Erik Gray finally had an idea of his secure status on the football field in his college career this fall, and he took full advantage of it.
Gray, a 2022 Amarillo High graduate, became the full-time starting center at Stephen F. Austin State this past season as a junior, and it was all the push he needed to show what he could do.
“Last year I was in and out,” Gray said. “I wasn’t a starter. I was starting one game then not starting the next one. This year I started every game except for a couple because of injury and worked on my footwork. Playing center is not easy as you’re the quarterback of the offensive line and I finally had some experience under my belt.”
The rest of this story is only for subscribers.
After moving to center from guard last season, Gray showed he belonged in just about every facet, as he was named the top offensive lineman of the year in the Southland Conference. Tuesday afternoon he was recognized closer to home, as Gray was named the winner of the Blair Cherry Memorial Award at the Amarillo Club in an honor given to the top college football player who graduated from an Amarillo-area high school.
While stats are often hard to quantify for offensive linemen, Gray earned top grades for his performance for Stephen F. Austin, which went 11-3 and reached the third round of the Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs. Gray had an overall 73.7 rating across the board in the formula the Southland Conference uses to grade offensive linemen, earning him the top mark in the conference.
It was a rewarding season for Gray, who finally found solid footing and had the most fun in his college career since graduating from Amarillo High.
“It was a blast,” Gray said. “I haven’t taken it for granted and I’m ready for next year. We know what it feels like to be in the college playoffs and we’re going to take the national championship next year.”
Gray’s college career started at Texas Tech, but after two seasons he opted to transfer to Stephen F. Austin State for a new opportunity. After a year of learning a new system, Gray was ready to show he could perform as a starter at the college level.
SFA coach Colby Carthel, a former assistant at West Texas A&M, knew what he had in Gray and admired the fight he showed in taking over as starting center for the Lumberjacks.
“I was really proud of Erik in the season he had,” Carthel said. “He has battled through injuries and adversity the past few years, so it was nice to see him have the success that he did. On top of being a great player, Erik is also a fantastic leader. He is the captain of our offensive line group, which is the cornerstone of our offense.”
Every play literally started with Gray when he was on the field, as he was the one player guaranteed to handle the ball on every play while snapping it. He’d never been center before, and the most basic aspect of the position was something which required some adapting.
“It was just snapping the ball in general,” Gray said. “It’s so easy snapping the ball when nobody’s in front of you, but when it’s time to pass block or go to your right or go to your left and run block against a 320-pounder in front of you it gets a lot more intense. I had to work on that after practice. I was snapping it low and snapping it high and getting my butt whipped but I was staying the course getting snaps in.”
Gray was a dominant enough presence at Amarillo High that he enjoyed that rare feat of playing both offensive and defensive lineman for the Sandies, and was recruited on both sides of the ball. Once in college, Gray finally settled in on offense.
At 6-foot-1, 256 pounds, Gray is bigger than the normal person by far, but relatively undersized for a college lineman. Carthel is most pleased that he overcame that obctacle to be a dominant interior lineman.
“He has come a million miles during his time with us,” Carthel said. “When he arrived from Texas Tech he was undersized. He actually tried out for us at offensive line two years ago before we moved him to offense permanently. He has worked very hard to get his weight and strength up to match his leadership and intensity.”
The award is named after Blair Cherry, the legendary coach at Amarillo High who led the Sandies to an astonishing 84-5 record over seven seasons. Cherry later became an assistant at the University of Texas before he became head coach and a member of both the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame and the Texas Sports Hall of Fame.
Gray knew of the magnitude of the award after he researched it.
“It wasn’t on my mind honestly, but once (AHS) coach (Chad) Dunnam told me about it I did my research and realized how big of an award this is in the Panhandle and it’s an honor,” Gray said.
Prior to last year, the award, which started in 1969, was exclusively given to a graduate from an Amarillo ISD school who was playing college football. Last year, it was opened up to players from not only AISD, but Canyon ISD, Bushland, River Road and Highland Park for consideration. Four finalists are selected from that group and the winner is picked from there.
Last year, the award was shared between Bushland graduate Kash Bradley (playing for Colorado Mesa University) and Tascosa grad Joseph Plunk at Texas Tech.
This year, Bradley was nominated again. Other nominees were Tascosa’s Tayden Barnes at the University of Cincinnati and Caprock’s Jamel Acosta-Lewis at WT.