Collegiate Times

Fullbacks live a life of servitude. Their main job is to make sure that they help keep whoever has the ball upright. If it means running full speed, head first into a 230-pound linebacker, so be it.

Occasionally they?ll get a pass their way, once every two or three games. They might get one carry during the course of a 60-minute game if the offensive coaching staff wants to reward them for a hard week of practice, or if they want to catch the defense off guard.

Welcome to the life and times of Virginia Tech fullback Doug Easlick, perhaps one of the most important cogs on offense who may get the least recognition overall.

Sure, running backs like Kevin Jones, Cedric Humes and Mike Imoh get the yards, touchdowns and the recognition, but Easlick is the guy running ahead of them trying to steamroll linebackers and safeties that might be in the running back?s path.

?It?s nice blocking for those guys,? Easlick said of Tech?s corps of running backs. ?They appreciate it. That?s my job on this football team.?

Week in, week out, he?s used to going out on the field for the sole purpose of laying out a defender, but this week?s contest against the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights holds even more importance to Easlick.

Easlick came to Blacksburg from Marlton, N.J., about 40 minutes south of Camden, where Rutgers is located. The game essentially represents a homecoming for Easlick, as he returns back to his home state for the first time as a starter.

Along with the fact that 40 or 50 family members and friends will make the trip to Camden to watch Easlick play, the game holds a little more significance to Easlick on a personal level. When choosing colleges after high school, Rutgers did not recruit Easlick, and he instead wound up in Blacksburg.

?Coming out of high school I wasn?t heavily recruited? Easlick said. ?Rutgers didn?t really recruit me too much ? they recruited me for wrestling.?

Easlick came to Tech after a family friend, former Tech player Ed Keefer, sent tapes to Tech running backs coach Billy Hite.

The staff obviously liked what they saw, and after originally arriving at Tech on a wrestling scholarship (he wrestled his freshman year), Easlick joined the football team as a preferred walk-on.

Being noticed for a crunching block at the line of scrimmage by only a handful of people, not many know that Easlick is a converted running back who used to carry the ball 25-30 times a game in high school, and even logged two games with 39 carries.

Last spring during Tech?s pro-day, he clocked a 4.59 in the 40-yard dash. In comparison, there are wide receivers in the college game who run that speed.

Throw in the fact that he has soft hands, making him an excellent target coming out of the backfield on play-action passes, and he is the prototype for the perfect fullback.

However, the Tech coaching staff, with talent galore on the offense, prefers to utilize Easlick for his blocking ability. He?s technically listed among the running backs but he runs the ball so infrequently that quarterback Bryan Randall jokes anytime Easlick gets the ball in his hands it?s a ?trick play? in the offense.

?I play with (the offensive players and coaches) in practice, tell them to throw me the ball here and there? Easlick joked about lobbying for more offensive touches.

?But, I know what my position is. I know I?m not going to touch the ball more than three times (a game), if that. That?s a lot if I touch it three times. But, when they call my number, I try to do the best I can.?