Dec. 9, 2006
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Avoiding one hit, attracting millions
Video of Cy-Fair star vaulting over a hapless defender scores big on
YouTube, similar sites
By DAVID BARRON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
At Cy-Fair High School, they think junior running back Sam McGuffie is
one of the hottest football prospects in the state.
In France, an unidentified admirer says McGuffie is a "petit prodige,"
a little prodigy of American football.
And in the virtual world of YouTube.com, a clip of McGuffie soaring up,
up and over a tackler has garnered more than 128,000 views as of Friday
afternoon - nothing to rival David Letterman, Britney Spears or Stephen
Colbert, mind you, but certainly more than saw the likes of Earl
Campbell, Craig James or Andre Ware ply their trade during their high
school days.
"It was the dadgummedest thing I've ever seen," said Cypress Creek
coach Greg McKaig, whose team was victimized by McGuffie's great leap
forward Nov. 3.
It's also the latest example of how Internet sites such as YouTube have
created new outlets for content, be it blooper reels, music videos or,
in this case, one of the more phenomenal moments in the recent history
of Texas high school football.
McGuffie has rushed for 3,010 yards and 41 touchdowns in 13 games
entering Cy-Fair's Class 5A playoff game this afternoon against
Pearland at Rice Stadium, but he is best known in cyberspace for a
single run against Cy Creek.
Late in the third quarter of the Nov. 3 game, McGuffie took a handoff
from the Cy Creek 20-yard line, darted to the left and headed straight
for Cougars defensive back Josh Smith.
As Smith crouched to await impact at the 13-yard line, McGuffie planted
his left foot at the 15, vaulted about four feet into the air over
Smith's head, stepped on Smith's back, landed on his left foot at the
11 and raced into the end zone to complete the scoring play, his
seventh of eight touchdowns in a 61-35 Cy-Fair victory.
McGuffie, who competes in the hurdles and long jump for Cy-Fair's track
team, said the leap was "just reaction."
"People who are athletic tend to do things that are athletic, like jump
over things," he said. "(The defender) isn't thinking `he's going to
try to jump over me.' If that's the case, it's likely to work."
Despite his Internet notoriety on YouTube and other sites like
Break.com, where the play has an astonishing 1.7 million views, he said
the play "is just something that happened. It's everywhere, but it's
not everything. Everything to me is winning the game and doing my job."
Freelance photographer Owen Robins' video for "High School Sports
Live," hosted by Todd Freed on KTBU (Channel 55), garnered so much
local buzz that the station posted the 34-second video on YouTube.
`Heck of a play'
"I knew it was a heck of a play and suggested to Todd that it could be
the play of the year," Robins said. "It was like nothing I had seen. It
was just phenomenal. I was lucky to be the guy holding the camera at
the time."
The clip also includes Freed's narration: "Cy-Fair against Cy Creek,
third quarter. Sam McGuffie for Cy-Fair on the give, and the incredible
hurdle ... right there! Oh, my gosh! Touchdown! Watch it again in
slow-mo. Sam-I-Am McGuffie! This is amazing! One more time in super
slow-mo. Sam McGuffie. Wow!"
Freed, who has hosted the show since November 2000, said reaction to
the McGuffie play has been unparalleled.
"Nothing has come close, and that includes game-winning shots in state
championship basketball games," he said. "This one tops them all."
Posting the clip to YouTube, he said, "expands the audience. I see
people who are casual fans of high school football, but they've heard
about it because of (YouTube). Now they're going to games because they
want to see Sam McGuffie."
YouTube also features a field-level shot of the play from FSN Southwest
cameraman Josh Young. That version, posted by an unidentified fan, had
more than 42,000 hits as of Friday afternoon.
Other sites have piggybacked onto the Channel 55 video on YouTube,
including a French site called WebJunkie, where a fan wrote "I have to
recognize that the movement of Sam McGuffie really impressed me. This
young Texas player has a brilliant future achieving exceptional moves
to pass his opponents and score a touchdown."
In the YouTube universe, whose users reportedly view an estimated 70
million videos daily, with some sports videos totaling as many as 3
million views, McGuffie's popularity represents a drop in the bucket.
Cult status
But in the smaller world of high school football, McGuffie's leap is
among the most popular videos ever. It also falls into a select
category of Texas football videos that have attained cult status.
Perhaps the first was a 1962 playoff game between San Antonio Lee, led
by running back Linus Baer, and San Antonio Brackenridge, led by future
University of Houston and NFL running back Warren McVea, won by Lee 5548.
According to a story written for Dave Campbell's Texas Football
magazine by veteran San Antonio sportswriter Dan Cook, one of three
copies of the game film made by Brackenridge coaches made its way to
South Korea, where it was shown around the country before being
returned 10 months later.
In 1994, Tyler John Tyler led Plano East by 24 points in a playoff game
at Texas Stadium, blew the lead in the final three minutes, then scored
on a kickoff return with 11 seconds to play to win 48-44.
The game was recorded by a Plano television cable outlet company and is
remembered because of the uproarious commentary by announcers Eddy
Clinton, Denny Garver and Mike Zoffuto, who alternated between screams
of "Good gosh a-mighty Joe Friday" as Plano East made its comeback and
"God bless those kids. I think I'm going to be sick" as John Tyler
retook the lead.
Clips from that game have been viewed more than 190,000 times on
YouTube, outpacing a package from CSTV, a sports network owned by CBS,
on running back John Clay of Racine, Wis., with 130,000 views, followed
by McGuffie's Channel 55 clip at 128,000.
Both, however, have a way to go, in terms of popularity and
accomplishments, before catching Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.
Several highlight clips from Bush's high school days in San Diego
remain on YouTube - one has registered more than 360,000 hits.
Plays Pearland today
McGuffie, however, is steadily gaining ground and will have a chance to
generate new highlight-reel material during Cy-Fair's playoff game
today against Pearland and its blue chip running back, Foswhitt
Whittaker.
Cy-Fair head coach Ed Pustejovsky said McGuffie could break off another
highlight-reel moment at anytime.
"(The run against Cy Creek) was probably the third time he had done
that," Pustejovsky said. "That time, there just happened to be a TV
camera there.
"I don't think he plans that sort of thing. He's just trying to make
the next guy miss him by making a cut or a spin. It's just reaction. We
didn't coach him (to leapfrog tacklers)."