They’re Back on the Run : Rushing Game Looks Better for the Trojans

By the time USC’s 1993 season had passed through Penn State, Arizona and Notre Dame, Coach John Robinson knew two painful truths about his team:

--The Trojans, particularly against good teams, did not have an effective running game.

--The Trojans, particularly against good teams, could not stop an effective running game.

It is uncertain whether USC’s defensive line has improved sufficiently to stop opponents’ running games.

But, from what’s happened so far in practice, the coaching staff believes the former deficiency has been at least partially corrected with the arrival of three new running backs and a returning starter, Shawn Walters, who improved markedly late last season.

Walters, a sophomore from Arlington, Tex., earned the starting tailback job midway through last season and showed he could be a tailback with a big-time future at a university where the position was practically invented.

After all, his position coach is Charles White, 1979 Heisman Trophy winner. If Walters still feels he needs more guidance, he can walk down the hall and talk to Athletic Director Mike Garrett, the 1965 winner.

Walters, six feet and 225 pounds, averaged 4.7 yards a carry last season and finished eighth among Pacific 10 Conference runners with 641 yards. At USC, that doesn’t put him in the all-time top 25.

But cut him some slack. He was a freshman.

Walters is expected to start Saturday in the opener against Washington at the Coliseum but might have to play a notch or two above last season’s level to hang on to his job.

Walters took over at tailback after early season starters Scott Fields and David Dotson faltered--and after he stopped trying to be Carl Lewis in pads.

“Shawn, like a lot of good high school backs, thought he could just go to the sideline and outrun everyone at this level,” Robinson said.

“But he’s a big, physical guy, and I wanted him to ricochet off tacklers, not try to run around them. It took a while, but he finally started taking the ball up the middle.

“He got stronger over the summer too. I think he’s a fine tailback, a solid football player.”

Against Houston in the season’s second game a year ago, Robinson was unimpressed by Walters’ first big play as a Trojan, a 54-yard touchdown run during which no defender touched him.

“All that showed me was that he can run 54 yards without falling down,” Robinson said at the time.

White said yet another glitch has been blipped out of Walters’ running style.

“I finally got him to quit hesitating a split-second at the line of scrimmage,” he said.

“Shawn tries to be perfect every play, and sometimes he concentrates so much, the hole opens and closes while he’s thinking.”

Thinking is a major theme with White when talking about young running backs.

“There’s a big difference between doing it and understanding it,” he said. “I want to make sure they all know what they’re supposed to be doing out there, running down the clock or trying to get out of bounds.

“And I have questions about their toughness. Can they get two yards for us with the game on the line and no blocking? Can they move the pile? Can they play hurt? It might take us a year to learn all that. We’ll see.”

For Trojan partisans, nothing quickens anticipation of the opening game quite like the arrival of three new tailbacks:

LEONARD GREEN

Of the three, Robinson said Green is the most polished. He’s a 6-0, 180-pound junior college transfer from Mt. San Antonio.

“Green comes in here as an experienced, mature player,” Robinson said.

“He’s a very quick, elusive kind of runner with a great burst through the line. He’s also an excellent receiver and blocker.”

Green, a junior, rushed for 1,922 yards, averaging 6.4, in 22 games for Mt. SAC, fumbling only once in two years. However, he has sat out recent practices because of a hamstring pull.

Said White: “All three of these guys are something special, but that burst Leonard has through the line--it’s special . He’s a nice package; he carries a lot of stuff.”

Green’s junior college coach, ex-Trojan Bill Fisk, said Robinson, White and offensive coordinator Mike Riley will find Green at his best when he’s matched against linebackers.

“Leonard is so quick that if they can effectively isolate him on linebackers, they’ll see no linebacker can cover him,” Fisk said.

“He’s a complete offensive player--he’s got great hands, he can run and he can block.”

RODNEY SERMONS

Sermons is a 6-0, 175-pound freshman who hasn’t played a down, and already Washington Coach Jim Lambright is worried.

“We know what kind of player Rodney is--we recruited him, we had him up here on a visit,” Lambright said.

In a general way, Robinson compared him recently to another USC Heisman winner, Marcus Allen, when Allen was a freshman in 1978.

“He’s a real all-around back, a guy with a broad range of skills,” Robinson said. “Allen showed us early he could do a lot of stuff, and so has Rodney.

Sermons averaged 7.2 yards in 145 carries last season at Bishop Amat, scoring 19 touchdowns. He also started five games as a defensive back and had two interceptions.

DELON WASHINGTON

A 5-11, 190-pound freshman, Washington scored 55 touchdowns at Kimball High in Dallas, including 29 last fall, when he averaged 6.9 yards a carry. Then he had best times of 10.33 and 21.82 seconds for the 100 and 200 meters on the track team last spring.

Washington has lit up a couple of scrimmages at USC, gliding through seams in the defensive line and popping loose from linebackers.

“He’s got great moves; he can escape out of tackles like Napoleon Kaufman,” Robinson said.

White marvels at Washington’s hands at the start of a running play.

“He takes the handoff so smoothly, sometimes I think he’s fumbled it,” White said.

Robinson has told all of his tailbacks to think of themselves as being “interchangeable,” that is, capable of contributing at fullback.

According to Robinson, Dotson, one of last year’s tailbacks who is probably the best blocker in the group, will be “fully involved” at fullback, as will another returnee, Terry Barnum.

Another tailback contender is redshirt freshman LaVale Woods, a 5-7, 190-pounder who sat out last season after suffering an ankle sprain.