2012 Running Backs

If 2010 was the year of the "White Receiver" with talents like Eric Decker, Jordan Shipley, Riley Cooper, Kerry Meier and others all emerging to get drafted, can this be the breakthrough year for running backs. Since I've been following this site, this maybe the most Whites starting as FBS running backs. So far we have Rex Burkhead, Zach Line, Beau Blankenship, Cody Getz, Zach Laskey, Mark Weisman, Mike Trumpy (sorta), Turner Peterson (sorta) and the Penn St trio of Derek Day, Zach Zwinak and Michael Zordich. Add in the increased number of dual threat quarterbacks and it's been a very successful season thus far.

Freethinker said:

If 2010 was the year of the "White Receiver" with talents like Eric Decker, Jordan Shipley, Riley Cooper, Kerry Meier and others all emerging to get drafted, can this be the breakthrough year for running backs. Since I've been following this site, this maybe the most Whites starting as FBS running backs. So far we have Rex Burkhead, Zach Line, Beau Blankenship, Cody Getz, Zach Laskey, Mark Weisman, Mike Trumpy (sorta), Turner Peterson (sorta) and the Penn St trio of Derek Day, Zach Zwinak and Michael Zordich. Add in the increased number of dual threat quarterbacks and it's been a very successful season thus far.

RK

PLAYER

TEAM

ATT

YDS

YDS/A

LONG

TD

2

Beau Blankenship, RB

OHIO

156

757

4.9

40

5

4

Cody Getz, RB

AFA

83

683

8.2

63

7

8

Jordan Lynch, QB

NIU

85

582

6.8

88

6

T18

Mark Weisman, FB

IOWA

74

515

7.0

44

7

20

Cody Fajardo, QB

NEV

77

513

6.7

49

7

T54

Johnny Manziel, QB

TA&M

52

366

7.0

52

6

59

Taylor McHargue, QB

RICE

67

359

5.4

47

5

62

Zach Line, RB

SMU

75

343

4.6

33

3

82

Zach Laskey, RB

GT

53

303

5.7

56

1

85

Taylor Martinez, QB

NEB

50

298

6.0

92

3

94

Trent Steelman, QB

ARMY

75

290

3.9

25

5

96

Collin Klein, QB

KSU

63

289

4.6

27

5

Click to expand...

Nice list Freethinker!

On the FCS front, Zach Zenner leads the nation at 1,077 yds. in 5 games, 215yds/game, and others to watch Eric Breitenstein/Wofford and Dan Moore/Montana!

I can't find a listing for FCS rushing leaders. Can you?

i saw the below photo today in a story on the vastly underrated Beau Blankenship and wanted to share it. i love it when a White man gives a homeboy a go-to-hell stiffarm.



and since i was posting a photo, i figured i might as well post several other of our guys. enjoy!


Cody Getz


Jordan Lynch


Mark Weisman


Mark Weisman 2


Cody Fajardo


Johnny Manziel


Taylor McHargue


Zach Line


Zach Laskey


Taylor Martinez


Trent Steelman


Collin Klein

Taysom Hill should get include in this list. He can throw the ball like crazy but has a heck of a running game

Montana FB Dan Moore....74 carries for 406 yards (81.2 per game) and 4 TDs (rushing) + 10 catches for 91 yards and a TD.

http://www2.journalnow.com/mgmedia/image/0/354/206031/w0909-appfb-13/

Carolina Speed said:

Nice list Freethinker!

On the FCS front, Zach Zenner leads the nation at 1,077 yds. in 5 games, 215yds/game, and others to watch Eric Breitenstein/Wofford and Dan Moore/Montana!

I can't find a listing for FCS rushing leaders. Can you?

Click to expand...

http://scores.nbcsports.msnbc.com/cfb/leaders.asp?cat=2&lg=999

Also, kudos Jimmy C on the Weisman article and I love these photos of our fellas in action.

Freethinker said:

http://scores.nbcsports.msnbc.com/cfb/leaders.asp?cat=2&lg=999

Also, kudos Jimmy C on the Weisman article and I love these photos of our fellas in action.

Click to expand...

Thanks Freethinker!

So what the heck even happend to Sam Mcguffie? That young mans High School highlights are by far the most electric runs Ive ever seen by a teenager. I thought for sure he would be a beast at rice.

Wes Woodhead said:

So what the heck even happend to Sam Mcguffie? That young mans High School highlights are by far the most electric runs Ive ever seen by a teenager. I thought for sure he would be a beast at rice.

Click to expand...

Good question WW. I was just discussing him the other day and made the same comments, he had the best High School RB highights I've ever seen.

