Competition heavy at UC for running back spot

The motto for this year’s running back corps at the University of Cincinnati should be, ‘You can never have too much of a good thing’. UC returns four players at the position who got snaps last season and one redshirt freshman who could contend for snaps this season. The real question right now is who will get to start when the Bearcats take the field on September 7th in Piscataway, and will he get a bulk of the workload?

The four players who saw action at the running back spot for last season’s Bearcat football squad were Jacob Ramsey, John Goebel, Isaiah Pead and Scott Johnson. They combined for 1,596 yards on 434 carries. Goebel and Ramsey got a majority of those carries and yardage. The senior Ramsey carried the ball for 152 times for 664 yards and two touchdowns while the junior Goebel got 133 snaps gaining 607 yards and seven scores.

Late in the season Isaiah Pead—then a true freshman—got his chance to show the UC coaching staff what he could provide. He ran the ball 30 times for 194 yards in seven games.

UC ranked last in the conference in rushing in 2008, and a less than stellar 95th overall in the nation with just over 117 yards per game. The offense averaged 3.6 yards per carry last season.

Kelly made it a point in spring ball to focus on running the football. Often times the spread offense he has employed since becoming Bearcat head man has become reliant on the pass, but Kelly believes that balance will provide this team with an opportunity to repeat as Big East champions.

After one spring practice he told UC beat reporter Bill Koch this: “We’ve got to get guys to stop reading their press clippings on how good they are and get us short yardage runs, too… We’ve got to be tougher. Offensively, we’ve got to be more physical and that’s really been the theme all spring.”

He continued, “It’s the maturation process. They all think they’re Barry Sanders and sometimes you’ve got to be just a grunt and lower your pads. They’re all strong enough. They’re all physical enough. They all bench 350 pounds. It’s just a mind-set. We’re teaching.”

Overall, Kelly was more than impressed with Isaiah Pead and Darrin Williams—who will be coming off a redshirt year—during the fifteen spring practices. He feels they fit his spread system better than Ramsey and Goebel, who were recruited by Mark Dantonio.

That’s not to say that Ramsey and Goebel have not adapted. In fact, during his first year at UC Kelly said Ramsey would be his go to guy midway through the 2007 season.

But, who will he go with this season?

A lot of ‘experts’ and writers feel that either Pead of Williams will get a bulk of the workload. Williams set records at Detroit’s Martin Luther King High School, where he rushed for nearly 6,000 yards during his career.

While that’s impressive, he’s going to have to compete with Goebel, Pead and Ramsey for the starting spot. And, if I’ve learned anything in my two years at UC, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. Kelly might just use all four of them.

We’ll wait and find out who gets a majority of the carries and who gets the start in less than a month when UC begins the defense of the Big East title when they visit Rutgers for a season opening conference matchup.