Davon Booth finding his way with Bulldogs
Davon Booth usually carries himself the same after every ball game.
Win or lose, Booth is grateful to be afforded the opportunity to run the football on this level and he shows it when the games conclude. Having the game he had a week ago and doing it in a win felt different.
Booth capped one of his best days as a Bulldog by helping his squad to a victory against UMass for the first time since the first weekend. It wasn’t perfect in his eyes, but the team accomplishment of getting back on track was the biggest takeaway.
“I’m hard on myself so I feel like I left a lot on the field,” Booth said. “My coach thinks that I did pretty well, so I’ll go with what he says. It felt real good because it’s been a while since we won a game. That’s the reason that I play football is that feeling in the locker room after a big win.”
In the 45-20 victory, State rushed for a season-high 241 yards and had five touchdowns. Booth and running mates Johnnie Daniels and Xavier Gayten were catalysts in the win as they had 237 of those rushing yards and each got a touchdown.
The three combined to average 12.5 yards per carry in what was a complete game running the football. Coach Jeff Lebby is a champion of the run game and that performance is exactly what he wants to see from his team.
“I thought we finished in better body positions in the core at the line of scrimmage and that gives those backs a chance to run through trash and create some space for those guys,” Lebby said of the running game. “I thought our guys did a pretty good job of winning some 1 on 1s. To me, that’s the difference. Instead of gaining four, you have the chance to run through some trash and gain 11. Now you start creating some shots and you start leaning on people, and again, you got a chance to keep momentum in the run game.”
Bulldog backs beginning to find space
One of the big reasons for the running room’s success against UMass were explosive plays.
For most of the schedule, the big runs were missing in an offense that creates plays of that caliber. Lebby’s group is now starting to find a little more room to make those big plays and they came in bunches against the Minutemen with five runs of 30 or more yards.
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Booth finished the day with 11 carries for 77 yards and had a breakaway 30-yard score.
“We’ve been practicing for those plays. After a run we’ll finish all the way through the end zone nobody how far it is,” Booth said. “We want to score from far but we also want to take as much time off the clock as possible.”
After rushing for just 185 yards on 64 carries in the first six games, Booth is finding himself with State. The Utah State transfer has rushed 40 times in the last three games against Texas A&M, Arkansas and Umass. In those games, he’s had 75 or more yards all three times for a total of 248 yards. He’s added another four catches for 99 yards and two touchdowns receiving.
That production will be needed in a big way on Saturday as State travels to Knoxville, Tenn., to take on the No. 7 University of Tennessee Volunteers under the lights. The two teams meet at 6 p.m. on ESPN with the Bulldogs again having the decked stacked against them.
“That’s a good group over there but we have to prepare really well and play our best on Saturday,” Booth said. “We have to make the best of our opportunities and score every drive.”
