Stacey Corley is the best pure running back on the BYU football team, period. Perhaps the best they've had in years. He has the size and power to run the straight-ahead,
goal-line stuff, and the speed and open-field moves to break the long ones.So why doesn't he play?
Oh, he plays, all right - but not very often. Corley played just often enough this season to score nine touchdowns. Often enough to return two kickoffs for touchdowns. Often enough to produce three of the team's four longest runs from scrimmage. All of which is not bad for a man who sometimes goes an entire game without touching the ball, who spends much of his Saturday afternoons stretching and touching his toes like Jane Fonda in pads.
But why isn't this guy on the field?
Corley finished the season as BYU's second leading rusher. He rushed for 457 yards, which is remarkable when you consider that he had just 53 carries. That means he averaged fewer than five carries a game - and a whopping 8.62 yards per carry. By comparison, starting halfback Matt Bellini had 90 carries for 397 yards, and fullback Fred Whittingham 109 carries for 582 yards. Corley produced the team's only 100-yard rushing games of the season - two of them.
So why doesn't he play more?
When asked who the best pure running back on the team is, cornerback Eric Bergeson quickly replies, "There's no question that it's Stacey Corley. He's a great running back. He has good speed, he's big, he's difficult to tackle, but more than anything he has a feel for running. He knows when to dip in, when to dip out, when to go up field. The great ones have that feel."
Asked the same question, linebacker Chad Robinson has the same answer: "Stacey Corley. He's got that combination of great size and speed and good breakaway moves. Whenever he's in there, he sure has been great. I think we're all wondering why he doesn't play more."
Why, indeed, doesn't Corley play more?
Well, for starters, there's Bellini. He came to BYU at the same time as Corley and moved into the starting lineup as a redshirt freshman. He's been there ever since. Bellini is not the explosive runner Corley is, but he is the ideal BYU halfback - that is, part receiver, part runner. He was originally moved from wide receiver to halfback simply because, as Coach LaVell Edwards once explained, "We can get the ball in his hands more often at that position." Bellini already has 145 pass receptions in his career.
Which brings up the second strike against Corley: the hands. "That's the part of the game he needs to work on," says offensive assistant coach Norm Chow. Corley came to BYU ill-prepared for pass-catching duty. His Grants (N.M.) High School team rarely threw the ball, and why would they have with Corley rushing for more than 3,000 yards in three seasons? When Corley came to BYU, he found he couldn't catch the ball consistently - the first requirement of any skill player in BYU's pass-oriented offense.
"I was not comfortable with it," he recalls. "I tended to take my eyes off the ball."
Actually, he tended to drop it. "Are you playing ping pong?" his teammates teased him in practice. Or, "Don't bust the ball." Corley recalls the humiliation: "It was hard to bend over and pick up the ball and look up when I was walking back to the huddle."
"He's gotten better," says Chow. "He doesn't drop a lot of passes any more. But he doesn't get a lot of opportunities."
To say the least, there is still a certain reluctance to pass to Corley. He has caught only three passes in his entire collegiate career. He caught two passes this season - one for a 54-yard touchdown. "Those were the only two passes that were thrown to me all year," says Corley, who adds, "I'm sure it (his pass-catching skills) hurts me. It limits what they can do with me." No doubt every opponent has noted that when Corley is on the field, he's not there as a pass receiver.
Not that he wouldn't like to catch a pass, what with his open-field running skills. "I'd like to catch a screen pass, because everyone is spread out," he says.
"In a tailback-type offense, Stacey would be great," says Chow. "He's a very good player. But our offense requires a halfback to catch the ball. And Matt Bellini is good in that position. Stacey is not as good as Bellini in our offense."
Through the first seven games of the season, Corley was getting four or five carries a game, often in short-yardage situations (see chart). It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing - which is precisely what he got the following two weeks. Against Hawaii and Oregon he never touched the ball, while another reserve, Eric Mortensen, was given increased playing time.
