Double vision: Salpointe Catholic running backs Mario Padilla, Bijan Robinson can see holes

But vision is one of those terms, almost like the word clutch, that can be so hard to define.

Mostly, and maybe ironically, you know it when you see it.

Watching Salpointe Catholic sophomore Mario Padilla and freshman Bijan Robinson, you see it.

It was abundantly clear Thursday night in a 48-6 AIA Class 4A state quarterfinal win over Tempe Marcos de Niza.

Forget that Padilla rushed for 204 yards and Robinson 109. It’s more about how they got those yards, and why, with a combined five years left on varsity between the two, you’ll see it a lot more in the future.

On Vision: What we mean here is simple, yet complicated. It’s the ability to see a play develop as it is happening, to watch a crease turn into a hole, to watch a gap turn into a chasm.

Good running backs have top-end speed. Great running backs don’t need it.

“They have an innate ability to see things in slow motion,” Salpointe coach Dennis Bene said.

There are tools, of course, and Bene wields them like a construction foreman.

He instructs his backs to press the line of scrimmage and wait for the cut-back. He points to a video screen and shows a front-seven drift to one direction, like a canyon directs a river. He shows the linebackers flowing, and then, the counter to it.

More and more, it’s making sense to Padilla and Robinson. That much is clear.

“That light bulb is always on, but it gets brighter and brighter as their comprehension increases,” Bene said. “Then you just see them get more and more special. The other night, both those guys made runs where it was like they knew where it was supposed to go, and even where the escape route was, too.”

For Padilla, the switch flipped about three games into the season, when the Lancers were handed a surprising 14-3 loss to Tucson High. Padilla had more than 100 yards, but Salpointe failed to reach the end zone despite ample opportunities in their first loss to the Badgers in 23 years.

Bene remembers what he saw on the sidelines that day.

“Mario was getting frustrated,” he said. “I saw it on his face. I had to be stern with him. Listen, man, this is a grind. When you play good football teams, it’s a grind. You have to keep pressing it. In his frustration, now he’s just trying to make things happen, not following a pulling guard, not where he needs to be.”

They watched the film time after time, rewinding the play, unwinding Padilla’s mind.

To hear Padilla discuss it now, he sounds like a convert.

“Ever since I played football, I’ve been told I have really good vision and patience and that you can’t teach a kid vision; it’s a natural trait,” Padilla said. “But I think you have to learn for the hole to develop. It’s all about going a certain speed — if you don’t hit the hole at a certain speed, it’s going to collapse.”

Two weeks later, Robinson was called up to varsity after just five games on the freshman team. Bene saw an athlete wise beyond his years, and given that Robinson’s grandfather is long-time Pac-12 football official Cleo Robinson, perhaps it’s little surprise.

Watching both on the freshman team a year apart, Bene thought, “This is the best player on the field.”

Robinson was quickly integrated into the offense, and now they present a devastating 1-2 punch.

“Mario is used to breaking through so fast and getting out of there, but to have our offense work, it all has to develop,” Robinson said. “That’s what happened to me. I’m used to getting the ball outside and just scoring. Up on varsity as a freshman, you don’t know the world that’s coming. You need patience on varsity.”

Sorry, but hearing a high-school freshman talk about patience is like hearing a chicken talk about flight.

But that’s the second, and maybe even more important component of good vision. Patience.

Being able to see a hole develop means nothing if you’re halfway through it and getting tackled.

“That happened to me when I first started — I had to remind myself to stay patient,” Robinson said. “Every time I went through drills, I had to tell myself you can’t go too fast. When I was on the freshman team, it was almost easy, but on varsity, these dudes are a lot faster, and I have to find my way first. If I don’t use vision, they come down and rock me. It hasn’t happened yet. I don’t want to look forward to it, too.”

When a head coach talks about patience, though, he doesn’t just mean once the ball is snapped.

He means staying levelheaded even when the holes aren’t there. Salpointe boasts a massive offensive line — tackles Alec Bon, C.J. Franks and Brian Campbell, guards Jose Lopez and Frankie Batiz and centers J.D. Escamilla and Myles Hamlett all rotate in — and so there often holes. But when they don’t develop, Bene stresses, stay up.

“We’ve always been told, 4 yards a carry isn’t bad because every three plays mean a first down,” Padilla said. “Not every play needs to be a home run. You think a play is going to be a home run, and you get 2 yards. The more times you run it, the more it opens up. It’s like chess. You have to wait until the defense makes the move. You have to think ahead of them.”

Wise words for a high school sophomore.

And just think about how wise they’ll be in the future.

You can almost see it now, if you just have the vision. http://tinyurl.com/hygdg7l