As Woody Marks weighed his football future last winter, Darren Myles was frank with his former running back. His body of work, he told Marks, was an incomplete picture of the player Myles knew he could be. Four seasons at Mississippi State, playing in Mike Leach’s pass-happy Air Raid offense, proved Marks could catch passes out of the backfield. But he was typecast in the eyes of NFL scouts as a third-down, change-of-pace player, incapable of carrying the load as a bruising back running between the tackles.

His high school coach knew better than that. Myles had seen it during four years at Carver High in Atlanta. He watched as Marks stepped in as the starter before his first game as a freshman, taking the place of a senior who missed practice and never relinquishing the role.

During 43 games at Carver, Marks carried the offense on his back, toting the ball 614 times for 10 yards per carry. As a sophomore, he tallied 13 consecutive 100-yard games. As a senior, he scored 23 touchdowns. Never did he catch more than a pass or two per game.

So the notion that Marks was pigeonholed as a pass catcher or seen as anything less than a three-down workhorse didn’t sit well with Myles. His advice? Find an offense where you could prove who you are.

Marks seems to have found that and then some at USC, where he’s already established himself as one of the Big Ten’s most complete backs. Through five games, Marks has carried the ball 81 times, sixth most of any running back in the conference. At his current pace — more than 16 per game — he’s likely to break his career high in carries before the end of October.

That hasn’t precluded him from being a pass catcher, either. Marks is third on the team in catches with 19, just two fewer than the Trojans’ top two receivers.

“He’s been exactly what we’d hoped he’d be at this point,” coach Lincoln Riley said.

That feeling, his mother says, is mutual.

“He looks just like he did in high school,” Tameka Marks said. “He’s showcasing it again, what he didn’t get to showcase the last four years at Mississippi State — that he can actually run!”

Myles knew that to be true before Marks made it to high school. He was only 13 years old, still in the eighth grade, and weighed barely 155 pounds, but Myles, a former running back himself, could see Marks was a natural. He had the vision, the quickness, the instincts. Most of all, he was fearless. Even at his size, there wasn’t a tentative bone in his body.

After four practices, Myles approached Tameka to tell her Woody probably would factor into the varsity roster as a freshman. By the first week of football season the following fall, Marks already was the focal point of Carver’s offense. The promotion had come after the senior incumbent missed a mandatory practice during fall break. Marks ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns in his stead.

“Right away, I moved that kid to slot receiver,” Myles said. “Like, you’re gonna back up Woody Marks now.”

Marks averaged 12 yards per carry as a freshman, yet was limited to fewer than 10 carries per game as Myles spread the ball around in Carver’s offense. But by the end of that season, Myles said, Marks had mastered the zone-run concepts at the heart of his offense, and as a sophomore, he exploded for 2,127 yards in 13 games.

USC running back Woody Marks celebrates after scoring the winning touchdown against LSU on Sept. 1.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

By then, Myles knew he could lean on Marks, if needed. He rarely received more than 20 carries in a game, but in consecutive playoff wins over Jones High and Flowery Branch, Marks put the offense on his back, tallying more than 200 yards rushing.

“Once he got past the linebacker, it was over,” Myles said. “You talk about having a running back with wide receiver speed. Once he gets to the second level, he’s gone. You’re not catching him.”

Offers rolled in from across the country — everywhere, it seemed, but Georgia, the local college football power, whose staff had asked Myles if Marks would consider changing to slot receiver.

“It bothered him,” Myles said. “But it motivated him to work even harder.”

And with more work, Myles trusted Marks even more to carry them.

During one game, as a senior, Carver lost its quarterback to a hip-pointer injury. With only an inexperienced freshman left at the position, Myles pivoted to run the entire offense through Marks.

For the second half, nearly every play went through the running back, who even lined up for some direct snaps as a wildcat quarterback. By then, the defense knew what was coming most plays. Inside zone. Outside zone. Inside zone. And on and on.

“They were stacking the box,” Myles said. “It didn’t matter.”

USC running back Woody Marks drags LSU safety Dashawn Spears into the end zone for a touchdown on Sept. 1.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Marks committed to Mississippi State about eight months before the coach he committed to, Joe Moorhead, was fired. Into his place stepped Leach, whose reputation for largely ignoring the run preceded him. The family weighed whether Marks would be better suited elsewhere. But he’d already made his pledge. He stuck with it.

And over four years at Mississippi State, three of which were under Leach, Marks never rushed for more than 582 yards in a season. In 45 games, he received more than a dozen carries just eight times and only twice ran for more than 100 yards.

Losing Leach, who died suddenly in late 2022, only muddied Marks’ role. He considered transferring but ultimately chose to stay in Starkville. Then a hamstring injury late in the 2023 season sapped Marks of his usual burst.

If not for the injury, he might’ve declared for the draft right then, his mother said. Prospective agents told them he’d be picked in the middle rounds, perhaps as high as the third. But they wondered if another year, in the right offense, might alter that trajectory.

Several schools had the same thought, among them Georgia, which apparently had gotten over its hang-ups about Marks’ size. But the fit with Riley, an Air Raid protege of Leach, felt seamless. Marks already was familiar with most of the offense’s zone-run concepts.

“He’s been doing those things since he was 13 years old,” Myles said.

It’s no wonder then that his impact at USC has been so instantaneous. Marks already has more 100-yard games (three) at USC than he did in all of his time at Mississippi State. And as defenses have tried to take away dynamic plays downfield, he’s been called upon even more, having touched the ball 47 times over the last two games.

“Everything [Riley] told us about how he would use him,” Tameka said, “we’re seeing it every game.”

Marks’ role actually could stand to grow from here, with Big Ten defenses daring Riley to run, sure to follow a similar blueprint to what worked for Minnesota last Saturday. Marks was on his way to a career day until the final 11 minutes, when he didn’t touch the ball a single time.

Nonetheless, there’s no doubt at USC that it has a three-down back at its disposal, one capable of grinding away Big Ten games in a way it desperately will need down the stretch.

Though, Marks isn’t sure he’s lived up to that just billing yet.

“I really think I haven’t proven a lot,” Marks said. “We hold ourselves to a higher standard. We’re going to get to that.”