LJWorld.com

Just about every week, Kansas University running back Angus Quigley's coach tells reporters the key to him becoming a better running back is learning to run with his pads lower. It doesn't sound complicated. Why not just do it?

"I'm a tall guy," Quigley said Tuesday at the weekly Kansas University football media session. "It's not as easy as it sounds."

Why not?

"When you're used to running like that (upright) six, seven years, it doesn't just come to you," Quigley said. "It's something I've got to stress. What I've noticed about myself, I always start out the game, I probably run a little lower, it's as I get tired that I have to learn to continue to keep my pads down. ... When I think I'm low, there's always somebody lower. There are times when I think I'm low, and coach tells me, 'You were a little high there.'"

The lower he runs, the higher he moves up the depth chart. Quigley made his first start against Sam Houston State and is scheduled to make his second start Saturday in Ames against Iowa State, but it's not as if he's the featured back. Nobody has earned that distinction yet. Statistically, Quigley has been the team's best running back, averaging 5.4 yards per carry, compared to 3.3 for Jake Sharp and 3.1 for Jocques Crawford. Quigley has led the team in rushing in each of the four games.

Coaches don't look at statistics to determine which players play. They look at whether athletes consistently do the things that lead to success.

"Angus is in the No. 1 spot because probably in some situations he has been a little more productive than others," KU coach Mark Mangino said. "But you will see plenty of Jake Sharp, plenty of Jocques Crawford, and who knows, based on how well we're running the ball and how well the backs are seeing things, you may see more of them than Angus. We'll see."

Quigley understands jobs aren't given away.

"I've got to earn it," he said. "When that time comes, and if it comes, I'll accept it and see where I go from there. I'm still earning my stripes here. I started out as the third tailback, and now I'm in the rotation."

Looking back on the Sam Houston State game, Quigley said, "That was my first career start. It was kind of a weird game. I didn't play in the third quarter. Jocques came in there. It was kind of a weird rotation. I don't think I'll feel like the starter until I do it consistently."

Last season's leading rusher, Brandon McAnderson, ran with the ball in his mind until he got his shot.

"I never saw B-Mac as a running back (before his senior year)," Quigley said. "I saw B-Mac as a fullback, but he came in his senior year, and he got it done, thousand-yard rusher, which no one would have ever thought. B-Mac knew the offense in and out. It's encouraging for me to see, and I may have more skill sets than him, and I'm pretty much the elder in the running back room. That's what gave me the motivation this summer again to watch film and just learn the offense to where I can make a push for myself."

As McAnderson showed, football is about so much more than physical skill. It's about absorbing knowledge from coaches, which Quigley now is trying harder than ever to do.