When he saw Glen Coffee burst through the hole and head downfield for an 87-yard touchdown at Arkansas last month, no one may have been happier for the University of Alabama running back than one of his former teammates.
“I hit the ceiling,” Le’Ron McClain said. “It was so crazy.”
McClain was watching the game on television in his Baltimore-area living room, the day before the Ravens defeated Cleveland and the former Crimson Tide fullback recorded the first two rushing touchdowns of his pro career.
It’s been that kind of season for McClain, too, who despite being a fullback leads his team in rushing with 266 yards on 63 carries (4.2 average), and also has eight receptions for 66 yards in four games.
He’s scored a team-leading four touchdowns, had a career-best 17-yard carry against Cleveland, and burst onto the national scene when he capped a 76-yard drive with a eye-popping touchdown at Pittsburgh on Monday Night Football.
“I ran over the guy in the end zone,” the human bulldozer said. “That felt pretty good.”
Consequently, Baltimore-area media is busy trying to come up with an appropriate nickname, with a radio station holding a contest. Out of the dozen possibilities so far, the one that’s caught his eye is Le’Ron “Bring The Pain” McClain.
The increased production is due to a variety of reasons, but coaches told him during the offseason to get ready to carry the ball more, even though he took only eight handoffs for 18 yards, to go with nine catches for 55 yards and a touchdown in 2007.
The other guy in the Ravens backfield, Willis McGahee, tallied 1,207 rushing yards and seven touchdowns to earned a trip to the Pro Bowl. However, that was also under the direction of a different head coach. John Harbaugh was hired on Jan. 19, and made former Miami Dolphins head coach Cam Cameron his offensive coordinator,
Although Cameron has a strong reputation for developing young quarterbacks (like Harbaugh’s brother Jim at Michigan), even he salivates at the idea of McClain having the ball near the goal-line.
“I think statistics will prove there’s not a guy in this league who loves to run the football, and run the football in the end zone, more than me,” Cameron said during a recent press conference. “For whatever reason, I came up that way, and when you have big backs who have a nose for the goal-line, let them do their things. Usually, if you can establish that, then all of a sudden all of those other guys start catching the easy touchdowns.
“Hey, that’s a personal thing with me. I think the line loves it, too, [and] the backs love it. Receivers all get mad at me, but I think they also know too that we’re not stupid, we’re not stupid. But, we want to establish the run.”
This year’s Ravens have the unusual distinction of just four running backs on the roster, two of which are fullbacks, McClain and 16-year veteran Lorenzo Neal. The All-Pro backup gives coaches numerous options, but when McGahee started having injury problems (knee and eye) and missed the season opener the initial plan was to rotate the other backs depending on the situation.
Rookie Ray Rice took the most handoffs the first game against Cincinnati, but McClain out-performed the Rutgers product, who had a costly fumble, with 86 yards in the 17-10 victory. Afterward, he told reporters at M&T Bank Stadium, “I’m a fullback first, a running back second.”
“I’m sitting there watching Le’Ron like, ‘OK, Le’Ron’s doing a great job. If Le’Ron gets his 100 yards, he’s going to come into meetings the next day with his head high, talking crap.’ He usually talks crap regardless, though (laughing),” McGahee told Ravens reporters the following week. “I was just happy for him, to tell you the truth.”
McClain led the Ravens in rushing the following two games as well. McGahee returned to have 64 yards on 22 carries against Tennessee last Sunday, but the injury problems continued (ribs).
“He had the opportunity and made the most of it,” Cameron said about McClain. “I had a real high opinion of him coming out of college.”
Meanwhile, McClain is having just as much fun watching No. 2 Alabama (6-0) and its smash-mouth style of play.
“They’re playing some great football,” he said. “Man. The way they’re running the offense, the guys running the football and O-line doing their thing, I wish we could have been (doing that).”
During his time here (2003-6), McClain had 37 carries for 170 yards and two rushing touchdowns to go with 48 receptions for 405 yards and eight more scores. He was also a part of the 10-2 squad in 2005, and recently told the Baltimore Sun that he thought about leaving a year early for the NFL.
Instead, the Northport native was selected in the fourth round of the 2007 draft (137th overall) by general manager and Alabama legend Ozzie Newsome, and still lives here and works out with the Tide during the offseason.
“It started with (strength and conditioning coach Scott) Cochran,” McClain said. “He had them ready every day. He talked to them every day about each team they were playing this year, what that team did to them last year.
“Then the freshmen came in ready to win. Even though they came in as freshman, they played like upperclassmen.”
But only he may have known that it would be such a breakthrough season for himself, his alma mater, and his comrade Coffee -- who is averaging 118 rushing yards per game.
“I remember seeing his high school tape when he was coming in,” McClain said. “He was a great running back and when he played his freshman year with us, my junior year, he showed a lot of speed, a lot of quickness.
“I know all the work he did during the offseason paid off. I figured he’d be one of the best power running backs in the nation, I know the SEC. He’s a game-changer. He breaks into the open field no one is going to catch him. He’s doing a great job, I’m so proud of him.”
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