'Seeing daylight' makes Jackson State's Haw think his time is near

By David Brandt, Clarion Ledger

There were three times last Saturday night when Jackson State running back Erik Haw took the handoff, made his cut and then saw a glorious sight.

Lots of green grass and plenty of room to run on it.

Haw had three runs of 10 yards or more during JSU's 16-13 loss to Tennessee State on Saturday. The junior finished with 82 yards rushing on 17 carries.

Sure, there's nothing eye-popping about those numbers, but considering how much the once highly touted transfer from Ohio State has struggled over the past year, he won't take those solid gains for granted.

"It felt good for me," Haw said. "Anytime you can see some daylight and your offensive line is working for you - there's no better feeling. You always know that the next run could be the big one."

And for the first time since midway through last season, he'll be one of the focal points of the Tigers' offense when Jackson State (0-2 overall, 0-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) hosts Texas Southern (0-2, 0-2) at 6:30 p.m. today at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The game will be nationally televised on ESPNU.

"We feel good about Erik right now and he looks like he feels good about himself," JSU coach Rick Comegy said. "When he's healthy and running the ball well, he's as good as anybody in the SWAC."

And that's exactly what the Tigers expected last season, when Haw was arguably the most highly touted of nine Division I-A transfers to grace the JSU roster.

But his first season at Jackson State was pockmarked with injuries and ineffectiveness. Haw rushed for just 371 yards and was basically non-existent in the second half of the season when the Tigers lost four of five games.

His status was put further in doubt when he missed much of spring practice with a broken bone in his foot.
























Photo: Jackson State running back Erik Haw, a former Ohio State Buckeye, runs for some of his 82 yards against Tennessee State on Saturday.

So when fall camp opened in August, Haw was far from a sure bet to retain the No. 1 running back position.

But slowly, the 6-foot-1, 215-pounder has regained his strength and speed, and his 82 rushing yards on Saturday matched his career high set last season against Southern U.

"There's a certain amount of cohesiveness that goes with a running back and his offensive line," Haw said. "When the line gets comfortable with a running back, they realize different tendencies, like maybe I like to bounce it outside sometimes."

And with Haw completely healthy, he's teaming with senior speedster Lavarius Giles to provide an intriguing 1-2 backfield punch. The two combined for 156 rushing yards against Tennessee State.

"We've got something pretty good going back there," JSU quarterback Jimmy Oliver. "Both those guys are running the ball real hard."

Even though Haw had a breakthrough game last week, he was still kicking himself over "a few decisions that could have led to longer runs if I had read the hole properly."

Among them was a 4th-and-1 situation deep in Tennessee State territory where Haw fell just short of the first down.

"When I'm completely right, that won't happen," Haw said. "I'll bounce to the outside and get that first down. If I had, we might have won that game."