Finding a Place to Make a Difference

On the roster, he's listed as a running back. In high school, he was more of a receiver.

The best description for freshman Cedric Ross is simply football player. With his speed, put him somewhere on the field and he feels like he's a big play waiting to happen.

'Yes. I look every time I get the ball to how can I score, so that's it's probably what makes me so explosive," Ross said. "I'm looking to score every time I touch it."

He hasn't touched it much yet as a Ram, just nine times in three games, but his workload will grow along with him. Of those nine touches, three have covered 30 yards or longer, all in the passing game. Through three weeks, there are 29 players in the country with two plays of 50 yards or longer, and Ross is one of them. Teammate Mel Brown is another.

One of the explosives for Ross was a 68-yard touchdown catch where he did most of the work on just the second play from scrimmage against Southern Utah. The second play against BYU, he gathered in a short pass and turned it into a 50-yard gain to set up a touchdown.

His introduction was taking a short pass in the flat and producing a 6-yard touchdown. As new as he was to Ram fans, the introduction was a repeat for him.

"It was actually crazy because my first ever high school touch was a touchdown, so it was just like a Deja vu moment," Ross said with a smile. "That play was a deep go-ball, so they were different."

The thing with young players is getting them acclimated to the next level. It's not just physical, but the ability to not only learn the complexities of a college offensive system but understand it and execute.

For right now, what the Rams will do with Ross is limited, but it will expand as he continues to prove he can handle the load.

"He's done a really nice job, and I think that's a credit to his maturity and certainly his physical ability, and also to our coaches. It goes back to the first thing I said is you put your players in a position to do what they do best, but you don't want to overwhelm them," Mora said. "So a guy like Cedric, who is a freshman, we've got specific packages each week for him, and then that package grows as he becomes more experienced as a player.

"So it is a fine line between giving him enough and not too much. So we're walking that line, and you get a feel for your players as you go through the season and what they can handle, and I think Ced's a guy who as we continue through the season, you'll see him be able to handle a lot more. But right now his package is pretty specific."

Go back years ago, it's what the staff did when Rashard Higgins entered the program. There were a few things he did very well as a freshman, so they let him do them. As his repertoire expanded, so did his impact into being a Biletnikoff Award finalist, a consensus All-American and an NFL player.

Ross has a ways to go before that, yet he's taking the right steps. He said the signals took some time to decipher, but each and every practice and rep helped iron that out. Each day feels like a step forward.

The present looks bright and makes things interesting for offensive coordinator Pryce Tracy. At this moment, he calls Ross "a toy," and he's one of the favorites in the box.

"It's exciting and you can be creative and try to find ways to hide him and use him a different way than we have on film," Tracy said. "In terms of a learner, he's a rep guy for sure. He's a grass learner, but once he gets a rep or two, he's got it. So he's been good that way. I'd say he was a natural football player. I think the college system and just the complexity of it was a learning curve to start, but he's done a nice job in the nine months he's been here with that."

How to use him is a mixture of taking the playbook and seeing what X he could be which would do damage as well as creating a spot where he can exploit the Os.

Sometimes it's simple trial and error.

"It's like wet spaghetti," Tracy said. "You throw it at the wall and see what sticks. It's kind of my approach."

Ross was a four-year starter as a receiver at Estacado High School in Lubbock, Texas, but he finished his career with more yards rushing that receiving, so he is used to being viewed as a toy, a player with multiple styles of play which are adaptable for an offense, threatening to a defense.

With his start, one might think he's in the offices asking for more to do. That's not his style. He's more old school.

"I'll say keep showing up on game days, most importantly practice, because it's what you do in practice. I've always been told what you do in practice is going to show up in game," Ross said. "I feel like we have great coordinators, a great head coach, so they do a good job of getting players the ball. I feel like it's a good thing."

His first play felt poetic. His next is what has him excited, whatever it may be. What makes him smile – the coaches too – is seeing him with the ball in his hands in open space.

That's the goal from here moving forward.

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