VALDOSTA – The Valdosta State Blazers have been known for years for their fun-and-gun offense, throwing the ball hundreds of times per game.
Now say hello to the running game and it’s new star attraction, Michael Terry.
Terry followed up his 139-yard, one-touchdown performance against Arkansas Tech by rushing for 181 yards and two scores against Ouachita Baptist on Saturday.
His two-game rushing performance was the best since Vincent Brown had back-to-back 100-yard games in 2005.
His 181 yards rushing on the day was the best since Aaron Jenkins’ 200-yard performance against Central Arkansas on October 19, 2002.
“I thought he played very well,” said VSU head coach David Dean after the game. “He created a big spark for us.
“We were struggling in the first half and he made some big plays in the second half for us.”
“Big plays” is right. Terry had two touchdown runs of over 55 yards in the second half. His biggest run last week was 43 yards, a team-long, and he didn’t even score on that one.
“My teammates play around a lot and say I can’t break one and score,” said Terry.
“I had 2,600 yards my senior year of high school (at Americus) and people would say that was the old me. So I worked hard this summer with Coach Doscher, and he helped my power a lot.”
Terry’s first touchdown of the game came on a 56-yard dash up the middle. On a similar run to last week’s, he broke some tackles up front and took off for the races.
This time, no Tiger was going to catch him as he sprinted down the field for six points.
His second carry of the day was a season-long rush for the Blazers. Terry went up the gut again, and this time broke off a 69-yard score.
“I had to just break that safety’s tackle, and after that, I didn’t see anything and just kept running,” said Terry.
What he didn’t see was his receivers on the left side sprinting down the field and keeping the oblivious defenders step-for-step with them.
Neither the safety or cornerback turned around until Terry was about 50 yards down field.
“To their credit, they (receivers) read man coverage, and when they do that, we tell them to keep running until the defenders realize it’s a run, then put the breaks on,” said Coach Dean.
The problem for the two OBU defenders was that they didn’t realize it was a run until the speedy Terry was long gone.
The Blazers, and Terry, have had a great season so far, and a lot has to do with the run game. Week after week, teams have been expecting the pass, but what they’ve been getting is a strong running game that continues to score big points.
“Everybody’s playing us for the pass and that’s opening up the run for us,” said Dean.
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