HERTZEL COLUMN: Austin highlights show things to come

MORGANTOWN — Allow me, if you will, to make a suggestion for the next rainy summer’s afternoon, a time when the pool is out of the question, your tan already is firmly in place and you are in need of a thrill or two.

Dial YouTube and go to the high school highlights of Tavon Austin, the second-year West Virginia running back/receiver/returner. Clear out some time for they run more than 10 minutes … and that’s just the senior highlights.

As you add to the 150,505 views already on that video alone, you will wonder if anyone ever really did tackle this slick, slippery, fleet man-child.

Considering that he scored 123 touchdowns in his prep career, gaining more than 9,000 total yards — which is roughly 5.25 miles of ground – you can only imagine what you are going to find on these runs.

To say they are spectacular is to say that Mount Everest is tall or the ocean deep. Literally, there are runs where he makes six or seven uncanny cuts, changing speeds, changing directions.

You watch and he is here, then he’s there, almost as if a few frames were skipped in capturing the action. It’s like watching the old cartoons, where the wolf is behind this tree, then that tree, then another tree.

There is one punt return where the ball bounces and he scoops it up and stands there, looking for an open spot, only to see that there is none. So he moves right, then left, then suddenly he is going faster and players are staggering as they try to get him.

He ends up walking into the end zone, as he does on many of the runs, once breaking loose from so many tacklers that by the time he got to the 15-yard line no one was in the same area code with him.

Of course, we come to learn not to believe much of what we see in high school, for the competition is not always what you might expect, but Austin’s high school ball was played in the city of Baltimore, which is ripe with athletes.

Having viewed this, we sat beside Austin at the Puskar Center on Tuesday afternoon, talking football.

It seemed only right to find out which of Austin’s 123 touchdowns he looked upon as the ultimate moment in his prep career.

The answer was shocking.

“It wasn’t a touchdown,” he said. “It was the last time I touched the ball in high school.”

As he explained it, another player had scored a touchdown against Fort Hill to bring his Dunbar team back to an 18-17 deficit with the clock ticked down to no time left.

Dunbar had time only for the extra point and his coach called him over.

“Do you want the ball?” he asked.

That’s like asking C.C. Sabathia if he wants another donut.

Assured that he wanted the ball and still knowing that everyone on the defense would be looking for him to carry it, the coach called “47 sweep,” a play in which he takes the ball around left end.

Two yards stood between him and the state championship.%

He took the ball, no fakes, no cuts, no frills, just ran around left end and burst into the end zone.%

He went absolutely nuts, bouncing up and down, running down the sidelines in front of his fans, his helmet in his hands, jumping.

“That was the best play I ever ran,” he said.

West Virginia considered recruiting him a coup, one that gave them a replacement for Noel Devine, if he left after his junior season.

Austin learned about football as a freshman and somehow, along the way, taught a few lessons to defenders. Playing the slot behind Jock Sanders, he caught a 58-yard touchdown pass and ran a kickoff back 98 yards for a score.

College football had been warned, for this kid was just getting into the game.

Mostly, he listened and watched, studied Sanders, watched Devine.

It was good for him.

“I had two guys in front of me who were as good or better than I was,” he said. “Hopefully, my turn will come.”

When Devine and Sanders decided to come back this year, it gave Austin one more season to understudy two great players, to soak in whatever knowledge they could give him. But rest assured, this year he will be a huge contributor himself, for coach Bill Stewart can not allow a talent like that to linger on the sideline.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.MORGANTOWN — Allow me, if you will, to make a suggestion for the next rainy summer’s afternoon, a time when the pool is out of the question, your tan already is firmly in place and you are in need of a thrill or two.