TERRE HAUTE —
Austin Karazsia’s quarterback numbers probably won’t improve this fall at the rate they did between his sophomore and junior high school football seasons at Linton.
For that to happen, he’d have to pass for almost 5,000 yards and throw approximately 80 touchdown passes.
Since the Miner senior has basically revamped his team’s offensive playbook by his presence in the lineup, however, it might not be wise to rule out the possibility either.
After seeing enough action as a freshman to pass for 336 yards and three touchdowns, Karazsia became the full-time starter his sophomore year and threw for 2,220 yards and 22 scores. That was just a preliminary to his junior campaign, when he led the state with 3,364 yards and passed for 43 touchdowns as the Miners reached the semistate before losing to Indianapolis Scecina.
These would be good numbers at any high school. Karazsia, however, has achieved them at Linton. That those numbers are school records is a silly question, because …
“We’d throw the ball seven, maybe eight times a game [pre-Karazsia],” coach Steve Weber noted this week, and that’s not just Weber’s philosophy. In their long, proud history, the Miners have been known for rugged, physical teams, not for their wide-open attacks. Finesse and Linton football have very seldom appeared in the same sentence.
The 2012 Miners will still hit you as you’re getting off the bus, but they aren’t afraid to put the football in the air anymore either. And it was their young quarterback, sometime in the past two seasons, who helped facilitate that change.
“We’ve always liked to keep our wingbacks tight, to help us run the ball,” Weber explained. “He made the suggestion to widen our offense, so he could see the field a little better.”
A few thousand passing yards later, “We thought it was a good idea,” Weber said with a smile.
Don’t get the impression, though, that Karazsia just likes to throw. What the quarterback likes to do is win. And now, as a senior, he’s even more in charge of making that happen.
“At first it was pretty weird, but I’ve embraced the role,” he said of his senior status. “It’s pretty cool being one of the older guys.
“We’ve all been part of two sectional championships [plus one runner-up finish; the Miners are 31-8 the past three years], and we got to the semistate last year,” Karazsia continued. “We want to take that [success] and go week by week with it.”
Despite his statistics and his measurables — Karazsia is 6-foot-7, with bloodlines that indicate he’ll continue to get even stronger than he is now — the scholarship offers haven’t been pouring in yet.
The Miners’ Class A schedule could be a factor, or the fact that Karazsia is also a promising basketball player. “I’d rather focus on one [sport in college],” he said. “I just need to make that decision.”
Offers should be coming, because “He’s got good speed, a good arm, he’s intelligent — a sure bet to become a great next-level [football] player,” Weber said.
Karazsia isn’t worried about college though. He has more important things to do this fall.
“The stats are good,” he said, “but the ultimate is to win games as a team — and to win a state championship.”
Weber isn’t worried about Karazsia either, for a slightly different reason.
“I think he’s going to write his own ticket,” the coach predicted. “It could be football, it could be basketball, it could be academics. He’s put himself in the position to have a lot of choices.”
And a year from now, when the Miners come to football practice, the wingbacks might be in a little tighter again.
“We’d never have this attack, this system, without [Karazsia],” Weber emphasized. “Our struggle right now is to find a backup for him. [Among the other possible quarterbacks] the willingness to work and study like he does isn’t there. They just want to come out and play football, and it takes more than that.”
High School
Related Photos
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Quarterback: Linton quarterback Austin Karazia throws the ball during Monday's practice at the Greene County school.
Discussion
Linton's Karazsia back for encore after leading state in passing yards
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Kehrt Award goes to Emily Bell, Lee Davis
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