InsideHilltopperSports.com - The 'Body' of WKU's Rushing Attack

August 15, 2009

Jason Stamm
InsideHilltopperSports.com Editor

Sign-up for InsideHilltopperSports.com Wireless Text Alerts sent right to your cell phone!

Something stood out about Marell Booker as he tried out for WKU's football team in the fall of 2006.

He wasn't wearing any cleats.

Booker had just transferred academically to WKU from Morehead State and was looking to continue his football career as a walk-on. Because of that transfer, the Eagles' coaches decided to reclaim his gear, including his cleats. On top of that, the weather didn't quite cooperate.

"I didn't get a chance to get my cleats and I just transferred, so it ain't like I had a bunch of money to go get some new cleats," Booker said. "I just went there and thought, 'Oh well, I guess tennis shoes won't be too bad.' But with my luck, it rained, so that made it that much more slippery. I went out there and ran bad, couldn't change direction, couldn't cut, couldn't do nothing."

The Toppers took note of the cleat-less running back, who still showed some potential. But with workhorse Lerron Moore at running back and no need for more backfield mates at the time, Booker didn't make the team.

Booker could've easily hung his nonexistent cleats up, but whether it was his stubbornness or just confidence, something told him he could eventually make the team if he stuck with it.

"I saw some of the guys that I was out there with and I seen some of the guys that made it and I'm like, 'There's no way they should've gotten picked up over me, even if I didn't have cleats,'" Booker said. "I just said, 'I'm gonna keep training, I'm gonna stay in shape and I'm gonna come back, because I think I've got a shot if they picked up some of these guys.'"

The following spring, Booker was back at L.T. Smith Stadium for another shot at tryouts. He'd spent the winter in the Toppers' off-season conditioning program.
This time, Booker had his cleats on.

"We got a chance to really see him in the winter and then that spring, he had a couple of really good scrimmages, where he broke off some long runs and did some good things and showed that he definitely could play at this level," running backs coach Stuart Holt said. "Really, that spring is really when he opened some eyes and we knew that we had a good player."

Somehow, Booker had fallen through the cracks coming out of Louisville Holy Cross High School. He'd wrestled, won the state championship in the long jump and triple jump for the track and field team, won the state power lifting title and rushed for 1,284 yards and 21 touchdowns. After his senior year though, Booker's only opportunity came from Morehead.

"Willie (Taggart) may have seen him and thought he was ok, but we never offered or brought him here on an official visit through the recruiting process," coach David Elson said. "Some of these guys, it just shows you how crazy and inaccurate the recruiting process can be. A guy like that, look at him, he's a damn good football player."

WKU put Booker to use right away as he rushed 50 times for 381 yards and five touchdowns in nine games as a sophomore during the 2007 season. More importantly, he proved to be the perfect complement to the Toppers' other primary running back, Tyrell Hayden.

The two have a unique chemistry that goes from off the field to showing no animosity towards the other about who gets X amount of rushes.

"That's my homeboy, that's my roommate, that's my dog," Booker said of Hayden. "We do complement each other. He goes in and he beats people with speed and his elusiveness and he breaks a lot of tackles that way. He sets me up because I don't know if they think I'm gonna be elusive, but I come through and I'm bringing the contact. I think we both set each other up, because they don't know how to play us."

Booker has certainly earned respect among his peers and coaches with his bruising style of seeking out the defender, rather than avoiding him.

"He's gonna put his shoulder down and freaking hurt somebody," Elson said. "He's gonna seek out the contact, as opposed to making somebody miss. He's got good hands. They call him 'Booker The Body' because he's just so muscular and tightly wound."

Booker said he doesn't recall where the nickname came from, though his roommate has a pretty vivid memory of its conception, aptly used for Booker's short, but muscular physique.

"I think it came from a girl on campus that yelled it out or something," Hayden said. "I think it started out that it was because he had a 'beater' on in DUC. Some girl, I guess she thought she was trying to be funny and she said, 'Who do you think you are, Booker the Body?' I guess everybody thought it was funny at first, then I guess everybody really started calling him 'Booker The Body' and it just stuck."

The nickname has also been earned by Booker's work in the weight room. Here, Booker said he again has the mindset of showing. In his words, he's the "biggest and the baddest."

"That's how I am," he said. "Half the time, my coaches will ask me what I put on, what weight I wanna put on the bar and I won't even look at it. I'll let them decide. In my mind, I feel like, it's not the weight, it's me. I don't care how much it is, you put it on there and I'm gonna do it."

Just over halfway through last season, Booker could've easily been called, 'Booker the Eye.' On Oct. 26, during WKU's off-weekend, he and Hayden were goofing around on the field before practice.

The kickers had left their tees on the field and Booker and Hayden both decided to try their kicking out. As Hayden lined up a ball to kick off the tee, Booker stood nearby and off to the side, ribbing Hayden that he couldn't kick. Hayden kicked the ball, which sliced to the side and the nose of the football hit Booker directly in his right eye.

"I was blind in both eyes for a couple of minutes," Booker said. "I couldn't see nothing and I didn't know what was going on. Then I ended up getting the vision back in the eye that didn't get hit, but my right eye, it stayed blind for maybe three days. I couldn't see nothing out of my right eye. But my vision slowly came back."

Booker sat out the next week with a bandage over the eye. Unlike a typical injury, there was no rehab, so Booker said he did the only think he knew to do: he prayed. Though he wasn't 100 percent recovered in his right eye, Booker came back Nov. 8 at Troy and rushed seven times for 27 yards.

During his last checkup this summer, Booker said his vision tested 20/20 in both eyes, though he was told he'd lost some peripheral vision in that right eye. He said that damage is for the large part unnoticeable.

As a senior this fall, Booker has become one of the unquestionable leaders of the team because of the adversity he's overcome and the example he's shown on and off the field. But he's already been a leader.

"In his own way, he's come a long way, just from the first time I saw him, 'til now," said Hayden, now a senior as well. "He's made a great impression on me and had an impact on the way I do things and the way I work in the weight room and the way I go about practice and games and stuff like that."

And Booker said he's taken to helping the youngsters along as well.

"They come to me for advice," he said. "I believe I've made tremendous improvements, as far as being coachable, to my social decisions. I haven't been in trouble for anything. I don't know, I've really been blessed. I'm blessed to be here, I'm glad I came, I'm glad where I'm at."

These youngsters have it so much easier than he did, though. They already have their cleats in hand.

Check back today for InsideHilltopperSports.com's exclusive video from the first day of two-a-day practices.

InsideHilltopperSports.com on Facebook

FEATURED PRODUCT