Mississippi State Spring Practice Overview: Running Backs
Taking a look at each position group as the Mississippi State Football team gets ready for Spring Practice in 2016.
The Mississippi State Football team has always had a wealth of talent and solid production at the running back position. 2015 was a departure from that norm. If the Bulldogs want to get back to the dominant running game they have shown for so many years, they need to get to work immediately this spring.
Players leaving from the 2015 Mississippi State Football team
- None
2016 Recruiting Class Early Enrollees
- None
2016 Returning Players and 2016 Classification
- Brandon Holloway – Senior
- Ashton Shumpert – Senior
- Bennie Braswell – Junior
- Aeris Williams – Sophomore
- Dontavian Lee – Sophomore
- Nick Gibson – Redshirt Freshman
- Alec Murphy – Redshirt Freshman
2016 Recruiting Class Players on the way
- None
There is one thing for certain for the Mississippi State football team when it comes to running back, they aren’t without options. The Bulldogs have all four players who received carries a season ago and were listed as running back returning to the team in 2016.
The question is will any of them be better than what we saw last season. There are lots of things I can point out about just how bad the Mississippi State football team performed at the running back position. Here is a small sampling.
- The leading rusher last season was Quarterback Dak Prescott
- The leading rusher for running backs was Brandon Holloway who only had 413 yards
- Of the 20 rushing touchdowns scored by Mississippi State football players, only four of them were scored by players listed as running backs.
The one bright side that emerged at the end of the season is it seemed Dan Mullen and the rest of the Mississippi State football coaching staff learned how to effectively use Brandon Holloway. Holloway has blazing speed, but is so small, he gets tackled easily in traffic. The coaching staff began to run lots of running back screens to him out of the back field in place of a traditional running game. He ended up with almost 400 receiving yards to go along with the 413 rushing yards.
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The problem is Brandon Holloway is not supposed to be the primary back for any team. He is best utilized as a change of pace back or third down back. If Holloway continues to be the primary running back throughout games next season, the Mississippi State football team could be in for a long season.
This spring the coaching staff has to get the running backs on the roster ready to compete. Ashton Shumpert looked lost and likely won’t do anything to win the coaches over this spring. If that is the case, then the bulk of the carries have to go to Dontavian Lee or Aeris Williams.
Aeris Williams looked like he was ready at times to emerge as the go to guy. He averaged 5.2 yards per carry last season and scored three touchdowns. The reason he didn’t play more was simply because of a few key fumbles and was not very effective at pass blocking when called upon to do it.
Dontavian Lee looked good during limited carries. Lee only had 22 carries in 2014, but he averaged 6.2 yards per carry. There were whispers about Lee’s mental focus and ability to learn and grasp the offense which caused him to not get any more playing time than he did.
If none of those guys look like they will be able to handle the bulk of the carries, then there are some redshirt freshmen who could get an earlier than expected opportunity. Gibson was a 4 star running back from Alabama and could push the upperclassmen if they don’t get the job done.
The talent is there for the Mississippi State football team. It’s time for the running backs to play up to their potential.