UNR’s Lippincott ready for big senior season

It sounds preposterous, but maybe the biggest compliment you can pay Luke Lippincott is to call him what he is: the second or third, maybe even the fourth most-talented running back on UNR's roster.

"No," coach Chris Ault answered when asked if Lippincott was the most talented back. "He's a very, very good athlete, but his strength is his mind."

It is the power of the mind that has made Lippincott into the other thing he is: the heart and soul of the offense and a blueprint for how to build the kind of player that every coach loves -- a leader by example.

"Physically, he's the most gifted," said running backs coach Jim Mastro, who recruited Lippincott out of Palma High in Salinas, Calif. "Most talented? No. That's probably a good way to describe it. But he's mentally the toughest. I'll tell you, that's the key. There's no one that matches that."

Even Lippincott, the reigning Western Athletic Conference rushing leader, gave himself no better than a silver medal in one respect.

"I would definitely say Lampford is the best of all of us in terms of speed," Lippincott, a senior, said of redshirt fr eshman Lampford Mark. "His speed is unparalleled with the rest of us. But that's why I like doing sports psychology. It's so much more mental than physical."

A great running back has a number of attributes. He can read a hole before it opens. He can make a defender miss with speed, quickness and agility. He can catch passes. He can provide pass protection, and he can block down field. And he can run over a defender with his strength.

In the Wolf Pack backfield, which possibly has the most depth of any position on the team, other backs are arguably better at certain aspects. Mastro called junior Brandon Fragger "hands down" the most talented back, but he has been hobbled by injuries. On Mark, Mastro said, "If he gets to the corner he'll put the fear of God in you." Of true freshman Mike Ball, who has a stress fracture in his lower leg and will redshirt this season, Mastro said, "That guy's going to be real good."

Two more backs, sophomores Vai Taua and Courtney Randall, are tough, reliable, grind-it-out backs who will get their carries, too.

But when the season starts Aug. 30 at Mackay Stadium against Grambling State, it will be the 6-foot-2-inch, 215-pound, somewhat talent-challenged Lippincott who will start in the backfield.

"He's a Nevada back," said Ault, who went on to compare Lippincott with former backs B.J. Mitchell, Chris Lemon and Charvez Foger. "They're not rare. That's the expectation if you're going to be the guy.

"It's a north-south guy. It's an all-the-time back. It's an every-down back. And it's a guy that's productive. You saw it in B.J. Mitchell. You see it in Luke, Chris Lemon, Foger. It's a special deal when we name a guy a Nevada back."

It is Thursday afternoon at Wolf Pack Park, the temperature is hovering around 100 degrees, and the Pack running backs are going through a rather monotonous pass-blocking drill where they use their arms and hands, changing positions with each repetition, to slam into mounted pads.

Each time Lippincott hits it, the pop is louder. Each time he hits it, it appears to be a 33 RPM record at 45 speed.

"You don't have to worry about his work ethic," Ault said. "He's got great work ethic."

Lippincott, voted the team MVP by the players last season, doesn't want to talk about a possible NFL career. He's got unfinished business to attend to at UNR.

"There's a lot more personal pressure on myself in terms of what I want to do as far as goals for the season," he said. "I feel like it's the perfect chance for our team to win and for me to get personal goals done.

"I want the school record for season rushing. If I do that, everything will fall into place. We'll probably be winning."

Lippincott led the WAC with 1,420 yards last season, the fourth-best mark in school history. He wants to top Chance Kretschmer's 1,732 yards, set in 2001, to own the record.