Just a little something for us to talk about. It's going to be a long off-season.

With Jones, Wales and Mathers all leaving, there will be some new names atop the conference running back leaders board in 2017. For ODU, Ray Lawry (1,255 yds) and Jeremy Cox (732 yds) combined for 13 yards shy of 2,000 rushing yards last year, and both should have another good year. Other than Ito Smith and Jalen Rhodes, I don't have a clear picture of who else will be back next year from other conference teams to join the race at the top of the board.

Who else is coming back or is a new running back arrival that could be expected to be one of the conference leaders, and does anyone else think they have a better running back tandem than Lawry and Cox?

Both of ours come back.

Shane Tucker will be back for MT after redshirting this past year with an injury. He was on the Doak Walker Award watch list. He did move to WR but could be back at RB since Mathers is gone.

Ferby/Baker/Trigg for us, with some whispers about an Allen reappearance possible!

You could make an argument that Lawry is the 2nd best back when healthy, but that argument really means nothing. He is the top RB coming back and Jeremy Cox is also a really good RB. If you must take 2 RBs, they are clearly the top of the list.

Singletary and whoever the backup is will be a tough tandem bc Singletary alone is very good.

The LT tandem is very good, but will be interesting to see how they work if the QB play takes a step down.

The North Texas duo seems to be pretty underrated.

Ito Smith is very good.

Im sure Western Kentucky can find a couple good running backs that are probably on the roster now.

LA Tech's Jarred Craft (6-1, 213) carried the ball 191 times for 1,074 yards (5.6 yd avg) and 9 TD's, including a long run of 70 yds as a junior in 2016. He also caught 42 passes for 342 yards (8.1 avg) and 4 more TD's, with a long of 30.

LA Tech's Boston Scott (5-6, 199) carried the ball 70 times for 515 yds (7.4 yd avg) and 6 TD's, including a long run of 71 yds as a junior in 2016. He also caught 11 passes for 125 yds.

Both return for 2017.

(01-03-2017 12:28 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  The LT tandem is very good, but will be interesting to see how they work if the QB play takes a step down.

After the job Tim Rattay did with Ryan Higgins, I'm not terribly concerned about our QB position.

(01-03-2017 06:33 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  

(01-03-2017 12:28 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  The LT tandem is very good, but will be interesting to see how they work if the QB play takes a step down.

After the job Tim Rattay did with Ryan Higgins, I'm not terribly concerned about our QB position.

I wouldn't be majorly concerned, but replicating what Higgins just did would be really difficult. Especially without Henderson and Taylor.

DJ Law & AJ Brooks

Our one/two will be back also.

Gonna be Hamrick and Doc if they give us another POS season like last year. Run right out of town.

I think Ito is the best back in the league, but I'm biased. Just watching him play every Saturday is an absolute privilege. That said, I think we could upgrade our #2 back. Payne has flashed occasionally, but doesn't see holes and only runs physical about half the time.

Robert Washington & Ben Lemay should be a strong combo for Charlotte.

(01-06-2017 01:46 AM)Eagle9 Wrote:  I think Ito is the best back in the league, but I'm biased. Just watching him play every Saturday is an absolute privilege. That said, I think we could upgrade our #2 back. Payne has flashed occasionally, but doesn't see holes and only runs physical about half the time.

I really hope that Brooks will recover from his injury and be back to what he was. In the spring game that guy was electric.

(01-06-2017 01:46 AM)Eagle9 Wrote:  I think Ito is the best back in the league, but I'm biased. Just watching him play every Saturday is an absolute privilege. That said, I think we could upgrade our #2 back. Payne has flashed occasionally, but doesn't see holes and only runs physical about half the time.

You may well be correct on Ito being the best in the league. He has been just flat out impressive every time I have watched him play. I think it is pretty close between him and Lawry. If RL stays healthy all year long, he will put together some really good stats, even sharing the ball with Cox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLesEtXwCQs

(01-06-2017 01:46 AM)Eagle9 Wrote:  I think Ito is the best back in the league, but I'm biased. Just watching him play every Saturday is an absolute privilege. That said, I think we could upgrade our #2 back. Payne has flashed occasionally, but doesn't see holes and only runs physical about half the time.

Ito is good. Lawry, if he would have stayed healthy, might have been a threat for the all time leader in rushing yards. His career average is 6.2 ypc, which is 4th all time in CUSA. The guys above him will finish with significantly less carries. Wilder also doesn't want to put the wear and tear of 25-30 carries a game on him and doesn't need to with Cox. He needs 1,341 yards to be the 3rd leading rusher in CUSA history behind DeAngelo and Kevin Smith.