Nice Guy Giddens Gets Physical for Pirates

Greenland’s Calvin Giddens, center, runs against Mountain View on Oct. 5 at Greenland.
Greenland’s Calvin Giddens, center, runs against Mountain View on Oct. 5 at Greenland.

— Calvin Giddens broke tackles, dragged defenders and left Centerpoint football coach Cary Rogers stunned at what he had just seen.

Rogers was amazed by Giddens’ size as the bruising Greenland running back repeatedly burst through the line of scrimmage and picked up first downs last Friday at Jonathan Ramey Memorial Stadium.

“He’s thick all the way up and down,” Rogers said. “There’s not much to get a hold of that’s thin on him.”

Greenland coach Lee Larkan has wanted Giddens to be a more physical runner, which goes against his nice guy demeanor. Larkan has stressed to the 5-foot-10, 210-pound junior that he should lower his head and trust that his blockers will open up holes for him to run through.

And Giddens did that, needing only 11 carries to gain 169 yards and one touchdown in the first half of Greenland’s 27-20 win over Centerpoint in the opening round of the Class 3A playoffs. He finished with 24 carries for 225 yards, averaging an impressive 9.4 yards per carry and showing yet again how tough he can be to tackle when he relies on his size.

“I’ve hit the hole a lot better this year,” Giddens said. “Last year I liked to bounce it outside a lot. That didn’t work out too much. But I have broken a lot more tackles this year.”

Giddens made a 49-yard touchdown run against Centerpoint look easy as he bulldozed his way through a hole and then raced for a score that extended Greenland’s lead to 20-7 with 3 minutes, 3 seconds remaining in the first half.

Profile

Calvin Giddens

School: Greenland

Height: 5-10

Weight: 210 pounds

Notable: Rushed for 225 yards and one touchdown on 24 carries in Greenland’s 27-20 win over Centerpoint in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs ... His lone touchdown was a 49-yard run that helped him head into halftime with 169 yards on 11 carries ... Took over as the starting running back after playing slot receiver as a sophomore last year.

Larkan said Giddens has done a better job over the past few games of being a physical runner. As Larkan put it, the junior has “run over a lot of people” lately, including in a 33-14 win at West Fork when Giddens rushed for 159 yards and four touchdowns.

Giddens hopes to keep up the pace at 7 p.m. Friday when Greenland (7-3) hosts Osceola (8-3) in the second-round of the playoffs. The Pirates have had trouble over the years advancing beyond the second round.

“He’s not naturally an aggressive kid. He’s just a big ole nice kid,” Larkan said of Giddens. “You kind of got to get him going.”

Giddens moved into the Pirates’ starting lineup this season after spending much of his sophomore year at slot receiver. He saw some action at running back a year ago and showed that he could be an big-play threat, but he wanted to get bigger to prepare for carrying a larger load in Greenland’s offense.

Giddens said he gained 20 pounds while sidelined with a minor knee injury late last season, though he shed 10 of those pounds through hours spent in the weight room.

“When I first came to Greenland, I was a little stick because I was in basketball,” Giddens said. “When I started playing football, I hit the weight room and got pretty big.”

Centerpoint found out just how big last week.

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