The challenges, new and unpredictable, await Bill Belton each week now.
Not only is he cemented as Penn State’s starting tailback, he is becoming a work horse at it, as well.
The kid who played quarterback in high school and receiver when he first arrived in State College must now, quite suddenly, get accustomed to absorbing a tailback’s pounding from Big Ten defenses.
How will Bill Belton follow up his career day of 201 rushing yards at Minnesota?
He carried the ball 27 times for 85 yards in four overtimes against Michigan. He ran it 22 more times the following week at Ohio State. Then came the 36-carry effort for 201 yards in an overtime victory against Illinois.
Now comes Minnesota.
“We’re watching his contact in practice. (But) he’ll be ready for the game,” Penn State coach Bill O’Brien said during his weekly press conference today.
Belton has been somewhat of a revelation after seeing only sparse time last season in his first at tailback. He injured his ankle in the season-opener and then was benched for practice and attitude issues.
Though he’s only took over for Zach Zwinak part-way through, he’s up to seventh in the Big Ten in rushing at 83.5 yards per game with four touchdowns.
The next challenge is bouncing back from a career-best in carries to face a solid Minnesota defense on the road. The Gophers are sixth in the league defending the run, yielding 142 yards per game.
And arguably their two best talents will be meeting Belton head-on Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium. That’s defensive end Theiren Cockran (5.5 sacks, three forced fumbles) and defensive tackle Ra’Shede Hageman (nine tackles for loss).
The intriguing thing about Belton, though, is how he even got to this point.
When O’Brien’s staff took over in January of 2012, they immediately began holding “crack-of-dawn” workouts. It was about more than conditioning and discipline.
“I remember the way that we had it set up, I think it was the very first morning,” O’Brien said. “We had a lot of change of direction type drills to really try to evaluate these guys and see where we would put them.
“So when I watch Billy, I saw a kid that was 5’11″, you know, maybe 185, 190 pounds, and a thick-looking guy. … Looking at our running back situation, at that time, I said, ‘Why don’t we try him at running back?’ And that’s when we moved him.
“He really improved a lot in training camp his first year at running back. Then he had a bad ankle sprain against Ohio and had a hard time coming back from that and never really hit his stride again last year. Then this year, spring practice, and really in training camp, I saw this kid really improve to the point where he is now playing pretty well.”
Belton is headed toward a 1,000-yard rushing season with 668 yards and four games remaining. He is averaging 5.2 yards per carry.
Now comes an interesting opponent match-up in Minneapolis. The Gophers’ forte is running the ball, as well, and chewing up lots of clock to score. They are fourth in the Big Ten in rushing, averaging 221 yards per game.
But the Lions now have their own answer. Though Belton’s goal-line fumble nearly proved costly last Saturday against Illinois, it was his first in nearly 130 carries this season.
He has been as dependable on the field and he has now become away from it.
“He wasn’t doing well in the classroom when I got here,” O’ Brien said. “He’s doing better there. It’s still a work in progress for him academically, but he works hard at it.”
And everything Belton does now is even more meaningful considering that Zwinak has endured fumbling problems and highly-regarded redshirt freshman Akeel Lynch is “day-to-day” with a sprained knee suffered at Ohio State, O’Brien said.
