ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Just over two hours from Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, in this eclectic mountain city where people once flocked on Friday nights to watch Rico Dowdle do amazing things on the football field, there is no surprise by what the Carolina Panthers running back has done the past two weeks.
If anything, there is shock that it has taken five-plus seasons in the NFL for the rest of the world to see what they saw weekly almost a decade ago.
"That everybody in the NFL is making a big deal about it is really surprising us,'' said Shane Laws, the longtime coach at Asheville's A.C. Reynolds High School, where Dowdle starred. "People around here are not shocked by any of this.
"We knew that, if given the opportunity, he was more than capable of doing what he's done.''
Dowdle smiled. He believes people outside of Western North Carolina are surprised by what he has done in large part because of the stigma that comes with being undrafted.
"It was just a matter of waiting my turn and just making the most of the opportunities,'' he said. "But I think I've done well with that every time I've gone out there and showed that I can carry the load.''
Over the past two games, Dowdle has rushed for 389 yards, falling 17 yards shy in Sunday's 30-27 win over the Cowboys of becoming the fifth player in NFL history to run for 200 or more yards in consecutive games.
Dowdle got the opportunity to return to the Carolinas as a free agent during the offseason because the Dallas Cowboys opted to sign free agent Javonte Williams instead of extending Dowdle. He got the opportunity to start the past two games for Carolina (3-3) because Chuba Hubbard, who signed a four-year, $33.2 million deal late last season, suffered a calf injury in Week 4.
Before then, the 5-foot-11, 215-pound Dowdle had 83 yards rushing in four games.
He totaled 473 scrimmage yards in the past two, breaking the two-game team record previously held by Christian McCaffrey and making him the seventh NFL player since 1963 to have at least 230 scrimmage yards in consecutive games.
He earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for Week 5 and likely pushed Hubbard, who is set to return, to a backup role for Sunday's game against the 0-6 New York Jets (1 p.m. ET, Fox), even though coach Dave Canales is keeping how the two backs will be used under wraps.
"He's earned the right to help this team, and he will, and we'll find a way to do that,'' Canales said on Wednesday of Dowdle. "How we do that specifically? I don't want to share those details.''
Laws knows what he would do.
"Obviously, I'm just a high school coach,'' Laws said. "But it would help [quarterback] Bryce Young to have him out there.''
Dowdle actually played quarterback his senior season in high school because Laws didn't have a player he "felt really good about'' handling the position.
"He was one of the best players in the state, so instead of relying on anybody else to get him the ball we just snapped it to him,'' Laws said. "I wanted him to touch the ball on every play.''
As a Wildcat quarterback, Dowdle rushed for 2,545 yards and 51 touchdowns. He also had 1,434 yards passing and 11 touchdowns. His 63 combined touchdowns set a Western North Carolina record.
So you can see why folks in this city flanked by the Blue Ridge Mountains are almost ho-hum, yet extremely proud about Dowdle's recent success against the Miami Dolphins and Cowboys.
"I mean, he's always been great to us,'' his mother, Leslie Dowdle, said.
Dowdle didn't run like most high school quarterbacks. Laws described it as a "violent'' style, echoing what Canales has said the past two weeks.
"It's the attitude he ran with, the violence that he ran with, finishing through arm tackles,'' Canales said after the Dolphins win.
Bobby Bentley, who was the running backs coach at South Carolina during Dowdle's first three college seasons (2016-18), saw the same thing.
Bentley, now the head coach at Battle Ground Academy, a college prep school in Tennessee, actually convinced then-Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp to sign Dowdle as a running back.
He referred to a few runs in college that amplified why, beginning with a 20-yard touchdown run against Missouri.
"We ran an inside zone down the middle,'' Bentley said. "He made three or four people miss with a spin move, and then drove through people into the end zone. He's a violent runner, and also a bull-yard runner, meaning he gets yards that are not blocked.
"That's one of his best attributes.''
