The man who keeps the Panthers running

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- They have rushed for at least 100 yards in 31 consecutive games, but Carolina Panthers running backs coach Jim Skipper vows he is not savoring every yard.

“You don’t count your money,” said Skipper, “while you’re sitting at the table.”

No, you keep sorting the cards dealt, rolling the dice, ogling the prize like Skipper, 67, has for nearly 30 NFL seasons as a coach. He is back at the Super Bowl, having lost one with the Panthers to the New England Patriots. This trip features the best running back crew he has coached, he says, and his Panthers running attack could sculpt Super Bowl 50.

Because if the Panthers run it like they have been running it, this game is all Panthers.

“Everything we do as a defense starts with stopping the running game,” Denver Broncos linebacker Von Miller said. “We know this one has some juice to it.”

It has for awhile. Since 2008, Carolina has rushed for more yards (17,261) than any NFL team.

That also happened to be the year that running back Jonathan Stewart joined the Panthers. It used to be Stewart and DeAngelo Williams, a two-headed Panthers barrage that in 2009 became the first duo on a team to each rush for more than 1,100 yards. Williams hopped to the Pittsburgh Steelers before this season. Stewart became the lead back. Stewart and fullback Mike Tolbert earned Pro Bowl honors this season.

Stewart rushed for 989 yards despite missing the last three regular season games while nursing an ankle injury. Quarterback Cam Newton ran for 638 more, Tolbert for 256, rookie Cameron Artis-Payne for 183 and Fozzy Whitaker for 108. Sprinkle in receiver Ted Ginn’s 60 yards on reverse and flip runs and receiver Jerricho Cotchery’s 38 and there is clarity on the diversity, elusiveness, power and sway of the Carolina run game.

Just the way Skipper likes it.

He coached the Panthers running backs in their only other Super Bowl appearance in 2004. He returned three seasons ago to Carolina.

“We didn’t have any big discussions as a group when we lost DeAngelo Williams,” Skipper said. “I just told them to do their jobs and be ready when called upon to perform. Football is football. You have to have the skills at running back but the mental part of it sometimes gets overlooked. You have to mentally grasp a lot. This really comes into play in the pass protections. We work on it a lot and we’re going to see how this part of it goes in this game. That’s why you play the game. You don’t know until you play what has to be adjusted, what you have to do more of in this area. The key is also to understand the concept of the pass protection, not just the protection.”

Carolina’s backs protecting Newton against Denver’s nasty pass rush is a colossal element in Super Bowl 50.

The Broncos want their ferocious rushers (Von Miller, DeMarcus Ware, Derek Wolfe and the whole bunch) to frequently match up with Carolina’s backs in the Panthers backfield. Those are matchups the Broncos think they can win. This is a method Denver used in leading the league in sacks.

“We’re not too focused on what they want to do, but we are on what we have to do,” Whitaker said.

Artis-Payne said bluntly: “They didn’t pay our quarterback $100 million for him to be lying on his back.”

The Panthers running backs talk like Skipper. They absorb his coaching.

“Coach Skipper is a major part of this organization,” Stewart said. “He has so much knowledge. He takes no mess. He is not a magic worker. He just coaches you to be ready.”

Skipper makes it simple to his backs: Play ball. Just ball.

“He’s seen it all,” Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said. “He holds that group accountable. We really count on them.”

Skipper has strong roots in the Bay Area. He went to high school in Brawley, Calif. He coached at San Jose State in 1977-78. He was head coach of old XFL’s San Francisco Demons in 1999. He takes pride in his football sons Kelly (the Jacksonville Jaguars running backs coach), Timmy (the University of Florida’s running backs coach) and Courtney (the academic adviser at Arizona State).

He wants his running backs mentally and emotionally prepared for Super Bowl 50. Game ready, he says. He is ready. After so many years of coaching, after a previous Super Bowl chance with no championship and no ring, Skipper will not allow himself to think about nabbing one this time.

You don’t count your money while you’re sitting at the table.

“Maybe I’ll think about it,” he said. “Maybe if we have one more point than they do. And the final clock is striking 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...”