'Terminator' Conner goes from college walk-on to NFL battering ram

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Kids don't grow up wanting to be fullbacks. Quarterbacks, yes. Tailbacks, definitely. But who in their right mind dreams of having a full-speed collision on nearly every play, of being the demolition derby car in a backfield of Formula Ones?

"You have to be borderline crazy to play this position," Jets veteran fullback Tony Richardson admitted. "And I think John has what it takes."

John is Jets rookie John Conner, whom coach Rex Ryan usually just refers to as "The Terminator." Ryan fell in love with Conner before the draft when he was looking at video of a linebacker who was playing Conner's Kentucky team. "Let's draft that one instead," Ryan told his staff after about the third time Conner drilled the player they were scouting.

It's a hunch the Jets haven't regretted. Ryan said earlier this week that they would carry two fullbacks, that both Conner, a fifth-round draft choice, and Richardson, a 17-year vet, would make the team. The Jets knew they had something pretty special early in training camp when the 5-11, 245-pounder hit rookie linebacker Josh Mauga so hard on a goal-line play that Mauga suffered a concussion.

"Usually, you never have to worry about an offensive player taking out a defensive player on an isolation block," Ryan said. "That shows what kind of guy he is. The Terminator hits people. That's what he does. I've never seen a guy get knocked cold like that."

Perhaps one reason Conner hits so hard is that he's had to. Unlike many of his teammates, Conner wasn't highly recruited out of high school. In fact, he didn't have a single Division I scholarship offer when he graduated from Lakota West High near Cincinnati.

"A lot of people wanted me to go to a smaller school, but I felt I was a Division I player," Conner, 23, said. "So I decided to go to Kentucky as a walk-on."

Conner scored the first time he touched the ball at Kentucky, and ended up getting the scholarship he wanted his sophomore year. His coaches knew that his dream was to one day play in the NFL, and before his junior year, his position coach, Larry Brinson, a former NFL running back himself, told him that blocking, not running, would be his ticket to a professional career.

"I've always been a physical player," Conner said. "I'm not a mean guy, but on the field, I want to be known as a mean guy."

Conner said he felt pretty good about his chances of making the team when he came to the Jets, just because of his college experience as a walk-on. Conner and Richardson immediately hit it off, even though the two will be competing for playing time.

"He just came right in and started working," Richardson said. "Some rookies are kind of wide-eyed. That wasn't him. I don't think he ever allowed the game to get too big for him."

Conner said he is in awe of the career that Richardson has had, and he enjoys learning from him. Both players are polite, well-spoken and religious. And both enjoy talking about what it is exactly that drew them to play such a brutal position.

"We're five yards back and it's a full-speed collision every time," Richardson said. "You have to like to go in there and really hit. You have to have a mentality that when you put that helmet on, everything changes."

Conner, said Richardson, definitely had the right personality. Said Richardson: "When you talk to him, he has a great smile, but when he puts on that helmet, he's going to hurt you."