Every Wednesday over the summer, The Juice Online is going to highlight individual players on the 2013 Syracuse football team. This week, we’re profiling running back Ashton Broyld.
At this time last year, Ashton Broyld was garnering a lot of attention.
Broyld shined in the 2012 spring game, showcasing his supreme athleticism on a 44-yard reception that started out as an average pass to the flat. Recruited as a quarterback, but with the ability to line up at the receiver and running back positions, Broyld was hailed as the Swiss army knife of the offense.
And you could see flashes of that potential in his true freshman year, where he appeared in eight games.
In the team’s first win of the season against Stony Brook, Broyld rushed 10 times for 61 yards and scored his first (and only) touchdown. Against Connecticut, Broyld took 11 carries for 58 yards.
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For the season, he finished with 36 carries for 171 yards and caught seven passes for 53 yards.
Though he never quite turned into the playmaker that he looked like in the spring game, Syracuse is expecting much more from Broyld in his sophomore year.
Broyld was injured throughout the spring, so there was no encore performance during the spring game in April. But this season, Syracuse head coach Scott Shafer is expecting Broyld to be a large part of the team’s success.
“We’re going to use him all over the place,” Shafer said. “Obviously, he was a quarterback in high school. We’re going to play him at the running back, and at the slot receiver, at the X and at the Z. We even have some plays where he is lined up at the quarterback position.”
The bottom line is, expect to see Broyld with the ball in his hands much more this season.
“We want to utilize his talents and find ways to create mismatches with Ashton,” Shafer said.
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Inside slant: Broyld seems poised for a much larger role in 2013. He was primarily used out of the backfield last year, but there is a glut of running backs this season, starting with Prince-Tyson Gulley and Jerome Smith. There’s a chance that Broyld could be used more as a receiver, with Jarrod West as the only main receiver returning. He remains an intriguing option at quarterback, as well, if SU decides to run Wildcat plays.
Vitals:
- Birthdate: January 1992
- Hometown: Rochester, NY
- High School: Rush Henrietta HS/Milford Academy
- Position: Running back
- Class: Sophomore
- Height: 6’4″
- Weight: 223 lbs
Career highlights: In his true freshman year, he finished with 36 carries for 171 yards and caught seven passes for 53 yards. Against Stony Brook, Broyld recorded his first career touchdown, a 22 yard run, and finished with 10 carries for 61 yards and two catches for 20 yards.
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