Running Back Rotation Still a Work in Progress for Louisville
(Photo of Hassan Hall: Winslow Townson - USA TODAY Sports)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Over the first two years of the Scott Satterfield era, the Louisville football program featured an explosive rushing attack. Over the course of 24 games between 2019 and 2020, the Cardinals ran for 4,971 total yards - or 207.1 per game.
The primary catalyst for this production was Javian Hawkins. He burst onto the scene in 2019, rushing for 1,525 yards to break Howard Stevens' single-season school rushing record by a running back, then followed that up by adding 822 more yards in 2020 before opting out of the remainder of the season.
The issue now, as Louisville heads into the 2021 season, is that Hawkins is no longer an option. The speedy back declared for the NFL midway through last season, and signed with the Atlanta Falcons as an undrafted free agent.
So where do the Cardinals go from here? Well, they might not have a clone of Hawkins at their disposal, but they do some some solid options. There's Jalen Mitchell, who averaged 6.7 yards per carry in five games last year. Hassan Hall, who has averaged 96.2 all-purpose yards per game in his career. Maurice Burkley, who got the starting nod after Hawkins opted out before suffering a lower body injury.
Throw in true freshman Trevion Cooley and Syracuse transfer Jawhar Jordan, and Louisville has a nice running backs room to work with. But with the 2021 season-opener vs. Ole Miss now less than four weeks away, what will their approach at this position be? Feature back? Two-man or three-man rotation? A complete running back by committee?
If you ask running backs coach De'Rail Sims, he doesn't care what approach they take. The only thing that matters to him, is that it results in a victory.
"Whatever it takes to win a game. That's the number one deal," he said after day five of fall camp. "If it takes three to win the game, if it takes four to five to win the game, whatever it takes so we're staying fresh. We'll do whatever it takes to win the ballgame."
Sims and the rest of the Louisville coaching staff are in no rush to get the running back rotation hammered. Roughly one week into fall camp, they still don't know whether they want to utilize a workhorse approach in games, or have a rotation of all the backs on the roster. In fact, they won't come to that conclusion until camp is in the books.
"At the end of it, Coach (Scott) Satterfield will have the final call on that, from what sees fit in terms of who was 1a, and then what kind of role from that standpoint," Sims said. "You let this thing play out as we go through fall camp, and then we go from there.
The main competition for the 'starter' role is likely coming between Mitchell and Hall, but there is far from a contentious relationship between the two. During practice, they feed and vibe off of one another, and are constantly lifting each other up.
"Every single day, I'm going at (Hall), he's going at me. He knows that it's just a competition, and I want to see him succeed as much as I want to see myself succeed," Mitchell said. "Last year he had a few hiccups, but he's more focused and ready to go.
While it's likely Louisville will opt to go for a two-man rotation between Mitchell and Hall, it's equally as likely they could expand that rotation to include Burkley, Cooley, Jordan, or even walk-on converted wide receiver Greg Desrosiers. If they do go this route, Sims believes it could give Louisville a long-term competitive advantage by not subjecting one or two guys to absorb most of the season's wear and tear.
"When the defense is tired in the third and fourth quarter, and you got horses coming at them with fresh legs, it's hard for them to stop. That's a lot of times where you see the explosive plays come from," he said. "If you got multiple guys in the room, at some point in time, somebody's gonna get dinged up, and the next guy is able to come in and the offense does not take a step back."
With so many weapons at their disposal, Louisville has the difficult task of allocating practice reps to all the backs on the roster, while at the same time getting them the reps needed to properly determine their place in the rotation. fortunately for Sims, he has experience in this area thanks to his previous coaching stops.
"I've usually had this many backs in terms of guys that's able to play, and able to push each other," he said. "Everybody gets in reps in practice, and we grade everything from a running back standpoint of seeing how guys are doing, then we kind of chart that. We'll get through the scrimmages, and then see where we're at.
Louisville will start the 2021 season against Ole Miss in the annual Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Game, down at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. Kickoff is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 6 at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN.
You can follow Louisville Report for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:
Facebook - @LouisvilleOnSI
Twitter - @LouisvilleOnSI
Instagram - @louisville_report
You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @GeneralWasp on Twitter
