‘The best man’s gonna play.’ With Benny Snell in the NFL, who leads UK on the ground?
The University of Kentucky last season finished with 508 rushes (excluding sacks) to 296 pass attempts — about two runs for every pass — and it wasn’t accidental; the Cats came into last fall with a new signal-caller and a running back coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.
It would have been silly not to lean on Benny Snell and an experienced group of big men up front as junior-college transfer Terry Wilson found his footing.
“The only thing I could have done last year is screw it up,” said Eddie Gran, UK’s offensive coordinator and running backs coach. “That’s it. We had a brand-new quarterback, we could run the ball, we had a great defense and we played great special teams. If I wanted to rip it around because I wanted (passing) statistics, I wouldn’t be here right now, because that wouldn’t have been very smart.”
The school’s all-time leading rusher is now competing for touches in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ backfield. Wilson was the second-leading rusher with 547 yards, and will continue to be a threat in the run game. But who’s the new leading man?
Most signs point to A.J. Rose, the No. 3 guy in rushing production, as the Wildcats’ starter against Toledo on Aug. 31. Rose, a 6-foot-1, 210-pound junior from Cleveland, Ohio, appeared in every game last year and rushed for 479 yards and five touchdowns. His average yards per carry — 6.2 on 71 attempts — was best among guys with a significant number of attempts last season.
Rose says he’s the starter, but that everyone in the running back room is in a comfortable position heading into fall camp.
“If somebody’s playing better than me or somebody’s doing better, the best man’s gonna play,” Rose said. “And I feel like I’m gonna be the best man at the end of the day, so, you’ll see. We’re all gonna compete, these are my brothers. When you’re on the field, we’re all gonna help each other out. At the end of the day it’s just playing your game, running how you run and taking the reps you get and taking advantage of them.”
After Rose, redshirt freshmen Chris Rodriguez and Kavosiey Smoke will compete immediately for field time. Between them in 2018 they appeared in five games, capitalizing on a new rule allowing players to play in up to four games and still redshirt. Smoke (5-9, 225 pounds) rushed for 45 yards and a TD on four carries; Rodriguez (5-11, 224) had 43 yards on two attempts.
Gran didn’t rule out the possibility of true freshman Travis Tisdale, the only four-star recruit of the bunch, seeing action too (his speed could make him a prime candidate to aid Lynn Bowden in the return game).
Gran referenced 2016, his first season at UK, when addressing what the distribution of carries might look like this season. That season a trio of rushers — Snell, Boom Williams and Jojo Kemp — plus quarterback Stephen Johnson all attempted at least 70 rushes (only 15 touches separated Snell, 186, from Williams, 171, that year).
The staff’s hope though is that, after camp, “the man” emerges.
“If one gets on a roll, you let ‘em go,” Gran said. “ ... I haven’t seen the stamina out of these three yet because they haven’t had that opportunity. We’ll try to push ’em hard in some of these scrimmages we have coming up to see how many they can go in a row and be effective. Benny got better as he went, so we’ll see how these guys go.”
All three of the veteran backs bring something different to the table. Rose boasts the best speed and frame for a heavy workload. Smoke is short, strong and speedy. Rodriguez is more of a bruiser, a quality that’s earned him a positive nickname in the locker room.
“They call me mini Benny sometimes,” Rodriguez said with a laugh.
Saturday
UK football Fan Day
Autograph session: 9-10:15 a.m. at Nutter Field House
Open practice: Joe Craft Football Training Facility practice fields
Free parking: Available in the Blue, Green and Red lots surrounding Kroger Field
This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 5:12 PM.
