Considering how deep and talented the No. 4-ranked St. Thomas football team is, many may be surprised that the team’s number-two rusher is only a freshman.

After receiving no touches in the first three games, freshman running back Tucker Trettel has burst onto the scene, racking up 487 yards and seven touchdowns over the last eight games. Trettel attributes his success to his teammates and coaches.

“Running behind the (offensive line) that I do and having the fullbacks I do blocking for me makes running extremely easy with as hard as they work,” Trettel said. “Also, my coaches … have helped me throughout the year. They just taught me all the new things, and it’s really helping out a lot.”

Fellow running back and leading Tommie rusher Jordan Roberts provided a less modest reason for Trettel’s success, saying the freshman has many different skills in his repertoire.

“He has great vision and sees zone-blocking schemes really well,” Roberts said. “He also runs with great speed, and especially when he gets in the open field, few people are going to catch him. Mentally, he has a great attitude and work ethic. (Trettel) is really the whole package when it comes to being a great running back, and the sky’s the limit for him.”

This season has been particularly rewarding for Trettel after he missed two seasons due to injuries in his high school career at Centennial High School. He says coming back from those injuries has instilled in him a strong will to succeed.

“Coming into this year – I missed my senior year last year – I was pretty hungry to play again, and that’s always driven me to be the best that I can be on the field,” Trettel said.

That drive has been very evident the past two weeks in what has amounted to a coming-out party of sorts for Trettel. In each of the last two regular-season games he rushed for over 100 yards, with two touchdowns against Carleton and one against Gustavus. Trettel also scored two touchdowns in St. Thomas’ 57-14 win over La Verne (California) in the first round NCAA playoff Saturday.

Though he is a freshman, Trettel is familiar with the St. Thomas football program. As a fifth-grader, he won youth camper of the year at coach Glenn Caruso’s summer football camp. Based on what he saw then, Caruso said it was an easy decision to start recruiting Trettel.

“I’ve known Tucker since fifth grade, so it’s not exactly like it was a surprise when I started recruiting him,” Caruso said. “When he won youth camper of the year as a fifth grader, we were pretty sure that eventually he’d be a really good running back.”

Further adding to Trettel’s connection with the program is his father Gary, who was a two-time All-American running back at St. Thomas from 1988-1990.

In 31 career games as a Tommie, Gary Trettel recorded 45 touchdowns, 3,724 rushing yards and 6,044 all-purpose yards. He was the school’s all-time leading rusher for the better part of two decades and has since been inducted into the University of St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame.

Coming from such an impressive bloodline, it makes sense that Tucker Trettel would succeed early in his career. He credited his father with shaping him as a player growing up.

“He taught me since second grade all the way up until high school,” Tucker Trettel said. “And with the talent that he had here, he was able to teach me an extreme amount of things when I was younger.”

Although comparisons between Tucker Trettel and his father are inevitable, Caruso said the younger Trettel has carved out his own niche within the program even earlier than his dad, who did not play during his freshman year.

It’s still early, and nothing is guaranteed on the gridiron, but Caruso believes Tucker Trettel has the opportunity to be “wildly successful” at St. Thomas.

“I think he has the abilities to (be successful) … and only a portion of that has to do with what he does on the field,” Caruso said. “In the classroom he’s a tremendous student. I think the most important education (players) get is their civic responsibility here, and he takes that seriously too.”

Willie Faust can be reached at faus5612@stthomas.edu.