Cross’ absence leaves the running back spot open and up for grabs
The Aggies thought they had it made last year when they landed Marcus Cross.
Cross was supposed to be the answer for the Aggies at the tailback spot for the next few years, but it wouldn’t end up that way.
After his first season at USU, Cross transferred, leaving USU without a starting tailback.
“Right now there’s a lot of competition,” running backs coach Shaun Johnson said. “There’s about four guys in the mix right now at that position. Competition will go all the way through the end of spring. We’ll probably make a decision at the end of spring practices.”
Johnson said the four players include Aaron Lesue, Derrvin Speight, Curtis Marsh and Jacob Actkinson.
Lesue, who transferred from Dixie State, played wide receiver last year for the Aggies and saw some time at tailback toward the end of last season. Speight is a red-shirt freshman from Irving, Texas, Marsh is a transfer from the Naval Academy Prepatory School, and Actkinson – who also plays fullback – is a freshman from Grapevine, Texas.
These four will battle it out to see who will get a chance replace Cross, who led the team in rushing last year with 650 yards and three rushing touchdowns.
But Johnson said the Aggies may not be looking for just one guy to carry the load.
“Right now, I wouldn’t say we’re looking for a feature back,” he said. “We’re looking for somebody that’s going to step up right now and take it and run with it … In this style of offense and this system, you’re not going to be able to hang your hat on one running back.”
The system Johnson speaks of is new Offensive Coordinator Darrell Dickey’s prolific running game. In his coaching career, Dickey has had two backs lead the NCAA in rushing.
Lesue is excited by the opportunity to play in Dickey’s offense. He sees it as an opportunity to step up and contribute a lot to the team from the running back spot.
However, an increased workload is one thing that could be a concern, especially since the running backs, as a whole, aren’t a big group. Johnson said they are a smaller, “scat-back-style” group, with Actkinson being the biggest at 6 feet, 217 pounds.
“One man can’t do the whole thing,” Speight said. “A tandem is really important.”
Lesue agreed. He said a running back by committee approach would allow the running backs to share the beatings and successes.
Johnson said although they are smaller, all the backs can catch the ball well out of the backfield. This is a plus because the ball can be dumped off to them and let them create in the open field, he added.
Besides being smaller, the group is young too – Lesue is the only upperclassman.
Speight isn’t worried too much about his transition though. He played high school football in Texas, which he said prepared him for college. The only adjustment Speight said he had to make was to the faster speed of the college game.
Lesue is also making a transition.
Although he carried the ball 16 times for 51 yards last year, he spent most of his time as a wide receiver. But Lesue said the transition to running back has been perfectly smooth. He said running back is his natural position, and when Coach Brent Guy asked him which position he’d rather play, he jumped at the chance to play running back.
“Running back is kind of where my heart is,” he said.
Johnson said he feels like Lesue’s transition to tailback is going well. He is also pleased with the level of play of all the backs, and said they have had a lot of success running the ball this spring.
“We’re on a pretty good pace, and I think we’ll keep getting better each practice, and that’s what our goal is,” he said.
Lesue said it was good to have someone else to compete with, so they could push each other.
Johnson sees this happening too.
“The good thing about this is there’s a lot of competition at that position, and everybody’s giving 100 percent effort and everybody’s turning heads,” he said. “It takes the level of that position to another notch, and takes their practice ability to another notch. It allows them to know that, ‘I’m one play away from possibly being the starter or one play away from not being the starter.'”
Everyone seems optimistic that the competition this spring will pay off in the long run.
“It’ll be a battle, and hopefully we will find somebody to man that position going into the fall,” Johnson said.
Although it hasn’t been decided yet who will step up and fill that position, Lesue said he has confidence the running backs will impress a few people.
“Honestly, this fall I think we’ll make some people turn their heads, look twice, you know,” he said.
-dabake@cc.usu.edu