The Redskins Blog

Friday, November 13: Quinton Ganther Could Be The Backup Running Back Sunday

As near as I can tell, we have one picture of running back Quinton Ganther in a Redskins uniform, and that’s it sitting up top of this post: his official team headshot. I can’t find any practice photos, bench photos, anything like that. I emailed Brian Murphy (of ExtremeSkins and Homer McFanboy) to see if he had a shot on the bench or anything; between covering the team, photographing the team, and being a fan of the team, Murf is usually a perfect resource for obscure requests like this one.

Not this time. Murf’s response? “Don’t even know what he looks like yet.”

So, yeah, Quinton Ganther is pretty much the exact opposite of a household name. Which makes it kind of unsettling to realize that he might be an active part of Sunday’s gameplan. Clinton Portis is out for sure; Ladell Betts was unable to participate in practice yesterday with an ankle injury. If for some reason Betts can’t go, that leaves Rock Cartwright as your top RB, and Ganther as the likely number two.

So, who the heck is Quinton Ganther?
He’s a 2006 seventh-round pick of the Tennessee Titans, who grew up in a rough neighborhood in California and went to college at the University of Utah. Ganther seemed likely to squeeze onto the roster in Tennessee this year as well, but a preseason calf injury scuttled that chance, a turn of events that Ganther accepts with equanimity. “Around Tennessee,” he says, “they know that I would’ve been kept if I wasn’t hurt, so, you know, sometimes it’s a tough break.”

Here, via the Tennessee Titans online media guide, is the summary of his career with Tennessee:

During his time with the Titans, he forged a bond with then-Titans running backs coach Sherman Smith, someone he now describes as a mentor. “We had a great relationship in Tennessee,” Ganther says. “He coached me my first two years in the league. He’s just a great guy, and we’ve always kept in touch. Even when he was here, I would call and check on him, see how they were doing. Because he’s not one of those people that you look at as just a coach. When football’s all said and done with, he’s someone that you can still talk to and have a relationship with because you can learn so much from him.”

Since Smith is now the offensive coordinator here in Washington, that connection was instrumental in bringing Ganther to town. Now it’s just a question of getting up to speed — and maybe doing so on the quick. Ganther, of course, is confident.

“First thing I did when I got here a few weeks ago,” he says, “the first thing I wanted to get down was the protections. The protections are the main thing. Once you get the protections … you know, the runs are easy; you don’t have to worry about that. You wanna get the protections first, and then once you’ve got those you want to get the routes off of the protections. That’s been the hardest part, because there are so many concepts and so many routes off of the protection. But enough studying and I’ll have it.”

One of the things helping him get it is that — in part because of Smith’s influence — the offense with the Redskins isn’t totally foreign to Ganther. “This offense is pretty similar to what we ran in Tennessee. You’ve just gotta put the Tennessee concepts with the terminology here. How I use it is, I put the Tennessee concepts and link ‘em to these concepts to help me remember ‘em. Like on a [79] with a a [73] protection; in Tennessee that was our fake 42 protection. So that’s how I remember protections.”

Yesterday during open locker room, Ganther was poring over his playbook, occasionally getting help from Cartwright and fullback Mike Sellers.

“Rock and Mike, man, those are the guys right there,” he said, obviously grateful. “Those guys try to make my job as easy as possible, and I’m glad to be playing with guys like that. Because, you know, sometimes you got guys that — when you come in, when you play the same position — they don’t wanna help you. But those guys, they want you to succeed, because they know that if I succeed we all succeed, and that’s an ultimate teammate: one that’s willing to do anything it takes to win football games.”

So, then, the big question: even with the familiar system, the supportive teammates, the in-house mentor … even with all those advantages, if things break so that he needs to contribute Sunday, will Ganther be ready?

“I’ll be fine,” he said yesterday. “I still got two days to go. Because if you don’t know this stuff by Friday or Saturday, then you don’t know it. But I’ll be feelin’ pretty comfortable.”