Bulldogs will utilize running-back-by-committee approach
Louisiana Tech will be forced to pivot at the running back position not even two weeks into the season but is ready to watch young faces take advantage of their moment.
With Marquis Crosby, the team’s returning starting running back and leading rusher in Conference USA (918 yards, 9 TD) last season, and Miami- Ohio transfer Tyre Shelton sidelined in Saturday vs. FIU due to injury, Tech had to hand the ball off to redshirt junior Charvis Thornton and a rotating cast of true freshmen.
Thronton looked solid to start, rushing 8 times for 51 yards in a quarter of action.
But the bad luck continued for the Bulldog tailbacks, as Thornton exited the game after the first quarter and emerged on the sideline with a boot on his left foot.
The next rung on the ladder led to true freshmen Keith Willis Jr. and Jacob Fields, the latter being a defensive back converted to tailback in fall camp, leading the ground game.
Willis rushed for 32 yards on 11 carries while Fields made his one carry count on a 30-yard rushing touchdown to give Tech the eventual 22-17 win.
That’s a lot to sort through one game into the season, but the Bulldogs expect their young running back talent to run toward the light, not from it as the team heads on the road to SMU this weekend.
“Keldric Moody is taking some reps; with Jacob and Keith, I think it’s pretty much an open competition,” Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie said Tuesday. “Dyson Fields just joined us a couple weeks ago from Ruston High. He’s a talented young man and really just hasn’t been with us long enough to get into the flow, but he’s done some good things too. It’ll be by committee and who has the hot hand, and really who has the best week of practice.”
Tech overcame its deficit and defeated FIU to start the season, but it ran 39 times for 114 yards, good for a 2.9 average.
Take away Thornton, who Cumbie said, along with Crosby, will “probably be a game time decision,” vs SMU, the Bulldogs would have finished with 31 carries for 63 yards (2 ypc).
And while the injuries have limited Tech’s offensive potential early on, Cumbie and his staff prepared for contingences.
“We talked at the beginning of fall camp, and the players say it and I think they’ve seen it come to fruition at that position, ‘threes become twos, fours become threes and twos becomes ones very quickly,’” Cumbie said. “And that’s where the importance of your depth and competition and Coach Veal has done a phenomenal job of teaching the running backs, all of the running backs.”
