When Auburn running back Jarquez Hunter hurdled a Penn State defender in crunch time of last Saturday’s game, all Shannon Ruffin could do was smile and think back to a conversation the two had at Neshoba Central High School.
Hunter built a reputation as an excellent football player in Philadelphia, Miss., and during one practice he spotted a would-be tackler going low and decided his best option was to go up.
Ruffin, the team’s defensive coordinator, told Hunter he couldn’t do that; In Mississippi, a ball carrier is prohibited from hurdling in an effort to avoid potential injuries.
Hunter, who usually took coaching to heart, felt the need to push back.
“He said, ‘Why can’t I? He went for my legs, so I just jumped over him,’” Ruffin recalled with a laugh. “I said, ‘Jarquez, that’s a player safety issue. We can’t allow you to do that because that’s the high school rules.’ He’s like, ‘Man, that’s dumb. That don’t make sense to me. He’s trying to hit me in my legs, but I can’t jump over him?’
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“He’d just shake his head, and I’d say, ‘Well, man, I guess they’re just trying to protect you.’”
Given how he has played at Auburn, Hunter likely wasn’t the one who needed protecting.
Hunter joined a depleted Auburn backfield this offseason and has proven himself worthy of considerable playing time as a true freshman. Despite still being new, the 5-foot-10, 202-pound back has hit the ground running with 26 carries for 320 yards and two touchdowns through three games.
Hunter was a late addition to Auburn’s 2021 signing class, but he’s quickly established himself as one of the group’s gems. His play with the Tigers has taken many by surprise, though the people back home are not among them.
“It’s just exciting to see him have that opportunity and to prove all the naysayers wrong about him,” Ruffin said. “We used to get comments in high school about how he’s just overrated and we’re going to stop him and we’re going to focus on stopping 27. They still have not stopped him.
“Whatever records are out there, I feel like Jarquez is going to have an opportunity to shatter all of them.”
‘Remember this name’
Hunter wowed in Mississippi as the Rockets’ ball carrier, but Ruffin saw him well before he was playing halfback in high school.
Ruffin remembered watching Hunter for the first time in pee-wee football, when Hunter’s team took on Ruffin’s son’s squad when the boys were about 10 years old. Youth league has a tendency to offer an early glimpse at truly special players, and it didn’t take long for Ruffin to see Hunter was different.
“I knew the [coach], so I asked him, ‘Who is that kid?’ I wanted to know. He was like, ‘Coach, remember this name: Jarquez Hunter,’” Ruffin said. “The first impression I got of him as a fourth or fifth grader was like, ‘Man, that boy plays extremely hard and he is going to try to win.’”
The Neshoba Central coaches had their eyes on Hunter once he reached middle school, and by the time he was a high schooler the staff knew he could be a difference maker.
But as rare as his rushing ability was, the way he conducted himself in practice and in the weight room left just as much of an impression.
“I can say in four years I think he missed zero football practices, and in summer workouts he may have missed five in four years; that’d be like maybe going to camp or going on vacation,” Neshoba Central head coach Patrick Schoolar said. “He worked a full-time job here one summer cutting grass for the city. We’d come in every morning at 6. He’d work out then go to work carrying a Weed Eater all day. He’s just a blue-collar, blue-chip type kid.”
Hunter came along about the time the Rockets changed up their offense, switching from a Wing-T attack to a modern spread that incorporated more power running and play-action passes. Hunter emerged as the lead back after the previous offense split carries among several players, and before long Hunter started delivering ridiculous moments.
Schoolar brought up a moment from Hunter’s junior year, when the Rockets were in desperation mode.
Trailing Germantown 30-27 on the 50-yard line with just seconds remaining, Schoolar wanted to catch the defense off guard and get the ball to his best player on the game’s final play. Rather than throw deep and hope for a miracle, Schoolar offered up a curveball to Germantown’s Prevent defense and simply ran a toss sweep to Hunter.
Hunter zig-zagged through the opposing defense and got all the way to the 2-yard line when he was brought down by three tacklers, leaving him just short of a legendary walk-off win.
Hunter played on defense and special teams, and he regularly turned heads there as well.
Hunter spent a lot of his time on defense at strong-side outside linebacker in what they called the “Stud” position, which Ruffin renamed especially for him. Ruffin gave his defenders a steak when they came through with a pick six, and Hunter did his best to break him by delivering multiple in a single game.
Ruffin remembered Neshoba Central trailing Grenada 21-0 in the playoffs during Hunter’s junior year when Hunter simply took the game over. He led the Rockets back with a pair of rushing touchdowns and a pair of interceptions to help the team pull off an improbable 26-24 victory.
The victory was yet another made possible by a player who the coaches knew would deliver when called upon.
