Confident Homer takes over
Running back gets his first start Saturday vs. Georgia Tech
CORAL GABLES — Entering the season, every expectation was that Mark Walton would be a star for the Miami Hurricanes.
Coming off an 1,100-yard performance as a sophomore, he was a preseason All-ACC first-team selection. Were it not for Louisville’s Lamar Jackson — the reigning Heisman Trophy winner — Walton could have potentially been the conference’s preseason Player of the Year.
But even after impressing teammates, coaches and media voters with his performance, Walton knew his Hurricanes were in a precarious position, depth-wise. And so, he took pains to spend time training fellow running backs Travis Homer and Trayone Gray during the offseason.
He took the two with him to the weight room and to conditioning workouts. Even in the treatment room, Walton made it a point to show his younger teammates how he took care of his body, to preserve it for the workload he expected to carry this season for No. 11 Miami.
“Who knows when their numbers will be called? They have to be prepared,” Walton said back in August. “They have to be ready.”
It turns out those efforts weren’t for naught.
Less than midway through the season, Homer now finds himself the Hurricanes’ new starting running back, after Walton reinjured a tweaked right ankle in Miami’s