Forté Leaving Lasting Mark At Tulane
Nov 5, 2007 | Football
Sept. 29, 2007
By Richie Weaver
Tulane Athletic Communications
When Matt Forté arrived on the Tulane campus as a 6-1, 210-pound true freshman prior to the 2004 season, the Green Wave football program had some pretty big shoes to fill.
Mewelde Moore, who set the Tulane career rushing record with 4,364 yards from 2000-03, graduated and moved on to the NFL as a fourth-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings. With him left 6,505 all-purpose yards, which still ranks 14th in NCAA history, and his total yards from scrimmage represented 34.1 percent of the Green Wave's combined rushing and receiving totals during Moore's four-year stint at Tulane.
Questions abounded about where those yards would come from in the future. While sitting third, at-best, on the preseason depth chart prior to his freshman campaign, Forté has since provided an adamant answer to that question...and then some.
"I thought he was going to be good," said Greg Davis, Jr., Tulane running backs coach and the lone member of the staff remaining from Moore's tenure on his initial impression of Forté. "It took me about four days into (the 2004) fall camp for me to realize that he had a chance to be REAL good."
Three years and three games into his college career, Forté now has 2,573 rushing yards for his career, which sits third in Tulane's career record book. He is just 522 behind former All-American Eddie Price (3,095 from 1946-49) for second place on the all-time list.
Since becoming the full-time starter prior to last season, Forté is averaging 107.8 yards per game (1,294 yards in 12 games) with 14 touchdowns. His 3,356 career all-purpose yards (2,573 rushing, 783 receiving) ranks 10th in Tulane history and his 27 touchdowns (22 rushing, five receiving) ranks sixth in the Green Wave's career record book.
"He's the total package," first-year Tulane head coach Bob Toledo said. "I've been around some very good backs in my career and they all pretty much had 1,000 yards. All of those guys had some great attributes, but they were deficient in certain aspects. Maybe they weren't as fast or maybe they didn't catch the ball as well, or maybe they weren't as physical. Matt is a big, strong, physical, fast back who can catch the ball. He can do it all."
That do-it-all ability has been a perfect match for Forté and Toledo. After being announced as the 37th head coach in Tulane football history on Dec. 11, 2006, Toledo announced his decision to convert the Green Wave's spread offensive attack to the West Coast offense, a scheme he has been running since his playing days at San Francisco State. Unlike previous seasons where the quarterback was the central focus of the offensive attack, Toledo's West Coast philosophy has moved the spotlight from under center to further into the backfield.
"It's the offense that any running back would want to be in - where you look to run first and pass second," Forté said. "It's very exciting to be around offensive coaches who think that way, especially as a running back because you know you're going to get the ball most of the time.
"You love any time you get the ball in your hands because that's another chance for you to make another play. That's what I have to do this season for us to win games and help our offense work effectively."
The team definitely counted on Forté to make plays last weekend vs. Southeastern Louisiana, and the Green Wave workhorse responded in a big way - running for a Tulane and Conference USA record 303 yards and five touchdowns on 40 carries.
His rushing total shattered the previous team record of 249 set by Moore on Oct. 6, 2001 against Cincinnati and was three yards more than former C-USA record-holder Joffrey Reynolds of Houston vs. East Carolina on Nov. 9, 2002.
With touchdown runs of three, four, 11, 21 and 22 yards, Forté set a Tulane single-game touchdown record which surpassed the previous mark of four set by Charles "Peggy" Flournoy vs. Louisiana Tech on Nov. 7, 1925 and tied by Tony Converse vs. Louisiana Tech on Nov. 26, 1998. It also tied the C-USA single-game record shared by five other student-athletes.
Forté got stronger as the game went on, tallying 177 yards and three scores on 25 carries in the second half alone. He averaged 7.6 yards per carry on the night, and his 312 all-purpose yards (303 rushing, nine receiving) ranks second in Tulane single-game history.
His rushing total last Saturday was the second-most in the nation over the last three seasons, behind only Northern Illinois' Garrett Wolfe's 353 in 2006, and Forté's 303 yards against the Lions were more yards than seven NCAA Division I-Bowl Subdivision teams have all season.
"I made the comment that he's a great tailback when the season started, and I think people saw that greatness on Saturday," Toledo said. "He showed power, he showed quickness, he showed speed, he showed durability. "Good backs get stronger as the game goes along. They wind up wearing defenses down and he kind of did that. He started making guys miss in the hole. Then he started running over people. And then he started dragging people. What he did on Saturday, that's simply phenomenal."
And just like his rushing yards came in bushels during Saturday's victory, so did the honors. For his work on the gridiron last week, Forté was named Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week, C-USA and Louisiana Sports Writers Association Offensive Player of the Week, and earned him a spot on the AT&T All-America Player of the Week, which is selected by a board of ESPN analysts.
By nature of his position, Forté is used to being in the spotlight, but is quick to shy away from the recognition he receives.
"You can't really get too excited about awards," Forté said. "I don't play football for the awards. That's nice to have, but you have to look at them and just put them to the side. The season's not over with just one game. You've got to come out the next game and the rest of the season and be consistent. Maybe put up 100 yards or a 200-yard game in there somewhere."
