By Joshua Huff, sports editor
TRUSSVILLE — A Hewitt-Trussville High School football player was ranked by a national outlet on Tuesday as one of the nation’s top running backs.
Armoni Goodwin, whose 2019 season was cut short during the third game of the year after he injured his leg against Oak Mountain on a two-point conversion attempt, was named by Maxpreps as one of the country’s top 10 running backs in the class of 2021.
Goodwin, a 5-foot-8, 190-pound speedster, comes in at No. 9, according to Maxpreps’ Zack Poff. He is the only player from Alabama on the list that includes players from eight different states. Those states represented are Texas, North Carolina, California, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Alabama and Virginia. Five of the players ranked have committed to a Power 5 school — Two at Ohio State, Oregon, Auburn and Miami.
Goodwin, an Auburn commit, is also ranked as one of the top 100 players in the nation, according to Maxpreps
His dominance was on display throughout the early stages of the season after he wreaked havoc on opponents in just three games — He recorded 485 yards on 52 carries with a team-high 10 touchdowns.
In tandem with fellow running back Sean Jackson, the Huskies’ offense churned out the yards and the touchdowns as both players averaged close to 10 yards per rush, recorded touchdown runs of over 50-plus yards and had multiple games of rushing for over 100 yards in just the first quarter of the season alone.
The wealth of talent in the backfield that the Huskies have has been a boon for head coach Josh Floyd, whose offensive gameplan flows from inside out.
“We make a good combo,” Jackson said. “Thunder and lightning. Basically, the perfect duo right there.”
The two are reminiscent of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers duo of Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn. The two combined for 7,805 yards and 54 touchdowns through five seasons. Like Dunn, Goodwin burns opposing defenses with his speed while Jackson encapsulates the punishing running of Alstott.
“He has a lot of God-given ability,” Floyd said of Goodwin following the junior’s 218 rushing yards with four touchdowns in the Huskies’ season-opening victory over Pinson Valley this past August. “He’s a great kid that works hard. He just got stronger and stronger this offseason. He’s gotten in better shape and you saw that.”