Just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at Archbishop Wood Catholic High School, Raheem Blackshear participated in high school football. He played alongside current Atlanta Falcons tight-end Kyle Pitts there.
Blackshear ran for 1,257 yards and 19 touchdowns in his senior year. This aided the Vikings’ 11-2 record and state championship.
He would also be chosen for the Pennsylvania Football Writers’ first-team 5A All-State team.
According to 247Sports, Raheem would receive a three-star rating. Blackshear chose Rutgers despite receiving offers from Temple, Army, Buffalo, Michigan State, and Buffalo.
Raheem isn’t going to make a lot of wild cuts out in the open field. He won’t be appearing in public dressed like Barry Sanders. However, he’s still really elusive. He makes subtle cuts and jab steps that make the defenders miss tackles.
When he sprints, there isn’t much motion wasted, but he will constantly leave defenders gasping for oxygen. Blackshear is a small-framed back. He’s surprisingly powerful for someone his size, though.
He had demonstrated his ability to drive the pile forward even when there was nothing there, run past tacklers for more gain, and carry opponents. When I played Notre Dame, it was one of my favorite plays.
He only took a straight route from the backfield. A little bit high was the pass the quarterback threw. In addition to bringing it down with one hand when a defender was closing in to deliver a powerful blow, Raheem merely bounced off the defender’s blow and continued running for a gain of 27 yards.
However, it’s intriguing to observe that his runs up the middle only averaged 2.9 yards per carrying.