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“He just didn’t want to be the best in the SEC, he wanted to the best in the country. Gran said Snell thrived on the heavy workload. “All of a sudden, you’d look up and he would have 138 yards rushing, and he didn’t look like he was doing anything.” “He was a hard-nosed, four-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust player,” Gran said. So did his carries, from 262 to 289, an average of 22 attempts per game as a junior. His yardage increased to 1,333 yards as a sophomore and 1,449 as a junior. Snell finished with 1,091 rushing yards that season. Snell got the ball on nine consecutive snaps and 10 times overall on a tying drive. Kentucky trailed by a field goal in the fourth quarter. Such was the case against Georgia later in Snell’s freshman season. “When it came down to winning a game and we were in a four-minute drill, the other guy wasn’t in,” Gran said. Upperclassman Stanley “Boom” Williams rushed for 1,170 yards that season but was surpassed as the bellcow as the season unfolded. At midseason, he gained 192 yards against Missouri when Gran gave Snell the ball 38 times.

In the third game, Snell rushed for 136 yards against New Mexico State. Gran eased Snell into the running back rotation that freshman year. He had a lesser offensive line blocking for him, but he was still doing it.” What was impressive was he was doing it with the 2s, too. It took only two fall scrimmages in 2016 for Gran to realize he needed to get Snell on the field as a freshman. Gran joined him shortly thereafter when coach Mark Stoops hired him as offensive coordinator/assistant head coach. Snell spurned Cincinnati, along with offers from Iowa, Boston College, Toledo and West Virginia, to play in the Bluegrass State. His footwork was incredible, and his change of direction was advanced.” “If he didn’t do it right, he went back and did it again. “Benny was the first in line in every drill,” Gran said. and great nephew of Super Bowl III hero Matt Snell, Benny showed he had skills necessary to excel in the family business. The son of former XFL and NFL Europe running back Benny Snell Sr.

Gran has vivid memories of the Cincinnati camp Snell attended in the summer before his senior year. Gran was the offensive coordinator at Cincinnati when Snell rushed for 3,903 yards and 55 touchdowns over his junior and senior seasons at Westerville. The route was apropos because Snell grew up in the Columbus suburb of Westerville, and Cincinnati was where Gran once hoped Snell would play college football. “He did some things in our league that just don’t happen very often,” Gran said.Īs he conducted a phone interview last week, Gran was driving through Columbus on his way to Cincinnati while returning from a recruiting trip. Before he joined the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend as their fourth-round draft pick, Snell was Kentucky’s career rushing leader, a 5-foot-10, 224-pound power back who set or shared 14 school records and was the only SEC runner aside from Herschel Walker to average at least 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns after three seasons. That regrettable decision aside, Gran knew the best options in his playbook were ones that involved getting the ball to Snell. I never did that again, I promise you that.” “I fricking ran a power pass instead of handing the ball to Benny. “That was my one mistake in three years with Benny,” Gran said. Kentucky missed a field goal and lost on the next possession, 20-14. Gran called a pass play, and the quarterback was sacked. “You have to give it to your best player.” “Sometimes you try to out trick yourself as a coach,” Gran said. Everyone, that is, but Gran, Kentucky’s offensive coordinator. Everyone expected the ball would end up in the belly of Snell, the Wildcats’ bruising running back who was en route to a third consecutive 1,000-yard season. With an SEC game on the line last October, Kentucky faced a third-and-2 in overtime at the Texas A&M 17. Seven months later, Eddie Gran still regrets not giving the ball to Benny Snell.