Two of a Kind
October 22, 2007 11:10 PM | General
October 23, 2007
 Slaton |
 Rice |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For many years guys like West Virginia’s Steve Slaton, Rutgers’ Ray Rice and Pitt’s LeSean McCoy were winding up at places like Ohio State, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin or Nebraska.
Those schools used to make a living raiding the Northeast’s best high school running backs.
For a long time Iowa had a pipeline running out of New York City with backs like Owen Gill, Ronnie Harmon and Tony Stewart heading West to Iowa City. Wisconsin successfully farmed New Jersey for Ron Dayne and Anthony Davis. Nebraska went into Camden to get Mike Rozier.
Ohio State has a history of going into the Northeast to get running backs like Eddie George from Philadelphia and Pete Johnson from Long Island. New Jersey’s Butch Woolfork had a distinguished career at Michigan.
Even more recently, the Wolverines went into Syracuse to take Mike Hart away from the Orangemen.
The list goes on and on.
Today, not nearly as many of them are getting away. New Rochelle’s Ray Rice stayed local with Rutgers. Harrisburg’s LeSean McCoy stayed in-state with Pitt and Levittown’s Steve Slaton remained in the East with West Virginia.
You can stack those three backs up against anyone in the country and two of them will be showcased Saturday afternoon at Rutgers Stadium when No. 6 West Virginia takes on No. 25 in a game that will be televised on ABC.
Slaton and Rice are unique talents that have done their best work against the stiffest of competition. Rice is already the second leading rusher in Big East history with 3,913 yards heading into the West Virginia game. He is averaging 122.3 yards in 32 career games, scoring 38 touchdowns.
Rice, however, is even more productive against schools from BCS conferences. In 23 career games against BCS schools Rice is averaging 127.8 yards per game and 5.4 yards per carry. Rice’s last two games against South Florida have seen him rush for 383 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Slaton’s performances have been just as impressive against the good teams. He ran for a Sugar Bowl record 204 yards and scored three touchdowns in West Virginia’s 38-35 victory over Georgia in 2006 and has had back-to-back 100-yard games against Maryland and Mississippi State. In 22 career games against BCS teams Slaton is averaging 128.6 yards per game and 6.4 yards per carry.
And it was at Rutgers two years ago in 2005 that Slaton’s career took off when he ran for 139 yards and scored a touchdown in his first career start.
“I think he’s been a great back since I saw him here two years ago,” said Rutgers coach Greg Schiano. “He can do it all. I think he’s feeling better this year; I think he played great all last year with a wrist injury.”
During high school Slaton was on Rutgers’ recruiting board as was Rice on West Virginia’s. It’s not a coincidence that both programs have taken off with that kind of talent evaluating.
West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez has seen enough of Rice to become a big fan.
“He does it all,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a complete football player. He’s a very physical guy and I think he’s meant an awful lot to their program. If you didn’t have to play him he’d be fun to watch because he plays with such passion.”
Rodriguez says the two runners have slightly different styles. Rice is a more compact runner who is at his best in between the tackles. He always seems to be moving forward no matter how many guys are grabbing on to him.
Slaton can also run between the tackles but his game is more suited for the outside where he can use his 4.3 speed to out-run defensive backs.
“Not that Ray won’t go outside but Steve has got the speed and will bounce things outside a little bit more maybe,” Rodriguez explained. “Ray hits it up in there like maybe a 240-pound guy does. He’s always getting positive yards. He’s a downhill guy and he’s built very low to the ground and he’s a tough guy to get a handle on.”
Perhaps the biggest difference is how the two running backs are used. Rice has had at least 30 carries seven times for his career including a span of three straight games heading into this weekend’s game. In his last three games Rice has run the football 109 times, including 39 against USF last Thursday night.
Last year Rice led the Big East with 335 totes and he is back on pace to reach that figure again this year.
“I think the numbers things got a little mixed up,” Schiano said. “He wasn’t that very far off his pace. If you look at it, the one game he only had 12 carries for 75 yards was the Norfolk State game, other than that I think his numbers were on pace for the most part.”
Rodriguez has chosen to use Slaton more economically this year, especially after watching Slaton wear down last season. Slaton has only had more than 20 carries three times this year and recently had a stretch of three straight games against East Carolina, South Florida and Syracuse when he had just 46 carries.
The work load is beginning to pick up for Slaton, who carried 23 times for 127 yards against Mississippi State last weekend. Expect him to get the football a lot more the rest of the season, just like Rice.
“When you talk about being backs that can carry it 25-30 times … both can do it and have done it in the past,” said Rodriguez.
Fortunately for the Big East Conference, those two are doing it here instead of somewhere else.
