In the month of April, HSOT Insiders will receive daily articles to preview the 2025 high school football season in North Carolina.

Today, we have a breakdown of the 5A N.C. High School Athletic Association returning rushing threats.

Since players often don’t play the same number of games, we break our stats down into averages.

For ruhers, we have yards per game, yards per attempt, touchdowns per game, and touchdowns per attempt.

To have players featured in these articles, teams either must post their full stats online or send them to Joel.

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Top Returning 5A Rushers: Yards Per Game

Minimum: 6 games

1. JJ Gulat, senior, Dixon — 175.4 YPG
2. Jarlon Drye, senior, Northwest Cabarrus — 146.1 YPG
3. Yoshua McBryde, senior, St. Pauls — 145.6 YPG
4. Kyngston Denson, junior, North Buncombe — 141.9 YPG
5. Zane McCraw, senior, West Henderson — 135.6 YPG
6. Nytavius Powell, senior, Montgomery Central — 119.8 YPG
7. Patrick Blee, senior, South Point — 95.8 YPG
8. DJ Callis, junior, Southeast Alamance — 93.0 YPG
9. Nymir Kendall, senior, Monroe — 91.9 YPG
10. Jaden Hartsfield, junior, Southern Nash — 86.9 YPG
11. Josiah Daniel, senior, J.F. Webb — 85.8 YPG
12. Andrew Boucher, junior, Croatan — 81.1 YPG
13. LJ Watson, senior, Jay M. Robinson — 80.3 YPG
14. Tommy McKinney, junior, Enka — 78.0 YPG
15. Landen Agee, junior, North Lincoln — 74.5 YPG

Top Returning 5A Rushers: Yards Per Attempt

Minimum: 50 carries

1. Nymir Kendall, senior, Monroe — 11.78 YPA
2. Landen Agee, junior, North Lincoln — 9.93 YPA
3. Yoshua McBryde, senior, St. Pauls — 9.48 YPA
4. DJ Callis, junior, Southeast Alamance — 8.39 YPA
5. Shondel Parker, senior, Dixon — 8.33 YPA
6. Patrick Blee, senior, South Point — 8.23 YPA
7. Andrew Boucher, junior, Croatan — 8.04 YPA
8. Tavoris Parker, senior, Rocky Mount — 7.95 YPA
9. Ennis Stiles, sophomore, Jay M. Robinson — 7.794 YPA
10. C’quarion Mitchell, senior, Rocky Mount — 7.788 YPA
11. Jarlon Drye, senior, Northwest Cabarrus — 7.69 YPA
12. Zane McCraw, senior, West Henderson — 7.45 YPA
13. Josiah Daniel, senior, J.F. Webb — 7.42 YPA
14. Kylan Polk, junior, Forest Hills — 7.41YPA
15. Jaden Hartsfield, junior, Southern Nash — 7.40 YPA

Top Returning 5A Rushers: Touchdowns per Game

Minimum: 8 games, ties broken by games then total yards

1. Jaheem Jenkins, junior, Hickory — 2.0 TD/GM
2. Zane McCraw, senior, West Henderson — 1.7 TD/GM
3. Nymir Kendall, senior, Monroe — 1.7 TD/GM
4. Jarlon Drye, senior, Northwest Cabarrus — 1.67 TD/GM
5. JJ Gulat, senior, Dixon — 1.5 TD/GM
6. Jaden Hartsfield, junior, Southern Nash — 1.4 TD/GM
7. LJ Watson, senior, Jay M. Robinson — 1.3 TD/GM
8. Yoshua McBryde, senior, St. Pauls — 1.27 TD/GM (11 games, 1,602 yards)
9. Patrick Blee, senior, South Point — 1.27 TD/GM (11 games, 1,054 yards)
10. DJ Callis, junior, Southeast Alamance — 1.25 TD/GM
11. Nytavius Powell, senior, Montgomery Central — 1.22 TD/GM
12. Landen Agee, junior, North Lincoln — 1.21 TD/GM
13. Cameron Pittman, senior, Fike — 1.11 TD/GM
14. Tavoris Parker, senior, Rocky Mount — 1.0 TD/GM (12 games)
15. Kyngston Denson, junior, North Buncombe — 1.0 TD/GM (8 games)

Top Returning 5A Rushers: Touchdowns per Attempt

Minimum: 25 carries, ties broken by most yards

1. Brayden Smith, senior, Monroe — 0.23 TD/Att.
2. Nymir Kendall, senior, Monroe — 0.22 TD/Att.
3. Caden Ingle, junior, Erwin — 0.2 TD/Att.
4. Landen Agee, junior, North Lincoln — 0.16 TD/Att.
5. Jami Jackson, junior, Monroe — 0.157 TD/Att.
6. Kylan Polk, junior, Forest Hills — 0.153 TD/Att.
7. Tavoris Parker, senior, Rocky Mount — 0.144578313253012 TD/Att.
8. Luka Britt, senior, Currituck County — 0.135135135135135 TD/Att.
9. Jaden Hartsfield, junior, Southern Nash — 0.120567375886525 TD/Att.
10. DJ Callis, junior, Southeast Alamance — 0.112781954887218 TD/Att.
11. LJ Watson, senior, Jay M. Robinson — 0.111842105263158 TD/Att.
12. Patrick Blee, senior, South Point — 0.109375 TD/Att.
13. Ely Hamrick, senior, Crest — 0.106666666666667 TD/Att.
14. Daniel Bunker, junior, Southeast Alamance — 0.0989010989010989 TD/Att.
15. Cameron Pittman, senior, Fike — 0.0952380952380952 TD/Att.

HSOT Insiders should stay tuned to the site throughout the spring and summer months for more football preview articles.