Lucas Staley (born September 16, 1980) is a former American college

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

for

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

(BYU). Staley was a consensus All-American, and was recognized in 2001 as the best college running back in the nation. The

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

picked him in the seventh round of the

2002 NFL Draft The 2002 NFL draft was the 67th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually sinc ...

, but he suffered a career-ending knee injury before appearing in a regular season pro football game.

Early years

Staley was born in

Bountiful, Utah Bountiful is Davis city. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 42,552, a three percent increase over the 2000 figure of 41,301. The city grew rapidly during the suburb growth of the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s and was Davis County's l ...

and raised as a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

. He attended

Tualatin High School Tualatin High School is a public high school located in Tualatin, Oregon, United States. Students in grades 9 through 12 attend the school, which is part of the Tigard-Tualatin School District. Opened in 1992, school teams are known as the Timberwo ...

Tualatin, Oregon Tualatin () is a city located primarily in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon. A small portion of the city is also located in neighboring Clackamas County. It is a southwestern suburb in the Portland Metropolitan Area that is located ...

, where he was a letterman in football, basketball, and track. He played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

for the Tualatin Timberwolves. As a senior in 1999, Staley was named Gatorade Player of the Year and ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' Player of the Year for the state of Oregon. He was also named ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

s Player of the Year, earned all-state honors on offense and defense, and was conference Player of the Year for offense, defense, and special teams. He averaged over 300 yards per game during Tualatin's four-game playoff run. Staley was listed as a Blue Chip Top-100 player. In

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

, Staley recorded times of 11.03 seconds in the

100-meter dash The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contest ...

, 22.70 seconds in the

200-meter dash The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

and 43.6 seconds in the

4 x 100 metres relay 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

College career

Staley attended Brigham Young University, and played for the

BYU Cougars football The BYU Cougars football team is the college football program representing Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. The Cougars began collegiate football competition in 1922, and have won 23 conference championships and one national champion ...

team from 1999 to 2001. In three years at BYU, Staley established himself as one of the best running backs in school history, and posted the best single season of any BYU back in history. In his first game as a Cougar, Staley scored three touchdowns to lead BYU to a 34−13 victory over

Colorado State Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

in the first-ever

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations o ...

(MWC) football game. Despite some nagging injuries that limited his playing time, he continued his impressive play, finishing the season with 92 rushes for 432 yards and 10 touchdowns, and added 26 receptions for 339 yards and 3 touchdowns. He led the MWC in scoring, averaging 9.8 points per game. For his efforts, Staley was named Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year, and ''Sporting News'' third-team Freshman All-American. As a sophomore in 2000, Staley started 10 games and led the team with 479 yards (on 130 carries) and scored seven touchdowns. He added 28 receptions for 327 yards. In BYU's 10−7 victory over

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

, Staley rushed for 167 yards and was named MWC Offensive Player of the Week. He also received awards from BYU's coaching staff for games against

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...

, UNLV, and Colorado State. In 2001, under new head coach

Gary Crowton David Gary Crowton (born June 14, 1957) is an American football coach. He is the offensive coordinator at Pine View High School in St. George, Utah, a position he has held since 2018. Crowton served as the head football coach at Louisiana Tec ...

, the Cougars started the season with a 12-0 record and led the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

in scoring (46.8 points per game) and total offense (542.9 yards per game). In 11 games, Staley rushed for 1,582 yards and 24 touchdowns (both totals broke school records). His rushing average (8.1 yards per carry) led the NCAA, and his 143.8 rushing yards per game ranked third nationally. Staley added 32 receptions for 334 yards and four touchdowns; he led the nation in total touchdowns (28) and scoring (15.5 points per game). In recognition of his accomplishments, Staley received the

Doak Walker Award Since 1990 the Doak Walker Award honors the top running back in college football in the United States. It is named in honor of Doak Walker, a former running back who played for the SMU Mustangs from 1945 to 1949 and in the National Football League ...

, and the Jim Brown Award, both given annually to college football's top running back. He was also a first-team All-

selection, and was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American, having received first-team honors from the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

, the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

CNN/SI CNN/Sports Illustrated (CNN/SI) was a 24-hour sports news network. It was created by Time Warner, merging together its CNN and ''Sports Illustrated'' brands and related resources. It was launched on December 12, 1996. Other news networks like ...

, ''Football News'', the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

, and the

Walter Camp Foundation The Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF) is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The organization also presents various awards. It is named in honor of foo ...

Professional career

Staley decided to forgo his senior season at BYU and entered the

. However, because of his injury-prone past, Staley was not selected until the seventh round (214th overall) by the

. He participated in Lions' training camp as a rookie, but suffered a knee injury that required a season-ending surgery. He attended training camp the following season but was waived on August 25, 2003.

Personal life

Staley lives in Draper, Utah with his wife Heather, and they have 2 sons. As of 2016, he has undergone 23 separate surgeries, as a result of the injuries he suffered playing football. In 2017, Staley's number #6 jersey was retired by BYU.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Staley, Luke 1980 births Living people All-American college football players American football running backs American Latter Day Saints BYU Cougars football players Detroit Lions players People from Tualatin, Oregon Sportspeople from the Portland metropolitan area Players of American football from Oregon

Early years

College career

Professional career

Personal life

See also

References