I think he's being used as a receiver at Rice.

Top 75 update

It seems we're having more success with our running backs and dual threat quarterbacks than receivers this year. 3 of the top 5 are White . Also, Cody Getz has 887 yards in only 5 games. The guy in first has played 6.

Both Cody Getz and Beau Blankenship were named to Phil Steele's Mid-season All American Team (4th team). I consider this a huge accomplishment as neither of these guys were on any national media's attention before the season began.

https://www.philsteele.com/All_Conference/2012/2012Midseason/All_American.html

I even saw some mention of Heisman attention for Getz while searching google. Of course, most of it being "if he played at a major program he'd get more votes" but never asking how a talent like that ends up at a service academy.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ng-heisman-attention-if-they-played-elsewhere

I just hope both players can continue their stellar play.

If Getz keeps it up he should at least be in the running for the Doak Walker which wouldn't be a bad thing at all. If he isn't in the running I think this may be the year people start questioning the racial bias towards white players.

The Hartline performance and all the talk of him being deceptively fast seems to have made somewhat of a spark.

Leonardfan said:

If Getz keeps it up he should at least be in the running for the Doak Walker which wouldn't be a bad thing at all. If he isn't in the running I think this may be the year people start questioning the racial bias towards white players.

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Cody Getz was actually named to the Doak Walker watch list this week.

if i'm not mistaken, Beau Blankenship has also been named to the list since the season began.

in his 3rd start (and 4th game) at tailback, Iowa's Mark Weisman ran for his 4th-consecutive 100-yard game.

against the Big Ten's top defense in Michigan State, Weisman (the unheralded, unwanted, formerly 8th-string walk-on) ran for 116 yards and the game-tying touchdown with less than a minute left on 26 carries (4.5 average), with a long of 37.

to make a quick comparison, let's take a look at the other featured back in the game, the highly regarded Le'Veon Bell, who i feel has a very similar build and running style to Weisman. Bell finished the game with 140 yards and 1 touchdown on 29 carries (4.8 average), with a long of 27.

so, the difference between a black All-American candidate and a White walk-on back-up "fullback" is ... ?

After week 13 leaders

It's great to see two of our guys in the top 10! Lynch and Blankenship have both had trendous years. If only Burkhead could have been healthy, he would have been right there too. Now if we can only get a few nfl teams in the future to think outside the box and draft these kids as running backs. Not fullbacks. I'm tired of our guys always blocking while the other guys get all of the glory.

at the FCS level, a couple of White running backs (one a speedster, the other a bruising powerback) dominated the competition and the stat sheets this year.

South Dakota State sophomore Zach Zenner (2,044 rushing yards) and Wofford senior Eric Breitenstein (2,035 rushing yards), who was third in the Walter Payton Award voting, became the second pair of 2,000-yard rushers in an FCS season - Sacramento State's Charles Roberts and New Hampshire's Jerry Azumah first did it in 1998.

both earned All-America honors. Zenner was just a sophomore. Breitenstein was a senior. hopefully, the NFL will take notice.

Cody Getz 6.4 YPC is VERY impressive!

he was mentioned in another thread, but Ohio's Beau Blankenship had a BIG game in the Independence Bowl, finishing with 19 carries for 104 yards and 4 touchdowns. the 4 touchdowns are an Independence Bowl record.

also, it was Blankenship's 9th 100-yard game of the year, which is an Ohio University record. for the season, Beau finished with 1,604 yards and 15 touchdowns on 312 carries (on average of 5.1 yards-per). it was a pretty nice way to end 2012 for him.

here's to another big year for him in 2013. :thumb:

*************************************

coming up in less than an hour, several White athletes should be showcased in the Air Force-Rice matchup in the Armed Forces Bowl. lots of White speedsters will be on the field, including one of the nation's top (and most under-rated) running backs in Cody Getz.

Wes Woodhead said:

Cody Getz 6.4 YPC is VERY impressive!

Click to expand...

Looking forward to seeing him play today


As for Zach Zenner, I was lucky enough to catch a replay of his game against SELA (and of course Kansas), he ran close to 300 yards against Southeastern, he looked amazing. I'm still upset I didn't go, he played only an hour away from where I live. There is no doubt that he has NFL potential, but we will have to see if he will get a shot. He doesn't have a shot to break the rushing record like Woodhead because he wasn't a full time starter at rb his first season. He is listed at a little under 6 foot and 215 pounds, and I would at least 4.4 speed? does anyone know how fast he runs? Its a little harder to tell with FCS guys, but he did have a 99 yarder against Kansas. I haven't seen much of the kid from Wofford.

