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Cam Skattebo has the Texas Longhorns' respect

by:Justin Nash•about 21 hours
Cam Skattebo
Cam Skattebo (Jerome Miron-Imagn Images)

Using a trick out of the old Saint Nick (Saban) playbook, Texas Longhorns defenders were quick to laud the talents of Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo and called him possibly the best rusher in the nation. Whether they truly believe he is the nation’s best running back or not may be up for debate.

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What isn’t up for debate is that the Longhorns don’t intend to give a very talented player any extra motivation. Rather, they plan to give Skattebo the respect he deserves in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.

Conventional wisdom would say the title of top running back would belong to Ashton Jeanty. After all, he did win the Doak Walker Award and finished ahead of Skattebo in Heisman voting. Jeanty’s yards after contact total (1,889 yards) is more than Skattebo has on the season. Jeanty is also currently three yards shy of 2,500 yards.

However there is one area where Skattebo has a clear advantage that the Longhorns will have to factor, and that’s in the receiving game. With 506 yards through the air on 37 receptions, Skattebo has been quite the weapon for Arizona State and is their leading available receiver for Wednesday’s game after the injury to Jordyn Tyson.

It is that versatility that makes him different than Jeanty, in addition to tallying his numbers against 11 Power Conference opponents as opposed to Boise State’s one.

“He’s a big physical guy,” Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski said Friday. “He’s got good speed. He’s got good change of direction. He has really good contact balance. He’s got I think a thousand yards after contact through the course of the season. And then as far as a pass catcher he’s just got really good hands. He makes the catches he’s supposed to make, and they obviously highlight him in the pass game.”

When Michael Taaffe was asked about Skattebo, this is what he had to say: “I think some people lose sight that he’s just a hard-nose, try-to-run-you-over type of back. And yes, he’s very capable of doing that, but he’s also got great patience, great contact balance, great contact courage to where he’s lowering his shoulder and maybe somebody is trying to go for his legs, and he stumbles up and stays on his feet and go runs for 40 more yards. So the way that he can be so versatile as a running back, jump cutting, running people over, spin move, he’s got the whole package.”

Don’t think that means he doesn’t excel in the ground game. When you look at a heat map to see how Skattebo fares toting the rock, you can his versatility shine. He is at his best when he attacks behind or outside of the tackles, which adds an extra layer of danger to the play-action fake to Skattebo. This is a matchup that will potentially make Barryn Sorrell a few bucks this coming April if he can get a few stops against a bulldozing running back.

However there’s probably a good reason Arizona State attacks the outside often as they don’t have the big bodies necessary to push people around and run the ball up the middle. That doesn’t mean they won’t run the ball up the nose, their 3rd and 4th most attacked lanes are off of the center. It just hasn’t been the most effective way of attaining yards for the Sun Devils.

But what’s clear is Skattebo has been the most effective way for the Sun Devils to move the football this season.

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Leave it to Anthony Hill Jr. for the closing statement ahead of the Longhorns’ battle with Arizona State in the Peach Bowl, “at the end of the day we have a challenge and we’re an elite defense, so I can’t wait to play against him and see who’s really the best.”

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