"Football is very situational now," says Chow. "The situations didn't warrant him being in there."
The situation changed against Air Force. Corley was a last-minute substitute on the kickoff return team, replacing an injured teammate. He fielded four kickoffs and returned two for touchdowns - covering 99 and 85 yards. That earned him more playing time. In the final two games of the season, against Utah and San Diego State, Corley rushed for 280 yards on 21 carries, breaking runs of 81, 57 and 49 yards.
"He played more because defenses were pulling their safeties inside to cover (tight end) Chris Smith, which meant we could get outside better (with Corley)," says Chow. "And he deserved to play more."
The immediate question is will Corley play against Penn State in Friday's Holiday Bowl? "It will be about the same," says Edwards. "It depends."
The prospects for more playing time next season don't look much better. Bellini and Corley are both juniors. Whittingham graduates, but it is doubtful that Corley will be moved to fullback to replace him. Besides, the Cougars have two fine fullbacks returning next year - Mike Salido, who is redshirting this season to mend a broken leg, and Peter Tuipulotu.
"Stacey deserves to play more," says Chow. "There's no question we have to get him more playing time next year. The playing time between Stacey and Matt will be more equitable next year. It would help both of them. Matt's got the bad knees, and Stacey could give him more rest."
Robinson has another idea: "When you've got a guy like Stacey Corley, you better get his butt in there. Move Matt to wideout."
If nothing else, Corley has learned patience. He's been a man in waiting since he arrived in Provo. He played on the junior varsity team as a freshman, then was forced to sit out the following season for violation of the school's honor code (beyond that, no one will elaborate). Last season he returned to the team, but played sparingly. He rushed 13 times for 71 yards and two touchdowns against New Mexico - all in the second half - and that was it. He had only two other carries all season and rarely made the travel squad.
"Until this year I had played more in the spring game than I had in varsity games," says Corley.
Soft-spoken and earnest, Corley never criticizes coaches or complains about his playing time. His reaction has always been the same: to work harder, which is why the 6-foot, 210-pound Corley is all thighs, shoulders and chest.
Last spring Corley pulled double duty to prepare for the football season. Following spring football drills, he would join roommates Paul Scarlett and Frank Fredericks for a track workout. Corley says that Fredericks, a world-class sprinter, and Scarlett, a former BYU quartermiler, convinced him "of the importance of getting faster and stronger. I told them they'd have to push me because I wouldn't want to do it. They'd wait for me after practice and we'd go to the track. Those were some long evenings. They also taught me to eat right. Now I cook spaghetti and broil chicken and fish."
Corley wound up starring in the spring game and running in several meets for the BYU track team. In the meantime, he also worked on his one big weakness. During the summer, he caught some 100 or more passes daily from his brother, Kaul, a former college quarterback.
Nonetheless, Corley was forced to spend another frustrating season on the sideline, leaving one to wonder how much better he might be if he ever played enough to warm into a game. After all, many of the great running backs tend to get better as a game wears on.
"It's hard to play like this," says Corley. "I try to stay stretched and loose. Sometimes I stretch for 60 minutes, and then I never play. I sit on the sideline and think and think. I want to be in there so bad. Then I yell for them because I want to win."
*****
(Additional information)
Corley in 1989
Rushes-
Opponent Yds-TDs
New Mexico 6-18-0
1 kickoff return, 29 yards
Wash. St. 3-5-1
Navy 1-3-0
Utah State 6-52-2
Wyoming 7-56-1
Colorado St. 2-9-0
UTEP 4-19-1
1 catch, 54 yards, 1 TD
Hawaii No statistics
Oregon No statistics
Air Force 2-15-0
4 K.O. returns, 204 yds. 2 TDs
Utah 14-159-2
1 K.O. return, 18 yards
San Diego St. 7-121-0
1 catch, 5 yds., 1 K.0. 18