Starting (or Not) From Scratch : USC Tailback Walters Lost His Job to Green and Will Do Whatever It Takes to Get It Back

Shawn Walters talked softly, choosing his words carefully.

He smiled as he talked of having to start all over, of having to show John Robinson and the rest of the USC coaching staff that the starting tailback job really does belong to him, even if they have given it to someone else.

Leonard Green started in USC’s 45-7 opening victory over San Jose State last Saturday, about 24 hours after Robinson, in effect, had told Walters he had to prove himself all over again.

“I was stunned,” said Walters, a 225-pound junior. “But I decided it’s something I have to be a man about. I could easily have done what other people have done, fly off the handle, bash the coaches. . . . “

His voice tailed off, as if he were still trying to reconcile second-string status with what he achieved last year, in his sophomore season:

--On a team that passed almost 400 times, Walters ran for 976 yards, the most by a Trojan since 1990.

--He had two 200-yard games and the 234 yards he gained at Stanford were the most by a USC tailback since Marcus Allen in 1981.

--A punishing runner, he left Trojan followers with memories of high-impact collisions. He carried three Washington tacklers into the end zone on a seven-yard run in last year’s opener, then on a 61-yard scoring run at Stanford, he showed he could run away from tacklers as well as flatten them.

While all that was happening for Walters, Green was enduring a season seemingly without end.

In the summer of ‘94, some on the USC coaching staff figured the 185-pound Green, a transfer from Mt. San Antonio College who has breakaway speed, would be the Trojans’ primary ballcarrier.

But Green went down with a hamstring injury in training camp and never really recovered.

“It was my own fault,” Green recalled. “I didn’t do nearly enough stretching. I strained the hamstring in training camp, tried to come back two weeks later, the week of the Penn State game, and this time I tore it.

“It never healed. Not even by the Cotton Bowl. It hurt more all year than I ever let on. It hurt so bad sometimes it affected my vision--I wasn’t seeing the field like I should. I was running to maintain. It felt all the time like it was about to get worse.

“It was so frustrating. I’d worked so hard to get here, and that was the only bad injury I ever had. For the first time in my life, football wasn’t fun.”

This season, Green, persuaded by running back coach Charles White to begin a major stretching program, had a great training camp.

Still, no one was prepared for it last Friday, when Robinson called Walters into his office and told him Green would start at tailback.

That, more than any other development with this team, has sharpened the point Robinson made last spring to his players: Competition for playing time will be intense, no matter who you are.

But Walters’ demotion also illustrates clearly the depth of talent of a team with high aspirations.

In the opener, Green gained 49 yards in 12 carries, Walters 26 in eight carries. The most impressive of the tailbacks, however, was sophomore Delon Washington, who had 55 yards in seven carries.

Robinson and his staff aren’t giving up much on this one, resorting to the term co-starters.

Meanwhile, Walters waits to learn who will start Saturday against Houston at the position he once called his own.

“Last year, [Robinson] told me it was my position to lose,” Walters said. “So when we talked, I said, ‘OK, how do I get it back?’ He knows what I can do. He wants to use a rotation system at first, get all the backs in the games, see what happens.

“I feel like I have to start all over, from scratch, work on everything.”

He was asked about offensive coordinator Mike Riley’s comment during training camp, that Green, had it not been for his injury, might have wound up with all the carries last season that Walters had.

“He might be right, but that’s how it turned out,” Walters said. Leonard is a senior too, and I think that’s playing a role in this.”

Walters believes he needs a lot of carries to be most effective, to slip into a rhythm in games.

“Touchdowns aren’t my thing,” he said. “I’ll let Keyshawn [Johnson] have all the glory. I definitely don’t want to become a short-yardage guy. I’ll trade all the touchdowns in the world for a lot of carries.”

He dismissed the suggestion, made by some, that he might try the NFL draft next spring.

He is majoring in public policy and management, and said, “I came here to get a degree. The degree is the main thing. I can get my degree with two classes next summer, but I’ll come back.”

He’s only human, he said. And yes, it eats at him.

“I question myself,” he said. “Where did I go wrong? What can I do?

“I want to play. Any player would feel this way. I’ll deal with it, and it has nothing to do with my attitude toward the coaches or the team.”