Even though Aurora University was his last option, Tyran Bailey decided it was his best one.
The junior running back had a handful of other NCAA Division III or NAIA offers coming out of Oswego East, but most were looking at him as a defensive back.
When the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Bailey stares in the mirror, though, he sees a running back. Former Spartans coach Rick Ponx and his staff agreed.
And based on Bailey’s consistent performance at AU the past two seasons, it appears they all were right.
First-year AU coach Don Beebe won’t argue.
“Tyran’s a great back,” Beebe said.
Beebe, the former NFL star and Aurora Christian coach, makes his collegiate coaching debut at 1 p.m. Saturday against visiting St. Norbert at Spartan Athletic Park.
The two teams met for the first time last year in DePere, Wisconsin, with the host Green Knights taking a 16-7 decision. St. Norbert, which will enter the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference with AU in 2021, finished with a 10-2 record and enters 2019 ranked 25th in the preseason D3football.com poll.
The Spartans (5-5, 5-2) finished second last year in the NACC.
Bailey started each of the past two seasons backing up starter Connor Olson, who prepped at Downers Grove North. Both years, however, Olson lost time to injury. Bailey stepped in, and then stepped up.
As a freshman, Bailey rushed for 563 yards and two touchdowns on 88 carries. He caught three passes for five yards.
Last season, he busted out big time, returning as the team’s leading rusher. Bailey had 174 carries for 1,111 yards and eight TDs while adding 18 catches for 118 yards.
In each season, Bailey averaged 6.4 yards per carry.
Initially, the coaching change was tough for him, according to Bailey.
“Coach Ponx and his staff saw something in me a lot of other coaches didn’t,” he said.
His father, Timothy, who’s the pastor at Living Purpose Church in Aurora, pushed his son to choose AU.
“He saw something in this place,” Tryan Bailey said. “And coach Ponx sat me down and really got to know me as more than a player. That touched me.”
Bailey feels Beebe has the same genuine concern for his players, too, helping ease the transition.
Now, Bailey is less concerned about who starts Saturday than mastering another new offense.
“We’re interchangeable,” Bailey said, referring to Olson. “And we have another talented back behind me and a great freshman back, too. We’ve got so much talent in the backfield.”
Bailey came from a spread offense in high school playing for coach Tyson LeBlanc.
“He’s a great kid who worked very hard for us,” LeBlanc said. “He is a team player all the way. What he has been able to do at AU is no surprise.”
A new offensive coordinator tweaked the Spartans’ attack last year, and Beebe runs a West Coast offense.
“Spring practice was tough,” Bailey said. “We have more plays than I’ve ever seen in my life. But just our development from spring to fall practice is the beautiful part about it. We can play fast now.”
Terminology might be more complex, but Bailey thinks junior Gavin Zimbelman, the incumbent quarterback, has done an amazing job of picking up the new system.
As for the backs?
“It still kind of similar, but we’re becoming more of almost like an NFL style of running back,” Bailey said. “We have to be able to run routes, catch and run the ball, and that’s all important.
“But when we get the ball it’s the same. Go as hard as you can.”
Some things never change.
