What happens if more than one Tech running back is injured?
The weakest position on the Red Raider offense in 2019 might turn out to be the one that new offensive coordinator David Yost wants to lean most heavily on, the running backs. Last year at Utah State, Yost gave his running backs more than 100 more carries than Kliff Kingsbury gave his.
So if Yost wants a 50/50 split between the run and the pass (he ran the ball 18 times more than he threw it last year), Tech’s running backs will be carrying a heavier load than they have in any season since the Spike Dykes era in the 1990s. That leads us to question whether or not Tech has the necessary depth to fully implement Yost’s system.
There are only six running backs on the roster. Senior grad transfer Armand Shyne, sophomore Ta’Zhawn Henry, and redshirt freshman SaRodorick Thompson are the ones expected to do virtually all the work on the ground for the Red Raiders this season.
Aside from the fact that combined, that trio has run for just 1,331 yards in their careers, we must ask what will happen if two of these players sustain injuries. Given that running backs are exposed to as much of a pounding as any position group on the field, we can expect this trio to suffer some attrition this fall.
Last year, no Red Raider running back played in all 12 games. But because there were five scholarship running backs on the roster, Tech was in a better position to absorb those injuries. And given that Kingsbury preferred to throw the ball, running back depth was not as huge of a concern.
But if Tech finds itself down two running backs at any point this year, the only options on the roster will be 5-foot-6 true freshman walk-on Chux Nwabuko III and 5-foot-9, 185-pound junior walk-on Dax Welch, who has no career carries. True freshman 2019 signee Alante Brown from Chicago was supposed to be a running back this year but he has failed to qualify academically and is not expected to be on the roster.
Further giving us cause for concern is the fact that Shyne has a history of injury after missing the second half of 2016 with an ACL injury and all of 2017 with an arm injury. But Tech needs him to stay healthy along with Thompson and Henry because there is virtually no depth behind them this fall.