How Will Oklahoma State Distribute Carries This Fall?

Reader Jon Jester posted this question via email today so we all discussed it. Keep the email/Twitter questions coming, everybody!

I have a question for you concerning our RB competition: If we’ve got all three of our main ball carriers coming back (Carson, Childs and Carr) and two more newcomers (Sanders and Hill), how do you think the carries will be distributed come game day?

Sam Aldrich

I still think Carson/Sanders will take the majority of the carries, with Childs getting the call on some occasional 3rd down and short situations. I think Hill is impressing the coaches, but there are too many bodies ahead of him to get more than a couple carries a game in 2016 barring injuries. Carr feels like the odd man out for me as far as carries are concerned, but Yurcich may look to get him involved in a few gimmick plays, with his top-notch speed.

Thomas Fleming

I think Childs and Carson will get the majority of carries with Sanders coming in as a specialist. But if that’s the case, then how is Carr going to be used? Or, if you make Sanders strictly a rotation back, are you truly giving him the best chance to succeed? There are ways to do feature all of your talent with wrinkles and different schemes for different players, but I don’t know if OSU will do that. I say they’ll probably feature Childs and Carson and then have Barry J as the third man/specialist with Carr as specialist No. 2.

Kyle B.

I’m leaning toward Carson to become the primary ball carrier again this year. The good thing about each of the backs is that they all bring different skill sets. Where Carson is primarily a runner and good pass blocker, Sanders meshes well in both the run game and in passing down situations as a receiving threat.

The sheer depth of the group will allow the coaches to tweak the game plan focused on players strengths. I think behind first-teamers Carson (RB1) and Sanders (RB1/passing downs) will be Jeff Carr and Justice Hill, followed by Rennie Childs. I don’t think his overall role will be eliminated (most teams don’t play five running backs), but Childs could have a more unique niche in a specific role of the offense this year.

Kyle P.

This is a good question that has no real right answer. I’m going to say Hill gets redshirted (which means he’ll probably start the first game) and the traditional RB rotation starts like this with Childs and Barry J. co-handling the RB2 position:

1. Chris Carson (40 percent of carries)
2. Rennie Childs (30 percent of carries)
3. Barry J. (30 percent of carries)

Carr gets used as the all-purpose back who lines up in the slot, out wide, on Hall of Fame Ave. or wherever Mike Yurcich can properly get him the ball. With the style OSU has gone to — a poor man’s smashmouth with its Cowboy Backs — it’s hard for me to see somebody shifty like Carr lining up next to Mason Rudolph a ton.

And if he does, it will look like this.

https://vine.co/v/eLVehgHQU0v

Mike Gundy has an opportunity to sort of get rid of the RB1 position much like Mike Shanahan used to do in Denver when they played approximately 384 running back (related: I don’t play fantasy football anymore!)

I’ll say this: Mike Yurcich has all the toys. If OSU doesn’t score 40+ a game this year, something went really, really poorly.