Articles Celebrations Obituaries

Logan Andrews

Andrews has been a fixture on Hampton line

By Jamie Combs
Press Sports Writer
jcombs@johnsoncitypress.com

 Printer-friendly version

 Email Article

HAMPTON — Senior Logan Andrews, one of the better road pavers in Hampton High football history, has nearly reached a major milestone.

A first-team offensive lineman in every game of his four years with the Bulldogs, Andrews is poised to make his 50th career start in the second round of the Class 2A state playoffs — HHS received a first-round bye — next Friday night.

“When I came in as a freshman, they asked if I wanted to play center,” Andrews said Monday. “I told them yeah, so I just had to work hard, step in and be as much of a help as I could. Luckily, I haven’t gotten injured so bad that I had to miss games and stuff. It’s been an honor and a privilege.”

Already the school record-holder for career starts, Andrews had to tough out a first-year injury to keep himself on the playing field.

“He got hurt, and we were very, very thin on the line,” said Hampton coach Mike Lunsford. “So I guess he felt like he had to play. He didn’t want to let his team down. He had a bad shoulder and kept on playing, and that’s something you don’t ever forget. The old youngin’ was hurting, and he had to have surgery after the season.

“He’s been a consistently good player.”

Moved from center to guard following his ninth-grade season, the versatile Andrews has since mixed in a fair amount of play at tackle. Guard, however, is his bread-and-butter position on the offensive front.

“I like guard the best because I get to pull and stuff,” he said.

The 6-2, 260-pound performer has blocked for four 1,000-yard rushers — Adam Townsend (2006), Dustin Jaynes (’07), Dustin Roberson (’08) and Adam Taylor (’09) — in a Bulldog uniform. That group could expand to five as quarterback and sometimes tailback Brett Price has scampered for better than 900 yards this season.

“The offensive linemen don’t really get stats, so when our backs get a lot of yards and touchdowns, that’s what makes us feel good because we’re helping them out,” said Andrews, whose father, Tim, was a big-name Hampton runner in 1982 and ’83.

Moreover, Andrews and his linemates served up solid protection during consecutive 1,000-yard passing seasons (2006, ’07) by Michael Lunsford.

“We knew he could throw the football,” Andrews said. “We knew if we gave him time he was going to make plays, so we just took pride in that and tried our best to keep (defenders) off of him so he could throw some touchdowns — and he did a good job.”

Andrews’ abilities, however, haven’t been limited to one side of the football. He’s a three-year defensive starter, splitting that time between tackle and linebacker.

Lately, he’s been hunkered down in the trenches.

“I like playing linebacker, but I was better at defensive tackle — so they moved me there,” Andrews said. “But I like playing linebacker because you get to read a lot more and get a better chance of making tackles. But they needed me at tackle.”

Always a physical presence, Andrews used quick thinking to his advantage in last week’s 18-7 victory over Cloudland. Unfooled by a screen pass, he intercepted the ball and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown — erasing a 7-6 deficit.

“He did a good job sniffing that out,” Mike Lunsford said. “He saw the back floating out and did a good job.”

With roughly 150 career tackles to his credit, Andrews has been a part of 39 wins, four Mountain East Conference championships (three outright) and a pair of Class 1A state semifinal appearances.

Not surprisingly, he’s enjoyed the ride.

“It’s probably the best four years that I’ve had playing football,” Andrews said. “We’ve had so much success. We’ve had good teams and hard-working players.”

Last year’s Hampton team was bounced from the playoffs in the opening round, resulting in a 5-6 season, but the Bulldogs take a 9-1 mark and No. 7 state ranking into this year’s postseason.

Optimism is running pretty high as Hampton waits for the Oliver Springs-Tellico Plains winner to invade J.C. Campbell Stadium.

“We’ve done our jobs and won some games,” Andrews said. “We got that first-round bye — that’s going to help a lot. If we come out to play, we’ll have a good chance in the playoffs. I really look forward to it. Hopefully, we can go far.”