ASU head coach Dirk Koetter said last year that fullbacks are a "dying breed" in college football.
Former Sun Devil Mike Karney is trying to prove him wrong.
"Everybody needs a guy that is unselfish and wants to go in there and do the dirty work," said Karney, who returned to Sun Devil Stadium on Sunday as the starting fullback for the New Orleans Saints.
With no rushes and just two catches through four games, Karney hasn't done much to refute Koetter's claim. However, the mere fact that he is starting as an NFL rookie shows that fullbacks aren't going the way of dinosaurs.
Karney's development has been slow on a team that is loaded with playmakers such as Deuce McAllister, Joe Horn and Donte' Stallworth. Few plays are designed for Karney, who didn't touch the ball Sunday in a 34-10 loss to the Cardinals, even after the Saints twice drove inside the Cardinals' 5.
None of that discourages Karney.
"We don't have a play down there where I'm able to get the ball," Karney said. "I'm going in to do whatever it is. If it's to lead block, I'm going in to lead block. If it's to catch a pass, I'm going in to catch a pass."
From the time Karney pushed his car -- cleverly named the "fullback mobile" -- around his high school parking lot, he knew that he wanted to play the unheralded position.
"I don't think kids right now are growing up wanting to be a fullback," said Karney, who idolized former NFL fullbacks Tom Rathman and John Riggins. "I played it when I was 7, and I continued playing it throughout high school and all the way into college, and now here. I grew up wanting to be a fullback."
Some thought that Karney's NFL stock would plummet after a marginal senior season in which Karney rushed four times for minus-2 yards and caught 14 passes for 106 yards, failing to reach the end zone.
But the Saints made Karney the first fullback taken in the 2004 NFL draft by selecting him in the fifth round. He was one of just three fullbacks drafted. The other two fullbacks that were drafted -- Minnesota's Thomas Tapeh and Penn State's Sean McHugh -- are not on NFL rosters.
"People are going to a lot of two-tight end sets and using that [second] tight end as a fullback," said Karney, alluding to the lack of quality fullbacks in college football. "Defenses have gotten smart and more complex, and it has made offenses mix it up a little bit."
Now that he's in the NFL, Karney isn't able to throw linebackers around like rag dolls -- and he claims that has nothing to do with fullbacks being a "dying breed."
"When I was in college, I was going against 18- and 19-year-old linebackers," Karney said. "Some knew how to play and some didn't, and you were able to really crush some of those guys. Here, if you don't get your technique and if you don't get low, you're not going to win."
Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@asu.edu.
