When it comes to unbreakable high school football records, single season interceptions have to be included on the list. The irony is that despite the passing game becoming more prevalent in the game, interceptions are actually going down.
This might seem counterintuitive. It figures that when more passes are thrown, the more opportunities for an interception. However, a look at passing statistics for the NFL shows the opposite to be the case.
Record Book: Most interceptions in a season
Consider that in 2022, NFL defenses intercepted 418 passes out of 18,069 passing attempts. That's an average of one interception for every 43 passes thrown.
Now look at statistics from 1953. With 20 fewer teams in the league and nearly 14,000 fewer passing attempts (4,267), NFL defenses in 1953 intercepted 306 passes. That's one interception for every 14 passes thrown.
Up until around 2013, NFL defenses averaged over one interception per game. Since 2014, NFL defenses are averaging less than an interception a game. The advent of the West Coast Offense in the 1980s under San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh utilized a more controlled passing game with shorter, more high percentage passes. It's no surprise then that after holding steady around 1.4 interceptions per game for the defense between 1961 and 1983, interception rates have dropped steadily every since.
This type of anomaly has also trickled down to the high school level. Consider
Javier Rice of
Asheville Christian Academy (Swannanoa, N.C.). With a national best 417 passing attempts, he has thrown just 13 interceptions, or 1 every 32 passes. He threw 72 passes in a recent game without an interception. Then there's
Gage Baker of
Paradise Honors (Surprise, Ariz.) who averages an interception for every 55 attempts. He has thrown for 3,278 yards in eight games.
The national record for interceptions in a season is 26, held by Trevor Graf of
Strasburg (Colo.) and Antonio Mustache of
Monticello (Utah). Graf set the record in 1990 and Mustache tied the mark in 2004.
Graf and Mustache are the top players on the latest addition to the MaxPreps National High School Football Record Book
– most interceptions in a single season.
Since 2008, only two players have intercepted as many as 17 passes in a season. Ryan McGrath of
Lewis-Palmer (Monument, Colo.) picked off 18 in 2008 and DeAngelo Sapp of
Lake Wales (Fla.) had 17 in 2019.
A total of 15 players have intercepted 20 passes in a season but none since Mustache did it in 2004 and 13 of them did it prior to Graf's record total in 1990.
The list includes several professional athletes, including Max McGee of
White Oak (Texas), who went on to fame as the leading receiver for the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I. Also on the list is former professional soccer star and three-time winner of the "Superstars" competition on ABC from 1974 to 1977, Kyle Rote Jr. of
Highland Park (Dallas, Texas).
One player who has not been included in the MaxPreps Record Book is Jim Linnstaedter of
Brenham (Texas), who is listed in the National Federation of High Schools Record Book with 35 interceptions in 1956. There are a few things wrong with that entry. First, Linnstaedter was a freshman in 1956 and is not listed in any game story during that season as ever having intercepted a pass, let alone 35 in a 10-game season.
Second, the Fort Worth newspaper quotes the Brenham coach in 1959 as saying that Linnstaedter had 39 career interceptions (the NFHS record book says he has 55). Nowhere in any newspaper article could we find reference to Linnstaedter's 35 interceptions in a single season or 55 in a career.
The numbers first became record when the Texas All-Time Sports Record Book was published by Bill McMurray of the Houston Chronicle in the early 1970s. However we have not been able to corroborate those totals and so, for now, we are leaving those records out of the MaxPreps National Record Book.
Record Book: Most team interceptions season
Team interceptions for a season have also decreased with no team reported with over 40 interceptions in a season during the 21st century.
Gaffney (S.C.) was the last team over 40 with 44 in 1999.
Diamond Bar (Calif.) holds the national record with 51 in 1984.
