Broward 4M-3M football co-offensive players of the year: Jordan Lyle, St. Thomas Aquinas senior, and Chris Wheatley-Humphrey, South Broward senior

This year, South Broward senior running back Chris Wheatley-Humphrey and St. Thomas Aquinas senior runner Jordan Lyle are sharing the Broward County 4M-3M offensive player of the year award.

Next year, they will share a backfield in Coral Gables.

Lyle shook the recruiting landscape on Monday, Dec. 18, when he flipped his commitment from Ohio State to the University of Miami, where Wheatley-Humphrey has been committed for a while.

It should be quite the competition.

Wheatley-Humphrey, who ran for 2,076 yards and 16 touchdowns and helped the Bulldogs win their first district title in 26 years, said he wants to be the best running back to ever come out of South Florida, while Lyle says that he has designs of excelling on Sundays and ending up in Canton, Ohio.

Wheatley-Humphrey became the second running back in Broward County history to eclipse 2,000 yards, joining Blanche Ely’s Tyrone Moss, who hit 2,011 yards in 2000.

“Overall, as a team, I don’t think we finished the season like we were supposed to,” said Wheatley-Humphrey, who sat out the second half of the team’s 20-13 loss to Miami Belen Jesuit when he aggravated a hamstring injury in a win over Miramar. “Personally, I accomplished my goals and had 2,000 yards.

“It hurt me because I was hurt and I couldn’t go back into the game,” said Wheatley-Humphrey. ”I want to be the best running back to ever come out of South Florida. I want to start at Miami right away. I am not going there to sit behind anyone.”

Lyle, meanwhile, helped the Raiders to a state-record fifth consecutive state championship. He played his role, scoring twice in the first half to give St. Thomas a 17-0 halftime cushion before Homestead battled back only to fall 31-28.

“It is great to leave an athletic legacy behind, but I want people to know that I had great character, and I was a good person,” said Lyle, a team captain who totaled 1,376 yards rushing and 21 scores, while adding 177 receiving yards and a TD this year. His best game this season was 240 yards rushing and five TDs. Lyle, who was a part of three state championships, said he want to join the stable of running backs from his school that have gone on to play in the NFL.

“I don’t just want to play in the NFL,” he stressed. “I want to go to the Hall of Fame. There are only a select number who have done that. I want to be among those select few and when it is all said and done, I wasn’t to come back to my school and give back to the community.”