Tony Alford was pretty blunt in his response, wanting it to be well-known: He is not the man he replaced as Ohio State’s running backs coach.
“I’m not Stan Drayton,” Alford said Thursday as he met with the media for the first time since being hired by Urban Meyer. “I know Stan and we’re friends, but I’m Tony Alford and I’m going to be the best Tony Alford I can be. That’s going to have to be good enough.”
They’re different people, Alford says, but the Buckeyes’ best running back notices a lot of similarities between the two of them.
“Coach Alford, him and Coach Drayton are actually pretty similar coaches with the way they attack it,” Ezekiel Elliott said Thursday. “They’re very passionate and they demand hard work.”
Drayton’s work at Ohio State hardly went unnoticed before he left in February to take a position with the Chicago Bears.
In Meyer’s first 11 seasons as a college head coach, he had never had a running back gain 1,000 yards on the ground. In the last two years at Ohio State, though, there have been two: Elliott in 2014 and Carlos Hyde in 2013. A lot of that success can be credited to Drayton and his work with the Buckeye running backs.
“I’m not Stan Drayton. I know Stan and we’re friends, but I’m Tony Alford and I’m going to be the best Tony Alford I can be. That’s going to have to be good enough.”– Tony Alford
Replacing Drayton is a tall task, but one Alford said it is one he’s more than capable of tackling.
“Stan left some big shoe prints, no doubt,” he said. “My job here is just to come here and do the best I can for this football program.”
Alford came from Notre Dame, so it’s not like big-time college football is new to him. Still, there was a learning curve.
“Coach Alford, he just got here so we had to teach him a little bit playbook-wise, but he’s got it all down pat and is ready to roll,” said Bri’onte Dunn, Ohio State’s No. 1 running back during spring practice as Elliott is sidelined with a wrist injury and Curtis Samuel works with the wide receivers. “It didn’t really change a lot. We still have good, fun meetings. Everybody bright-eyed, ready to go every morning.”
Alford inherits quite a bevy of talent with the Buckeyes, too. He even joked that his decision was easy to come to Ohio State because, ‘Is it easy to drive a Lexus?’
With Elliott and Samuel as the presumed 1-2 punch, the Buckeyes have as strong a tandem as anyone in the country. Add in Dunn and Warren Ball for depth purposes and incoming freshman Mike Weber — a four-star prospect and the No. 9 running back in the 2015 class — Ohio State has a deep stable of talented ball carriers.
Oh, and the Buckeyes also have a strong running back class committed in 2016 in case you hadn’t heard. Alford, known as one of the nation’s top recruiters, has a lot to do with that.
It’s easy to see why Alford has been successful in his coaching career to this point. Ohio State fans shouldn’t expect much of a drop off from the running back position.
“I am passionate about it and the way I coach. I think I’m a guy that really works to get close to his players and there’s a lot of mentorship involved in coaching,” Alford said. “For me right now, I like to be able to see how guys grow and mature through time. I’m consistent, I’m very consistent in the way that I handle my business.”
