HOG FUTURES

RB brings toughness to UA

A punishing running back at Norman, Okla., High School, Donovan Roberts will be looking for his place at Arkansas when the current group of running backs leaves.
A punishing running back at Norman, Okla., High School, Donovan Roberts will be looking for his place at Arkansas when the current group of running backs leaves.

— Sitting in a doctor’s office, Norman’s Donovan Roberts received news that didn’t stir confidence about him suiting up for a Oklahoma Class 6A state playoff game against Owasso.

Three days earlier, the Arkansas-bound running back’s leg was rolled by a defender in a game against Jenks after he cleared a hole on a counter run. The tackler’s cleat clipped his hamstring, and Roberts’ ankle crumpled under the weight.

But Roberts walked into Norman Coach Greg Nation’s office on a Monday in early November and bluntly gave his own prognosis.

“ ‘I’m playing Friday,’ ” Nation said Roberts told him. “ ‘I’ll be there. You don’t worry.’ ”

Four days later, Roberts delivered his best night in a senior season in which he was nicked up with groin, ankle and leg injuries. With Norman trailing 14-0 early, Roberts’ 227 yards and 4 touchdowns on 30 carries keyed a rally that ended in a 45-34 loss.

“Owasso was my last game where I could feel my junior body running all around,” said Roberts, who is 6-0, 210 pounds. “I hadn’t been fully healthy until the last game.”

The defeat ended a high school career in which Roberts — a three-star prospect — rushed for more than 5,390 career yards and 76 touchdowns, including a junior season in which he rushed for 2,002 yards and 32 touchdowns.

The days leading up to Roberts’ final game showed a toughness and physical style that could serve as a boon in a couple of seasons when a deep backfield rotation of juniors Knile Davis, Ronnie Wingo Jr. and Dennis Johnson departs Fayetteville.

Roberts said the chief task at hand isn’t adapting physically to college football as much as the “the mental aspect and getting up to their speed” in learning Arkansas’ complex offensive scheme.

“You need to get to where you know what your guard is doing, what your receivers are doing, how everything fits and snaps,” Roberts said. “That’s the college level. While the ball is being snapped, do you know where everyone is supposed to be?”

At Norman, the task was easy.

The ball was often hand- ed to Roberts at least 30 times a game in a bruising rushing attack built on traditional play calls based off power, counter and isolation runs — a style that values patience and explosiveness.

“We’re pretty hard on them about staying true to a hole. It’s going to open. It’ll pop,” Nation said. “It may be the last step when it does and we’re running a counter and you’ve got to kick by the guard. It may look full, but stay patient. That’s attributed to his success.”

Roberts said the system matched his temperament and dates to his time starting as a freshman for Nation.

“Since grade school, I’ve been told you run between the tackles,” Roberts said. “In high school, I always felt I could guarantee you 3 or 4 yards a pop. I like to fall forward when I’m running.”

But that basic task was tougher than Roberts figured when he started his senior season after choosing Arkansas over seven other suitors — including Michigan and Pittsburgh — in April 2011.

Before the first game, he had already picked up a nagging groin injury, one that forced him to wear a thick, black rubber wrap around his thigh that hindered his ability to make cuts and slowed his speed — previously he was timed at 4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

During the week, he wasn’t allowed to engage in heavy lifting in the weight room, and he found himself doing conditioning work with the fullbacks — a frustrating situation for a back who worked throughout the summer to hone his speed.

Often, Nation would pull Roberts out at halftime of games where the outcome was already decided, sometimes with his “bell cow” only getting 13 or 14 carries. That explains why his production slipped to 1,535 yards and 23 touchdowns on 225 carries.

“That’s not me,” Roberts said. “But in high school, we don’t get bye weeks. You tough it out and go out there, and a groin injury just needs to heal on its own.”

By Norman’s final regularseason game against Jenks, the wrap was ready to come off. But his latest injury, which occurred on the second drive of the game, relegated Roberts to watching an 11-point loss while standing in a protective boot.

Roberts spent each practice the following week in a huddle with the first-team offense and tutoring backups A’erion Hines and Jonathan Peters.

“ ‘This is what you need to do. Here’s what to look for,’ ” Nation said was the advice. “He accepted the role of helping the next man in line. But in his mind, he knew he was going to play.”

Even on the day of the game, Roberts didn’t take the boot off until right before warm-ups. And Nation made tweaks to play calls to adjust for any struggles Roberts might have making lateral cuts.

“We changed a few things for that game,” Nation said. “I knew one thing, though.We had to take a jockey whip out to slow him down.”

Roberts wasn’t planning to let anything slow him down.

“I was ready to go,” Roberts said. “Know that.”

Sports, Pages 21 on 06/24/2012

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