RB Ivey starts to flourish

Despite a 2-5 record, Charleston Southern's football team is enjoying one of its best seasons in terms of running the football.

The Buccaneers are averaging 163.7 yards per game on the ground this season, the highest total since 2000. While losing close games to Big South Conference foes Gardner-Webb and Liberty in the last two weeks, CSU has averaged 196.5 yards on the ground against two of the better run defenses in the league.

Junior Gerald Stevenson is the team's leading rusher as a wide receiver, getting about eight carries per game on end-arounds from the spread offense. But sophomore running back Antwan Ivey also is making a consistent contribution to the running game.

In last week's 20-13 loss to Liberty, Ivey posted a career-high 82 yards on 20 carries. The 5-5, 180-pound Ivey led the team with 380 yards rushing last season and has just under 300 yards through the first seven games of this season.

As a senior at Newberry High School in the Gainesville, Fla., area, Ivey was among the top rushers in the state with 2,445 yards and 31 touchdowns. He was named the Florida player of the year in his classification and led his team to the state final. But, as CSU head coach Jay Mills says, none of the Florida schools recruited him hard due to his size.

Their loss is CSU's gain.

"He's a special young man and a talented football player," said Mills. "He has a very high football intelligence, and he loves competition. The reason he is here is that he is vertically challenged, meaning some schools were afraid of his lack of height, but we're blessed to have him here. He's one of those guys that practices as hard as he plays every single day."

Ivey is feeling more and more comfortable each day as he makes the sometimes difficult adjustment to college football. He says he has learned the value of patience as a runner.

"Last year I just took the ball and ran and really didn't use my blockers," he said. "The big thing I have learned is to slow the game down and be patient, waiting on the blocks to set up. I see the game more clearly now, and because I have slowed it down some, I can pick the holes better."

Ivey has become increasingly active in the CSU offense and last week operated the offense from the "Wild Buc" formation, taking direct snaps from center.

CSU displayed the new look for the first time this season in a crucial fourth-quarter drive. The Bucs went 80 yards in 10 plays, nine of them running plays from the formation. Ivey had 35 yards on five carries in the drive as CSU tied the game at 13 with just over 6 minutes remaining.

"We were pretty excited to finally try it in a game, and it's definitely something we can do with success," said Ivey. "It's not difficult to run, and I think it gives us another way to move the football."

The Bucs are off to an 0-2 start in conference play, but with four winnable games remaining, the goal of a winning season is still in sight. CSU ended last season with a four-game winning streak to finish at 7-5, and Ivey believes the 2009 Bucs can repeat the late-season run.

"We're going to play these last four games as hard as we can play," he said. "We're trying to win out and show everyone that we can be a good team. It hurt to lose these last two because we felt we should have won them both. Things just didn't work out at the very end of those games. But we're practicing just as hard and we won't quit. No way this team will quit."