Which is the most astonishing number associated with Thomas Jefferson Academy's Derrick Mathis?

Is it the Georgia high school record 120 career touchdowns?

Or the top-five total of 7,315 rushing yards?

Or, get this, that Mathis actually has one fewer rushing attempt (139) this season than teammate Logan Perdue (140)?

How about the fact that Mathis cares exactly zero about any of the above?

"Stats are just numbers," Mathis said. "They're nothing you can take to heaven with you. It's not a real big deal for me."

What is a bigger deal for the senior football star is that for the fourth consecutive season the Jaguars will be playing in the Class A state championship game for the Georgia Independent Schools Association. Thomas Jefferson will try to win its sixth state title and third in four years when it plays host to Terrell Academy at 7:30 tonight in Louisville, Ga.

"As far as the feats he's accomplished, I don't think he even understands what he's doing," said Thomas Jefferson coach Chuck Wimberly. "He just goes out and plays each week as hard as he can and lets the cards fall where they may."

Tonight will be the final high school game with the Jaguars for the most prolific rusher in the region since Herschel Walker was at Johnson County.

"It is pretty weird," said the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Mathis. "It's pretty cool but it's just another game for me. The main goal I go in with is just to preach the gospel and show people Jesus Christ through my actions."

That has been Mathis' understated leadership on a team where his presence is ubiquitous and his numbers audacious. With a Bible verse taped in the shape of the cross on the back of his helmet every week, there is not a snap that goes by in a Thomas Jefferson game that No. 23 isn't involved in.

"He never comes off the field," Wimberly said. "He's playing ironman football."

On defense he plays linebacker and safety, leading the Jaguars in tackles (98). He returns punts and kickoffs. He's the place-kicker, converting 52 of 56 extra points and two of three field goals. And on the rare occasions that the Jaguars are forced to punt, guess who does that too?

It's on offense, where he averages enough yards for a first down every time he touches the ball, where he shines.

"He is the real-deal athlete," Wimberly said of a kid who also plays basketball, golf and track and field for the small private school.

Even so, there will always be people who dismiss Mathis' gaudy statistics as a product of playing in the state's smallest private school classification. If he were putting up those numbers for Jefferson County instead of a school with just 260 kids from pre-K through 12th grade, he'd be lauded across the state for his accomplishments.

Wimberly has an answer for any skeptics that he got from one of the many college recruiters who have taken a look at Mathis.

"He told me if he's rushed for over 7,000 yards and scored over 114 touchdowns, I don't care whether he's playing Pop Warner ball, that's an unbelievable feat no matter where you're playing," Wimberly said.

Charles Mathis, Derrick's father, agrees. He videotapes all of the Jaguars games for the team and sometimes can't believe what he sees his son do.

"When you put that many yards together you're doing something right," his father said. "He's playing with peers. It's not like a pro team playing a middle school team, and there's been some tough challenges. It's not a pushover just because it's Independent Schools Class A ball."

The amazing thing is that Mathis' numbers aren't actually bigger. Wimberly spreads the rushes around enough that all four seasons Mathis has been playing, he's had another 1,000-yard rusher beside him. Given more touches over the past four seasons and it's not unreasonable that Mathis could have challenged the state rushing record mark of 8,844 yards set by Commerce's Monte Williams.

"His stats could be a lot bigger," Wimberly said. "If I'd have given it to him over and over and over and made him the only running back in our group, I think he probably could have gotten close to that number. But with the cast around him, they've gotten themselves where they run the ball just as hard as he does. You can't key in just on Derrick. Every year there's other guys you can't forget about. It makes it a little bit easier on them and on Derrick that you can't stop one guy."

That's the kind of team mode that Mathis prefers when he always credits his linemen and his faith for his success.

Mathis will probably get an opportunity to keep playing in college, most likely as a defensive back.

He's visited programs such as Nebraska, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Duke, but seems most interested in closer-to-home Division I-AA powers Furman or Georgia Southern.

"If the offers come, he'll be happy to consider that and what he can attain through that as far as education and vocation," his father said. "But that's not front and center what his decision is made on."

Wimberly thinks any school that gets him will be as blessed as he's been the past four years.

"He works hard and has an awful lot of God-given ability," Wimberly said. "And he has an uncanny ability to see the field. That's the thing most people dismiss other than his speed. He sees things happen before it does. I call him Houdini because he can get out of trouble better than anybody I've ever seen when it seems like people have got him hemmed up."

For now, Mathis only wants to add another team highlight to a career that included winning a state title with his older brother, Chris, in the backfield with him in 2006.

And Wimberly doesn't believe it will be the end of Thomas Jefferson's reign, thanks to the example Mathis has established.

"Hope that somebody else comes along just as good as him," Wimberly said. "I think Derrick has put the standard so high that every kid who comes along will know who Derrick Mathis is and they will do all they can to try to get to that high level he played on. I think it's going to make people better and try to judge themselves by him."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.