“We had this nickname we gave him among the coaches. We didn’t talk about it around the kids, but we called him ‘The X-Factor,’” Ruffin said. “We had Jarquez, so when we went to places and played a game, we were like, ‘OK, defensively, they’re not going to run the ball at Jarquez ‘cause he’s the X-Factor. They’re going to go away from him.”
A path to the Plains
Hunter was a one-man wrecking crew at Neshoba Central, and by the end of his career he had rushed for 5,834 yards. He scored 93 career touchdowns to surpass what was once the state record held by Marcus Dupree, the local legend from just up the road in Philadelphia.
Hunter got plenty of local recognition over the years, but his college recruitment was hot and cold.
Hunter picked up scholarships offers early on from schools like Tennessee and Ole Miss, but the coronavirus pandemic kept some coaches from seeing him in person.
The school Schoolar said Hunter wanted to hear from most was Auburn, the team he had rooted for as long as Schoolar could remember.
Late in the process, a Neshoba Central connection set the ball in motion for Hunter to play for his favorite team.
Hunter decided not to sign last December, which was perfect timing for the Tigers. Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin put together his staff and hired offensive line coach Will Friend, a Neshoba Central alum who just so happened to be the Tennessee assistant who offered Hunter.
Early on, Friend told Schoolar that Neshoba Central’s No. 27 reminded him of another No. 27: Nick Chubb, who Friend recruited at Georgia.
Friend had been hard after Hunter as had Derek Mason, who pushed for Hunter at Vanderbilt before being fired there and hired at Auburn. The Tigers desperately needed more depth at running back after losing multiple players in the offseason; suddenly, Hunter emerged as the right fit.
In Neshoba Central offensive coordinator Brian Anderson’s opinion, Hunter’s journey to Auburn was a godsend.
“He had some good offers but nothing I think that he was really sold on. For Will to end up at Jarquez’s dream school and the running backs transferring out – a lot of people probably wouldn’t want to compete with Tank Bigsby being a potential Heisman Trophy winner,” Anderson said. “Then there’s Jarquez Hunter from Philadelphia, Mississippi, from Will Friend’s home school of Neshoba Central. There’s definitely somebody else’s hand involved in the whole situation.”
No letting up
Hunter wasted little time demonstrating he could be relied on at Auburn, and his work ethic has already earned him the benefit of the doubt.
Auburn center Nick Brahms recalled the team running stadium step sets in the summer and finishing a set of about 17 when he noticed the true freshman was still running. Brahms initially thought Hunter had fallen behind, when in truth it was the exact opposite: he was doing even more to better prepare himself.
That attitude comes as no surprise to Hunter’s former coaches, who regularly saw him run a mile after workouts or try to lift as much as one of the team’s defensive linemen just to show he could.
“Last year I think it was 650, 675 on the bar. You can’t do it one time, and he did it three times,” Anderson said. “I saw an article where it was talking about, you know, the coaches or Tank one was talking about him squatting 600 pounds. It’s like, dude, that’s easy. That’s a set of eight for him.”
Schoolar witnessed that dedication once again as Hunter prepared for his freshman season.
Hunter fumbled during his first scrimmage at Auburn then coughed the ball up again a short time later, leading his high school coach to remind him those who can’t hold onto the ball won’t play.
Schoolar urged Hunter to look up a video of former NFL running back Tiki Barber discussing ball control; since then, Schoolar said every photo he’s seen of Hunter features him holding the ball high and tight.
One of Hunter’s first highlights came in his second game against Alabama State, when he broke a run 94 yards for a touchdown. The touchdown run not only served as an early exclamation point for the true freshman, but it also set a new Auburn record for the program’s longest rushing touchdown.
“At first I was going to the right, and then I seen just a great cutback and I took it and then I was gone for the run,” Hunter said. “I didn’t know if anybody was close to me, so I just ran as fast as I can.
“I wasn’t tired then; I just had a lot of adrenaline. I was very excited that I scored because that was going to be my last drive so I had to get that one.”
Hunter emerged as a player who could help fill Auburn’s need at running back, and he’s been doubly important in Shaun Shivers’ recent absence. Hunter’s efforts have not gone unnoticed, especially at Auburn where multiple stud running backs are never a negative.
Hunter has set himself up well as a true freshman who will only see his role grow in the months and years to come. Those back in Philadelphia are relishing this moment and recognize Hunter is living the dream they had a front row seat for these last four years.
“It was funny, the other day we were watching that Auburn game at home and my son said, ‘Jarquez always said he wanted to hurdle somebody,’” Anderson said. “We were high-fiving watching the game. It’s cool to watch him on such a big stage. He’s so deserving.
“All-SEC would not surprise me one bit. Being able to play on Sundays, if he can stay healthy, wouldn’t surprise us a bit.”