The Dark Knight. Newman. Little Big Man.
Call him whatever you want. Wayne Knight is one bad dude when it comes to running the football.
Bouncing off tackles and bursting through holes, the tiny tailback has powered a UCLA rushing attack that’s gone from one of the nation’s worst before his arrival to among its best.
The unbeaten Bruins (3-0) are averaging 286.7 yards on the ground – fifth-most in the country – along with 14 rushing touchdowns, which tops among all 138 Football Bowl Championship teams.
Leading the way is the 5-foot-7 dynamo who might rank as coach Bob Chesney’s best import from James Madison.
With UCLA legend Maurice Jones-Drew watching in person Saturday as the honorary captain, Knight became the first Bruin to score multiple non-passing touchdowns in three straight games since Jones-Drew did it in 2005.
In a text message to the California Post, Jones-Drew praised Knight’s versatility in also returning kickoffs and described him as “fearless” with “great vision” and skilled at keeping his balance upon contact.
“To see him in person and the way he plays,” Jones-Drew said, “was awesome. I love the way they utilize him.”
Knight’s 177 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground against Purdue gave him eight rushing touchdowns this season, tying Florida’s Jadan Baugh for most in the nation.
Pretty mind-blowing stuff from a little guy who hails Delaware, the second-smallest state in the country. Knight didn’t have any Power Four scholarship offers – or any from Group of Five schools, for that matter, until James Madison came along late in the recruiting process during his senior year of high school.
Knight recently said he’s long known he wanted to get to where he is right now.
“That’s always been a dream,” he said, “you always want to get on the big stage and show everyone you can do it.”
College football fans across the country got to see Knight do it in December. With James Madison facing Oregon in the first round of the College Football Playoff, Knight showed both his speed and toughness by running for 110 yards against one of the nation’s top defenses.
He hasn’t slowed down since taking his talents to Westwood. Behind an offensive line that regularly rotates 10 players, Knight has joined fellow running backs Anthony Woods and Jaivian Thomas to form one of the nation’s most dynamic rushing attacks.
“There’s no drop-off in the room,” Knight said. “I would say we’re all pretty similar in some sort of way. We’re all fast, we’re all home-run [threats], one play away from a big play. But I feel like we bring different things to the game such as running between the tackles, being a little more finesse or being more downhill, whatever the case may be, so it’s kind of similar but it’s a little bit of a changeup for defenses.”
Each running back also breaks out his own end zone dance after scoring, with Knight’s flurry of touchdowns giving him the most airtime.
“We’re just flowing with the emotions,” Knight said of the celebrations.
When it comes to his name, Knight said he didn’t know of the actor Wayne Knight – most famous for playing Newman on “Seinfeld” – until he started building his own name in football circles two years ago.
“It just kind of became a thing,” Knight said. “Everyone was like, oh, did you know someone else’s face pops up before you?” in online searches.
No one has spotted the running back and shouted “Newman!”, though maybe that will change now that he resides in the shadow of Hollywood.
Knight said he’s cool with the “Dark Knight” nickname, a Batman reference that seems to fit him.
“You’ve got a unique name, and people feed off that,” Knight said. “It’s not something new – it’s becoming big here at UCLA, though.”
