Carrying the load

Darren McFadden’s carry total has been the subject of many conversations around these parts. Last Saturday, in Arkansas’ 41-38 loss to Alabama, he rushed 33 times for 195 yards. On the weekly SEC teleconference Wednesday, some of the coaches sounded off on how they use their running backs.

Here is what Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville had to say:

It would be almost impossible to start a Herschel Walker or a Bo Jackson at the beginning of a 12-game regular season and say we are going to run 25 times. You’d have to be awfully lucky for them not to miss one, two, three games or possibly more.

Tuberville has a reputation of using more than one running back. Remember when he had Ronnie Brown, Cadillac Williams and Brandon Jacobs — three current NFL starters — in the same backfield? Tuberville’s philosophy is to split the workload. Arkansas coach Houston Nutt also subscribes to that idea. But he has consistently had one running back handle the lion share of the carries (Chrys Chukwuma, Cedric Cobbs, Fred Talley, DeCori Birmingham).

Filed under: Arkansas Football, SEC Football by Rainer Sabin. Posted on: September 20, 2007 at 11:50 am