E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeATLANTA — There are likely very few Georgia Tech fans who have heard the name Warren Norman.
Georgia Tech A-back Roddy Jones has heard it. And he knows that if his Yellow Jackets aren’t careful with Norman later tonight, all of Atlanta could soon become quite familiar with him.
“I’ve known about him ever since my junior year at Chamblee. Yeah, I know who he is,” Jones said earlier this week.
Former teammates at Chamblee — a metro-Atlanta high school east of the city — Jones and Norman were a pair of electric players in the Bulldogs’ backfield. Before Jones’ departure for Georgia Tech after the 2006 season, Norman was a quarterback. But once Jones left, Norman became Chamblee’s premier running back and helped lead his team to a 12-2, state semifinal finish in 2007.
“He made some big runs for us my senior year, and then he made some even bigger ones the next year on their run to the semifinals,” said Jones, whose younger brother played with Norman at Chamblee last year. “He’s just a real talented guy, a real talented player, and the stuff he’s doing now, he’s been doing since high school.
“He’s kind of taken the SEC by storm, and I’m proud of him.”
Indeed, in just his first year playing college football, the young running back already has started three games at Vanderbilt and has become one of the conference’s biggest surprises at kick return.
Surrounded by prolific returners such as Mississippi State’s Leon Berry and Georgia’s Brandon Boykin, Norman has stood out.
He already has returned two kicks for touchdowns, including a 99-yarder last week on the road at South Carolina. It was the Commodores’ only score in a 14-10 loss to a ranked Gamecocks team.
“He saw an opening in there, and we got a good block from DeAndre Jones at the point of attack,” Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson said of the return earlier this week. “He cut off that block and didn’t slow down after that.”
The SEC’s all-purpose yards leader, Norman has averaged 157.5 total yards per game and is in good position to become Vanderbilt’s all-time freshman rushing leader. He has 533 yards rushing entering tonight’s game — just 265 yards shy of the school record.
“He’s always been an athletic kid,” Jones said. “He’s always been a hard worker, and he’s a real strong guy. He’s hard to take down, too, he’s always breaking tackles and he’s a guy when he gets space in the open field, he can run.”
A former track star, Norman was a member of a 4x100-meter relay team at Chamblee that placed at the state meet his junior year.
According to Johnson, Norman’s ability to harness that speed is what makes him an impressive kick returner.
“Warren has a pretty good knack for being able to make a pretty good cut at almost full speed. When he does that, he goes north and south,” Johnson said. “In this league, if you get in there on a kick return and start trying to make moves, there are just too many fast players and they are going to nail you. The best thing you can do is zip right on through and pass them as they are going down to cover you. He is fast enough to outrun them all and that is how you score.”
@Nyx.CommentBody@