Hair, Huff team up to lead Lions backfield
JESSIEVILLE — Jessieville seniors Carson Hair and Matthew Huff have been a constant for the Lions football team for years, and this season, the pair dominated the gridiron.
As quarterback, Hair completed 88 of 130 passes for 1,405 yards and 12 touchdowns against just five interceptions and led the team in rushing with 165 carries for 1,342 yards and 17 touchdowns. Huff, the team’s primary running back, compiled 1,042 yards on 186 carries and 11 scores. Huff also caught 14 passes for 273 yards and two TDS.
Hair and Huff are The Sentinel-record’s All-garland County Offensive Players of the Year.
Football has always been a part of the lives of the two seniors. Huff’s father, Jeremy Deen, was the athletic director at the Hot Springs Boys and Girls Club, so being involved in sports was almost a given.
”My dad was the athletic director at the Boys and Girls Club, so I was up there every day for practices, and then I’d even go and practice with older kids,” he said. “And I’ve just always been around the environment of football. And ever since I was young, we played football.”
Hair was also always involved in sports, getting interested in football at a young age and playing flag football.
”I’ve always been part of sports,” Hair said. “Before fourth grade, I started playing flag football. You know, I just always had football whenever I was small, whether I was just holding it my arms or something, running around the house or just throwing with my dad or something. And then I got involved in flag football, started playing in fourth grade, started playing tackle football, and just from then on out, just kept playing and just fell in love with it.”
Both seniors are big on preparation when it comes to the game. Hair runs through countless scenarios, trying to plan for all of the possibilities that he might face after the opening kickoff.
”All week, when we’re preparing for a game, whether it’s a big game, whether it’s a nonconference, it just — it doesn’t matter, I run all kinds of scenarios through my head,” he said. “I mean, I’ve got, I’ve got a lot that I’ve got to go through whenever we’re playing a game. So … we go through a game plan, we get all the plays and stuff that we’re going to be running that we think that we can use to I guess hurt the other team the most.
“So I’ve got to run all that stuff through my head, make sure I’m good with everything, figuring out the guys that I’m going to try to pick on to make our plays, I guess, stand out. Just help the team the best I can with running all everything through my head that I can, figuring out where to go, when to go.”
Huff makes sure that he prepares mentally and physically for the game, watching film and going back over plays.
”I just have to get my mind right,” he said. “I’ve watched counts out of the film already and prepare and go through the steps and stuff I might have to do. And just prepare my body mentally and physically before the game.”
As a four-year starter at quarterback, Hair makes a lot of the decisions on the field. His experience, and the trust of head coach T.J. Burk, allows him to make decisions about the plays at the line of scrimmage.
”Just playing for four years of high school football, I’ve learned a lot,” he said. “Like, defense, I can — whenever I’m sitting back and looking, I know exactly what the defense has done, what they’re going to do just based off of alignment. I mean, if we’re running a play and they’re overloaded to one side, and I don’t like it, I’m in my head, I’m sitting there. And I’m like, ‘Well, this is it’s not going to do anything.’ Like, just based on the defensive alignment is how I make the call on the decision.”
Having played together for years, both seniors have developed a friendship that goes beyond the game.
“It’s been special,” Hair said of playing with Huff. “I really don’t feel like you get to play with somebody else that adds something as big as he does to what we do here. And with us both in the backfield — with me, if I’m throwing the ball, or if I’m running the ball, he’s always there ahead of me blocking for me. I mean, if I drop back to throw a pass, he’s in coverage blocking for me. If I’m running up the middle or something, running to the edge, whatever it is, he’s right there blocking for me. I mean, it’s … definitely been something special that not everybody gets to say that they were a part of playing with somebody that’s good enough to be at the next level.”
Huff said that he and Hair haved played together so much that it’s a matter of trust.
”I’ve played with this guy since pee wee ball and all the way up,” he said. “And we’ve worked together outside of school, outside of practice, during the summer to get our stuff right. And I’ve just grew up with this guy; I trust him more than anything. And we’ve just always been doing stuff together. And it really hurt me at the beginning of season when I couldn’t play. And then you could really tell when I came back, and he was back and everything just started working again.”
Huff suffered an injury prior to the season that his doctor initially said would be a season-ending injury. After a second opinion, Huff was able to go through physical therapy and be able to play his senior season.
“When I first got injured, I went to the doctor, and the doctor told me, ‘You’re not gonna be able to play your senior season this year,’” he said. “So I went and got a second opinion, and he tells me that there might be a slight chance I get to play. So I go to physical therapy, and I worked my butt off every day and ended up to come back sooner than I thought and still got all the yards and everything that I set like a goal on. And I really had to work hard to get through it, but it ended up being fine. And I didn’t reinjure anything, and I met all my goals.”
While the season did not end up the way the pair hoped, they both feel that they and the rest of the team gave it their all this season.
“I thought coach Burk did a really, really good job getting us prepared and setting everything up for the game,” Hair said. “I think we were tired. Honestly, I really do. I felt like the whole team was tired. If you go back a few games, before our first round of the playoffs, we played a really tough Centerpoint team. And we played really, really well, and I just felt like after that game, we just kind of got caught up in all of that, and I don’t think we ever really fully recovered after that win. We thought it was such a big win that I don’t think we really ever got over it. And I think that hurt us a lot going into the playoff game, and then we just we ran out.”
Huff said that a lack of experience at the skill position also hurt the team against Rison.
“It was a lot emotions,” he said. “That game, it was a really good Rison team we played, and we didn’t have a lot of experience at the skill positions as much as we’ve had in the past. And that kind of hurt us, but our skill guys, our seniors, did a really good job that game and did what they’re supposed to, but I think experience hurt us the most in that game.”
While neither player revealed any definite plans for the future, they both said they would love to continue their football careers at the collegiate level.
“I’m hoping to go play college football somewhere and then probably settle down and study biology at college somewhere,” Huff said. “That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Hair is still not sure about what educational route he might take, but he does want to continue to play.
“I plan to go play football somewhere, wherever,” he said. “I mean, to me, it doesn’t really matter. I just I want to go play, extend it out a little bit longer, play all of it that I can. And then after, … I’m kind of indecisive right now and what I want to do, but it’s either between come back and be a football coach or be some type of engineer.”
One of the hardest things for Hair this season was taking the field after the loss of his father last December.
“Dec. 1 (2020), my dad ended up having a heart attack,” he said. “He passed away. Hardest time in my life. Never had to deal with anything like that before in my life. Coming to school, everything. Coach Burke’s always talking about pushing through adversity. I mean, that’s, that’s a lot of adversity, like, and I’m still going every day. I mean, I’m still not over that.
“So the biggest heartbreak I’ve ever had to deal with before my life, and luckily, I’ve got good family, a lot of good friends and a lot of people by my side throughout the the hard times. I just — I wouldn’t be where I am today without my dad, what he did for me, and I wouldn’t be going through it every day without my friends, my family. And football was another — football was my saving grace. I mean, everyday, I could just be myself. Whenever I got to football practice, just kind of like I just got out of this world, you know, just kind of in my own place.”
Hair is the son of Cassie Hair, and his sister is Madison. Huff is the son of Jeremy and Randi Deen.