Yardage absurd for Brett Rypien

Saturday: A day after Brett Rypien’s incredible performance at Albi Stadium, when he passed for a state-record 613 yards, I was still intrigued. So I did some research.

What interested me about Rypien’s performance is not how it would stack up against other GSL games – we already knew it was a record – but how it stacked up versus seasons. So I began to look back. And what I found was remarkable.

Rypien’s total from Thursday night would have led the GSL for a season as late as 1975, when Rogers’ Robin Moran led the City League with 497 yards passing.

Yes, for the season. But that wasn’t the only year Rypien’s total would have led the league. Nine times between 1946 and 1975 the City League leader threw for less than 613 yards in a season.

If anything tells you how much high school football has changed, those numbers illustrate it. Yes, some of those early totals came on a six-game schedule. But others came on eight or nine games.

Think about this. Add Rypien’s total Thursday with the game last season in which he threw for 577 yards and you have 1,190 yards passing in two games. That total was not passed in a GSL season until 1977, when Jim Dorr threw for 1,898 in the Rogers Pirates’ eight games.

Is it little wonder Rypien is the GSL’s career passing leader already, five games into his junior season. Which brings me to the former leader, his uncle Mark. When Mark set the career passing mark for the Highlanders from 1978-80, his 4,965 yards obliterated the old mark by more than 1,400 yards. The former record holder? Some guy named Ryne Sandberg, who threw for 2,514 yards for North Central from 1975-77.

Rypien’s mark came in 24 league games, the only games in which the S-R keeps records. Everyone played nonleague and/or playoff games, but those statistics are not included. Nowadays, GSL teams play nine league games.

If Brett stays healthy through his senior season, he could throw for more than 10,000 yards in 27 league games. Yes, he could quite possibly more than double uncle Mark’s old record. Now that’s amazing.

But I will never say Brett’s record will ever be broken, even it it gets to those numbers, as I’m sure some folks in this area thought back in 1980. Because, really, who knows how football will change over the next 40 to 50 years?

Friday: If Rypien wasn’t already on every major college’s radar, he probably is now. I still believe it would only be fitting he would be flinging the ball around for Mike Leach and Washington State in a couple of years, but who knows? A few more 600-yard games and he might be headed to Stanford, where he can hand off every play.

Thursday: USC, is looking for a football coach. We all know that. But where should the Trojans look?

The L.A. Times’ Chris Dufresne thinks there is one guy who is perfect: Steve Sarkisian. If Sark would be willing to leave Washington, Dufresne wrote yesterday, then USC should snap him up. The Times’ columnist then went on to list a bunch of other guys who fit the USC mold if Sark decides to stay put.

A typical column written when an opening occurs. Except the response was anything but typical. Dufresne was roasted on Twitter by Husky fans, none of whom want to lose the coach that has led them to a 4-0 record this season. They accused Dufresne of trying to sabotage UW’s recruiting, among other things. And they raked him over the coals for suggesting any coach would want to leave Montlake for USC.

Really?

I know rose-colored fan glasses can distort reality, but let me be the first to break it to you Washington fans. The USC job is better. It pays more, it offers a more realistic chance to win a national title and it’s a better stepping stone to the NFL, if that’s your goal.

Plus the weather is better and the traffic is just about a wash. But don’t worry. USC isn’t hiring Sarkisian. Pat Haden has already made up his mind. He made it up early in September when he saw a conference school manhandle the Trojans with a conservative offense and a stout defense, just what he’s looking for in L.A. Yep, the next Trojan coach will be WSU’s Mike Leach. And, yes, I’m just joking. But if it happens, remember you read it here first.