Drew Bailey had a solid junior season in 2023, but as his senior season began, he struck like lightning and has been rolling ever since to lead the Broncos to a 3-1 start.

Bailey is averaging more than 200 all-purpose yards a game and scored 11 touchdowns, four off his season total from a year ago.

“It’s going great, man,” Bailey said. “I mean, it couldn’t get much better. Three-and-one, I can’t complain.”

In the Broncos’ season opener, which also happened to be his birthday, Bailey ran for 310 yards and six touchdowns in a 56-41 win over Leesville. Two weeks later, he ran for 208 yards and scored twice in a 48-24 win over East Ascension.

“It was euphoric, man,” Bailey said of his game against Leesville. “I didn’t really know it was happening until after.

“We were just rolling with the punches as the game went on, and I didn’t realize how many yards I was stacking up until the end, really, until people started coming up to me and like, ‘Yo, you might have broke 300, dude.’ And I was like, ‘Nah.’”

Bailey said greater confidence and understanding of the game has led to his success this season. He increased his yards per game by 47 percent to 173.5 and nearly 2 yards more per carry at 8.6.

“Just knowing that I put in the time, I put in the work, and that is coming out, as you know, senior season,” Bailey said. “Over the summer, we’ve put in the work. We’ve been working harder than any team around.”

He has 694 yards on the ground and 11 touchdowns on 81 carries, plus 13 catches for 102 yards in an offense that averages 42.75 points a game. He ran for 1,292 yards and 14 touchdowns last year.

“He’s always been a really good kid,” Sam Houston head coach Chad Davis said of Bailey. “He’s a 4.0-plus student since the day he walked into the building.

“He’s always had just a really good work ethic when it comes to athletics also. He gets through the first line of defense and he gets to the second level, he’s a very dangerous player and he’s doing it with confidence.

“He carries most of his mass in his legs, you know, so he’s a very powerful lower body. He does a good job of keeping his feet moving and keeping a forward lean.”

Davis said the senior brings balance to the Broncos’ high-powered offense.

“We do have a very strong passing attack, but I think we’ve thrown it 20 to 24 times a game here lately, then ran it 30-plus, which is opposite of where we’ve been years past,” Davis said. “He’s really been him and those front five guys (up front) have really been a big contributor and keeping us very balanced offensively. Not only do you have to defend him in the run game, but you gotta be able to cover up in space too.”

Bailey runs behind an offensive line that began the season with one full-time starter from 2023, senior center Jack Davis, and two underclassmen, including 6-foot-4, 280-pound sophomore Albert Simien, who Davis said recently received an offer from LSU.

“I mean, can’t give them more praise,” Davis said. “They’ve really come together as a group. They’re a pretty young group. They’ve all just came together as a unit and are performing past every expectation that everybody had.”

Bailey said is always pushing himself harder on the field and in the classroom. Bailey, who said he plans to pursue a civil or petrochemical engineering degree in college, spends most of his classroom time this school year at McNeese State where he is taking 14 credit hours.

“I’m a student-athlete, that’s for sure,” Baileys said. “I take my grades very seriously.

“It’s definitely pushing me, but I enjoy it, and it keeps me grounded. It’s definitely a struggle, but I mean, it’s trial and error. Figuring it out, figuring out how much I can take with my practice schedule during football. But I’ve found that the harder I push myself, the more I succeed, so I like loading myself down and grinding.”