Patience is a virtue. So is speed. UM freshmen Don Chaney Jr., Jaylan Knighton want both
They’re fast. They’re formidable. But will they be fabulous?
Maybe. But first they’re learning to slow down, the duo said Wednesday.
Elite Miami Hurricanes Class of 2020 football signees Donald Chaney Jr. and Jaylan “Rooster” Knighton said they’re learning that patience can lead to touchdowns — but, man, sometimes it’s hard to wait for the open hole.”
Chaney and Knighton (in no set order as of yet) will run behind junior starter Cam’Ron Harris this season, which begins Sept. 10 against Alabama-Birmingham at Hard Rock Stadium.
“Me and Rooster, we try to go fast on everything. And sometimes it hurts us...,’’ said Chaney, a high school All American out of Miami Belen Jesuit. “But it’s real hard to slow down. Because in college, I’ve never seen nothing like it in high school. In college, the hole opens and closes real fast, so if you don’t get there you got to wait and you gotta look around, and we don’t really have time for that.
“We practice on it and practice on it and sometimes we make mistakes. When we see something we try to get there real fast, like really fast. And thank God for the speed because we have to focus on traction and getting the right step. And if we don’t do that we get [penalized by coaches for] ‘loafs’. And we don’t want that.’’
Blazing 21.9 mph
True. But Knighton, the all-time Broward County rusher (5,150 yards) out of Deerfield Beach High who said he was timed during one of UM’s scrimmages running 21.9 miles an hour, conceded that when he and Chaney get the ball, they “can’t just take off’’ indiscriminately like they both did during last weekend’s second scrimmage after a strong start in the first scrimmage.
“You have to go through your steps so your O-linemen can get to their assignments,’’ Knighton said Wednesday during a Zoom videoconference interview.
“Slow through, fast through,’’ is the mantra running backs coach Eric Hickson and new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee are teaching the two youngsters. “If you beat your O-line to the assignments, the play won’t develop,’’ Knighton said. “When the coach tells us to be patient, he wants us to go fast but we gotta get the ball and it’s a timing thing. So, get the ball slow [and] fast through the hole, that’s what being patient is.”
Knighton, a 5-10, 190-pound consensus four-star prospect, was rated the No. 5 running back nationally last year by Rivals.com. He ran for 1,414 yards and 19 touchdowns, averaging 9.7 yards per carry, last year for the Bucks, adding 13 catches for 267 yards and two touchdowns.
Chaney, 5-10 and 210 pounds, was rated the No. 5 back nationally by the 247Sports composite. He was Belen’s all-time leading rusher and two-time Miami-Dade County Player of the Year with 114 carries for 1,279 (11.2 yards per carry) yards and 15 touchdowns rushing as a senior — and 4,511 yards career total. He missed the four spring practices recuperating from January shoulder surgery.
Chaney said his biggest transition from high school to college has been adjusting to Lashlee’s no-huddle spread. “We run the air raid so its ridiculous,’’ he said. “The amount of conditioning we have to do is a crazy amount. And me being hurt I wasn’t really in for it.
“I was sitting there like, “This is going to be easy.’’ The first day of practice is when it really hit me. I was like, ‘OK, I need to focus more on conditioning.’”
First scrimmage
In the first fall camp scrimmage Aug. 16, Knighton ran for 126 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, while Chaney rushed for 57 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Knighton’s touchdown run was about 70 yards, and Chaney had a 40-yard score.
“When they burst through the line they can really blow out some explosive runs,’’ coach Manny Diaz said after that scrimmage.
But in scrimmage No. 2 last weekend, Knighton was limited to 43 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries and Chaney had 48 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
“After their big plays’’ in the initial scrimmage, Diaz said, the freshmen likely wanted “to hit a grand slam with no one on base.”
“They were trying to bounce things that weren’t there,’’ the coach said. “Once they started trusting their cuts, and just sticking and becoming north-south runners, once they cleared that front line they could use their explosion.’’
Said Knighton: “With that scrimmage, not being patient was I’d get there before the O-line and then I’d miss the hole and try to go outside and make a play. Over time I got patient.’’
Hickson likes both
Hickson refuses to delineate his young backs in terms of who’s faster and who’s better in specific areas. “Both of those guys are talented,’’ Hickson said. “Both the young guys have to continue to be great at the small things. It’s not about who’s in front and who’s in back.
“Right now we’re making sure everyone is doing the right thing. In this day and age, it’s not a featured back anymore. You need three or four backs that can really get it done.’’
Harris, a junior, is trying to take care of both freshmen.
“Cam is the best leader I’ve ever had in my entire life,’’ Chaney said of junior Harris, a Carol City alum who ranked second last season behind now departed DeeJay Dallas, with 576 yards and five touchdowns on 114 carries (5.1 yards per rush). “I’ve never met anyone like Cam, to be on me every day. We work out after the workouts. Sometimes he goes to the defense and tells them, ‘Yo, you gotta do this. Step up. Give us a good look.’
“Me and Rooster are really grateful for that.’’
Rooster nickname
Knighton, by the way, said he got his “Rooster’’ nickname in 2008 from a former youth coach who saw him break a 70-yard touchdown the first time he touched the ball. “I had a big old Afro and my Afro was red,’’ Knighton said. “so, that’s where the name came from.’’
Finally, Knighton was asked, “Who’s faster? You or quarterback D’Eriq King?”
“I might call him out next week some time just to race him to see if we can settle this,’’ Knighton said. “I really don’t know.’’
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 4:00 PM.
