Running, Away From Home : Blaise Setting Iowa State Afire

Welcome to Iowa State University, birthplace of the computer and home to the nation’s only college football scrimmages frequently buzzed by model airplanes.

Legend has it here that former Cyclone Coach Jim Criner threatened to bring a shotgun to practice when the diving planes plunged a little too close to a scrimmage.

Criner never took target practice, so the planes were soaring again when Iowa State Coach Jim Walden watched the Cyclones go through their first scrimmage of the season.

A few hundred feet below the air show, Blaise Bryant took a handoff from quarterback Chris Pedersen and dipped and ducked through the sea of red jerseys.

But Bryant has more on his mind than tacklers. After being knocked out of bounds, he scrambles up and looks skyward. You never know if one of the kamikaze planes might try a late hit.

“It’s crazy around here,” Bryant said. “You never know what to expect.”

Nope, you never really know what to expect at an Iowa State practice. You never know what, or who, might show up.

Take last August, for instance. Remember that dude from Southern California, the one dressed in surfer pants and T-shirts and who had that hairstyle that went every which way?

Walden, in desperate need of a running game, gave the guy the ball and watched him go.

And Blaise Xavier Bryant never stopped.

In his first game, he ran for 213 yards and two touchdowns against Ohio University. It was the first time a Big Eight back cracked 200 yards in his debut. Heisman Trophy winners Barry Sanders, Mike Rozier and Johnny Rodgers hadn’t come close.

Bryant, 6 feet 1 and 200 pounds, went on to break nine Iowa State season rushing and scoring records last year.

His 1,516 yards rushing ranked fourth in the nation and first in the rushing-rich Big Eight Conference.

He was a third-team All-American, named Big Eight newcomer of the year and is the leading returning rusher in the nation. He and the Cyclones open their season Saturday, playing host to Northern Iowa.

Bryant’s statistics and potential have NFL scouts rating him among the top five players in the nation this season. He has been mentioned as a Heisman Trophy candidate, even though he says his chances of winning it are “slim and none.”

His play and personality have made him a celebrity in Ames, a city of about 46,000 in central Iowa. During a recent trip to a shopping mall to buy shoes, he was stopped half a dozen times for autographs.

“I always pay for everything with cash,” Bryant says. “The minute I write a check or pull out my credit card, the person (store clerk) recognizes me.”

It’s hard to go incognito when your name is Blaise. He rolls his eyes when telling the story of how he got it.

“My dad thought of it,” he said. “He used to tell me that he was sitting in the hospital lounge watching a football game while waiting for me to be born. He said he heard the announcer say this guy ‘scored in a blaze of glory’ and decided, ‘That’s it. I’ll name him Blaise.’ ”

So the folks around Ames know there’s nothing blase about Blaise. But they weren’t sure what to think about the 20-year-old surf kid from Huntington Beach when he first came to campus.

Sure, he was an all-Southern Section tailback as a senior at Cypress High School after nearly quitting the team the previous season. Sure, he led the nation’s junior colleges in rushing while at Golden West College in 1988.

But could the guy with the wacky life style and lobster-tail hairstyle cut it in the Big Eight? Could he handle life in Ames?

After all, this is a guy who stays a step ahead of fashion trends as well as tacklers. He’s more comfortable in Ralph Lauren or surfer pants than T-shirts and jeans, the norm in Ames. He’ll pick up an issue of GQ or In Fashion before Sports Illustrated or The Sporting News.

And not many Iowa State players can do a barrel roll on a bodyboard like Bryant can. When Iowans talk about something that’s five to six feet, they’re talking corn, not waves.

“I’m a pretty liberal, open-minded guy,” Bryant said. “I think that’s what people around here like about me. People around here are afraid to express themselves like I do, with the clothes and the haircut, my own creation. And then there I am.

“You can take the kid out of California but you can’t take the California out of the kid. I’m still in love with the water, I always will be.”

His popularity in Ames came as no surprise to Ray Shackleford, his coach at Golden West College.

“Blaise is a pretty infectious guy,” Shackleford said. “He’s the most personable, outgoing guy you could ever meet.

