Across historic Bibb County career, Northeast running back Nick Woodford beat the odds

Nick Woodford’s career came dangerously close to being a big “what if.”

In August of 2023, before the start of his junior year, the Northeast running back sat at a table during Bibb County’s public school preseason football media day and said he really wasn’t in the condition he should have been as a sophomore.

He turned heads en route to rushing for 2,728 yards that sophomore year, the best single-season mark in Bibb County and Middle Georgia and, at the time, 14th best in state history.

So, if he wasn’t in prime condition and had such a season, what should we expect in 2023?

“How many you want?” Woodford said with a big smile. “I would say 3,200.”

A knee injury in the sixth game ended his junior season, with 951 yards and 11 touchdowns through barely five games. It was an ACL injury with meniscus damage, so there was natural concern as to how good Woodford could be as a senior. 

As it turns out, there is no such “what could’ve been” scenario.

After the surgery, Woodford began rehabilitation with Heath Mills, co-owner of Hometown Ortho and Sports Rehab in Gray. Mills was on Bibb County sidelines weekly as a trainer/physical therapist at Piedmont Orthopaedic before opening his own operation.

“Oh, he’s incredible, an incredible trainer, therapist, everything, life coach,” Woodford raved. “He does it all. He told me there would be times (during rehab) when I was down, and then I’d get up, then there’ll be a stopping point, like, ‘Am I moving somewhere?’

“Then once we got over those couple months, then it was just a jump.”

Woodford hardly lost a step. He helped guide Northeast to its second quarterfinals appearance ever, then its first semifinals and first championship game.

He sat out the opener against Peach County, went for 127 yards on seven carries in limited action against Southwest, then was right back to sophomore and junior form in the third game, getting 18 carries and 218 yards to go with four touchdowns in a 42-9 win over Washington County.

Woodford was back. And as the Raiders ramped up their playoff push with him at the helm, it was hard to remember he ever left.

“I feel like through all the conditioning, getting strength back in the legs, maintaining proper eating habits, I feel good,” Woodford said after a practice leading up to Northeast’s playoff game against Fannin County last month. “I feel 100%. I still play with the brace on. Playing with it on, it (was) challenging at the beginning of the year. but now, it’s nothing that’s going to stop me from being at my best and who I am.”

Who is he? One of the state’s top running backs, and one of the best ever to play in Middle Georgia and Bibb County. Woodford cemented his place atop the Bibb County leaderboards at season’s end, finishing his career with 6,282 yards. He also had 88 touchdowns.

Woodford isn’t much into talking about the numbers, staggering as they are.

The eyebrow-raising 2,728 yards in 2022 were No. 16 all-time in the state entering this season, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, a site not associated with the GHSA or GIAA that keeps massive historical records. The 40 touchdowns as a sophomore are tied for eighth most in a season.

One can’t help but wonder what Woodford’s career stats might have looked like sans-injury.

Easily forgotten is how many yards he’d have gained as a freshman — and he would’ve gotten quality snaps — had that season not been erased by a spring knee injury, a fractured tibia suffered during practice.

“He was running past people, he was running over people, and the speed he had,” head coach Jeremy Wiggins said of the pre-high school Woodford. “Those three things stood out.

“We were gonna use him a pretty good amount. We had two or three packages with all three of them (including rising seniors Tyler Terry and Kalik Evans) in the backfield.”

Evans got hurt late in the year, which would have expanded Woodford’s role.

“We were thinking about five to 10 carries a game from him his freshman year,” Wiggins said. “That was always the plan.”

Woodford shakes his head.

“Man, I would’ve been a better back than I ever was before,” he said. “Then, I was moving. Good speed, good feet. And I was already going against the good defenses we had.”

Things worked out anyway.

Even though the Raiders lost their title bid against Toombs County 38-18, Woodford goes down as one of the best in Bibb County and Middle Georgia to ever suit up. He has been a top cog, with plenty of help, in lifting Northeast to the top of the Bibb County mountain.

Of the five other Bibb County public-school teams, Westside has had three quarterfinal visits in the last 20 years.

The last 10-win season in the group came in 2009 when Westside went 11-2. Northeast is 43-16 in the last five seasons, the best mark among county public schools since Westside went 45-13 from 2008-12, covering Robert Davis’s final year and Spoon Risper’s first four.

Woodford has teamed with junior quarterback Reginald Glover for two-plus seasons to spark the offense, while the defense has progressed almost as well.

Woodford isn’t much into the stats and history, and his legacy is seriously enhanced by what does off the field. He currently ranks as his class salutatorian, and has been a 3.5-plus GPA student throughout high school.

“I didn’t even know I was going to be in that position,” Woodford said. “For me, with school and all, I always want to know the subject that I’m learning about. I just always want to learn, but it was never to a point where I wanted to be, how can I say it, a genius or something. There wasn’t a goal or anything to be a valedictorian or salutatorian.

“God put it in my hands to be in that position to be either one.”

His classroom goal was simple.

“I just wanted to have all A’s,” he said with a shrug. “It wasn’t hard for me to learn different things.”

Academic success somewhat complicates his recruiting, because it opens the door to schools like the academies to be interested in a powerful back with speed who is also an upper-level student who prioritizes the classroom more than the field.

But the right fit academically is of more importance than on the field, and he’s in no hurry.

“My recruiting has been a marathon, because my career has been very interesting,” he said of the injuries before his freshman year and during his junior season. “My options are still open (for) whatever school has the best interest in me. Wherever I go, just the environment, it’s got to be a place of good people.”

He said earlier this year he doesn’t have a list yet, but seemed to favor Georgia Southern and Wake Forest a little bit, also hearing from Army and West Virginia a good bit, among others.

Barney Hester has seen thousands of high school players in his long coaching career, mainly at Tattnall and Howard from 1982-2017, and then as Bibb County Athletic Director from 2018 to 2021.

It was in that latter role that Hester was checking things out at county high schools and middle schools, and was at an Appling Middle School game.

“He was a man among boys,” said Hester, soon to be sworn in as a new member of the Bibb County Board of Education. “He was one of those guys that could take it to the house any time he touched it. He had outstanding balance, even as a seventh- or eighth-grader. His balance was unreal.

“And I’m sure his vision had to be good. When he wasn’t outrunning people, he was able to maneuver down the field. And he has better speed and acceleration than you think.”

Hester has watched Woodford grow into more than just a great player. As much as he loves football, there’s much more there.

“He’s thinking long term, he’s thinking about his future past football,” Hester said. “That’s very mature for a young guy.”

Woodford is just doing what he’s always done, with a smile or a shrug.

“Everybody that comes in an encounter with Nick always talks about how much of a good kid he is, a good person,” Wiggins said. “That’s the first thing they say. Then they say, ‘I love watching him run the ball.’ I’m glad we got a chance to have Nick around and coach him.

“(He’s) a good spotlight for our school and the state of Georgia and for Middle Georgia.”