Elijah Kimble already gave Canisius a program legend. Now he’s chasing a record that’s bigger than any one school.
Kimble’s Syracuse commitment made national headlines this month, a four-star running back staying home over Ohio State, Indiana and Bill Belichick’s North Carolina. But for Crusaders fans, the more immediate storyline is what he’s about to do in his final year of high school football, because the numbers say his best season might still be ahead of him.
Through three varsity seasons, Kimble has piled up 5,325 rushing yards and 73 rushing touchdowns, 77 counting all scoring, on 599 carries, an 8.9 yards-per-carry average that borders on absurd for a player who’s seen every defense in Western New York scheme specifically to stop him. He’s already Canisius’ all-time leading rusher, a record he took from Qadree Ollison, who went on to rush for nearly 3,000 more yards at Pitt. Kimble broke it in Week 4 of his junior season and still had a full season and a half left to play.
Now the target gets bigger. Jehuu Caulcrick, who starred at Clymer Central before a college career at Michigan State, currently holds the Western New York all-time record with 6,559 rushing yards and 101 touchdowns. Kimble needs 1,235 yards and 25 touchdowns to pass him on both counts. Given that Kimble has averaged over 1,775 rushing yards in each of his three varsity seasons, that record isn’t just within reach, it might not even require his best year to get there.
The accolades already reflect what he’s meant to the region. Kimble became the first Canisius player ever to win the Connolly Cup, awarded annually to Western New York’s top football player, following his junior season. He also picked up the 2024 Dick Gallagher Buffalo News Player of the Year award and has racked up 26 career 100-yard rushing games, a number that will keep climbing every Friday night this fall.
There’s a symmetry to how this story plays out from here. A kid who broke his own school’s rushing record before he’d even finished high school, then made the biggest recruiting decision Central New York has seen in years, entering his final season with a legitimate shot at becoming the best rusher this entire region has ever produced. Canisius fans have already gotten a program legend. This fall, they might get a regional one.