Patriots passing game coordinator Thomas Brown, Dowdle's position coach his last year at South Carolina, agreed.
"He definitely runs with an attitude, a key characteristic when it comes to playing running back,'' said Brown, who played the position at Georgia and in the NFL for Atlanta and Cleveland.
One run Dowdle made against Crest High School in nearby Shelby magnified that.
"He had seven or eight people tag him on a touchdown run,'' said Bentley.
"I don't think he gets enough credit for how strong and powerful he is,'' Laws added. "When he gets going downhill, he's bringing a lot of force with him. There were very few times when he was tackled that he went backwards.''
"Humble" and "sweet" are how those who best know Dowdle describe him off the field because of the way he is with his fiancée and 2- and 4-year-old daughters.
Dowdle showed his humble side when he said it didn't matter whether he or Hubbard starts against the Jets.
There's also a brash side to Dowdle. Those who know him aren't surprised he told the Cowboys, the team he topped 1,000 yards rushing with last season, to "buckle up'' the week before he ran wild on them.
"I knew it was coming,'' Laws said with a laugh. "He really worked hard last year to try to help the Cowboys have a respectable season after all those guys ahead of him got hurt.
"This is his high school coach reading between the lines, because Rico didn't come out and tell me this, that they didn't put more effort into trying to find a way to re-sign him bothered him. If Rico gets mad, when he really sets his mind, he's going to have a good game.''
Dowdle didn't just have a good game. He had 239 scrimmage yards, breaking McCaffrey's single-game franchise record.
"There obviously was some frustration [in Dallas] of not being able to kind of be seen the way you see yourself as a player,'' said Brown, who stays in contact with Dowdle. "That was a combination of working to keep himself ready when the opportunity presented itself, and also some pent up motivation that goes into it.''
Carolina edge rusher D.J. Wonnum, who was in Dowdle's freshman class at South Carolina, saw that work ethic and desire the first time they met.
"They separated our practices at first,'' Wonnum recalled. "Freshmen practiced, and sophomore, juniors and seniors practiced while they got us kind of acclimated. Rico didn't want no acclimation. He was ready to go from day one.''
Wonnum is among those who wonder why it has taken so long for others to recognize Dowdle's value.
"He's dynamic, man,'' Wonnum said. "He's quick. He's twitchy. He's powerful. And so fast, man. Explosive. Strong. He really doesn't go down easily. It usually takes more than one person to tackle him.''
Hubbard has similar skills. But Dowdle's versatility as a runner inside and outside, as well as his ability to be dangerous as a receiver, has put Canales in the position of likely having to stick with Dowdle as the starter against the Jets.
He has become the player Tampa Bay running backs coach Skip Peete told Canales about in 2023 after working with Dowdle on the Dallas practice squad.
"He told me this is a guy we needed to take a look at, [saying,] 'You'll love this kid. He's aggressive. He's smart. He's really into it. He's a little bit quiet, a little serious, but he plays the game with passion,''' Canales said.
"Skip was right. He's all those thing.''
Laws knows. Bennett knows.
Leslie Dowdle, who worked three jobs to give her son every chance to succeed, may have known this before anyone.
"When I first had Rico, my dad came to the hospital,'' she said. "When they brought him into the room, he grabbed him and looked at his hands, looked at his feet, and said, 'Baby, you've got something special right here.'
"He gave him the nickname 'Big Daddy.'''
Leslie understood better when she saw her son playing basketball at the age of 4, dribbling up and down the court like someone much older.
Six years later, her son told her one day he would be in the NFL.
It has taken a while, but now the NFL is seeing Dowdle at his best.
"I'm glad he's finally getting the recognition for just how good he is,'' Laws said. "He is such an unbelievable athlete. When he was playing here, there were so many times when I was watching him I would say, 'I can't believe I just saw a guy do that.'
"So I'm not shocked by any of this. None of this surprises any of us up here in the mountains.''