How about this!!!!!!!!!!
A
NDY GREDER |
[email protected] | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: December 26, 2021 at 1:13 p.m. | UPDATED: December 27, 2021 at 7:31 a.m.
PHOENIX — Mar’Keise “Bucky” Irving’s phone lit up with a text message from an unexpected person on his first day on the University of Minnesota campus last summer.
“What’s up?”
It was Mo Ibrahim, the reigning Big Ten running back of the year, reaching out to the true freshman tailback expected to be buried on the depth chart and not see the field during the 2021 season.
“At first, I thought he was not going to talk to me, so I was just shocked,” Irving acknowledged during an interview last week. “This guy really sees something in me. Why not connect with him?”
Ibrahim had more then 300 carries during the pandemic-truncated seven-game season in 2020, and he was supposed to be the main man running the ball in his fifth and final season this fall. Meanwhile, Irving was projected to sit behind Ibrahim, Trey Potts, Bryce Williams, Cam Wiley and Ky Thomas. It was a long list.
But this example of mentorship of newcomers is how things are done with the Gophers, and, man, did it end up benefiting the program this season.
Ibrahim was lost for the season to a torn Achilles tendon in the season opener against Ohio State on Sept. 2; Potts was done for the year after suffering an undisclosed injury against Purdue exactly a month later; Wiley entered the NCAA transfer portal on Oct. 18 (and is now committed to Akron); and Williams’s season ended with a lower left leg injury against Northwestern on Oct. 30.
The accumulation of those things left Irving and Thomas to shoulder the rushing load over the final month of the season — and the standard didn’t slip.
Heading into the Guaranteed Rate Bowl against West Virginia (6-6) on Tuesday, the Gophers (8-4) are the only FBS team with five different players who have rushed for 100 yards in a single game. The U hasn’t had that kind of shared productivity in a season since at least 1932.
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Gophers running backs coach Kenni Burns said head coach P.J. Fleck sets the standard of having older players pass on knowledge and experiences to younger guys, so Burns reminded Ibrahim that Irving, a four-star recruit from Country Club Hills, Ill., was stepping onto campus for the first time last June.
“I didn’t know what (Ibrahim) would do with that,” Burns said. “I said, ‘At some point I would love for you to connect with him,’ and Mo being Mo just took it to a whole other level.”
Burns said Ibrahim told Irving he was going to watch film at a certain time, and while the elder statesman wouldn’t force the youngster to be there, he said he would love to go over some stuff with him.
“Bucky showed up, and Mo said Bucky was eager to learn and was aggressive with it. I think once Bucky started doing it, I think, Ky was kind of like, ‘OK, can I come, too,’ and it turned into this group of guys working together.”
Thomas, a four-star recruit from Topeka, Kan., who did not play in 2020, led the Gophers with 680 yards on 145 carries, and Irving totaled 570 yards on 114 carries. They combined for 1,021 yards over the final five games.
Burns, who played at Indiana from 2003-06 and has been a college coach since 2007, has never experienced a position group hit this hard by injuries. The U’s woes this season also included former walk-on tailback Preston Jelen suffering a season-ending knee injury in August, and to help make up for the absences, the Gophers moved linebacker Derik LeCaptain and defensive back Jordan Nubin to running back.
The closest situation Burns had to this season came in 2018 when Minnesota lost Rodney Smith to a torn ACL to start the season and had Shannon Brooks suffer not one but two torn-up knees. That year taught Burns some lessons.
“The biggest thing is in fall camp: Don’t under-assume the young guys won’t have to play at some point,” Burns told the Pioneer Press. “I think this year with Bucky and Ky, I made a big point that, if all else fails, they might have a chance to play. … Just getting them ready in fall camp and giving them more reps and quizzing them when they were stretching out or on the sideline or in meetings.”
Thomas, whose first year at the U was limited because of a shoulder injury, started to show flashes during their August practice at the Vikings’ facility in Eagan.
“He made a couple of runs and you could see him coming into form,” Burns recalled. “The game was slowing down for him quite a bit. That is when I knew, ‘OK, this guy is going to help us this year. The week before Colorado (Sept. 18) he looked a lot more confident, a lot more fluid.”
But Irving, a faster 5-foot-10, 190-pound back, was the shiny new object; “Everybody was enamored with Bucky,” Burns said. But Burns made sure Fleck kept an eye on Thomas, who is a more bruising 5-11 and 205 pounds.
Irving was still the one to produce the ‘wow’ moment. During a younger-player scrimmage one Sunday night, Irving broke a series of tackles to produce a long touchdown run. Fleck said Saturday that he still remembers it vividly.
“It was one of those runs where you call the play, and everything goes wrong,” Burns said with a laugh. “A couple of blocks are missed and your natural running back instincts kick in. He is breaking tackles and made a cut that was just like an NFL-caliber cut, stopping on a dime, and you are like, ‘holy cow.’ It was one of those things. You can’t coach those types of instincts.”
Gophers director of player personnel Marcus Hendrickson, who previously worked for the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns, went up to Fleck to reiterate how special Irving was on that play.
Gophers fans started to see what Irving and Thomas could be in September. Irving made his debut against Miami (Ohio); Thomas debuted a week later versus Colorado, but both shared the nerves they had to start the season.
Burns said an underrated part of coaching is managing the emotional side, so he tried to remind the young tailbacks to not try to be Ibrahim or Potts when they were out there.
But after Ibrahim went down, Potts became the go-to guy. The third-year player from Williamsport, Pa., had 518 yards on 102 carries — both marks were top three in the nation across that four-game span. Then Potts was injured in the 20-13 win over Purdue on Oct. 2 and spent six nights in Indiana hospitals with undisclosed ailments.
With one of their own involved in a scary situation, Burns said his message to the running backs was to not focus on the uncontrollable. “We didn’t know what was really going on with Trey, but what we could do was control what we could control,” he said. “… We talked about making Trey proud in how we play and how we go about our business.”
What helped the running backs this season was the close bond. During a Christmas Day practice in Gilbert, Ariz., Potts was engaged with the tailbacks active during the session. Meanwhile, Ibrahim, Williams and Jelen were connected doing their rehab work.
“I think when something happens to one of them, there is an emotional connection,” Burns said. “But I think in the same breath, they are kind of like, ‘I don’t want to let this guy down.’ ”
Given the success of the running backs, Burns, who also carries the title of assistant head coach, could attract more attention for bigger jobs.
“He is a great teacher,” Fleck said. “He breaks it down so everybody can learn. I think this is proof. You can say that as coach-speak, but when you actually have freshmen that have to go out there and perform at a high level for the majority of the year, it shows.”
Fleck also wanted to stress how the U hasn’t had a dropoff with running backs in pass protection nor fumbling. U running backs stood up in blitz pickups throughout the season and didn’t have a fumble become a giveaway all season.
Thomas also credited the U’s veteran offensive line in paving the way for their success. “Every day in practice has forced me to get after it,” he said. “Then you see them in games and how efficient they were, how physical they play, and it helped a lot.”
100-YARD RUSHERS IN 2021
Mo Ibrahim — 163 vs. Ohio State
Trey Potts — 178 vs. Miami (Ohio)
Potts — 121 at Colorado
Potts — 141 vs. Bowling Green
Bryce Williams — 127 vs. Nebraska
Ky Thomas — 139 vs. Maryland
Mar’Keise Irving — 105 vs. Maryland
Irving — 110 at Northwestern
Thomas — 106 at Northwestern
Thomas — 126 at Iowa
Thomas — 105 at Indiana
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