Kareem Hunt happy to take center stage in UT rushing attack

University of Toledo sophomore running back Kareem Hunt was never going to tiptoe quietly through his collegiate career.

When a guy shows up as a high school senior on his official campus visit wearing a hoody emblazoned with the slogan ‘You’ve just got Kareemed,’ it kind of throws the possibility of anonymity right out the window.

“Kareem didn’t come up with that,” said UT head coach Matt Campbell when asked about the slogan. “That was something the high school came up with.”

It was actually a couple of cheerleaders at South High, Hunt’s alma mater, back in Willoughby, Ohio, that came up with his catchphrase. The shirts were created in response to his 2012 senior performance, in which he ran for 2,685 yards and 44 touchdowns to set the all-time rushing record for Lake County.

Hunt averaged 11 yards per carry during his final year in high school, helping the Rebels to a 10-1 record.

“They made the sweatshirt and they started giving them out and it just exploded from there,” he said. “I made sure my mom got a sweatshirt, that they got her one.”

Junior quarterback Phillip Ely, who arrived last year as a transfer, didn’t know about the sweatshirt or the slogan, but he wasn’t shocked to learn the story.

“It really does not surprise me, a guy with such a big personality,” Ely said. “You can kind of just see his joy, it feeds everyone else around him and everyone feeds off of it, especially at practice.”

Sweatshirt aside, it was Hunt’s powerful presence on the football field and youthful approach to the sport that really got his teammates’ attention and put him in the spotlight.

“He is a big physical back that plays like a man and loves the game like a kid,” Ely said. “A guy that wants the ball every series. It doesn’t matter the circumstances; he just wants the ball in his hands.”

In a relief role last year for former Rockets RB David Fluellen — who is currently on the roster of the Indianapolis Colts — Hunt had a breakout freshman campaign. The 2014 All-Mid-American Conference Candidate finished second on the team with 866 yards rushing, ninth in the MAC in rushing yards per game (72.2) and second among MAC running backs with 6.3 yards per carry.

Hunt only had to look one up on the depth chart at Fluellen to see the only MAC rusher who averaged more yards per carry last season.

“He wants to be a playmaker and that’s who he is,” Ely said. “He’s just a real joy to be around and definitely a relief on my end. It’s not all on me to make those big plays, I can give him the ball and see what he does with it.”

Ely gave Hunt the ball plenty in Toledo’s 2014 season opener against New Hampshire. The Blue and Gold’s No. 3 led a stable of UT rushers in an all-out ground attack against the Wildcats’ defense.

Hunt finished with 136 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries, the sixth 100-yard game of his career and evidence that he hasn’t lost a step over the summer.

The scary thing for opposing defenses, according to Campbell, is how much Hunt has possibly improved since his freshman season.

“He may even be a little bit better than what showed up last year,” Campbell said. “That was my challenge to him in the offseason, continuing to get better and continuing to challenge yourself at being the best you can be.”

Hunt’s love for the game goes back to his childhood, when he was a seven year-old running around in the street with his older brother Clarence and Clarence’s friends.

Even at that early age, and ever since those childhood games in the street, Hunt has always been a running back.

“The one thing Kareem loves to do is he loves to play the game of football,” Campbell said. “I think that is evident when you watch him run, the passion and the strength that he really runs the football with.”

Good luck to fans trying to decide which NFL rusher Hunt most resembles. The sophomore criminal justice major likes them all, and he will run like whichever one he needs to whenever he is asked to.

“I try to mix my style up a little bit,” Hunt explained. “I try to be like Jerome Bettis sometimes, [but] sometimes you’ve got to be like Chris Johnson. You can’t let them know what’s coming, you’ve got to switch it up.”

Things have switched up pretty dramatically for Hunt from his freshman year with the Rockets to now, his sophomore season. Instead of a relief role, he will be asked to be the featured back at the head of a potent group of rushers.

It is a position Hunt seems to feel no pressure in filling. For him, football will always be what he loves, the sport that placed him in the spotlight, and the game he has been enamored with since childhood.

“I’ve been doing this for so long I feel like it’s normal,” he said. “I just go out there and play the sport that I love and that’s it.”