Looking back at his final four games of the 2006 season, it appeared LSU sophomore running back Keiland Williams was well on his way to earning a starting job in the Tigers’ backfield this season. In his final four appearances this past season, the Lafayette native carried the ball 53 times for 307 yards and five touchdowns. Williams did not play against Ole Miss on Nov. 18, 2006. “Last year I wasn’t too sure about my role,” Williams said. “The last four games when I did get an opportunity to play, I wasn’t sure what kind of role I was going to play. I just wanted to go in there and do well.” Those late-season appearances include a combined 121 rushing yards and two touchdowns at Tennessee and Arkansas, and a 107-yard, two touchdown outing in LSU’s 41-14 thrashing of Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl. Despite not playing in four of LSU’s 13 games, Williams finished the 2006 season with 436 rushing yards, four yards behind senior Jacob Hester’s team-leading total of 440. In addition to Williams and Hester, three other Tiger running backs, sophomore Charles Scott and the departed Alley Broussard and Justin Vincent, finished the season with more than 200 yards on the ground. LSU’s running back by committee approach has proven to be successful the past two seasons, but Hester has been the anchor of that attack this year. That is something Williams said he has no problems with. “The other guys, we don’t really know how many carries or how many touches we’re going to get in a game,” Williams said. “We just try to make the most of it and do the best with whatever we get.” Williams is second on the team this season with 307 rushing yards, but recently his attempts have decreased dramatically. He carried the ball nine times for 46 yards against Florida on Oct. 6. But in the three games since, Williams has only five carries for 35 yards. He rushed three times for 24 yards this past Saturday against Alabama and is averaging seven yards per carry this season. LSU coach Les Miles said there are a number of factors the coaching staff considers when deciding how to divide carries between the Tigers’ non-starting tailbacks. “Sometimes it’s freshness, sometimes it’s hot hand, sometimes it’s how a guy did in practice that week,” Miles said. “It’s not as cut and dry as ‘This guy does this. This guy does that.’ Williams, in my opinion, had a pretty good week and saw some playing time based on it.” Williams said he does not think his recent low number of carries is based on practice performance. “I think it was just how the plays were scripted and the game plan,” he said. LSU’s ground attack game plan has been effective this season. The Tigers trail only Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference in rushing yards per game, averaging 209 yards per contest. LSU’s 24 rushing touchdowns this season rank No. 3 in the conference behind Arkansas and Florida. This past season, the Tigers averaged 167 rushing yards per contest and scored 25 touchdowns on the ground. One reason for the Tigers’ rushing success has been the variety of strengths each back possesses. “Hester and Scott are more downhill runners,” Williams said. “[Redshirt freshman Richard] Murphy and myself, the coaches try to get us around the edge to hopefully spring some big plays.” LSU running backs coach Larry Porter said the coaching staff’s goal is to utilize certain players’ strengths in certain situations. “We try to rotate guys based on that,” Porter said. That rotation has favored Hester this season. Williams, Scott and Murphy have combined for 104 carries this season compared to Hester’s 129 rushes. Despite the discrepancy in carries and rushing opportunities, Williams maintained his goal the rest of the season will be to make the most out of however many chances he gets. “If I touch the ball one time and break 50 yards for a touchdown and that’s all I get for the rest of the game, then I’m satisfied with that,” he said.
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