At Purdue, Tario Fuller's last chance may be his best chance
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A little less than 10 minutes into the third game of his sophomore season, a season he opened as Purdue's No. 1 running back, ahead of some very productive players, Tario Fuller broke off right tackle, turned upfield quickly and scored from 36 yards out, part of the Boilermakers' first quarter onslaught at Missouri, an eventual 35-3 win.
That was an afternoon filled with big plays for Purdue under then-new coach Jeff Brohm, and part of that was scheme, the element of surprise the Boilermakers sucker-punched opponents with with their trick-centric offense.
But that play, that moment, also represented the best of Fuller, the highlight of a 90-yard rushing day, which followed a 142-yard outburst a week earlier against Ohio University.
"At his best," running backs coach Chris Barclay said, "he's a really good player."
But it's a form Purdue has rarely seen since, as a career that looked so promising in that moment has been derailed since by a near-constant battle with injury, a battle that started that day at Missouri, where he hurt his ankle, before undergoing surgery a month-and-a-half later, ending his season, and affecting the one that followed. Fuller's first surgery wasn't his only surgery, he confirmed last year.
Last year, Fuller carried the ball just 14 times over 11 appearances, as fellow veterans D.J. Knox and Markell Jones shouldered the majority of Purdue's running back work while Fuller largely idled.
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Now, the fifth-year senior's last chance is also his best chance.
Gone are Knox and Jones, the tandem that accounted for 468 carries the past two seasons. Fuller's classmate, Richie Worship, remains an uncertainty due to the ongoing fallout from an ACL injury. Zander Horvath is pushing to start, but is also transitioning away from the fullback role he played a season ago, and has only nine carries to his name in his career. Alfred Armour is now Purdue's fullback. And newcomer running backs King Doerue and Da'Joun Hewitt are both freshmen who've yet to take a college snap.
Translation: In a backfield mostly void of certainty, Fuller could really matter if he can shed the uncertainty that's defined his career ever since the injury at Missouri.
Not only has Fuller shown capable of producing as a ball-carrier, but Barclay says he's trustworthy in pass-protection, and given Purdue's questions up front, that ever-valued element might be especially valued these days.
"He cleans up the O-line unlike any of the other guys in our room right now," Barclay said. "It's his experience."
All that said, now might be Fuller's time.
In hopes of capitalizing, he says he's doing all he can do to control a situation that can't really be controlled, taking better care of his body, being more diligent with stretching and general maintenance and such, but also adjusting as a running back, trying to be more aware as a runner, aiming to be more elusive to side-step peak-force collisions and perhaps, in the heat of the moment, picking his battles.
"I'm trying to change the way I run, become more aware, so that I don't take hits like I used to, things I feel like I can control," Fuller said. "There's some things you can't control with injury, like a freak accident, something like that, but a lot of it I feel like I can control.
"Once I get the ball, I look around a little more. Who's coming? I drive my feet more, drive my knees more, just to keep people off my ankles. And occasionally, I might fight for more yards, and hit that first person, but then when a gang of people come in ... then if I'm close to the sideline, I'll probably just save the hit and go out of bounds."
That can be a fine line, because playing running back at the Big Ten level is not a position for the meek, and aggressiveness is important, aggressiveness like Fuller showed in hitting that hole in the first quarter at Missouri. But it's a line Fuller intends to walk best he can this season.
There is a balance that can be struck, though.
"In between the tackles, you have to run with force, an attitude, and purpose," Barclay said. "But out in the open field, you don't need to be a magnet. His strength is his speed and his vision. He has to utilize those things when he can, but understand he's not the biggest guy on the block and he's had some injury issues. In space, he has to put some moves on guys, and use the space to his advantage."
Barclay says part of the burden of maintenance falls on him, that the coach is taking it upon himself to manage Fuller's workload in practice to help preserve him, in addition to Fuller's own efforts to control all he can.
It's a moment he obviously hopes to make the most of, a point in his career where opportunity, comfort and health, ideally, would intersect and give Purdue another skill-position offensive threat at a position where things are far from certain.
"It's my senior year and I feel like I have a good grasp on things," Fuller said. "Now it's time to put something on tape, time to perform."
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