Scott's bravado carries the load

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By Patrick Stevens

There are times words are barely needed to convey a direct message.

Colgate running back Jordan Scott understands how to capitalize on such situations.

The DeMatha graduate knows a well-placed glare at coach Dick Biddle usually communicates his desire to carry the load for the Raiders. And Biddle, a big believer in a stout running game, is usually more than happy to reciprocate.

“It's a look that we both understand,” Scott said. “He gives it when he needs me to pick it up for the team. I just think I can always make plays if I have the ball in my hands. I just give a little look. He might say, 'Maybe he's getting tired.' Fine. But I just think I don't really feel the carries during the game.”

Clearly not. The durable senior owns some gaudy career numbers, but perhaps none is as impressive as his 1,153 carries - a record in the former Division I-AA and just 118 off the NCAA's all-division mark.

Scott is averaging 203.5 yards a game while running behind a veteran line for the Raiders (3-2), who host Princeton (2-1) on Saturday. Yet even that doesn't entirely describe Scott's production.

He is working on a streak of 17 straight 100-yard games, already has nine touchdown runs this season, and needs 186 yards this week to join Butler's Arnold Mickens (1994) and Sacramento State's Charles Roberts (1999) as the only players in subdivision history to reach 1,000 yards in five games. He is Colgate's career rushing leader with 5,287 yards.

Then there's the career average of 31.2 carries a game. Little wonder Scott isn't afraid to offer a glower when the time is right.

“He has the right mentality,” Biddle said. “Maybe he gets 35 carries or maybe that week you take it easy, and he gets a little upset. Not in bad way. He'll give you that look of 'Come on, coach.' He's doing that, and he's serious.”

And oddly enough, Scott's star turn almost didn't happen.

Scott was part of a deep backfield committee at DeMatha that also included Maryland defensive backs Jeff Allen and Anthony Wiseman. But while many of his teammates committed to major-college programs, Scott said Cincinnati and William & Mary withdrew scholarship offers less than two weeks before signing day in 2005.

It left him thinking back to nearly a year earlier, when he met a Colgate assistant while attending a spring practice session at Maryland. Scott eventually landed in upstate New York, where he began his first season well down the depth chart and without a biography in the team's media guide because he hadn't returned an offseason questionnaire.

Yet Biddle knew he had a talent, even if he wasn't sure how to use Scott.

“We were struggling on defense, and I came up with the bright idea of 'Let's move him to linebacker,' ” Biddle said.

It didn't take long before Scott came up with a response.

“I knew I could be productive at running back, especially once I got into the game and saw the speed of the game at this level,” Scott said. “That's pretty much what I expressed to him - in the nicest way I could, in a respectful way. He's the coach. I just said, 'I'd be better suited to offense; don't move me over there.' ”

Biddle learned how prescient his new player was all too soon. Three games into Scott's freshman season, the Raiders' top two running backs were injured at Dartmouth. With few other options, Scott was thrust into action - and ran 33 yards for a touchdown on his second career carry.

He hasn't stopped since. Biddle describes him as “the face of the program” - heady stuff for a school that produced winners of the Walter Payton Award (top Division I-AA player) in both 1987 (Kenny Gamble) and 2003 (Jamaal Branch).

“He's the best player we've had,” Biddle said. “He's been counted on consistently for four years. Some people have a good year and tail off, or are good as a junior and not as a senior. He's been good for all four years.”