Guice eager to discover how skills fit new scheme
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU’s old offense suited Derrius Guice fine when he set an LSU single-game rushing record with one of the most dominant performances in all of college football last season.
Still, he’s had to accept a new scheme under new offensive coordinator Matt Canada and have faith that it’ll all work out.
“I feel like it’s something that we can adapt to, buy into and learn,” Guice said. “I can’t wait to see what it holds for us.”
The wait is about to end; No. 13 LSU opens play Saturday night in New Orleans against BYU.
‘A powerful’ runner
When Canada first arrived, he figured Guice might be anxious about the new scheme.
“That certainly is sometimes an issue. There’s some guys where that’s been harder,” said Canada, whose stops as a Division I coordinator have included Pittsburgh, North Carolina
State, Northern Illinois and Indiana. “He certainly has individual goals. No one is naïve to that.”
Last season, Guice was LSU’s No. 2 running back behind Leonard Fournette, who is now with the Jacksonville Jaguars. With Fournette nursing an ankle injury much of last season, Guice started six games. He finished the season with team highs of 1,387 yards and 15 touchdowns rushing.
He closed out the 2016 regular season with 285 yards rushing at Texas A&M, eclipsing by 1 yard a mark Fournette had set earlier in the season. The old record had stood since 2004, when Alley Broussard rushed for 250 yards.
BYU coach Kalani Sitake said stopping Guice would be “a huge task” for his defense.
Cougars linebacker Fred Warner added: “He’s a powerful running back. He can make guys miss, so we are just going to have to contain him and hold him to minimal points.”
The offense in which Guice thrived featured plenty of power-I alignments with a traditional blocking fullback. Canada’s scheme largely removes the fullback and emphasizes an array of motions, alignments and angles designed to spread defenses out and keep them guessing.
Such changes could explain why, when Guice was asked about personal expectations this season, he responded, “I don’t have any for myself … just win ball games one by one.”
He also noted that the new scheme would “make me a better team player,” insinuating, perhaps, that he expects Canada to seek a more balanced distribution of the ball.
Still the No. 1 option
Canada, meanwhile, made it clear that Guice will remain a central figure in the Tigers’ attack.
“Obviously, he’s going to get the football. We know who he is — tremendous player, exceeded expectations for how hard he works,” Canada said. “He loves the game, plays it 1,000 miles an hour.
“He’s fast, physical. He runs on a mission,” Canada continued. “I’ve coached some pretty good guys. Guice has some things different than those guys have. He’s a really special player.”