“This summer, he was in here working in our weight room. He’s all-Big Eight and is being mentioned as a Heisman candidate. But he hasn’t changed at all. He’s still Blaise.”

Many in Ames figured Blaise would leave as quickly as he came last spring when NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue opened the upcoming draft to juniors. More than 30 juniors became eligible, but Bryant stayed in school.

“I haven’t given the NFL too much thought,” Bryant said. “I wasn’t ready to go. I only had one year at the Division I level under my belt. I felt I owed it to the team and the fans to stay. I had just turned 20 years old. I just wasn’t ready yet.”

What does he think about being projected as a top NFL pick this year?

“You can’t put much stock in those lists,” he said. “Look at a guy like Ickey Woods with the Bengals. He was taken in the (late second) round and is doing great. Then you look at a (first-round) guy like Brian Bosworth. Where’s he?”

Walden met with Bryant after Tagliabue opened up the draft.

“I wanted to let Blaise know that I wouldn’t hold it against him if he decided to go pro,” Walden said. “I wanted to make sure he knew he was under no obligation.”

If or when Bryant does turn pro, he wants to play in San Diego. His reason: “It’s far enough away from home that my mom wouldn’t be coming in to clean my room all the time. But it’s still close enough that I can see my family and friends. Besides, there’s some great surfing down there.”

A Heisman Trophy would no doubt help Bryant’s draft status. Several preseason magazines have listed him as a candidate, and Walden has begun a grass-roots Heisman campaign for his running back.

A few of Walden’s campaign speeches:

--”You talk about Darian Hagan of Colorado, the Houston media will find someone to hype and Notre Dame will stick a player in there. Who’s their guy with the funny name?”

Uh, Raghib (Rocket) Ismail?

“Yeah, him. He’s run some kickoffs back for touchdowns, but on a performance basis, Bryant is the best returning running back in the nation.”

--”If Notre Dame doesn’t have someone it’s really high on, then Bryant’s chances improved greatly. Someone needs to call Notre Dame to see if they have a Heisman candidate.”

--”I don’t want the national hype. I only want this room full of (local reporters), and if something happens nationally, fine. But I don’t need Sports Illustrated or the New York Times. They don’t cover Iowa State football, so they can stay out of here as far as I’m concerned.

“I think Bryant is ready to do the best job he can. All I want him to do is what he did last year, and that will take care of the national hype.”

--”You’ve got to ask the question, ‘What’s the Heisman for? If (Bryant) takes our team to a higher level, he would have to be the favorite.”

Bryant’s not so sure. He said for him to be a contender, the Cyclones, 6-5 last year, will need to reach a bowl game, something they haven’t done in 12 years. He says he also has to rush for at least 2,000 yards.

“I’m happy that my name’s associated in the same sentence as the Heisman,” Bryant said. “But we’ll let it rest at that. Any time you’re messing with something that’s judged, you can’t control it. It (Heisman voting) is straight-out politics. And I’m not a very political guy.”

Some coaches were ready to hand Bryant the bronze statue after his junior year.

Kansas Coach Glen Mason, who watched Bryant run for 126 yards and a touchdown against the Jayhawks last year, said stopping Bryant “is like hunting a fly with a sledgehammer. You can’t stalk him. You have to take a shot and hope you get him.”

After rushing for 151 yards against Oklahoma, he came back the next week with 89 yards and two touchdowns against Nebraska.

Bryant impressed Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne, who said the running back “has made a big difference in (Iowa State’s) team.”

“Offensively, he has made them a lot more dangerous,” Osborne said. “(Former Cyclone running back) Joe Henderson was very good, but Bryant gives them something extra.”

Bryant says it’s versatility.

“I think I can adapt to any style of running,” he said. “I can be a finesse runner or I can run hard. I can break into the open, but when I’m in the trenches, I like to put my shoulder down and hit people. It all depends on what I have to do.”

Football wasn’t all that important to Blaise Bryant. While growing up in Culver City and later in Redondo Beach, a day in the surf was more fun than junior league football.

