Armand Shyne was announced on Monday to be Utah’s starting running back going into this weekend’s home game against Arizona, replacing fellow freshman Zack Moss ahead of Troy McCormick (whom Kyle Whittingham said was “nicked up” at Cal) on the latest depth chart.
That alone would be reason enough to bring a smile to the Oakland, CA native’s face. Only problem is, he’s already wearing a permanent one.
Shyne stands all of 5 feet 11 inches tall (5’10” out of his cleats) and weighs 214 pounds (in his gear), but big personalities often times come in small packages. Shyne is definitely an example of that.
You’d think after suffering his first loss of the season a football player would be in a bad mood, aggravated and annoyed. Not Armand Shyne, though. He doesn’t like to lose, but you won’t catch him sulking.
“For some people on the team, it’s a harder loss than others, but I feel like I’ll be able to help them get ready this week. We’ve got Arizona,” he said.
He said he gets that ever-positive attitude from watching his mom and the way she’s always remained unaffected by the low points in life.
“I just follow what she taught me,” Shyne said. “She doesn’t really let much get to here. At least she doesn’t show it.”
It’s served Shyne well, so far. After coming to fall camp self-admittedly overweight, Shyne was able to motivate himself back into playing shape and cheerfully bide his time behind Joe Williams (retired), Troy McCormick (injured), and Zack Moss on the depth chart. Now, and please forgive the pun, it’s his time to Shyne as he’s now at the top of that list ahead of Saturday’s sixth game of the season.
“Nothing’s really going to change. I’m still going to go as hard,” he said about his mindset in practice this week now that’s the main guy. It’s what he loves about playing running back the most, he said, that “everybody’s trying to get you. It’s your job to make them miss, hit them, do something… embarrass them pretty much,” that will keep him motivated to hold onto the starting job.
