Savage Words: Pancakes never seemed so intimidating

The Brandon Valley football season is long in the books, ending back in November at the DakotaDome in Vermillion.

But there’s still plenty of football left on our television screens with College Bowl games in full swing and the NFL playoffs on the horizon.

I’ve been doing this for a long time. My guess is I’ve likely covered more than 300 college and high school football games since I started putting pen to paper as a profession.

I don’t say that to sound cocky. I say it because apparently I’m an idiot.

I’d never heard of the term “pancake block” until this year. A pancake block is performed by an offensive lineman who overwhelms his defender and puts him on his back, completely eliminating his opponent from the play.

It’s actually not an official stat. There aren’t any positive official stats for offensive linemen. Unfortunately, the only real stats kept on those in the trenches is how many quarterback sacks they give up.

Instead, pancake blocks are kept by offensive coaches to help motivate their offensive line throughout the season. And apparently, I haven’t been paying attention. It’s believed the term first surfaced in 1966 when West Virginia head coach Jim Carlen and his staff began tracking the dominating performance from the Mountaineer offensive lineman.

Perhaps I’ve never heard of a pancake block because, just like most of you, my eyes go directly to the quarterback, running back, or wide receiver when the ball is snapped. If I’m doing a special feature story on someone else, like a linebacker or defensive back, I’ll obviously lock in on them each play. But for the most part, I’m as guilty as any for focusing on the ball and the skill player possessing it each down.

In my defense, watching to see if an offensive lineman dismantled their opponent is something I’ve never paid attention to, and that’s a regret I have.

While I was watching a college football game over the weekend, I heard an announcer point one out. It’s the first time I’ve heard it on a television broadcast. 

I’m going to start paying closer attention to that next year, and I’ll have plenty of opportunities. Brandon Valley head coach Matt Christensen was the first person I heard talk about a pancake block, and it was in reference to Gatorade Player of the Year Hudson Parliament. The 6-foot-4, 300-pound offensive guard had 97 pancake blocks last year as a junior for the Lynx.

Ninety-seven. That seemed like a lot, but I wasn’t terribly sure because again, I’d never heard of it.

But trust me, after a little research, 97 is a ton, a ridiculous number.

Tracking pancake blocks are an essential part of college recruiting. A pancake block is a way for schools to evaluate an offensive lineman’s effectiveness. Obviously, that dominance up front impacts the overall performance of an offense.

So, it’s no wonder Parliament has gotten the attention of nearly every major Division I program in the country. Mastering pancake blocks is clearly in his repertoire.

So, the next time you sit down for breakfast in 2025 with a stack of pancakes in front of you, think of big No. 64 on the Lynx lining up across from you.

Or don’t … that would be scary.