“When I was little, I always knew I could play,” he said. “I just couldn’t get into it. I messed around.”

But when he moved to Cypress in 1980, all that changed.

“We lived too far from the beach and we lived across the street from the football field,” Bryant said. “My friends and I would be over there, chasing the cheerleaders around. One day, this guy walks up and says, ‘Hey, you want to play?’ “Even then I didn’t like playing football. I just outran everyone to the corner.”

It wasn’t until his sophomore year at Cypress that football started being fun. His coach on the junior varsity, Rob Walker, became one of his closest friends.

But the fun was short-lived.

Bryant nearly quit the football team after his junior season, his first with the varsity. The Centurions suffered one of their worst seasons with a 3-7 overall record and a last-place finish in the Empire League.

Bryant, a second-stringer, wasn’t getting much playing time. He wasn’t getting along with varsity Coach Kris Van Hook, either.

“Van Hook wanted me to cut my hair and shave my mustache,” Bryant said. “Football wasn’t fun anymore and I was ready to hang it up. I sat the bench for three or four games. It was a weird season.”

Van Hook said he had to discipline Bryant.

“When Blaise was a freshman, he was really squirrelly,” Van Hook said. “He didn’t have a clue on life. He did a good job as sophomore, but I sat him out the first game and a half of his junior year. He had a tendency to miss practice, so I sat him down. I never had a problem with him after that.”

During the off-season, Bryant thought about what he wanted. Finally, Walker convinced him to come back for his senior year.

“Walker came up to me and said I had a shot at a free ride to school,” Bryant said. “ I came out that year and pushed it hard.”

John Selbe replaced Van Hook as coach, and Bryant took off. He rushed for 1,305 yards in 201 carries and scored 20 touchdowns. He was named to every all-star team. Recruiters began to take notice.

Bryant chose Hawaii. He signed a letter of intent with the Rainbows but failed to meet academic requirements under Proposition 48.

“I could have gone to Hawaii if I wanted to,” Bryant said. “I had a 3.1 grade-point average, but my SAT score was a little low.”

He enrolled at Golden West, a few miles from his parents’ house in Huntington Beach. As a freshman, he rushed for 801 yards in 138 carries and scored six touchdowns.

His sophomore year, he more than doubled those statistics, leading the nation in rushing yards with 1,691. His best game was a 330-yard performance against Riverside.

Once again, the recruiters began to notice. Bryant improved his grades and was eligible for Division I.

“A lot of recruiters were trying to force me to sign,” Bryant said. “They would show up at school and stop me in the halls. I was constantly talking to guys I didn’t want to. It was getting out of control.”

One recruiter who didn’t pressure Bryant was Robin Ross, an Iowa State assistant coach and a longtime friend of Shackleford.

“I kept putting Coach Ross off, but he understood,” Bryant said. “And the Big Eight was a running league and I wanted to see if I could run against the best.”

Blaise Bryant is surrounded by reporters. The Big Eight Skywriters’ tour is in town and every reporter from Cedar Rapids to Boulder wants to know what the surf kid thinks of the landlocked Midwest?

“Lots of Interstate (highway) to look at, bugs and humidity,” Bryant says bluntly.

How about that crazy Ames night life?

“After a game I might hit up a party but that’s it,” he said. “There are a couple of clubs down in Des Moines, but they’re nothing like California. It’s mind-boggling because there’s so much to do.”

Bryant’s wit draws laughs from the media. But there’s still a warm spot for Ames in Bryant’s heart. He says he’ll be back here after the season, working on his degree in telecommunications--with or without an NFL contract.

“One of the hardest times of my life was when I first came here,” he said. “It was hard not to pack it in and just go home. I missed everyone back home and I missed my girlfriend. I had never been away from home or the beach.”

BRYANT’S 1989 RECORDS Rushing yards: 1,516

Most points scored: 120

Most touchdowns: 20

Most rushing touchdowns: 19

All-purpose yards: 1,718

Most 100-yard games: 7

Most 200-yard games (season, career): 2

Source: Iowa State sports information office