As far as Beau, he could have gotten another 30 to 40 yards if they didn't take him out in the in the late 3rd quarter with 2:40 to go. They let another guy run and put Beau in for a redzone play to get his 4th td. If he had just stayed in for that drive he could've gotten 30.

Right now we have 3 Whites in the top 25, Lynch is 3rd, Beau is 9th, Line is 23rd. Getz fell to 31st, hopefully he can have a monster day and bump himself up to be top 25, unfortunate some of those guys at the top haven't played yet like Montee Ball so Line will fall below 25.

Its dissapointing that this is the last year for Burkhead, Line and Getz, Burkhead and Line were fun to watch over the years, wish Getz would have gotten the ball more. Hopefully at least one of these guys gets a legit shot in the NFL. Everyone is projecting Line to be a fullback, Getz is said to be too small at 5'7 175, if he could gain 5 pounds he would be the same weight Warrick Dunn was. Rex Burkhead looks to have the best shot. McGuffie should get at least get a shot at wideout with his measurables.

Blankenship has one more year, Zwinak and Weisman have 2, hopefully they both can be feature backs next year, does anybody know of some up and comers besides them?

dwid said:

Blankenship has one more year, Zwinak and Weisman have 2, hopefully they both can be feature backs next year, does anybody know of some up and comers besides them?

Click to expand...

Manfro might get significant carries in a rotation. But I'm guessing he'll be the odd man out at UCLA. He'll start Spring Ball as #3 on the depth chart behind a junior and a fellow sophomore. And, to be honest, he needs to work on his hands a bit.

With Skip Holtz being hired at La Tech, I think it's safe to say that Hunter Lee's career as a runningback are over.

Cam McDaniel should be #2 on the depth chart at Notre Dame, since he was fourth in carries this season and they graduate their #1 and #2. I just don't see it happening with Kelly as Head Coach, though.

Caleb Muncrief will be fighting for third team carries at Oklahoma State, but I like his chances.

Brice Dolezal will enter Spring ball at #3 at TAMU. But... a white running quarterback and a white runningback playing for a black head coach in the SEC? You must be insane if you think this will happen for very many snaps during the season.

Unless I'm mistaken, Hunter Furr has one more season of eligibility left. He will enter the Spring as the #3 returning ball carrier, and, considering how the rest of his career has gone, I imagine he will exit the Spring as the #5 runningback on the roster.

Trumpy's numbers probably won't change, even though I believe he would be Northwestern's best option at runningback. But, since neither Marc nor Colter are graduating, he will continue to lose carries to both of them.

Jeff Woody played his best over the second half of the season for Iowa State. And he'll be a senior. So his carries ought to increase next season. Not exactly an "up and comer", but anything positive for white runningbacks is noteworthy, in my opinion.

Brandon Miller will be a senior for Wyoming. He was their #2 runningback last season, although they sling it around a lot (and run from the QB position). He should continue to contribute heavily in 2013.

Max DeLorenzo was UConn's #2 runningback in 2012. Unfortunately, he's behind a player who will still have two more years of eligibility left, and the Huskies don't give him a breather very often. Unlike others on this forum, I have no problems with hoping for an injury to a negro in order for one of ours to get playing time.

i'll throw out a name that intrigues me, although he's certainly a long shot ...



Purdue true freshman Danny Anthrop is still listed as an "athlete" after playing in 12 games this season, but he's certainly got a chance to be a playmaker on the offensive side of the ball.

the positives for Danny going forward:

- ideal size and speed for the tailback position (6-foot-0, 180-pounds with reported 4.37 speed in the 40 and a personal best of 10.79 in the 100 meters)

- proven playmaking ability on the collegiate level with the ball in his hands as a true freshman; his 8 touches resulted in 2 touchdowns and averaged over 10.3 yards-per-attempt (7 carries for 58 yards and 1 td, 1 catch for 25 yards and 1 td) ... it perhaps goes without saying that he put up HUGE numbers in high school

- 2 of Purdue's top 3 running backs are "graduating," and Danny is bigger and faster than the returning back

- already recognized by his teammates as a playmaker with speed; Danny was voted the team's Special Teams PoY for his coverage skills on kicks and punts

the negatives going forward:

- still could be moved to his "natural" position of wide/slot receiver

- still could be moved to defense at either safety or corner

- is White

all in all, Danny Anthrop is a name i think we should keep in mind.

[video=youtube;eWoNG0kpKIA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWoNG0kpKIA[/video]

Those are some amazing highlights!