UNC’s Elijah Hood warns defensive players to ‘bring your buddies’

Being tackled is a part of football, a reality that every player who runs with the ball understands could happen but one that Elijah Hood refuses to accept because he views it as something like an affront to his manhood – a personal offense, an insult.

“He really dislikes being tackled,” North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said Monday of Hood, the Tar Heels’ sophomore running back who is averaging nearly 7 yards per carry. And yes, Fedora likely could have said the same about any offensive player’s affinity for being tackled.

Yet Hood carries an especially strong distaste for it. So much so that he views it as something of an embarrassment, the way other players might view a dropped pass or how an ordinary person might react to walking out of the bathroom with a piece of toilet paper stuck to a shoe.

He views it as something like: Being tackled? Me? How’d that happen?

“Something about being tackled,” Hood said, slightly shaking his head, “I mean – (it) just makes it seem like that guy beat me. I don’t like to lose. No matter what the situation is, especially one-on-one. Definitely don’t want to get tackled one on one, no matter what.”

That hasn’t happened very often, at least. At the midpoint of the season Hood, a former standout at Charlotte Catholic High, is among the primary reasons why UNC’s offense has played as well as it has during the Tar Heels’ 5-1 start.

Healthy after missing four games with a nagging knee injury last season, Hood is averaging a little more than 90 rushing yards per game, on an average of about 13 carries per game. He has often run with a brutal, bruising style that helped make him one of the best running back prospects in the country during his high school years.

Fedora on Monday described it as “violent” and “real aggressive.” Which contrasts Hood’s demeanor off the field: soft-spoken. Laid back. Polite.

He grew up actively involved in the Boy Scouts. He became an Eagle Scout, the image of which is more helping-old-ladies-cross-the-street than running through 230-pound linebackers on a football field.

There, though, Hood is realizing his potential and becoming one of the most productive running backs in the country. Among players who have as many carries as Hood does (79), he’s 10th nationally in yards per carry (6.9).

The players in front of him are all averaging more than 100 yards per game. Hood isn’t, primarily because he doesn’t receive the same number of opportunities. In UNC’s balanced offense, which features an equal emphasis on the run and the pass, Hood has to wait for his chances.

“We have so many weapons,” Hood said. “Not many times we see two receivers almost near 100 yards and a running back with 100 yards and three touchdowns for this (other) guy. I mean, I think it’s kind of exciting because it’s like, ‘Who’s going to be the guy this game?’ ”

Hood has often been that guy, though sometimes in small doses. Like on Saturday night during UNC’s 50-14 victory against Wake Forest.

One drive in the second quarter illustrated Hood’s efficiency, and showed off his speed and power. On the first play he gained 29 yards. On the next play, he ran for a 36-yard touchdown, eluding defenders at the line of scrimmage and then outracing them in the open field.

Near the end of that play Hood, who gained 101 yards on eight carries, didn’t have to worry about being tackled. By then he’d outrun everybody. If there’d been a defender there to try to stop him, it might not have mattered, anyway.

“He keeps those knees pumping,” UNC defensive end Dajaun Drennon said.“He doesn’t stop his legs, and he’s very difficult to tackle, I will say that.”

Drennon and his teammates on defense don’t get many chances to tackle Hood in practice. There’s not a lot of full tackling when UNC’s offense and defense goes against each other in normal situations.

Drennon, though, has some experience trying to tackle Hood during scrimmages in the spring and summer. He’s OK that he doesn’t get more shots at Hood in practice.

“Not at all,” Drennon said with a laugh when asked if he wishes he had more chances to tackle Hood in practice. “Just seeing the stiff-arms and stuff that he gives to people, laying his shoulder down and running through people – I’d rather not have to do that.”

Part of the reason why Hood disdains being tackled as much as he does is because of the work he puts in to avoid the act. He’s good at breaking tackles – or running through them – in part because of his physical gifts but also because of the way he treats practices.

“I run as hard as I can every rep,” he said.

And then spends a lot of time in thought, too.

“I’m always just thinking about, OK, what if there’s a safety right here – what am I going to do?” Hood said. “Spin move, something. Just always working on my moves.”

Before games, Hood said he’ll visualize the kinds of cuts he might make against a defense. He’ll try to predict where defenders will be before they arrive there. There are, Hood said, “just a lot of things that you can do to kind of get yourself ready to break tackles.”

Standing 6-foot tall and weighing 220 pounds helps, too. Hood is about the same size – minus an inch or two and about 15 pounds or so – as UNC’s starting linebackers.

Except he’s faster and quicker. And he runs with that passionate hatred of being brought down.

“You going to bring me down, you better bring your buddies,” Hood said. “Because I’m not going down for one guy. That’s just the way it’s going to be. Even (if) two guys tackle me, I still don’t like it.

“I want to break every tackle, run endlessly as much as I can.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2015 at 5:41 PM with the headline "UNC’s Elijah Hood warns defensive players to ‘bring your buddies’."