UNLV coach Barry Odom turns to Oregon’s Dan Lanning for inspiration.
Odom’s Rebels face Boise State and Heisman favorite Ashton Jeanty on Friday night in a big Mountain West showdown. No one has been able to stop Jeanty so far this season, as he has been the most dominant offensive player in college football. But Odom now has a new idea. He joked Monday in his news conference that he would try to replicate what Lanning did at the end of Oregon’s win over Ohio State.
“No one has really had a great response yet,” Odom said. “Because they have good players elsewhere who can make you pay if you put everyone in to try to stop the run, there will have to be a balance. (Oregon coach Dan) Lanning is getting all kinds of credit for playing 12 (players) on that last play, so I want to see if we can get 12 or 13 out and see how long we get away with.”
Oregon’s 12-man penalty with 10 seconds left in their 32-31 victory drained four seconds off the clock in exchange for five yards. The game ended on the next play as Ohio State ran out of time. The tactic was so successful that the NCAA even issued a rule change during the season to ensure that time would not run out in the final two minutes of the half if a team attempted to duplicate what Oregon did.
If Odom was really serious about stopping Jeanty, there’s no guarantee it will work either. The junior has 126 carries for 1,248 yards and 17 touchdowns in six games this season. He has rushed for just 29 fewer yards than Boise State starting quarterback Maddux Madsen has thrown for and is averaging 9.9 yards per carry.
Lanning and his coaching staff also couldn’t stop it with 11 players on the field. In a 37-34 loss to Oregon in Week 2, Jeanty had 25 carries for 192 yards and three touchdowns.
Jeanty has also excelled against many defenders in the box. According to TruMedia’s advanced stats, Jeanty has 44 carries for 347 yards and eight touchdowns when opposing teams put eight to 10 players in the box to try to stop him. Statistics like that are why Odom was at a loss for words to describe how good Jeanty has been.
“He runs very hard, he runs behind his pads, he has great vision, he has a good offensive line and tight ends that block for him,” Odom said. “He has great strength, body control, influence, he is tough, he is fast, he is fast, he is strong. I don’t know descriptive words, if I have mentioned enough to give him respect for what a great player he is.”
