Football – Sails Unfurled: Senior running back fulfills promise, vaults to top of depth chart

UL senior running back fulfills Bustle’s prediction, returns atop depth chart

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • August 12, 2009

At the conclusion of spring practice, UL head coach Rickey Bustle proclaimed that Undrea Sails would enter fall camp atop the depth chart at running back.

That decision only added to the fire that fueled Sails in the offseason as the Ragin’ Cajuns started life after Tyrell Fenroy.

"I came back for the summer and pushed all the running backs," said Sails, a senior from Alabama. "I pushed myself, but I also told them to push themselves so we all had somebody to compete with.

"We were really just competing with each other to take that top spot."

Going into the second week of fall practice, Sails is still considered the top option at running back. The 5-foot-8, 207-pounder is short but powerful and capable of producing on the ground, catching the ball out of the backfield and helping with pass protection.

Sails, though, doesn’t claim to be Fenroy, who finished as the leading rusher in school, state and Sun Belt Conference history and was the 2008 league player of the year. But he’s proven to be as tough as Fenroy.

Coming out of Marbury High School in rural Alabama, Sails received interest from multiple colleges, including Alabama, Tennessee and Southern Miss. But he lacked the grades. To play at the next level, he would first have to go to junior college.

Sails sat out the 2005 season to be a student for one semester at the University of West Alabama and eventually went to College of the Desert in Palm Desert, Calif., where he was recruited as a defensive back.

By his sophomore year, Sails had moved to running back and accounted for 11 touchdowns. He was fifth in the Foothill Conference with 71 rushing yards per game.

Sails arrived at UL last year for the first week of fall camp but missed the season’s first three games while waiting for his final grade to be posted. He played in the next six games but was lost for the year after spraining his knee in Week 9 against UTEP.

His final numbers for the year: 19 carries for 77 yards. The knee injury was expected to sideline him in the spring, but Sails played through the pain and earned the respect of his peers and coaches.

Sails’ all-around skills have made him the projected starter. Right now, he is ahead of three Texas natives — sophomore Julian Shankle and redshirt freshmen Yobes Walker and Draylon Booker — and true freshman Robert Walker from Mamou.

Those five players have rushed for 194 yards and two scores in 13 games for the Cajuns. Fenroy ran for 4,646 yards and 48 touchdowns — both Sun Belt records — in 46 games for UL.

Over the past four years, the Cajuns have ranked in the top 11 nationally in rushing. All five starters on the offensive line are back, so the new running back will be protected by an experienced front.

"Undrea Sails showed us last year when he was healthy that he can do some things," Bustle said. "He’s been through the battle and showed us some really good things. Draylon Booker, Yobes Walker and Julian Shankle are in the mix, but they haven’t played yet. A young freshman named Robert Walker will have something to say about it."

Of the other four backs, Shankle is the only one to play in a college game, seven to be exact. As a redshirt freshman last season he logged 27 carries for 117 yards and two touchdowns. His development was slowed in the spring due to a dislocated right wrist. That came after he was sidelined for the spring of 2008 with a right ankle that was broken in three places and required surgery.

"I feel like I’ve got more to prove," said Shankle, a native of Grand Prairie, Texas. "Whenever I come out here, I’ve tried to give my best. I want to show the coaches how I play because I haven’t really been able to play because of the injuries."

Yobes Walker, Booker and Robert Walker have all produced — at the high school level.

As a senior in 2007, Yobes Walker led the Houston area in rushing with 2,174 yards for Class 5A Brazoswood. He held offers from Alabama and Texas A&M early in the recruiting process and was expected by some in his hometown to commit to Houston. But all of those schools eventually moved on. He committed to join the Cajuns right before last year’s fall camp.

Booker ran for more than 700 yards during an injury-shortened senior season at Conroe High in 2007. As a junior, he was District 15-5A’s Offensive Player of the Year after rushing for 674 yards and 10 touchdowns while sharing the backfield with Lou Greenwood, now at Colorado State.

Robert Walker ran wild at Mamou, rushing for 3,897 yards and 51 touchdowns in his final two years. As a senior last fall, he racked up 2,041 yards and 27 touchdowns on the ground.

North Carolina offered him early, and he was rated the nation’s 43rd-best all-purpose back by Rivals.com. The 5-7, 173-pounder decided to stay close to home and could be a factor at running back and in the return game this year.

"I’m excited," Walker said last week when reporting for fall camp. "I’ve been waiting for this for a long time."