Published: September 20, 2007 11:51 pm      

Tanner finds a position

ATHENS — Coming from a single-wing offense at Giles High School, Nathan Tanner had a problem. Neither he nor the football coaches at Concord University quite knew what to do with him in their pro/spread offense.

The answer has been: Throw him the ball.

Tanner, a true freshman, was the leading receiver for Concord last Saturday, catching eight passes for 52 yards and his team’s lone touchdown in a 39-6 loss at West Liberty State College. In his two college games he’s caught 10 passes for 90 yards.

Head coach Greg Quick said, “He’s got good skills. People who saw him in high school know he’s a good athlete. Coming out of the wing-T, we just weren’t sure if he was going to be a running back, or wide receiver, or defensive back or a quarterback — he’d done all those things in high school.

“We put him at wide receiver, and I guess we got lucky. We got him in the right spot.”

Tanner said, “At Giles, we run a power running offense, so I’m not very used to this. …I don’t know any fundamentals, or anything about wide receiver, but I picked up some (techniques).

“I just tried to adapt the best I could, just work as hard as I possibly could. Whatever happens, happens. …All through pre-season camp, I just busted my butt to try to get myself a spot on the field. I just had self-confidence in myself. I knew I could play — whatever. In high school, I played a bunch of different positions.”

The Concord coaches knew that Tanner was a key performer for the Giles Spartans in their drive to win the Group AA, Division 3 state championship two years ago, and their runner-up season in 2006, in which he accounted for more than 2,000 all-purpose yards. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound freshman has developed since then, Quick said.

“He’s gotten better each week,” the coach said. “One of the nice things with Nathan is (that) he plays very confidently, for a freshman. …Not only does he catch the ball well, but he does an excellent job of running with the ball after he catches it.”

“A lot of guys can make the acrobatic catch, and then they fail at the fundamental catches. He’s good (through) the whole spectrum.”

Quick said, “Also, he’s really refined his blocking skills. He works at it. We ask the kids to ‘play fast;’ he plays fast. He’s full go, all the time. He picked the college game up in a hurry, as far as the speed of the game.

“I’ve got to attribute some of that to the coaching he had in high school, and the expectations there. I recently read a quote from Urban Meyer: ‘If you recruit kids out of successful programs, you don’t have to teach them to keep their foot behind the line. They’ve been taught those things already.’

“Both Nathan and Jared Brown, who both came from Giles, demonstrate the fact that they came out of a good program.”

Tanner said that his high school coach, Steve Ragsdale, is “a great coach, a great teacher, just all around. You can’t get much better.”

Tanner said the Concord team is young and that everybody is working hard, with an immediate chance to contribute entrenched in their minds. “Anybody can play on Saturday,” he said. Against West Liberty, eight Concord players caught passes.

Quick said, “Besides Nathan, Chris O’Neal is playing quite a bit, and Chris Carter is coming along and may get a shot this week a little bit. We’re very pleased with our young talent at wideout.”

Tanner said, “We’re real young, but I think we have some real good athletes.”

The offense still has a long way to go, though. The longest reception was Tanner’s 12-yard touchdown catch on the opening snap of the third quarter, capitalizing on a Hilltopper fumble.

Concord’s 20 receptions totaled 58 yards; the running game added 161.

For Tanner, his first collegiate touchdown was a milestone, but one shadowed by the fact that the team was already behind 23-0.

“I hate losing,” he said. “It just didn’t feel as good as it would have if we were winning.”

Quick said, “We wanted to get him the ball, but more so, it was what West Liberty was giving us. We had a little bubble screen, and some of his catches were off the bubble screen.

“It was more of the fact that he did an excellent job of running the routes, catching the ball, and running after the catch — and what West Liberty gave us, as well.”

Quick said, “It was kind of nice at the end of the game — we had the freshman (quarterback), Thomas Frazier, throwing to the freshman, Nathan Tanner, (and) they were very successful there at the end. So I think that was encouraging for everybody.”

Tanner closed with his thoughts about breaking into college football from a small-town background.

“Everybody talks about single-A, double-A, triple-A, stuff like that. Personally, I don’t think any of that matters. …If you work hard, as a player; in the off-season, if you get bigger, faster, stronger; you’re just as good as anybody. It doesn’t make a difference where you’re from.”

— Contact Tom Bone

at tbone@bdtonline.com