The Compact Models : High-Performance Backs Who Are Short on Size but Long on Mileage Have Made an Impact

Give some coaches the chance to belittle the little and many just can’t resist. Ask a question about a running back who is 5-feet, 9-inches tall, and comparisons are made to compact cars and the tiny toys of Tonka, not big boys like Csonka.

Even the occasional coach who offers a compliment normally uses some kind of qualifier: “That kid’s quite a player--for a munchkin.”

For several Valley teams this season, however, the yellow brick road to the playoffs is being paved by Toto-sized ballcarriers with huge statistics.

Small has not necessarily translated to small time. Among Valley-area running backs, six of the top 16 rushers in the Southern Section and four of the top 12 in the City are 5-9 or under.

Canoga Park Coach Rudy Lugo, himself only 5-9, has been able to look down on several running backs who were gobbling up yardage against his team this year. Four of the best backs in the Sunset League, of which Canoga Park is a member, are 5-9 or shorter.

“Small backs are like a mongoose going up against a cobra,” Lugo said. “If you’re smaller, you have to rely on speed or agility or whatever else you’ve got. You have to recognize your talent and improve on that.”

Zigzagging Muhammad Zaid (5-9, 168) of Van Nuys had Lugo’s defense nervously running in circles last month. Although Canoga Park beat Van Nuys, 38-20, Zaid will never be likened to a Yugo by Lugo.

“The guy has great lateral movement, and he changes direction without losing speed,” Lugo said. “He’s short, but he has great power and he’s very durable. It seemed like he gained 200 yards.”

Actually Zaid only had 99 yards in 20 carries, but he probably took 200 yards’ worth of steps. Zaid, a senior, is fourth among Valley City ballcarriers with 868 yards and is a central reason for Van Nuys’ improvement from 0-9 in 1986 to a respectable 3-4-1 this season.

After Friday’s game with Taft, which will decide the league title, Lugo might feel like he earned a doctorate in dealing with the diminutive. And if Canoga Park (6-2 overall, 3-1 in league play) downplays the threat of the downsized, it might be a big night for two tiny Taft backs.

For the Toreadors (6-2, 3-1), the running game accounts for 90% of the offense. Bookend running backs Kelvin Byrd (5-9, 167), a junior, and Marc Harris (5-8, 170), a senior, have 1,402 rushing yards between them.

To prepare for the pair, Lugo has had a trio of running backs skittering around in practice, imitating the Taft twosome. In other words, all week long, three small guys have been getting gang-tackled--by their own teammates--in an effort to ensure they’ll be able to flip Byrd and Harris on Friday.

Like Lugo learned with Zaid--who left some small shoes for Byrd and Harris to fill--little backs present large logistical problems.

“We have to work on open-field tackling and on working against their quickness and change of direction,” Lugo said. “If they get in the open field, well, we can’t allow that to happen.”

To underscore the threat of the undersized, Lugo offered a comparison. A Tyco-sized tyke, he says, can be much harder to gauge than a full-sized locomotive.

“I call them train-track runners,” Lugo said, “because big players are a lot easier to tackle because they’re so predictable.” Taft Coach Tom (Thumb) Stevenson isn’t exactly surprised by the success of Byrd and Harris, either. Big numbers, little guys. No big deal, he says.

“Hey, I like ‘em small,” said Stevenson, who is 6-5. “It’s hard to see them when they’re behind the line. They can get lost back there.”

Harris, a transfer from Texas, and Byrd, a transfer from El Camino Real, bounced around before ending up at Taft. They do likewise when they play.

“Because of their physical stature, they have better balance,” Lugo said. “They get bombed and they don’t go down--they use a hit to bounce off and move around.”

And give them an inch--you can bet they’d take it--and boom, they disappear.

“I think it can be an advantage to be small,” said Harris, who has rushed for 634 yards. “It’s not that we’re necessarily faster, like in the 100 or something, but we’re quicker. We get to the hole quicker. And then we’re gone.”

Lingering in the memories of North Hollywood opponents is Chip Grant, who is all of 5-6, 150 after adding 10 pounds over the summer. Grant didn’t grow vertically, but the added weight has allowed him to plant a few more defenders horizontally.

A mainframe is needed to calculate micro-Chip’s numbers: He leads the City with 1,736 yards and 25 touchdowns, and he missed most of one game with an ankle injury.

Grant bench presses 335 pounds, the most on the team. In a way, it’s appropriate, because his back has supported much of the load. Grant accounts for 67% of the Huskies’ total offense, which ranks first among Valley City schools.

“Without him, we’d be just another team,” Coach Fred Grimes said. “When a lot of guys gain muscle it really slows them down. But Chip hasn’t slowed down a bit. He achieved what he wanted--it made him that much harder to tackle.”

Grimes, who is 5-8 and “never weighed more than 150 pounds,” says he’ll take players in any shape or size, although he’d certainly prefer them to be in shape and of size.

“Big or small, I don’t know that I actually prefer them either way,” he said. “I’ve had real big kids that didn’t play worth a damn and some small kids who did very well.”

Often, small guys have to play where a larger player normally would.

Noel Baker (5-9, 175) was Westlake’s leading rusher. Yet while most small ballcarriers are tailbacks, Baker played fullback and bulldozed his way to an average of 4.8 yards a carry.

Baker, a senior, missed all or part of his first three seasons because of knee and ankle injuries. Before this year, he began a boot-camp regimen to be all that he can be.

“I just want to make up for the things that I may lack physically,” he said.

Baker, who rushed for 742 yards, leads the offense in a special category--ferocious blocks the coaches call Tomahawks.

“That’s when you take a guy and put them right on their back,” Baker said.

Crespi Coach Bill Redell, a former assistant in the United States Football League, has viewed plenty of small running backs. Former Nebraska running back Anthony Steel (5-9, 185) was with the Portland Breakers with Redell.

Backs have to block as well as carry the ball. Wouldn’t a small back serving as the last line of defense between a blitzing linebacker and a quarterback be a liability?

“I think some of those guys have an advantage because they can get under you,” Redell said. “But we’re talking about guys that were pretty solidly built. If you had a player that was 5-5 or 5-6 or something, it could get to be a problem.”

At smaller schools, it’s understandable that players might not be cut from the classic NFL mold.

At L. A. Baptist, senior Cliff Robinson (5-7, 155) rushed for 1,087 yards. Robinson, who accounted for 67% of the Knights’ rushing yardage, has a role model--receiver Lionel Manuel of the New York Giants is a second cousin.

“He’s about average height for a receiver,” Robinson said. “What it comes down to is playing with lots of heart. Lionel’s played with his hand in a cast this season. If that’s what it takes. . . . “

All told, small guys have made a deep impression. But what does a player that’s 5-8 do for an encore? College recruiters often measure potential in inches.

“Unless they have super-duper speed, they’ll probably have to go to a JC to prove themselves,” Stevenson said. “Sometimes it’s too bad, because the smaller kids are often the best athletes--they have to be--and they usually don’t even get feelers from big colleges.”

Grimes, a former assistant at Pierce College, said Grant could play at the college level.

“He’s gotten some interest from a couple of Division I schools,” Grimes said.

Robinson, who indicated that he would like to play at a Cal State University school, said there are many ways to measure up. “What it comes down to is respect,” he said. “Out there on the field, that’s all that matters, not your size. How tall is Joe Morris?”

When Canoga Park squares off against Taft, there will be more than a modicum of attention paid to the minute details.

“Like with airplanes in a dogfight,” Lugo said, “sometimes the plane that’s more maneuverable with less weaponry wins.”