The art of running the football

It all started with one guy running with an oblong ball headlong into a group of angry men, all of whom were trying to take the runner down and inflict maximum punishment. As football has changed, one thing has not.

The men whose job it is to carry the football through hazardous conditions.

Running backs are men of near mythical status. They are Red Grange, Emmitt Smith, Walter Payton, Jim Brown. They are strong, fast and fearless. There is a constant thread, going from one to the next, through history.

The forward pass forever changed the sport. Now, many people put a greater emphasis on a quarterback and his skills. Some, though, still see the sport at its essence.

"To me it all starts with the running game. It's all connected, of course, but you have to be able to run the ball," Ottawa-Glandorf coach Ken Schriner said. "I'm sort of old school. So many of these guys are going spread offense, five-wide, and we still run the I-backs and try to control the football with the running game.

"I'm not smart enough to understand it. I'm an old O-line guy. The running game is much easier for me to understand."

A great running back must be born with certain characteristics. A coach can teach him where to run and how to properly block a blitzer, and to a certain extent even speed can be taught. But the innate knack all great runners have is much harder to pin down.

"There are some things you just can't teach," Bath coach Todd Clark said. "There are a lot of fast kids that can't play running back. There are a lot of those unteachable things, as far as vision, knowing where to make your cuts and being able to have quick feet."

It's easy for a running back to get carried away with his press clippings and everyone slapping him on the back with an "Atta boy."

The challenge is to stay humble and realize the job doesn't get done without synergy between all 11 offensive players.

"It's the dedication to the team and a lot of hard work in the weight room in the winter," Shawnee running back Brandon Stephenson said. As a junior, he rushed for 1,432 yards and 23 touchdowns on 209 carries.

"It's overall leadership. It's not about being a glory hound."

To that point, Stephenson vociferously lobbied for the starting linebacker position after Shawnee star Zach Rosenbauer went down with a broken collar bone.

Of the final stats collected by The Lima News in 2007, 11 players rushed for more than 900 yards in the regular season. Of those, only three are back - Stephenson, Logan Kaufman of Ottawa-Glandorf (157 rushes, 1,161 yards, 11 TDs) and Bath's Gavin Painter (222-1,077-4).

A great running back is a multi-purpose player, exemplified by the fourth member of Mount Rushmore, Tony Harlamert of Coldwater. He must know how to run the ball, obviously, but his ability to block and catch passes is nearly as important.

In the regular season, Harlamert rushed for 574 yards and 19 TDs while catching 30 passes for 382 yards and another six scores.

"The running back has a lot of roles," Lima Senior coach Darnell Collins said. "They are a three-dimensional player. ... If you can just get the ball to the running back, the quarterback has an easy job. The running back can do so many things for you."

For a linebacker, making sure his line keeps the offensive line off of him is the first step to stopping the running back.

"It's the most important thing, because if we have guys blocking us, we can't make the plays," Ada linebacker Justin Stransky said.

Defenders take their cue from a running back. Leaning with his hands heavy on his knees? Must be taking the ball up the middle. Shifting a bit from foot to foot? Going outside. Even his eyes give them away.

Delphos Jefferson middle linebacker Derek Shivley uses the cues he picks up on defense to be a better running back. Keeping a poker face is important.

"You think about that before the play," Shivley said. "You try to make it as little seen as possible."

Some derisively mock the "three yards and a cloud of dust" ethos of early modern football, when coaches still felt only three things could happen when passing the ball, and two of them bad.

But even today, with the high-powered aerial offenses utilized by local schools such as Kenton and Ada, the importance of a running game is as important as ever.

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