VANCOUVER — As far as nicknames go, it’s hard to find one that fits better these days than the one given to UBC Thunderbirds’ star running back Isaiah Knight.
At home last Friday, just four minutes into the proceedings against the Saskatchewan Huskies, Knight capped the game’s opening possession with a 13-yard cutback run from left to right so pronounced that he high-stepped into the end zone with four defenders a full two-to-three strides behind him.
“The Knight Rider rides again,” announced ‘Birds TV analyst Len Catling, who originated the handle. “What a cutback move from Isaiah Knight.”
The reference, for those old enough to know, was of course the 1982 television series Knight Rider, in which the show’s title character — Michael Knight — fights crime with the assistance of KITT, a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am which utilized artificial intelligence some 40 years ahead of its current place in the mainstream of society.
A super-hero driving an indestructible sports car?
Mix both of those ingredients together and somehow put them into the body of a 6-foot-2, 215-pound fourth-year running back who already has the perfect blend of speed and power, and chances are the only thing you need to complete this kit is a No. 5 Thunderbirds game-day jersey.
It may only seem like Isaiah Knight has crept up and into the national spotlight as of late, but the truth is he has been one of the most consistent players over the 10 years in which head coach Blake Nill has led the UBC program.
In fact, as we’ll get to later, he is clearly among the most productive running backs in the history of UBC football, and when he lines up in the backfield Saturday in Calgary as UBC (2-2) faces Dino (1-3), it will be as the eighth-leading regular-season rusher in Thunderbirds’ history.
And after wracking up a new single-game career-high 187 yards on 24 carries in a comprehensive 38-24 win last week over the Huskies, and giving the formerly faltering UBC offence the bedrock foundation it will surely lean on over the second half of the Canada West season, ‘Knight Rider’ indeed seems like the perfect moniker.
Following UBC’s 0-2 start, the Thunderbirds looked to be a team suffering an early-season identity crisis on offence, an affliction not uncommon within rosters brimming with talent and challenged by the task of resource management.
Clearly, however, that identity has been re-minted by UBC head coach Blake Nill and offensive coordinator Stevenson Bone.
And they’ve done it by refusing to falter in their belief that a Knight-led ground attack will bring out the best in a team that won the conference title and advanced all the way to the national championship game.
“I think it was super important because it had been something that we really wanted to get back to as a team,” Knight said after the game when asked about an early commitment to engage his services behind the team’s talented and ever-improving offensive line. “Today, for sure, we definitely established the run.”
Knight, who would later repeat his deadly cutback ability and his penchant for patiently flowing through diagonal lanes as part of a 59-yard touchdown run, finished with a 7.8 yards-per-carry average and was later named the Canada West’s Offensive Player of the Week.
Nill admitted after the game that taking the run game to another level was key towards setting a tone for the rest of the campaign.
You can massage the numbers all you like in comparing the frequency of the run versus the pass in the two straight losses which opened the campaign against the two wins which have followed. In fact, those numbers have a hard time giving you a straight answer.
The real truth lies in more simple axioms, like trusting and thus finding more success along the ground on first down, and that alone has tilted the momentum and its resulting opportunities in favour of Rooker’s best strengths as a quarterback.
“I thought coach Bone called a really good game,” said Nill after the win over the Huskies. “He stuck to his game plan and you saw when we started to run, (Saskatchewan) had to put more in the box, and Rooker (moving) outside… that is Rooker’s game, too. He was getting outside and making things happen.”
Receiver Sam Davenport was they key catalyst in the pass game, yet Shemar McBean, Mark Webb, Skyler Griffith and even Knight himself represent the requisite variety needed to combat the most extreme parity the conference has seen in recent memory.
And about Knight and his place among the elite running backs in UBC history?
With four more games remaining in the regular season, potential playoffs, and another whole fifth season of eligibility remaining if he so decides to strap it all back on in 2025, his ceiling remaining high.
Yet as the aforementioned eighth-leading ‘Birds ball carrier of all time, so is his current floor. His 187 yards against Saskatchewan last week brought him, to exactly 2,600 in regular-season play.
The seven others ahead of him, from No. 7 to No. 1, in regular-season games?
7 Gord Penn 2,764
6 Brad Yamaoka 2,827
5 Glenn Steele 2,872
4 Brandon Deschamps 2,979
3 Chris Ciezki 3.069
2 Mark Nohra 3,285
1 Akbal Singh 3,438
Last Friday’s career-high rushing numbers against the Huskies also carried Knight to a significant milestone in overall (regular season and playoff) yardage.
In his 33rd overall game with the Birds, Knight broke the 3,000-yard barrier for his career as the Ottawa native and graduate of St. James School in Hagerstown, Maryland currently sits at 3,122 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Knight has averaged 6.3 yards per carry and 94.6 yards per game over his four seasons at UBC.
Last season en route to an appearance in the Vanier Cup against Montreal, Knight broke the 1,000-yard season rushing mark for the first time with 1,105 as he averaged 100.5 yards per game over 11 games.
So do Knight and his teammates feel he sits a little under the radar nationally?
When asked the question in late August as the team was set to break camp, quarterback Rooker offered his thoughts.
“Yeah for sure,” he said. “I think that guy deserves so much more recognition for the work he puts into our team and what he does for our offence.
“I think his ability is to run the football, to be elusive and also catch it out of the backfield is unlike anyone else in the country. Without him, it would be tough. He is so dynamic and so hard to scout for. He makes it so tough for defences.”
No two RB-1s in Canada West are alike, and the successful ways in which Knight’s blend of power, speed, hands and instincts are being deployed by UBC at present reflect a synchronicity in the offence, one which has piloted the team’s recent upward surge.
Knight’s humility prevents him from saying too much about his status, but like all running backs, he will never turn down a carry and he will never turn down anything he can use for added incentive.
“I always get happy any time I touch the rock,” he said. “So as I got more carries (Friday), the smile on my face just grew bigger and bigger.”
And about being under-rated?
“I mean… I do think I am a little under-rated. But we’re going to change that by the end of the season.”
Then, before he left to re-join his teammates and ultimately begin preparation for Saturday’s game in Calgary, analyst Catling asked him if he knew anything about the original Knight Rider TV series, and about the fact that his nickname has been getting a lot of airtime of late.
Knight admitted that he’s curious to Google the TV show to learn more about it, then chuckled: “But I have definitely heard about (my nickname). My parents listen to the broadcast and they tell me all the time.”
And with that, Knight, fresh off a super hero-like comic book performance, headed to the UBC locker room.
Having performed three times at home over the season’s first four weekends, the Thunderbirds won’t play at home again until Oct. 18.
But if UBC keeps building on its recent success over the coming weeks, then it seems certain that echoes of “… the Knight Rider rides again” will ring out from the Thunderbird Stadium press box.
