PISCATAWAY, N.J. — In a moment, the potential of Cam Roberson as a running back was on full display at SHI Stadium on Friday night.
It was a simple handoff to the junior receiver-turned-running-back and it looked like he might be bottled up close to the line of scrimmage. On second-and-five early in the first quarter, the yardage gain would put UMass in a favorable position for third down.
Yet Roberson had other ideas. He sidestepped a pair of Rutgers defenders and all of a sudden found himself in a foot race with the angle in his favor. He turned on his speed and outran his pursuers into the end zone for UMass’ second touchdown.
The 39-yard scamper came on just his first collegiate carry and only scratched the potential of Roberson in the backfield.
“I’m really proud of Cam,” coach Walt Bell said. “You want to talk about what our team is about – egoless, selfless and about the team. For a kid who’s been a wide receiver and punt returner his whole life, to ask him to go back there because we have some significant depth issues, I’m proud of Cam and I’m glad the ball found him.”
Bell has been talking all spring and summer about Roberson’s ability to transition positions and make an impact. Although Bell had always talked about Roberson’s pass-catching skills, he did very little of that against Rutgers with just three receptions.
But he did have nine carries for 56 yards as Bilal Ally’s primary backup. There were some ball security issues that Bell said the staff will iron out quickly, but otherwise was pleased with the potential Roberson gives them as another option along with Ally and freshman Kevin Brown, who took four of five of his carries in the fourth quarter with backups.
“(Roberson) did a very admirable job,” Bell said. “Now you feel like you have three backs that have a chance to really help you, which will allow us to use Cam in more of a multipurpose tool role. Use him in the backfield, use him out of the backfield and hopefully create some matchups for himself.”
OPENING DRIVE — Many teams tend to script out their first five or 1o plays so that everyone will be on the same page to start the game. Those squads aren’t coached by Bell, however.
The first-year coach said he didn’t have a set plan for what plays he would call on his first offensive series as a head coach. Instead, he and his staff talked about the basic concepts they wanted to execute and left the actual play calls to more of a spur of the moment-type decision.
“We’re not a huge openers team, it’s not like we get out there and script the first 10 or do anything like that,” Bell said. “The offensive staff got together earlier this morning and said ‘Hey, let’s just make sure we keep this thing nice and simple and minimize as much error as we can early in the game so we can get our feet underneath us.’ Really it was just base football plays.”
Whatever Bell and his offensive staff decided on clearly worked. The Minutemen marched 75 yards on 12 plays for a touchdown with redshirt senior Randall West completing 6-of-9 passes for 45 yards, including the 20-yard scoring strike to tight end Kyle Horn.
WEST STAYS TRUE TO FORM — West’s first start at quarterback epitomized what most expected out of the redshirt senior.
He didn’t look nervous on the first drive in leading UMass to a touchdown and he didn’t look bothered by the pressure that eventually came in his face in the final three quarters. He remained the poised leader of the unit and helped limit mistakes as much as possible.
He did throw one interception late in the first half on what looked like a miscommunication with sophomore receiver Zak Simon. And like any quarterback there were throws he’d like to have back – especially a deep shot to Jermaine “OC” Johnson Jr. that he underthrew – but he made the right reads for the most part and kept the ball out of harm’s way.
“He played a really solid football game, especially knowing he hadn’t played a lot of football,” Bell said. “He did a really nice job managing the football game. A couple of balls we’d like to have back, there was the deep ball there where we ran by a guy and just didn’t hook up. But I’m proud of him and how he played.”