Good things come to those who wait. LSU junior running back Shyrone Carey can tell you that. So can LSU football fans.
Carey, who came from Shaw High School in New Orleans, is finally showing his talents to the country after a three-year struggle.
The Georgia Bulldogs found this out Saturday when Carey ran for 76 yards and 18 carries with one touchdown.
Coming out of high school, Carey signed a letter of intent to play football at the University of Tennessee.
But after not qualifying academically for his freshman year, Carey sat out a year and then committed to LSU.
Carey then had to sit out his freshman year at LSU and said being out of competitive football for two years took its toll on him.
“That was the toughest thing I ever had to go through in my life,” Carey said of the two year football hiatus. “Just sitting out not being able to play knowing I had the ability to play. It was just a tough grind for me. I couldn’t do anything. I just let time go by and tried to stay focused on school.”
When Carey finally was able to play in 2002, the LSU coaching staff moved him to wide receiver. The 5-foot-6, 185-pound running back was not too fond of the move.
“From day one, I was kind of rebellious [about the move],” Carey said. “I knew that I wasn’t a receiver. Look at me. It was a role they told me I was going to have to play to get on the field. I’d been out for so long, I sucked it up.
“I think if I had been coming out of high school and they would have told me that I would have had to wait a year to play running back, I think I would have told them I’d rather just wait and stay at running back. But being out for two years and that was the only way to get on the field, I was just eager to get out there and show what I could do.”
Even though Carey was moved back to running back halfway through the season, he was buried on the depth chart behind current NFL running backs Domanick Davis and LaBrandon Toefield and current LSU tailback Joseph Addai.
“It was one of those things where Domanick Davis and Toefield were there, so you pretty much know going into every game and practice you’re not anywhere near being the main guy,” Carey said. “That’s just one of those things where you’ve just got to have patience and trust your ability, knowing that when those guys leave, you’re going to be ready to step up.”
And step up Carey has.
The junior has carried the ball 52 times for 266 yards for a 4.9 yard average per carry, and is averaging 12.7 yards per return as the team’s main punt returner.
“I’m extremely confident right now,” Carey said. “I’m comfortable at running back. That’s where I thought I should have been when I first came here. I’m there now and I’m extremely confident.”
LSU coach Nick Saban said Carey is becoming the running back he thought he could be.
“Shyrone is gaining more and more confidence as a running back,” Saban said. “The guy’s got some special ability to make some fantastic cuts. He’s got good vision as a runner and I think is a great change of pace guy to go along with Joseph Addai. He’s adding a tremendous amount to our offense right now, and I think he’s much more confident about what he’s doing right now.”
Carey, who averaged 8.9 yards per carry his senior year in high school as a quarterback and was responsible for 82 touchdowns over his career at Shaw, showed his spectacular cutting ability in his touchdown run against Georgia.
With a little over three minutes remaining in the first and LSU trailing the Bulldogs 3-0, Carey bolted through the line and found himself one-on-one with Georgia linebacker/safety Thomas Davis. In the blink of an eye, Carey used a Playstation 2-like juke move and left Davis befuddled on the ground.
“It was one-on-one,” Carey said. “And if you’re a back, you’ve got to win a one-on-one, so that’s what I did. I know I can get out in the open field. I feel like, one-on-one, I’m supposed to win that. I look at that as I got to win it for the team.”
Carey also may have silenced any doubters about his short yard ability after picking up several crucial first downs through the game.
“People are going to look at my size every game and just say I can’t do it,” carey said. “And I just go out and try to prove every game and show them when it’s time to run tough I can do that.”