Arizona's career leading rusher Trung Canidate was selected by the Super Bowl Champion St. Louis Rams with the 31st overall pick (first pick of the second round) in Saturday's NFL Draft.
Canidate rushed 253 times
for 1,602 yards and 11 touchdowns in 1999. He also did something in his three years as regular
running back which might be difficult to measure. He averaged 43.8 yards on
career touchdown runs alone. He gained 1,139 yards rushing on 26 career TD
runs. Needless to say, his home-run hitting ability may be hard to duplicate. He
leaves Arizona as the career rushing leader (3,824), the single-season rushing
leader (1,602), the single-game rushing leader (288), the 100-yard games in a
season leader (10), and the career 100-yard games leader (18). He averaged
6.33 yards on 604 career attempts. Like Northcutt, Canidate's season and
career figures have surpassed those of one of the University of Arizona's
legendary football figures B Art AThe Cactus Comet@ Luppino (1953-56).
Trung is No. 5 in Pac-10 career rushing, ahead of a bunch of outstanding
runners and trailing only Charles White, Marcus Allen, Darrin Nelson and
Napolean Kaufman.
ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Super Bowl champion St. Louis Rams had the luxury
Saturday of taking a player to fill in during Marshall Faulk's rare
breathers.
With the final pick of the first round the Rams stretched to take
Arizona running back Trung Canidate, whom they're counting on to make
the NFL's top
offense even more explosive. The Rams scored 526 points last year,
third highest in NFL history, and new coach Mike Martz wants more.
``Absolutely. There's no law against scoring points,'' said Martz, the
offensive coordinator last year.
Faulk didn't seem to need much help last year, becoming only the second
player in NFL history to amass 1,000 yards rushing and receiving. He
broke Barry
Sanders' total yardage record with 2,429 yards and was named offensive
player of the year.
Canidate was projected by many as a second- or third-round pick. And a
greater area of need for the Rams, who admittedly entered the draft
searching for
quality backups, was offensive line.
But Martz said Canidate ``took my breath away'' when he ran a 4.25
40-yard dash for him and running backs coach Bobby Jackson last month.
He also
said there will be plenty of offensive linemen available later in the
draft.
``He ran the fastest 40 I've ever seen on grass or artificial
surface,'' Martz said. ``Nobody runs a 4.25.''
Canidate, who is 5-11 and 203 pounds, had a school single-season record
1,602 yards with a 6.3-yard average and 11 touchdowns as a senior. He
also set
a school career record with 3,824 yards.
He's named after a character in a 1970s movie, ``Green Eyes,'' and has
no shortage of confidence. He took a nap just before the Rams called and
spoke as
if he and Faulk would battle for playing time.
``I said all along I'm a first-round pick,'' Canidate said. ``I have
tremendous respect for Marshall Faulk. I love the guy and I love what he
does, but I also
love what I can do.''
Martz said the pick will prolong Faulk's career. He also said whenever
Faulk came out, the offense had too much of a dropoff.
``You've got to spell him in every quarter,'' Martz said. ``Trung may
take five rushes away from Marshall and a pass or two. By utilizing him
in a real smart
way, I think Marshall's productivity will continue to climb.''
The Rams concluded a marathon first round that lasted 5 hours, 30
minutes. The first five seasons after their move to the Midwest, the
team entered the draft
with the sixth pick, so it was a lot more waiting than usual.
``There's a big poker game going on out there,'' Martz joked.
