Will Missouri football running backs go by committee? Coach compares transfers to former duo

Missouri football running backs coach Curtis Luper has seen something like this before.

In a meeting with coaches during spring camp, he told the media, he said that the Tigers’ new transfer-portal additions at running back, Marcus Carroll and Nate Noel, stirred a memory of a duo he’d coached before.

“(They) remind me of Tyler Badie and Larry Rountree in 2020,” Luper said of the Tigers’ backfield that season. “When Larry played, and Larry was 218 pounds and Tyler was 195-ish, and they were a good compliment. So physically, (Carroll and Noel) would remind you of those two.”

The Tigers would surely take that.

Rountree rushed for 972 yards and 14 touchdowns his senior season. Badie had 575 yards from scrimmage and six scores before taking over as starter in Rountree’s absence in 2021 and amassing 1,934 yards from scrimmage.

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Missouri also wouldn’t turn up its nose at one of its running backs taking the backfield by the horns, like the player they’re tasked with replacing.

Cody Schrader, the storied running back who set the Tigers’ single-season rushing record last season en route to a 11-2 campaign, is off to the NFL. Luper has been fielding calls, and is sure a team or two will be sniffing come April.

Back in Columbia, as the Tigers approach the end of spring camp, which will wrap up with their open-to-the-public spring game on Saturday on Faurot Field, Luper needs to figure out how to replace the lost production.

Carroll, a Georgia State transfer and an All-Sun Belt first-team selection last season, checks into the Tigers’ camp at 5-foot-10, 210 pounds and on the back of a 1,300 rushing-yard, 13-touchdown 2023 campaign.

Oct 19, 2022;…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/missouri-football-running-backs-committee-080109184.html

Author : Columbia Daily Tribune

Publish date : 2024-03-13 08:01:09

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