It's hard to argue with much when a team goes 12-1 and comes within a lucky last-second play of going undefeated during the regular season as well as having a chance to play for the national title.That is unless you play in the backfield at the University of Texas, where high production at running back is an expectation. The Longhorns, relying heavily on a group of inexperienced running backs, didn't put up the kind of running numbers that have become commonplace in Austin, where immortals like Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams once did their work.
Junior running back Vondrell McGee knows that this season the running back corps will have to make considerable strides to quiet detractors who insist the Longhorns ground attack has fallen off.
"I think every year we have something to prove because there are always doubters out there that say 'Texas can't do this, Texas can't do that' and of course they are saying 'Texas can't run the ball right now,' " McGee said to FanHouse. "So we are just working hard in the offseason to try to step up our game and just get better every day and work hard at competing against each other to make each other better."
That's because the Longhorns' backs certainly don't want a repeat of last season, when quarterback Colt McCoy pulled a Vince Young and led the ground attack with 561 yards and was the only member in the backfield to have 100 carries, with much of his run production coming primarily on scrambles in the spread attack. McGee led the Longhorns backs, who use to take 1,000-yard rushing seasons for granted, with 376 yards on 88 carries.
Texas played primarily with a trio of backs, but only twice during the season did a Longhorn running back produce a 100-yard game.
"If it wins games, we don't mind," running back Fozzy Whittaker said to FanHouse as he laughed at the memory of McCoy leading the Longhorns' ground attack last season. "But we are looking to bring that up a little bit more this year."
Second-year running backs coach Major Applewhite cautions, however, that focusing strictly on the modest rushing numbers that saw UT average just 167.5 yards per game isn't seeing the entire story of last season.
With an experienced quarterback and a couple of quality receivers, the Longhorns became a passing team. And it nearly worked to their advantage, with McCoy finishing as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy. And were it not for a lucky play by Texas Tech, Texas might have ended up in its second BCS national title game under Mack Brown.
The UT running backs did their jobs in the framework of Greg Davis' offense, in that they became capable pass blockers against a myriad of blitz packages and they didn't turn the ball over once.
"We were a pass first team and those guys did a great job as far as keeping the quarterback off his back," said Applewhite, a former UT quarterback. "When you have a guy like Colt, people aren't going to sit there in zone and let you pick them apart. They are going to blitz you, they are going to play man, they are going to bring something they haven't shown on film. We saw that every week."They [the running backs] did a great job with that. Colt was so efficient throwing the ball, we were so good at catching the ball last year with Jordan [Shipley] and Quan [Cosby]. That's the way we were moving the ball up and down the field so we had to keep our quarterback off his back. So from that standpoint, I thought they did an excellent job."
It's understood the Longhorns will have to make a dramatic improvement running the ball this season if they seriously hope to compete for a national title. Their inability to effectively run and possess the football was probably what stood between them and the BCS title game last season.
Had the Longhorns been able to eat up critical clock time with their ground attack against Tech's quick-strike offense, they would have likely ran the table and won the Big 12 championship game for the right to play Florida in the BCS game.
This season, Texas has a trio of experienced backs in McGee, Whittaker and Cody Johnson, along with a couple promising youngsters in Jeremy Hills and Tre' Newton (son of Dallas Cowboys great Nate Newton). But the real stud could be incoming freshman man-child Chris Whaley, whose mature 6-foot-3, 240-pound physique has most believing the Army All-American can make a immediate impact in the Longhorns' backfield.
While Applewhite and the rest of the coaching staff have yet to observe Whaley in any type of practice setting, there certainly seems to be willingness to allow the freshman to quickly prove himself.
"We are going to give everybody an opportunity to go in there and see where they are," Applewhite said. "He's going to get reps in fall camp. He's going to get a lot of scrimmage reps to get use to getting hit.
"When you come in at 6 feet, 240 pounds, you're not really waiting on your body to catch up."
And as if timing isn't everything, the Longhorns have assembled am impressive stable of backs at a time in which Brown and Davis are vowing the Longhorns will return to their power downhill running ways. Johnson and Whaley can be huge assets as straight ahead runners while McGee and Whittaker can provide enough speed and shiftiness to be nice "change of pace" runners.
"That's what Greg Davis is," Applewhite said of Davis' return to more of a downhill running game. "If you look at Greg Davis' career, he has not been a three or four wide, spread it all the time guy over the span of his career. Most of his stuff has dealt with two backs, sometimes one back. He's always done what he needed to do to win games. He shaped that offense around Chris [Simms] and I and he took it in a totally different direction when Vince came in and then he took the run game down a couple notches when Colt came in.
"Now you have Garrett Gilbert coming in [next year] and he may not be as fleet of foot as Colt ... What [Davis] has always done and what I've always appreciated about him as a coach is he has his base two-back offense from the I-formation and he has built his offense from there and expanded it. We haven't gotten too far from shore, if you know what I mean. So we've been able to get back to base principles of our two-back game that we've carried back into our one-back sets throughout the last five or six years with Vince and Colt."
The idea of the running backs getting more opportunities to run the football ball sounds exciting to McGee. He believes the horses are there to consistently move the ball on the ground maybe unlike last season.
"Personally, I think [the running game] is going to shape up real good because we have a lot of guys who can do a lot of different things and bring a lot of different things to the table that a lot of teams don't have," McGee said. "We have a variety of backs we can chose from to put in the game when we need certain things done. So I think it's going to turn out good this season."
If the spring was any indication, the Longhorns might have a lot to be excited about. McGee looked the best, not missing any reps due to injury. Whittaker, who was plagued by injuries last season, showed some spectacular ability as did Johnson, before a hamstring injury derailed his spring after 12 practices.
Newton and Hills also both had their moments, though the experience of the veteran three offered the separation.
"This season is looking very exciting," said Whittaker, who gained just 284 yards in seven games last season. "Hopefully I will get on the field a lot more and play a little bit more. We're hoping to make things better than they were last year, go undefeated and possibly win a national championship this year."
Some believe that will only be possible if one of the running backs steps up and takes control of the job. One established running back, however, doesn't seem to be a major concern of the UT coaching staff.
Applewhite believes the biggest key is optimizing the abilities of all their running backs, whether it be running the ball, catching either out of the backfield, or spread out and blocking in pass protection. If that requires the Longhorns to implore a stable of backs then so be it.
McGee and Whittaker might be the most versatile of the backs, able to effectively run inside and outside while also possessing enough passing receiving skills lineup at wideout and catch the ball out of the backfield. Johnson, who moved from fullback to tailback last season, is a pure power runner.
"There is a little bit of a roll with it depending on what you hear in the game, but we are not opposed to someone taking the reigns and saying it's my position," Applewhite said. "That's up to them. That's the way it's always been for me as a competitor, it's usually up to the competitor as to who plays the most, not the coach. The player has to separate himself."
