of those with 5,000 or more total offense yards in a season — Kaiden Bennett for 2017 in his junior season with 5,649 and Jake Jeffrey with 5,168 in 2015. Bennett is currently the starting QB at Sacramento State who led the Hornets two weeks ago to a big win at Stanford, which is in its first year under head coach Troy Taylor. It was in the years when Taylor was co-coaching the Bulldogs with Kris Richardson when many of the Folsom quarterbacks set all of their records.
The team’s current quarterback, sophomore Ryder Lyons, certainly seems cut into the mold of many of those others, especially with the way he attacks the field as a runner. Last year’s QB, Austin Mack, is now at Washington.
More Total Offense QBs On All-Time Lists
*Another starting QB situation that came up as we were doing the research to add these categories to our site was at Alabama where former Bishop’s High of La Jolla standout Tyler Buchner was in the mix. Buchner, who was the starter for one game, had come down to Alabama after previously playing at Notre Dame. Tyler actually is a grad of Helix High in La Mesa, but never played for the Highlanders due to the 2020 pandemic. In his junior season at Bishop’s in 2019, Buchner had some truly memorable outings including 760 yards (465 passing) against Chula Vista Mater Dei Catholic and 649 yards (353 rushing) in a wild and wacky 75-59 playoff loss to Oceanside El Camino.
Zevi Eckhaus passed for 4,456 yards for his junior season at Culver City in 2019. Photo: culvercitynews.org.
*Another QB who probably would have set more total offense and passing yards records were it not for the 2020 pandemic was Culver City’s Zevi Eckhaus. He only was able to play a handful of games as a senior but still had 148 combined touchdowns in his career. Thanks to Culver City head coach Jamahl Wright for helping us with collecting Zevi’s career stats.
*Our friend from Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area, Robert Braunstein, asked us in August a question about William Augenstein, the quarterback last season from Branham of San Jose. Augenstein had 2,171 yards rushing for the Bruins and also ended with 2,049 passing yards. Has anybody else ever had 2,000 yards or more for both? We looked through our files and went through all of the MaxPreps state leader lists since 2008 and the answer looks like just one. That would be former Serra of Gardena all-state player and University of Arizona speedster Kahlil Tate. In his senior year at Serra in 2015, Tate had 2,130 yards rushing and 2,036 yards passing.
*One category that we never know where to put in the archives is for most games played. It was placed in the printed record books (last one was in 2009) underneath total offense so it also was added to those lists in the same place today. The current state record of 58 games played was set in 2018 by Damion Valencia of small school Strathmore. He was a freshman starter for the Spartans in 2015 and was a key lineman on their 2017 team that went 16-0 and won a lower division CIF state title. Jayden Daniels played in 54 games during his years at Cajon.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle.
