Giovani Bernard missed his freshman season after suffering a knee injury on the third day of training camp.
So he redshirted and rehabilitated.
When he returned last season, he showed why he was ranked the second-best running back in Florida his senior year of high school and one of the top runners in America.
At 5-8, 205 pounds (his listed height of 5-10 is generous), he is small in stature. He plays big, however, actually huge.
He is powerful. He is explosive. He is elusive. And he quickly became the top running back in the program.
“Gio, you can tell from day one, day two, day three, he’s a natural football player,” first-year coach Larry Fedora said. “It doesn’t matter what style of offense you are running. You put the ball in his hands, and he can make some plays. He can do special things with it.”
Bernard, who is a highly intelligent young man, made plays all right. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry. He gained 1,253 to become the first 1,000-yard rusher at Carolina since Jon Linton in 1997, and he scored 13 touchdowns.
Not bad for a guy who hears so many jokes about his height.
Bernard said he just kind of hides behind all those 6-5, 6-6, 6-7, 300-pound linemen.
“I’m a smaller guy, and it gets me out on the field one-on-one with guys, the corners, the linebackers,” Bernard said.
He explodes out of the backfield. Once he gets to open space, he becomes a nightmare for linebackers and defensive backs.
Getting him into that position more often is one of the benefits of the spread offense, with its flooding of the field with receivers and just one runner in the backfield.
“This whole new offense has opened everything up for me,” Bernard said. “I think it opens everything up for everybody on offense.”
He is playing for a new running backs coach, but the coach is not new to Carolina. Randy Jordan played under Mack Brown and later in the National Football League.
“He’s a great guy; love him,” Bernard said. “He’s played the game. He knows what he is talking about. He made it to a level I want to get to. Having a role model who is also an alumnus, I’m excited.
“He’s teaching us some things a normal guy would not know because he has played in the (NFL). He’s done a great job.”