Forté's big game on Saturday may be a bit above the norm, even by his own admission, but it is not the first time now 6-2, 223-pound tailback has put up big numbers. After splitting time with then-junior Jovon Jackson as a freshman in 2004, Forté ran for a Tulane rookie record 216 yards and four touchdowns on 34 carries against Army in his first career start.
He continued to share the ball-carrying duties with Jackson through his sophomore campaign, but really broke into the spotlight last season when he posted career highs in rushing yards (859), rushing attempts (163), rushing touchdowns (eight), receptions (43), receiving yards (343) and touchdown receptions (three).
During the 2006 season, Forté put together a string of four consecutive games with 100 or more yards rushing with 178 against Rice (Oct. 7), 147 at UTEP (Oct. 14), 117 at No. 8 Auburn (Oct. 21) and 124 vs. Army (Oct. 28).
With his eyes set on becoming just the third player in Tulane history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season - joining Price (1948) and Moore (2001, 2002) - Forté was well on his way to a fifth straight game hitting the century mark with 61 yards on 19 carries through two and a half quarters of play against Marshall.
That is when tragedy struck and changed the way Forté looked at the game he loves to play.
A third-quarter interception halted not only a Green Wave drive but also Forté's season as he tore his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) and suffered meniscus damage in his knee making a tackle.
But as he has done with every success and slip during his collegiate career, Forté took the bad news in stride and tried to find something positive in the injury.
"I was feeling sorry for myself a little bit at first, but I came to realize a few things," Forté said. "I was talking to my dad and he said that everything happens for a reason. You're playing football and sometimes you get hurt. You can't pick when you get hurt in any sport, but sometimes things like that happen. It happened in the third to last game, but maybe it just happened so I would want it that more the next year."
Relegated to the role of spectator/cheerleader, Forté watched the remaining games from the sideline and did what he could to help his fellow running backs.
"It was really hard," Forté said of not being able to play. "I don't like watching the games when I know I could be playing. Just the fact that I was hurt and couldn't help my team win - that was a hard thing for me to do. But I would sit back and watch our offense play. I would try and help whoever was in and tell them what I see. That way maybe when they went back in, they would see what I was seeing and that would help them."
After having surgery to remain his meniscus and letting the PCL heal on its own, Forté was limited in spring and preseason practice, but still showed flashes of the break-away speed, the moves in the whole, and the ability to make something out of nothing.
With the knee sound for his senior season, Forté set out to prepare himself for his final campaign - a year that he realized the team would rely heavily upon his performance. In anticipation of carrying the bulk of the offense on his shoulders, Forté performed double workouts throughout the summer, running and working out with a group of teammates in the morning, and then turning around in the afternoon just to do it all over again.
"I did that the whole summer because I knew that I needed to be in unbelievable shape to be able to handle something like 40 carries in a game and stuff like that," Forté said. "Going into the season, that's why I did that because I knew it was a possibility and (the double workouts) allowed me to do that."
His 40 carries last weekend against SLU ranks second in Tulane single-game history, behind Bill Banker's 43 totes vs. Ole Miss on Oct. 1, 1927. It also stands tied for fourth in C-USA history and second all-time in the history of the Louisiana Superdome behind former LSU All-American Charles Alexander's 41 totes in 1977.
And as Tulane fans marvel at Forté's performances on the field, his play has not gone unnoticed by professional scouts. Several NFL team representatives have been on campus since fall camp, and the player atop each of their scouting lists is Forté.
"I've been around a lot of them, dating back to the USC days, to the Oregon days, to Texas A&M and UCLA," Toledo said. "Skip Hicks, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, (DeShaun) Foster, I could go on and on. But he ranks up there with all those guys. He's got size, he's got speed, he's strong, he's durable, and the thing about him, he's got character.
"I think a lot of NFL people are looking for a player like Matt. From a pro standpoint, he's going to get a great opportunity. He'll be a first-day draft choice guy. How early he goes? I can't say. That's what pro people decide. I do know that he's got all the ability in the world to be an NFL running back. All the pro guys are coming through here and they're saying `Wow, we've got to get the general managers looking at him' and `We've got to get more people bigger in the organization coming out to see him' because he is special."
But while the future may prove to be an exciting one for Forté, he remains focused on the task at hand.
"Your goal is to be a high recruit out of high school, and then you want to be a high-round draft pick once your college career is over," Forté said. "But you have to stay focused and stay grounded. My first obligation is to Tulane football. I'm not playing football to move up on somebody's draft board. I want to go to a bowl game. I want to win a conference championship here. Those are the things I want to do first, and that's what I'm focused on now."
Regardless of how the remainder of the 2007 season turns out and where Forté may be drafted next year, he will leave Tulane in spring 2008 with a finance degree from the prestigious A.B. Freeman School of Business. And while the balance of athletics and academics can be a demanding one, like one of his carries or one of his receptions in a game, Forté has made the best out of his situation at Tulane.
"That's what you go to college for - to get a degree," Forté said. "Football is a way of achieving that, but at the same time, you can't think that `Oh, I've got to go out and play football and then I have classes and go to work outs.' You've got to be excited about the game, and that's what I do. I look forward to going to practice and it's just exciting to be able to go out there for at least another day."
Whether it is another day, another year or another decade, Forté has already made his mark on the Tulane football program. Shoes to fill? No problem. The only question left to answer now is who will fill Forté's once he's gone.
