ShawneeDispatch.com

Ryan Torain

One of the most prolific running backs in Shawnee Mission Northwest football history is about to try his luck at the professional level.

Ryan Torain, a 2004 SMNW graduate, was selected Sunday in the fifth round of the NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos. He was the 139th overall selection.

Attempts to reach Torain for comment were unsuccessful, but the Broncos posted a conference call with Torain on their Web site.

Denver has been notorious in recent years for drafting running backs in the late rounds of the seven-round draft and turning them into stars. Torain hopes to follow the same path.

"Watching running backs go through Denver throughout the years, it's a great team, a great running offense, and I can't wait to be in it," he said.

Torain, a 6-foot-1, 213-pound running back, rushed for more than 1,600 yards as a senior at Northwest, and he logged impressive numbers throughout his college career despite battling a series of injuries.

He played his first two seasons of college football at Butler County Community College. He piled up more than 800 yards and 12 touchdowns and earned second-team All-Jayhawk Conference honors as a sophomore despite missing four games with an injury.

Torain played his final two years at Arizona State.

As a junior, he led the Sun Devils in rushing with 1,229 yards and seven touchdowns and garnered second-team All-Pac 10 Conference honors. His yardage total was the most in a season by a Sun Devil in more than 30 years and the eighth best in school history.

He opened his senior season right where he left off, piling up 553 yards and five touchdowns before suffering a season-ending foot injury.

The ligament injury was known as LisFranc, and he underwent a relatively new surgical procedure to repair it.

"They put buttons in my foot where they kind of tied it together," he said. "In the past, they used to use two screws and have two surgeries, and the second surgery would be an extra four months. Since I had this new surgery, I didn't have to have that second surgery and I healed up way faster."

That meant he could start rehab quicker, and it gave him a little more time to perform for professional scouts. Torain was projected to be drafted anywhere from the third to the fifth rounds, and said he was pleased to go when he did.

He said he is 100 percent healthy now and is ready to earn his spot on the roster in Denver.

"I'm very versatile," he said. "I can catch out of the backfield, I can line up as a receiver, and I run downhill. I make a couple guys miss. I can do great things for this team."

Former SMNW football coach Scott Diebold is confident Torain can contribute in Denver. Diebold coached Torain in high school.

"He was one of best players I've seen come through Northwest in 20 years," Diebold said.

He kept track of Torain's college career from a distance, watching every televised ASU game possible, and he said the Broncos got a player of high character who has proven he will work hard.

"He's very humble, and when he got the football he was all business," Diebold said. "It was neat to see him at that level (college), and it was nice that I had the opportunity to see him at my level.

"I'm just proud of him. He's a classy young man who deserves this. I'm very happy for him."