It’s in the name. Scottie Graham is Washington’s running backs coach, so he feels it’s important to show his stable of young players that he can still run after playing the position in the NFL for six seasons.
“For me, being a hypocrite to these young people, they’re looking for that moment,” Graham said. “I want to make sure I at least look like them. I played running back in the NFL. I’m in shape because it’s an important decision to make.”
When talking to any of the players in his room, it’s clear that all the running backs, whether it be Jonah Coleman, Cameron Davis, Adam Mohammed, or anyone else in the room, have great respect for Graham and admire his commitment to them.
“He’s just saying, ‘Why would I tell you to do something that I wouldn’t do?'” Coleman said. “‘If I’m telling you to get extra work and do all these things so it helps you out, then I’m going to do something too.’ He holds himself to a high standard as well, if he doesn’t have his shirt tucked in, we can tell him to tuck it in…he has done certain things [like running five miles on game days] to show us that he’s a leader too and he represents us like we represent him.”
Even though it’s a very different form of running, which Graham likened to driving a Hellcat versus a land cruiser, the running backs coach has recruited other members of Jedd Fisch’s staff to join him for his game-day runs.
“[If the game is at noon, I’ll run at] five. I got to get back for the pregame meal and staff meeting. We’ll plan it out. We’ll plan a route. [Assistant strength] coach [Aaron] Brosz is the youngest coach in our run group, so I’ll give him, ‘figure out the map. Where are we going?’ We went to Washington State, and I’m like, ‘Where are we running?’ And he’s like, ‘I got a great one. It’s down by the water.’ It was a beautiful run.”
Graham has also used his daily runs to learn more about his new home in Seattle and described his favorite run.
“I live downtown, so I’ve been on First Avenue, so I go past both stadiums, go past Starbucks, go to Sodo, go past that Home Depot, and then I turn around where that winery is, and the truck and the train tracks and come back, and that’s five miles from my house.”