Gamecocks know that RB-by-committee can work. Will it?

COLUMBIA — The question isn’t if a running-back tandem can work. College football is littered with examples that it can, from Glenn Davis and (Bishopville’s own) Doc Blanchard each winning a Heisman at West Point in the 1940s to Georgia’s parade of overlapping tailbacks since 2010.
The question is if South Carolina this season can find a way to make it work when the running backs don’t have a lot of experience, and one back expected to start this season has spent the past three seasons playing receiver.
“The SEC, you play 12 of the most physical games in college football. You need more than one (back),” new offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said. “You’re going to get dinged and nicked up. Now it’s playing to the strengths of the next guy, making sure you’re doing what they do well as long as it ties into the offensive line and the quarterback.”
Loggains knows how well a multiple-back offense can run. With the Tennessee Titans in 2009, they boasted Chris Johnson, who became one of the eight immortals in the NFL’s 2,000-yard club, and LenDale White, who with Reggie Bush at Southern Cal created one of the most devastating duos in college history.
Loggains also played at Arkansas from 2000-03, where he only missed the Razorbacks’ line-busting tandem of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones by a couple of seasons (and Peyton Hillis added a third option to the GroundHogs). Every team needs at least three running backs they can rotate, especially in the SEC, where not many get through a season without at least one hard knock.
As he took the USC job, Loggains began to look around. He has individuals — Juju McDowell has 467 career rushing yards in two seasons and sixth-year athlete Dakereon Joyner, converted from wideout, has 325, albeit with much of it from a Wildcat quarterback position.
Mario Anderson? Rushed for 1,560 yards last year, at Division II Newberry. Bradley Dunn? A walk-on in his fourth year with the Gamecocks who rushed twice for 4 yards in his one career game — in 2021. DJay Braswell? A true freshman rated one of the Top 20 running backs in the country.
It’s a luxury to have two stellar running backs, like SMU’s famed 1980s “Pony Express” backfield of Eric Dickerson and Craig James, or USC’s own late 1970s-early 1980s duo of George Rogers and Johnnie Wright. The first time the Gamecocks ever had a 1,000-yard rusher was in 1975 before Rogers and Wright, and then it was two in the same year — Kevin Long and Clarence Williams.
What USC this year is trying to figure out is if it has two backs it can depend on, which it first has to find out if it has one. It’s the most important question to answer when preseason camp commences on Aug. 4, and will be one that may not be fully answered until the regular season ends on Nov. 25.
“It can work. Take a few teams that have done that, a few teams that we play — Tennessee, Georgia, Clemson,” said running backs coach Montario Hardesty, who split carries while he was a Tennessee running back with Arian Foster, Lennon Creer and Bryce Brown. “Running back always sorts itself out, so I would love to have a starter and then guys that complement him. In camp it’s an open competition.”
Gamecocks' Shane Beamer credits special-teams work for rise to head
Hardesty spoke of how impressed he’s been with Dunn and Braswell in offseason work, although he was quick to remind himself that he has to see them in pads. It certainly seems that it will be Joyner and McDowell to lead the group, at least to start camp.
Joyner is listed as having put on 14 pounds since last season in preparation for his new role, while McDowell has lost nine pounds. The Gamecocks’ coaches have all said that they value McDowell’s contributions as slot receiver, kick returner and change-of-pace offensive weapon. For those reasons, combined with his slight frame, they can’t ask him to plunge into the line 10 times per game, much less 20. That seemingly targets Joyner as the lead guy.
“I think by committee, their skill sets complement each other,” Hardesty said. “I would love to have one of those guys step up and be the guy.”
If Shane Beamer is concerned, he isn’t showing it, although he echoed Loggains in saying the position does not have the depth they’d prefer. That doesn’t mean it can’t work.
“Certainly that’s a position that takes a pounding as the year goes on, and you need more than one. Each game is different and sometimes you get into a game and in one particular game, one particular running back gets hot,” Beamer said. “You ride that guy and keep going. We got to do a great job developing who we have.”
The role of “starting running back” is unidentified and even when it is revealed on Sept. 2 in Charlotte, it may change by the next game. It’s not the ideal situation, but it’s reality for the Gamecocks.
“Can it work? Yes,” Loggains said. “There’s still some things we need to learn about our roster. There are some that I feel really good about. There’s a couple of unknowns.”
He’s stepping into a season, his first coordinating a college offense, with an unknown at the spot that gave the SEC its reputation. The Gamecocks feel they’ll be able to run the ball, if it’s one man rushing 20 times and the rest doing what they can, or constantly dividing the carries in increments of twos and threes throughout the game.
Much to figure out this month. And the following months could feature more figuring.
Follow David Cloninger on Twitter at @DCPandC
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Season Opener
Who: South Carolina vs. North Carolina
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 2
Where: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte
TV: ABC
Records: Season-opener for each
Line: North Carolina by 2