MORGANTOWN — Fullback.
Say it softly to yourself and see what kind of images it brings up.
Tough guy. Broad shoulders. Helmet covered with paint scraped from hard hats worn by opponents.
Jim Brown. Jim Taylor.
And if your name isn’t Jim you carry a name like Bronko or Mr. Inside.
Or maybe you just think of Owen Schmitt.
Fullback.
Say it loudly now and think about how often you hear the term any more.
Now you’re an H-back or a tight end or a hybrid this or that, not a fullback.
Unless you are Ryan Clarke.
Then you are a fullback … and proud of it.
See, fullback is throwback term, and Clarke is a throwback player. He plays the game in such a way that his bruises have bruises.
He is Alan “The Horse” Ameche in a 2009 body, the kind of player whose name you may forget but you don’t forget meeting him.
Ask Nieko Thorpe of Auburn.
He intercepted a Jarrett Brown pass in the second quarter on Saturday night, running it back until he came across the aforementioned Mr. Clarke, who now had become a defensive player.
When they put the pieces of Nieko Thorpe together he was heard to ask, “Did anyone get the license plate of that truck that hit me?”
Ryan Clarke’s first collegiate tackle was a doozy.
“I was the last line of defense,” Clarke explained. “I had to tackle him.”
It was a tooth-rattling tackle.
Not Thorpe’s. Mine.
And I was sitting warm and dry in the press box.
Clarke knew he’d made a big hit, but he wasn’t going to dwell on it.
“That’s my job,” he said. “It was like ‘mission accomplished.’”
See, there are requirements to be a modern-day fullback. You know, like a secretary must take shorthand, type 60 words a minute, be an expert with word processing, a fullback has certain things he must do.
He must hit hard.
That’s pretty much it.
If he can run with the ball, fine.
But he is really a body guard.
When Clarke fills out his resume for the National Football League in four years, it will read:
“Was Noel Devine’s body guard.”
See, when Devine is dotting the West Virginia “I,” the “I” he is dotting is Clarke, who lines up in a three-point stance in front of him and growls at linebackers.
“He gets out there and says, ‘Let’s go!’ He’s hyped up, more hyped up than I am,” Devine said.
He and Devine have a close relationship, which isn’t bad when you are entrusted with the family jewels, as is Clarke.
Although Clarke isn’t sure Devine really needs a bodyguard.
“He lays people out on his own,” Clarke said.
Clarke says it makes no difference to him if he lines up in the “I” or in the spread, that either way he gets to do some banging.
And, in true fullback fashion, he doesn’t care if the ball is put in his hands or if it goes to Devine, although he has shown with his limited touches — seven in three games — that he can get a first-down in a short yardage situation.
In fact, he was the missing link last year when the Mountaineers struggled on third-and-short situations, caught being a freshman who needed to mature and find his way through the personal minefield that is being away at college for the first time.
Will the day come when he gets to carry the ball on a regular basis, maybe eight or 10 times a game?
Probably not, but the day will come when he could carry the ball that often.
“Every week they add a play for me,” he said.
But the days of the fullback as a ball-carrying feature of an offense are over.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
Bob Herzel
HERTZEL COLUMN: Clarke stays true to legacy of the fullback
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