UW Football Primer: Newton Has RB Job All to Himself, Which Could Be a Good Thing

Richard Newton did everything for the Washington football team as a redshirt freshman running back except pull a starting assignment, backing up junior Salvon Ahmed.

It was only a matter of time.

In fact, some suggest that Ahmed made a wise move by leaving early for the NFL draft -- because the speedster might have had difficulty holding off Newton the second time around and retaining his No. 1 back status.

This is another in a series of profiles on prospective UW football starters. While spring practice is in question because of the novel coronavirus outbreak, Husky Maven/Sports Illustrated will provide uninterrupted coverage.

Now a sophomore, Newton showed himself to be more of a hellbent, physical runner than Ahmed, who tended to tiptoe his way through the hole, always trying to break the long gainer.

To be fair, these two backs complemented each other's skills with Newton coming off the bench to share the team lead in touchdowns with Ahmed, both backs scoring 11 times last season. They also complimented each other's talents.

"I see Rich running and I'm like, "I need to run harder,' " Ahmed said.

The starting job now belongs to the 6-foot, 210-pound Newton, who hails from Palmdale, California, and recently changed his number from 28 to 6. Six, as in touchdown-maker?

He was somewhat of an unknown to Huskies fans when the 2019 season began because he sat out his first college season to have shoulder surgery and missed half of his senior high school season with injuries. He plays hard.

"He was so dang violent," Erik Nichols, Newton's Palmdale High coach, told othe Seattle Times. "We often worried about him at practice being so dang violent."

The UW saw enough potential in Newton to sign him away from suitors such as Purdue, Utah, California, Washington State and Nevada, according to 247sports.com.

He quickly introduced himself to everyone in last year's UW opener against Eastern Washington by scoring on a 23-yard run and finishing with 91 yards rushing to lead the Huskies.

Newton scored three times against Hawaii, twice against BYU and two more against Washington State in the Apple Cup.

All along, he was doing starter things.

SUMMARY: The newcomer ran 117 times for 498 yards in 10 games. Mixed with all those touchdowns, it wasn't a bad debut. The versatile back scored 10 times on the ground, caught a TD pass and even threw for a score against Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl. Hey, the Huskies need a quarterback, don't they?

GRADE (1 to 5): Newton gets a 4, a high mark considering he hasn't been a starter yet and his rambunctious style makes him prone to injury. He missed three games last season with a foot injury. If Newton can stay healthy, this violent runner should have big year and career ahead of him as the lead back. As the starter.