Oct. 3, 2010

RUSTON, La. - "Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits," a quote by Thomas Edison. Over the past four years, Myke Compton has hustled on special teams, while waiting his turn to play the position for which he was recruited.

Although listed as a running back for the past four seasons, including one redshirt year, Compton got his first real taste as a collegiate ball carrier last season with 48 carries. Daniel Porter was called upon to be the primary running back in last year's offense. However this season, with Porter gone due to graduation and a new offensive system that features multiple running backs put in place by head coach Sonny Dykes, Compton's patience has finally paid off. He is now a more prominent member of the Bulldog backfield.

"It had its ups and downs, but it was a good learning experience," Compton said of his time spent behind Porter on the depth chart. "It helped me prepare for what is going on now. It helped me learn how to be patient. In this league, you don't always get what you want or what you think you deserve. So when you are in a situation like that, where you are under people, you have to sit and wait your turn for something good to come along."

This year the good came along fast for Compton, one of five team captains for the Bulldogs. In his first game of the 2010 season, Compton scored two touchdowns in the first half to help Tech defeat Grambling State 20-6 in the Port City Classic. The two scores were a single-game career high.

It's that type of a game that makes all the waiting worth while. While playing the waiting game to take a crack at the starting running back position for four years, Compton spent his time excelling on special teams.

"A lot of people take that role and don't really care about it," running backs coach Pierre Ingram said. "But he went on special teams and cared about it and put his heart in it, just like he would playing running back."

His special teams role earned him Louisiana Tech special teams player of the year as a redshirt freshman in 2007 and as a sophomore in 2008, he led Tech with 15 special teams tackles. Being recruited for one position and then taking the field at a different position is all too common in college football. Compton said he wasn't too upset with his transition to more special teams work early on in his career.

"I love contact," Compton said. "Whether it is me running the ball and running over somebody or me hitting the guy with the ball, as long as I'm on the field, it doesn't matter."

Compton prefers to let his pads do the talking as he is one of the quietest guys on the Bulldog roster.

"A lot of people don't want to mess with me because I'm so quiet," Compton said. "They say, `He's crazy quiet.'"

Ingram agrees ... to a point. He thinks that silence has its advantages because whenever Compton does speak, people listen.

"He scares me sometimes because I don't know what he's doing behind me. He's so quiet," Ingram said. "I always ask him if he gets what I told him. When he speaks, he speaks with authority. He's a guy that I think, if he wanted, would make a good coach someday."

Compton was born and raised in a town in the southeast corner of Oklahoma called Idabel. Brought up by his mother, Lisa Jackson, and his uncles, Michael Jackson and James Jackson, the town of about 7,000 people was good enough to raise a kid like Compton, but was slowly becoming a less attractive place to live.

That's when Lisa decided to move to Fort City, Ark. Compton, however, chose instead to live with his uncle Michael in Tucker, Ga. A multi-sport student-athlete at the University of Oklahoma, Michael first introduced football to Compton in the first grade.

While living with Michael, Compton starred at Tucker High School at running back and at strong safety while leading his school to three-straight district titles. As a senior, he was named first team all-state.

Success is sure to follow a guy that strives to have the work ethic of running back greats Barry Sanders, Walter Payton and Jim Brown.

"He's a guy that doesn't stop," Ingram said. "He consistently works everyday and that's hard to come by. You get guys that give in sometimes. But, whether it's heat, rain or sunshine, he's going to go hard. He's a good motivator for the rest of the team."

What a coincidence. After all Compton's teammates are his motivation, along with his mother, who works at a prison in Fort City. Compton was the youngest of three children growing up in Oklahoma, and it was his mother who worked two jobs to put food on the table while also working towards her college degree. She's now living a better life with hopes that Compton can someday get paid to play.

"You need to go ahead and make this football thing work because I'm tired of working," Compton said, imitating his mother. "She says that every once and a while for some extra motivation."

If a career in football doesn't work out, Compton wants to use his degree in criminal justice and support his one-year old child who lives in Chicago with his mother.

"Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience." Although this is a quote from an unknown source, it's fitting.

In Compton's mind, his career at Tech started hard and slow, but through the right patience, he has overcome and is now playing the position he came to Tech to play.