John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Former Auburn running back Michael Dyer stopped running for a brief moment during his most famous run in the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game in 2011 before realizing he wasn’t down and started running again.
History repeated itself Thursday evening when he decided to accept a scholarship offer from Charlie Strong and Louisville that gives the Cardinals a clear path to what should be an undefeated season and a potential BCS Championship Game appearance.
The schedule Louisville is faced with is softer than warm butter and it has Heisman contender Teddy Bridgewater at quarterback, but adding Dyer who has two 1,000-yard seasons under his belt gives the team another runner it desperately needed.
Louisville lost leading rusher Jeremy Wright to graduation and second leading rusher Senorise Perry is coming back from a torn ACL in the November 10 loss at Syracuse. Prior to the injury Perry proved to be a more-than-capable back with 705 yards on 136 carries and a team-leading 11 touchdowns. However, you have to be concerned with his workload after a knee reconstruction.
Adding the 5’9”, 210 pound Dyer, who has more than 2,300 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns in his career and broke Bo Jackson’s freshman rushing numbers at Auburn, gives Louisville a weapon that alleviates the concerns about Perry’s durability.
Furthermore, offensive coordinator Shawn Watson has the luxury of easing Perry back into the rotation with Dyer’s presence, while simultaneously letting Dyer shake the rust off—he hasn’t played since 2011—with Perry and redshirt junior Dominique Brown seeing carries.
Certainly, the biggest question about Dyer is not related to his skills on the football field where he has excelled his entire career, but how much you can trust him after his past transgressions that led to his recent odyssey.
I am an advocate of people getting second chances when they earn them and Dyer earned his opportunity and his time away from the game should make him appreciate the game and not blow another opportunity.
Dyer has less than a month until Louisville kicks its season off vs. Ohio and after wasting so much time the past two years, you can bet Dyer is eagerly awaiting the Sept. 1 kickoff.
Louisville was a contender to go undefeated without him and earn a potential berth to the BCS Championship Game and now it adds Dyer who looks to repeat history and keep on running and perhaps pick up another MVP award.
Dyer has already beaten the odds, so counting him out now would be about as foolish as the Oregon defense that let him run into the history books.
Patrick’s a college football writer for Rant Sports and radio host on Sportstownchicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickASchmidt and add him to your Google network.
