With junior running back Derrius Guice and senior running back Darrel Williams departing for the 2018 NFL Draft, the question of who will fill their void as running back remains to be seen.
Guice and Williams both combined for more than 2,000 rushing yards and 20 TDs last season, and more than 4,700 rushing yards and 48 TDs over the course of their careers. In the 2017 season, Williams caught 23 passes for 331 yards, while Guice caught 18 passes for 124 yards with two receiving TDs. Needless to say, their contributions to the offense cannot be overstated.
Every spring, fans, pundits and sports writers alike attempt to figure out what a football team’s strengths and weaknesses are. In the LSU football team’s case, its strengths has been not only its depth at running back, but also the talent of those running backs.
Names like Leonard Fournette, Jeremy Hill and Charles Scott come to mind when discussing the great running backs that LSU has had of late. But heading into the 2018 season, one of the questions that everyone will be asking is, “Who is starting at running back?”
The answer to that question is certainly not obvious.
Junior Nick Brossette, sophomore Lanard Fournette and freshman Clyde Edwards-Helaire are the only running backs who will be on the 2018 roster who have had at least one rushing attempt in 2017 for the Tigers, with Brossette having the most at 19. The Tigers will also be adding freshman Chris Curry, who, according to 247Sports.com, is one of the top running backs in the class of 2018.
Of all the running backs, Brossette certainly has the most game time experience, having 46 career rushing attempts, an average of 6.7 yards per carry. Although 6.7 YPC is nothing to scoff at, most of those carries were in games against inferior opponents with the outcome of the game already decided for the most part.
With that being said, Brossette was a highly touted recruit coming out of high school, and a possible reason for his limited playing time is that he has been stuck behind the aforementioned Guice, Leonard and Williams, who were all highly productive at the running back position.
In his first season with the Tigers, Edwards-Helaire carried the ball nine times for 31 yards, and caught three passes for 46 yards. Edwards-Helaire was considered one of the top all-purpose backs coming out of high school, and like Brossette, had to compete with Guice and Williams for playing time in the 2017 season. Edwards-Helaire showed good burst and shiftiness returning kicks, and figures to have a prominent role as a pass catcher out of the backfield. However, due to his lack of size at 5-foot-8 and 208 pounds, that will more than likely prohibit him from having a sizable workload as a first and second down back.
After two seasons, Lanard has had only six carries for 20 yards. While Lanard is the younger brother of NFL rookie sensation Leonard, Lanard’s role thus far in his career at LSU has been nothing more than providing depth at the running back position.
Whether or not his role will change next year remains to be seen, but given his limited experience, Lanard will almost certainly remain a reserve/injury fill-in for the 2018 season.
Curry, part of the 2018 signing class, rushed for nearly 3,000 yards in his high school career at Lehigh High School in Florida. Based on his talent, he should have some very meaningful carries for the Tigers in his freshman year. As far as being the starter, that all depends on how much he impresses the coaching staff during spring practices.
In short, it is currrently completely up in the air as to which one of those names will be the first to carry the ball for the Tigers in the season opener against Miami on Sept. 1. And from all of the evidence given, the likely end result will be a running back by committee approach, rather than one true workhorse back in the vein of Guice or Leonard. So to answer the question of “Who is starting at running back?” — well, it more than likely will not matter.