UM freshman earns his carries
Freshman had 3 TDs in win over Georgia Tech
Mark Walton now someone the ’Canes can count on.
CORALGABLES— Mark Walton smiled and admitted that, yes, he absolutely did look behind him on his way into the end zone on Saturday afternoon. Not because he worried about a Georgia Tech defender catching him, but because more than once this season, he’s had a touchdown negated by a penalty.
Things went a little better against the Yellow Jackets than they had in some of Walton’s earlier games.
The running back had three touchdowns — two on short runs and one on a 25-yard screen pass from quarterback Brad Kaaya — in Miami’s 38-21 win over Georgia Tech. All three of them stood, none were marred by penalties and, ultimately, Walton was able to breathe a bit easier.
“Oh yeah, before I celebrated, I looked back to see that we didn’t have any penalties,” the freshman said immediately after the win. “There wasn’t one, so I enjoyed it. It felt good.”
Though he impressed coaches and teammates upon his arrival on campus, things haven’t exactly gone as expected for Walton through his first season of college football.
Things started out promisingly. He performed well enough in training camp that he quickly inserted himself into the competition for Miami’s starting running back job with sophomore Joe Yearby and junior Gus Edwards, who ended up suffering a seasonending foot injury in late August.
With Edwards hurt, the workload increased for the rest of Miami’s backs and
Walton thrived, rushing for a game-high 85 yards in the Hurricanes’ opener against Bethune-Cookman. He scored on three short runs against FAU in Miami’s second game and accounted for 82 yards between his 14 carries and four catches. But his numbers dwindled after that.
There were just 23 rushing yards against Nebraska, 34 against Cincinnati, and three yards against Florida State on a night when the Hurricanes’ running game was held to just 20 yards.
Other players around him struggled, the college game caught up with him and in his effort to keep pace, Walton says he began pressing, striving to play perfectly and impress his coaches. He concedes now that that took him away from the style of running that made him a highly coveted prospect.
He worked through his struggles by talking to his coaches, including running backs coach Tim “Ice” Harris, and his teammates. And there’s been a shift of late, with Walton once again finding his stride.
He enters this week’s game at Pittsburgh (8-3, 6-1) with 419 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.
“I think that Mark came on really strong early in training camp and this is a physical game for a freshman who is supposed to be a high school senior,” said Miami offensive coordinator James Coley, referencing Walton’s decision to reclassify in high school to enter college a year sooner than his high school classmates. “He showed a lot. I thought he didn’t struggle, but the game gets hard when the guys around him aren’t performing to their level also. Then I saw him catch a breath and break through that wall and I see a guy who’s really a sophomore now rather than a freshman. That’s what I’ve seen. I’ve seen him grow where you’re not remind-
“I think I have some ways to improve, and I’m going to do that in the offseason. ... and see what I can do better.” Mark Walton, UM freshman running back
ing him assignments, you’re not reminding him what to do or where to line up. He knows all that now. It’s pretty impressive.”
Miami (7-4, 4-3 ACC) can only hope Walton’s upward trajectory continues this week as it travels to take on a solid Pittsburgh (8-3, 6-1) team on Friday afternoon. Neither the Hurricanes nor the Panthers are in the mix for the ACC’s Coastal Division crown — clinched last weekend by North Carolina — but both are looking to better their postseason destinations, with more than a few Hurricanes noting they’d like to play in New York City’s Pinstripe Bowl next month.
A win over Pittsburgh would help that cause and a solid showing in the run game will be key against a physical Panthers’ defense. And then there’s the fact Walton and Yearby, who is 160 yards shy of a 1,000-yard season, are looking to build for the future, when they believe they can give the Hurricanes an even more potent running attack when they’re rejoined by Edwards and fellow back Tray one Gray.
“I think I have some ways to improve, and I’m going to do that in the offseason,” Walton said. “Look at my running style and talk to guys like Joe and Gus who are coming back and see what I can do better.”