Utah running back Armand Shyne, now healthy, eager to pick up where he left off

Armand Shyne shifted his weight back and forth, first from his from his right leg featuring a hefty brace, then to his left. He glanced around the practice field behind the Eccles Football Center. He bashfully lowered his head when more cameras entered the fray and the collection of microphones were suddenly just a few inches from his face.

Utah’s presumed starting running back, a tailback who last fall was just another new face trying to make his way on a new team at a new school, tried to stand still. But he couldn’t. He’s still adjusting to the spotlight that comes with the position that now has produced back-to-back NFL draftees.

And adjusting to the radiance that accompanies that limelight isn’t easy. But Shyne stood there at the conclusion of a recent practice, still smiling modestly, explaining that he couldn’t be more ecstatic that the late summer months of 2017 have arrived.

“Just getting back at it,” he said. “Doing hitting drills, making sure that I’m OK. That’s pretty much it. Learning a new offense, and that’s pretty much it.”

Pretty much.

The 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior running back from Oakland, Calif., is the odds-on starter in the backfield, even as he works his way back from a season-ending ACL tear suffered last October. Shyne was one of Utah’s unanticipated heroes of last year, stepping into the starting role after Joe Williams abruptly — and briefly — retired.

Shyne rushed for 373 yards on 78 carries and had four touchdowns until his injury, sustained on the final play of his standout 101-yard performance against Arizona, put an immediate halt to what very well could’ve been a breakout season.

Troy Williams still remembers being “shocked a little bit” when the reserved running back stepped into the starting role a year ago.

“He’s kind of quiet, you know,” Utah’s quarterback said. “You don’t really hear him a lot. He just kind of stays to himself and just goes out there and works. As soon as he got out there and I saw his demeanor and the way he runs the ball, I knew he was all about business.”

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham hopes his quiet back still can send Rice-Eccles Stadium into a tizzy. Shyne arrived from American River College last fall with a history of being a workhorse back, but he arrived overweight, which slowed the acclimation process.

“He was over 220 pounds and he’s a 210-pound back,” Whittingham said. “That’s what he should be. By the time second, third game rolled around, he was in shape and really starting to play up to his capabilities, and then the injury occurred.”

The season-ending injury allows him now to reflect on how far he’s come since last year. Despite the ACL tear and missing all those games and months off the field, his aim is to adopt the same approach he had in his first year with the Utes: Not beating out specific players or working toward a guaranteed starting role in the offense.

“I’m gonna work,” he said, “and see what happens.”

Utah’s new offense, a noted high-octane, aerial-heavy attack implemented by new offensive coordinator Troy Taylor, is a good system for any running back, Shyne said. It’s just a matter of being 100 percent healthy and ready to fit in when summoned to pound the ball. With Shyne still recovering in spring, Taylor’s first glance at his premier returning back was last week when fall camp opened Friday.

“Still learning about him,’” Taylor said. “Obviously didn’t participate in spring, but watched him a lot on tape. He’s a physical back, he makes smooth cuts. He could be good in anybody’s offense.”

Nobody knows how running backs adapt to Taylor’s offense like new Utah running backs coach Kiel McDonald, who coached the running backs in Taylor’s spread offense last season at Eastern Washington.

“I think this offense is honestly a unique offense in terms of it’s very fluid in terms of who’s hot, who’s not, whoever’s making plays is going to get the ball,” McDonald said. “On paper, you can see maybe some passes, but if you’ve looked and really monitored us this spring, we’ve run the ball — a lot.”

Whittingham has noted that while Shyne is the No. 1 back at the moment, he has the likes of Zack Moss and Devonta’e Henry-Cole nipping at his heels.

Shyne reaches inside his pads as more questions are hurled his way. He opens up about life off the field, about studying his Bible after his ACL tear, playing Madden or Call of Duty or FaceTiming his girlfriend and family back home.

Shyne is also a kinesiology major, specializing in the study of the body and its movements. Appropriate for a running back whose sudden but seamless transition to the go-to option between the tackles a year ago left Utah fans wanting much more.