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NO SURPRISE
By BRIAN DZENIS
HUBBARD
The Mahoning Valley’s best running back since Dan “Boom” Herron has become a national name thanks to his game-winning touchdown for Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship Game.
But to LJ Scott’s former teammates and coaches at Hubbard High School, fighting through multiple tacklers to the end zone was just standard operating procedure.
To them, giving the true freshman the ball at the 1 yard line with the game on the line with 33 seconds left was a no-brainer.
Scott forced his way through three defenders after being initially stuffed, stretching his arm and the ball across the goal line for the TD. Two of his former coaches, offensive coordinator Ryan Fox and quarterbacks coach Ken Bencetic, were sitting three rows up from the corner of the end zone where Scott scored, handing the Spartans the 16-13 win in Indianapolis on Saturday.
“I think his determination got him in the end zone,” Fox said. “They stopped him at the 2 and he kept driving and pumping his legs and kept going.
“Getting that ball in the end zone was incredible and to see it right in front of us, it was amazing,” Fox said.
Fox and Bencetic scored tickets courtesy of Scott, sitting with his girlfriend and two of her friends at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Scott declined to be interviewed for this story.
His ex-teammate Tyler Taafe recalls trying to tackle the 6-foot-1 225-pound back in practice and it was nearly impossible to prevent from gaining at least a yard.
“You got to go low, he’s a big guy, give him whatever you’ve got low and bring your weight into it,” Taafe, who is now playing linebacker for Toledo, said. “I don’t think there was anything Iowa could do with him at the goal line.”
Scott, The Vindicator’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2014, rushed for 691 yards and scored 11 touchdowns for the Spartans this season. He’s been playing in a committee where no Spartan back has 1,000 yards rushing, but has become the guy in clutch scenarios.
“I think he’s off to a great start,” Fox said. “Being a freshman, people ask ‘how come he’s not running the ball more, why aren’t you putting him in more?’
“I think he carries the ball enough,” Fox said. “You only get so many carries as a running back, your body can only take so much abuse.
“If you look at him the week before that when he played Ohio State, he wasn’t in the whole game, but when it came down to the wire at the 5 yard line, they brought him in the game. Maybe they think he’s the guy they need to put in there.”
That committee dynamic was not unlike his time with the Eagles. He shared the backfield with another highly-touted back, George Hill, and the pair was known as “Thunder and Lightning.”
Scott still put up massive numbers with 7,481 all-purpose yards at Hubbard.
While not in attendance at Saturday’s game, Hubbard head coach Brian Hoffman was ecstatic to see one of his guys push Michigan State into the College Football Playoff.
“I have two small kids, but I was watching the game and I was pretty excited to say the least,” Hoffman said. “I jumped off the couch and was very excited.
“It was very fortunate that he’s up there doing well,” Hoffman said. “That’s a great program with great people and to see that success come through, it makes you feel really good.
“I woke the baby up, but my oldest, he made it through.”
Hoffman is in the recruiting spotlight thanks to Hill, who originally committed to Ohio State, but decommitted in October. Hoffman said Hill has been silent on his college intentions.
Scott was courted by nearly every major FBS program in high school, even personally getting an offer from Alabama’s Nick Saban, who will face off against Scott and the Spartans in the Cotton Bowl.
“In his junior year we went over to Ohio State with him and then Nick Saban called him on the phone and offered him and the kid was blown away,” Fox said. “He didn’t say no, he just said, ‘I appreciate the offer, Coach’ and that was it.
“It was the offseason in the winter time, so he wasn’t telling anyone no, he waited until football season was ready to start and he called Coach [Mark] Dantonio on the phone saying he wanted to come to MSU.
“They tried to change his mind, it all went down to the wire, but he stuck with Michigan State and he wasn’t changing,” Fox said.
Fox will not be travelling to Arlington for the Cotton Bowl. He’s holding out hope for the national championship. Hoffman said it’s unlikely he’ll go.
Both coaches are confident Scott can lead the Spartans, and himself, to success.
“Trust me, he’s going to be playing for a long time,” Fox said.