Tech's Byron Hanspard a man on a mission

By MARK BABINECK / Associated Press

LUBBOCK - Football fans nationwide found out this year what a few - including recruiters at Notre Dame, Nebraska, and Colorado - had known all along:

Byron Hanspard is a man on a mission.

"When I told people the Lord told me in the shower to go to Texas Tech, they thought that was funny," said Hanspard, who preaches at a local church when he's not racking up yardage.

No one is laughing anymore, not after Hanspard set a school record by rushing for 2,084 yards this season.

Still, Hanspard has gained nearly as much notice for his religious devotion and his status as a licensed minister as he has for his play, which says something for a junior who already owns Tech's career, single season and single game rushing records.

Hanspard posted four 200-yard games and gained at least 100 in every contest until Oklahoma held him to 84 yards in the regular-season finale.

Despite his seemingly sudden emergence, Hanspard is no overnight sensation. After Tech won the coast-to-coast recruiting war for his services in 1994, he gained 761 yards as a freshman and 1,374 last season.

Hanspard, who always possessed breakaway speed, ran tough this year, often attacking tacklers for extra yardage instead of darting around them.

"Some of Byron's greatest runs are (short) runs," Dykes said. "When people hit him and he goes to the ground, he's got some sixth sense, and he ends up another two yards down the field. There's not any other like him, I don't think."

Last week, the Dallas-area native returned home to collect his first postseason award, the Doak Walker Award for running backs. Hanspard beat out Iowa State's Troy Davis, whose 2,185 yards was the third-highest total ever.

The last two Doak Walker winners, Rashaan Salaam and Eddie George, went on to win Heismans, something Hanspard isn't expected to do.

"The only reason I would want to win the Heisman Trophy is to uplift the name of Jesus Christ," said Hanspard, who considers his football fame a way to honor his faith. "(I want) to show that when God has ordained for things to happen in your life, it will come to pass."

Hanspard has refused all season to fret about the Heisman or any other honors over which he has little control. Dykes has helped him by deflecting Heisman talk until the regular season was over.

"That's like a Miss America contest," Dykes said. "You leave a lot of beautiful girls at the table."

Hanspard hasn't said whether he'll remain at Texas Tech for his senior year, but noted that his projected placement in the NFL draft might influence his decision.

Virtually every newspaper in Texas placed him among the top runners available for college consideration after the 1993 season, and many national publications placed him on their high school all-America lists.

College powers lined up at his doorstep before he chose Texas Tech, a perennially average program that had never gone to the Cotton Bowl as the Southwest Conference champion.

Since Hanspard's arrival, Tech has gone 22-13 and played in the 1995 Cotton Bowl in the last year of the SWC's existence.

He says the team's success since his arrival validates his decision to come to the windswept plains of West Texas.

"Like I said when I told people for the first time I was going here," Hanspard said, "you'll see why I'm here at Texas Tech."

He made his mark as a sophomore, rushing for 1,374 yards and leading the Red Raiders to a 9-3 season. In Texas Tech's 55-41 Copper Bowl win over Air Force, Hanspard ran for 260 yards and four touchdowns.

He didn't stop running this season. After Hanspard romped for 287 yards in a 45-24 victory over Baylor early in the season, Bears coach Chuck Reedy said that performance was proof enough for him.

"Byron Hanspard would have my vote for the Heisman Trophy, if I had one," he said.