STATESBORO — You can make a good case against William Banks. He’s not fast, not overly big, nor overly powerful.
In other words, he lacks a lot of the attributes expected of a fullback in Georgia Southern’s triple-option, run-oriented offense.
But the junior running back is tough — tough enough to run for three touchdowns in the first half against Appalachian State last week.
Then, Banks was given fluids intravenously and played in the second half.
At the end of the day, he had a career-high 129 rushing yards.
But you’d never know from listening to him that he had a lot to do with the team’s 386-yard rushing day. Banks credits his offensive line, the reads of the quarterbacks and calls of the coaches.
“Whenever all that stuff comes together, you usually get great results,” he said.
Leading rusher Dominique Swope is expected to be back today when the Eagles meet Howard University on Homecoming at Paulson Stadium.
And Banks moves back to second string. He says he’ll be ready again.
“When somebody goes down, you have to step up and fill that role,” Banks said. “The coaches have had faith in me to fill that spot.”
It didn’t start out that way. Banks came to Georgia Southern as a preferred walk-on after starring at quarterback, wide receiver, running back and defensive back at Augusta Christian.
He toiled for years as a scout team player before getting his first carry, a 3-yard run, in a 58-0 rout of Jacksonville University in the Eagles’ opener this season.
Going into the fifth game, Banks had exactly two rushes.
“We’ve been fortune here to have scholarship running backs that were pretty good,” GSU coach Jeff Monken said.
Now the Eagles have a pretty good running back who arrived in a different way.
He showed up on campus by listening to his brother Lee Banks, who played at GSU from 2008 to 2010.
But at 5-foot-9, 193 pounds, William remained behind several teammates at fullback.
“He was so far down in the depth chart when we started the season, we didn’t think he was going to be in the mix,” Monken said.
But Banks worked his way up, beating out scholarship players Seon Jones and Ean Days. And when Swope suffered a second concussion after the Furman game, Banks trotted out with the starters for the Chattanooga game.
He ran for 69 yards on 18 carries against the Mocs.
He was better against the Mountaineers, producing 129 yards on 19 carries and touchdown runs of 4, 20 and 36 yards.
“I’m proud of him,” Monken said. “He played really hard on Saturday and had some good runs when he ran out of tackles. I didn’t see all that until I watched the film. He’s one of those guys who fought his way from the bottom up. You love guys like that.”
HOWARD AT GEORGIA SOUTHERN
Records: Howard (6-3, 5-2 MEAC); Georgia Southern (7-2, 6-2 SoCon)
When: 2 p.m. today
Where: Paulson Stadium, Statesboro
TV/radio: No TV/WZAT 102.1 FM in Savannah; WBMZ 103.7 FM in Statesboro
ON THE WEB
Go to savannahnow.com/sports to see a video of GSU coach Jeff Monken talking about the Eagles’ matchup with Howard.