Most college running backs would be ecstatic to be in the position Texas Southern running back Athean Renfro finds himself in these days.
The redshirt sophomore from Beaumont is the Tigers’ featured running back, ranking first in the SWAC in rushing. Depending on how things go over the final three games, he could end up eclipsing 1,000 yards on the ground this season. But where most see great achievement, Renfro is more focused on getting better.
“It was really a hard time accepting it,” Renfro said recently to the Defender. “I’m having a hard time right now accepting that I’m the (No.1) rushing back in the SWAC and things like that. It’s just hard for me to accept that because I know I have to get 1% better every day.”
To understand Renfro’s outlook is to know his story.
He arrived at TSU two years ago as a walk-on long snapper after breaking his collarbone twice at Beaumont United, which caused him to lose his scholarship offers in football and baseball. While Renfro had an opportunity, nothing appeared like he had envisioned, and it bothered him.
“It was a lot of sleepless nights. My dad coming in and talking to me while I was in my room and things like that. It was countless days of sleepless nights,” he said. “Even when I was a walk-on, I was having sleepless nights because I never would have thought I would have a chance to be this person that I am, or this great person that everybody says that I am right now.”
It was his determination, combined with last year’s coaching change, that began to turn things around. Renfro worked with the trainers who focused on his body, transforming his 5-foot-9, 255-pound frame into a leaner 220-pound athlete who earned some reps at fullback—albeit on the scout team.
It didn’t take long during last year’s spring ball and fall camp for then new head coach Cris Dishman and running backs coach Kimble Anders to start to notice his talent against the first and second team defensive until.
Naturally, Dishman had questions.
“He was killing it on the scout team. I was like, `Why is this guy over here?’ And Kimble looked at him and said, `I need this guy.’ I said take him because he was killing our defense,” said Dishman, whose team hits the road to face Alabama A&M this week after seeing its four-game winning streak end last week against Alcorn State. “He was running over people, dodging people, making people miss. I said we need to be playing this guy. He got into a game, showed out, and showed what he can do, and from that point on, he has never looked back.”
His efforts and hard work were rewarded with a football scholarship last fall and a chance to take the field, primarily as a fullback. In his first action last season against Virginia-Lynchburg, Renfro scored a 2-yard touchdown on his only carry. Then later in the season, he exploded for 129 yards and two touchdowns.
But the big payoff has come this season with Renfro emerging as the top back in the Tigers’ (4-4 overall, 3-2 SWAC) productive running back rotation. He exploded during the Tigers’ four-game winning streak, rushing for 133 yards and 152 yards in back-to-back wins against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Grambling State, respectively, while also rushing for 145 yards and one touchdown on 35 carries in last week’s loss at Alabama State.
With two games remaining on the regular-season schedule, Renfro has rushed for 807 yards, seven touchdowns, and is averaging 89.7 yards per game on 139 carries for the season. Thanks in part to Renfro and the running back rotation that also includes De’Veon Ford, Jordon Davis, Jonathan Lewis, and Jacob Williams, the Tigers have the sixth-best rushing attack in the SWAC, averaging 175.1 yards per game on the ground to go along with 15 rushing touchdowns.
But instead of looking at what he has accomplished this season or what it could mean at the end, Renfro is more concerned about improving for the next game. It’s something the process Anders has instilled in all of his backs.
“This guy bided and waited his time. There are circumstances that he had gone through early on from his high school career from getting hurt to coming here … People don’t realize he was a fullback and barely got any reps. “
TSU QB KJ Cooper
“As a humble person, nah, I don’t feel accomplished with nothing because I know every day I have to come back out here and continue to work again and work again to prove myself and the critics wrong about who we are and who I am,” said Renfro, who was named SWAC Co-Offensive Player of the Week after his performance in the win over Grambling State in which he averaged 8.4 yards per carry. “We are not who they say we are.”
But there is no denying that the running back, whose career was thought to be over after the two collarbone injuries, has far exceeded where most thought he would be. Renfro did so through hard work, perseverance, and a belief in himself that not many shared.
“It isn’t a surprise to me, it’s not a surprise to some of my other teammates, and it’s not a surprise to our coaches,” said second-year TSU quarterback KJ Cooper, who is the Tigers’ second-leading rusher. “It may be a little bit to some of them, but to me it’s not. He puts in the work every single day. He doesn’t say much; he comes in and grinds. He is reaping what he is sowing.”
Even Renfro is still trying to come to grips with the success he is having, knowing what he had to overcome to get here.
“I never would have expected myself to be right here in this situation. Never,” he said. “The conversation I was having with older teammates, I never would have thought to be right here.
“It’s crazy that I’m still here and that I’m healthy enough to run and help the team out any way I can.”
