Vandy Backfield duo... backs one another

Vanderbilt has had just three players top 1,000 yards rushing in a season, and none since 1995 when Jermaine Johnson rushed for 1,072 yards. It’s a statistic that speaks to the lean years of the program, but also is a statistic that could easily change in the next few years. Never has Vanderbilt had as talented a backfield as it does entering the 2010 season. At the head of the class are rising sophomores Warren Norman and Zac Stacy. The two arrived on campus with fellow running back Wesley Tate, who redshirted, and immediately turned heads as the duo ran through, around and past would-be defenders en route to combining for more yards on the ground (1,261) than any other freshman tandem in school history. Norman, a Stone Mountain, Ga., native carried the torch for Vanderbilt and all SEC freshmen last season when he was named SEC Freshman of the Year. Norman finished the year with 783 yards rushing and an SEC freshman record of 1,941 all-purpose yards. Stacy, who hails from Centreville, Ala., finished with 478 yards rushing despite missing two games due to injury. Pretty good production for a guy who grew up thinking he would more likely end up at an SEC school on a baseball scholarship than a football one. “Baseball was my first love,” Stacy said. “I’ve been playing baseball since I was 6 years old. I always thought I was going to be a baseball player growing up, but I strapped on some pads and began playing football and fell in love with it.” By Ryan Schulz