MORGANTOWN —
It seems almost absurd that with so much to write about as the final chapter of the Friends of Coal Bowl approaches so rapidly that what seems to have captured the imagination in the West Virginia University camp is the running back situation.
Certainly, a new defensive staff and scheme would seem to be a topic of some interest and concern, yet the fact that Dustin Garrison seems to have been ruled out of this week’s opener with Marshall due to a pre-Orange Bowl knee injury has become the hot topic of the day.
True, Garrison did rush for 291 yards in a single game during his true freshman season, which would seem to make him something rather special, but in the course of the WVU offensive scheme, the running game is a complementary facet rather than the heart and soul.
That, of course, is the golden arm of Geno Smith and the receiving heroics of Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey.
But there is something engrossing about the fact that Shawne Alston has bulldozed his way into the starting job and would have been named starter even if Garrison were healthy, his story being a heartwarming one.
To begin with, a year ago he didn’t know if he would ever play football again, a neck injury sustained in a car accident that was not his fault putting his career in question, so much so that in the opener last year against Marshall he didn’t even dress.
“He didn’t take a snap the first five games of the year,” coach Dana Holgorsen noted.
What he did do was recuperate, recover and earn the admiration of his teammates and the staff.
He also showed himself to be a tough, inside runner for short yardage and goal-line situations and a vocal team leader.
That was good and bad.
Certainly the bad part was that he was being looked at as a Ryan Clarke who could hold on to the football, Clarke having been a short-yardage back who had some fumbling problems and lost the right to carry the ball.
Alston, however, never saw himself as a short-yardage back and did not want to be so labeled.
“I think people put that label on me,” Alston said. “But if you go out every day worried about people’s perceptions of you, that’s not good.”
He just kept plugging away.
Given a chance in the Rutgers game last year, he banged away for 110 yards on just 14 carriers, one of them covering 52 yards.
Seeds were planted for Holgorsen, seeds that would bear fruit in the Orange Bowl as he rushed 20 times for 77 yards, scoring twice.
Knowing the situation with Garrison’s knee, he came to camp on a mission, in better shape than he’d ever been in and completely driven to reach the heights he knew he could reach.
“I think my teammates have seen me as far as practice goes,” Alston said to The Charleston Gazette. “But (the fans), probably not. They probably haven’t seen me at the level I can perform at now. They’ll get a show Sept. 1.”
Holgorsen hasn’t ruled Garrison out yet.
“It’s a long season. If Garrison isn’t ready this week, we’ll re-evaluate it next week,” he said.
But you sense he’s thinking strongly of redshirting him, especially since the two freshman running backs he recruited on scholarship into this class are not with the team, Roshard Burney having failed to qualify academically and Torry Clayton having withdrawn from school and gone back to Miami after he failed to crack the depth chart in camp.
That means every able-bodied running back will be used while Alston will be featured.
“Thirteen weeks is a long season for a running back where you’re asking them to block, to run with the ball, to pass block and to catch the ball,” Holgorsen said. “There’s a whole lot of things that position does, which means we need a whole lot of bodies who can go in there and do it.”
He is down to five or six bodies, including non-scholarship walk-on freshman D’Vontis Arnold of Miramar High in Florida.
“He’s done a good job,” Holgorsen said of him. “We got five bodies there now, and we’re going to need all five of them.”
Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @bhertzel.
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