Knox’s Myles McLaughlin catches the ball Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, during practice at Knox High School in Knox. © Grace Hollars/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When Derrick Henry set the national high school football rushing record back in 2012, it was hard to imagine anyone coming close to that mark again.

The future Alabama Heisman winner and NFL star totaled 12,124 yards across four seasons, averaging better than 8.7 yards per attempt and more than 252 yards per game. A high school quarterback in Indiana is making a run at that record, though.

Myles McLaughlin of Knox Community (Ind.) is the Hoosier State’s most prolific rusher ever, breaking the record previously held by Palestine’s Charlie Spegal. McLaughlin is also just the fifth player in high school football history to reach 11,000 career rushing yards after a 408-yard, six-touchdown performance on Friday night.

He sits at 11,004 yards for his career, just 1,020 behind Henry’s all-time mark. Knox is in the midst of an undefeated season at the 3A level and plays on Friday night in the IHSA sectional championships. If they can make it to the state title later this month, that would give McLaughlin four full games to break Henry’s record.

And while more than 1,000 yards seems like a longshot in that span, McLaughlin has already rushed 3,603 on 309 carries with 57 total touchdowns this season — or an average of 327 yards per game. To break Henry’s record, he’d need to average 280 over the final four contests.

Henry: “I hope he gets (my record)”

In what might be an even more memorable moment for McLaughlin, Henry was asked by Kay Adams on her show “Up and Adams” on Tuesday about the record potentially falling. Henry not only expressed his desire to McLaughlin to break the record, but says he has already seen highlights of the prep star on social media.

“Running tough, breaking tackles, he’s a beast,” Henry said with a smile on his face. “Go break it man. Records are meant to be broken.

…I’ve had it for 10+ years so I hope he gets it. I hope he wins a state championship with it.”

When the clip circulated on Twitter, McLaughlin responded by quoting the original post and saying, “This is crazy.”

The 5-foot-10 McLaughlin can move up to third on the all-time rushing list in his next game, which comes this weekend against Mishawaka Marian.