ESPN.com: Ringer Carrying On

Sept. 24, 2008

By Ivan Maisel, ESPN.com

The subject is the day after.

To be specific, the day after 250-pound linebackers use you for target practice; the day after you get knocked down and get back up 30 times or more per game.

In an age of spread offenses, when most playcallers consider a pass into the flat the equivalent of a run, Connecticut junior Donald Brown and Michigan State senior Javon Ringer are looking old-school. It's not that they are leading the FBS in rushing, with 179 and 174.8 yards per game, respectively. It's how they are doing it.

Brown has 113 carries in four games, an average of 28.3 per game. But even that pales before Ringer, who has 143 carries in four games, an average of 35.8. By comparison, only one other FBS back has as many as 92 carries this season.

Ringer has been the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for three weeks in a row. One week after carrying it 43 times for 282 yards against Florida Atlantic, he rushed for 201 yards on 39 carries against Notre Dame.

More important, he got out of bed on Sunday morning. Whatever aches and pains Ringer had Sunday morning, he kept to himself. Strength coach Ken Mannie said, "I thought he might need some tweaking. He came in Sunday and said, 'Oh, I'm fine. I'm ready to go.' ... You've almost got to interrogate him to find out if anything is bothering him."

If Mannie can't find it out, ESPN.com has no chance.

"No, none," Ringer said. "I'll say I'm just fine."

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