Football player gets back on track at LSU

By Glenn Guilbeau
sports@thenewsstar.com

BATON ROUGE — Trindon Holliday felt like he was under the radar going into the 2006 football season as well as the 2007 outdoor track season at LSU.

Of course, at 5-foot-5 and 165 pounds, Holliday is under a lot of things.
"He could be hard to pick up on pass routes sometimes," former LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell said.
"When he lines up in the backfield, I could see where he'd be hard to locate by the defenders," LSU track coach Dennis Shaver said.

After not playing a lot through the first half of last season, Holliday elevated himself, if you will, forever in the hearts of LSU fans when he dashed 92 yards for a touchdown on a kickoff return early in the fourth quarter at Arkansas. The score answered an 80-yard touchdown run by Razorback tailback Darren McFadden and gave the Tigers a 31-19 lead on the way to a 31-26 victory. Holliday rushed 14 times on the season, usually on reverses, for 172 yards and a touchdown.

Shaver appreciated the run as a track coach and a LSU football fan.

"It was like he was shot out of a cannon," he said. "It was a beautiful run. The guy's like a dart."

Partly because of an ankle sprain in spring football of 2006, Holliday had a forgettable 2006 track season, which included a pedestrian 11.01 time in the 100-meter dash at the Southeastern Conference Championships.

"I was coming off an injury and didn't qualify for the 100 meters at the SEC's," said Holliday, a sophomore from Northeast High near Baton Rouge. "I wasn't able to get back to 100 percent last track season. So I just told myself that if I make it through last football season at 100 percent, I will come out and make a name for myself."

Holliday did just that at the SEC Championships two weeks ago in Tuscaloosa, Ala. All he did was set the school record with a 10.08 in the 100 meters to win the first individual championship of his career. The time broke the school record of 10.09 set last June by All-American Xavier Carter, who then turned pro after becoming the first since Jesse Owens in 1936 to win four individual titles at the NCAA Championships.

"Xavier called me the day after I did it," Holliday said. "He was training in Tennessee. He said that's how it should be. Records should be broken. He called me the night before to say I could do it, too."

Holliday will be trying to better that this weekend at the NCAA Mideast Regionals in Columbia, Mo., that qualifies competitors for the NCAA Championships in June.

"I think I felt like I was under the radar last season in track, that no one really knew who I was," Holliday said. "So I just had to come out this season at 100 percent and just do it. I felt the same way in football."

Shaver always knew who Holliday was. He recruited him along with football coach Les Miles out of Northeast High, where he was No. 1 in the nation in the 60-meter dash in 2005 and won six individual state championships and helped his team to state titles in 2003 and 2005.

"But I wasn't expecting a new school record at that track meet," Shaver said. "I thought by the end of the season, Trindon would have a legitimate shot at that and better. But he came on fast. He's just a tremendous competitor, and he really felt good. He really had a lot to prove. He didn't like what happened last year in the SEC with the 11.01 time. He just exploded."

Holliday is shaped more like a cannonball than a typical sprinter. Carter, for example, was 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds.

"The last person I could compare him to would be Andre Cason, who was at Texas A&M 15 years ago," Shaver said. "He's odd because of his height. I don't know if he is 5-5. Taller runners have longer strides. But Trindon is very powerful for the body mass he's got and very quick. He has a very fast muscle twitch. And he runs relaxed like the best of them. Looking at him sometimes, it's like he's on a stationary bike."

Holliday also had a different training regimen going into the SEC meet. He had only ran in a handful of races beforehand. He missed the indoor season because he was busy with spring football.

"I think I came on a little earlier than I thought," Holliday said. "I've been working hard all season, so I just had to come out and see what I could do. But I really didn't surprise myself. I knew I could do it at some point. Coach had told me at the beginning of this season I could do it so he wanted me to go ahead and take off. And I did that. I think not coming out until outdoor helped me a lot."

Holliday feels he has better times left in him.

"I think it will have to be a little faster to win the NCAA's," he said. "Maybe a 10.05 or a 10.06. I think I can do it if I work real hard the next couple of weeks."

Holliday thinks he can distance himself from the radar more next season in football as well after a spring of work at tailback, slot receiver and kick and punt returning. He didn't catch a pass in 2006 and only returned one punt.

"I hope to see a lot more action that what I saw last year," he said. "I didn't get going until midway through the season. That's the plan — football and track for four years. It's not difficult at all. It's just good that I have coaches who are willing to work with me in both sports."

And at some point between the end of the NCAA Championships and the beginning of football practice in August, Holliday hopes to take a holiday.

"I haven't had any time off really since I got here," he said. "I think I'll take some time off. Not too long. I just need like a week, like Bo Jackson."