Chris Rodriguez (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky football fans love the powerful running style of Chris Rodriguez so much that he has been compared to Benny Snell, UK’s all-time career rushing leader who now plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rodriguez got to show off something else Saturday against Vanderbilt when he ripped off a career-long 74-yard touchdown run as part of his 149 yards rushing and two scores on only 13 carries.
“I never thought I was as fast as I really am. It was fun,” Rodriguez said.
He knew that run surprised many who only consider him a punishing, between the tackles runner without breakaway speed.
“It felt good. I don’t treat any run different. I run inside, and I run outside, but I mean I prefer it inside,” he admitted.
Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason said it is not easy for defenders to get hands on Rodriguez or other UK running backs.
“The one thing about those backs, I can give credit to those backs and really what they do up front. The backs stay in the hole, they stay in the tight crease,” Mason said. “It’s not like every time they’re hitting the crease the crease is wide open. They’re hitting the crease, they’re staying there, they’re staying there and they’re getting through to the other side.”
Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said he couldn’t argue that Rodriguez was on a roll after averaging 11.5 yards per carry Saturday to go over the 1,000-yard career rushing mark at UK.
“He had 11.5 yards per carry. That’s pretty impressive,” Stoops said. “It’s not surprising to us. We have great confidence in him. We have confidence in our other backs.
“And, again, there was only 55 snaps there but we were very explosive. Again, darn near 460 (total yards) for 55. I wish we could have got some more possessions. That comes down to getting some better stops defensively, certainly in the second half.”
Rodriguez had a feeling UK’s offensive line would give him plenty of room to run to help honor the memory of offensive line coach John Schlarman who passed away last week.
“I could tell in the meetings this week. Coach Stoops had some words for us and showed us a video that we made. But you could see it in their faces that they were just really sad,” Rodriguez said. “But today, you saw in their faces that they wanted to come out and play and win for (Schlarman) today.”
