A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: HB/FB

HB/FB Depth Chart
HB	FB
Anthony Dixon So.	Jeremy Jones RJr.
Arnil Stallworth So.	Brandon Hart Jr.
Christian Ducre RSo.	Eric Hoskins Jr.
Justin Williams RSr.	Ethan Stockett Fr.

This is one area of the team that is in pretty good shape. Anthony Dixon is pretty much locked in as the starter but he could be pushed by either of the incoming freshman, Robert Elliot and Marcus Green, later on in the season. I'll get to them in a bit. Dixon's first year was plagued by injuries but he showed alot of promise. He had 169 rushes for 668 yards and nine touchdowns, all of which were true freshman records. Thats a 4ypc average which is pretty good especially considering he is a bruiser and depends more on running over people rather than outrunning them. Even so, he is still surprisingly fast for his size. Dixon is up to a weight of around 240 which concerns me some. Like I said he is a power back, not a speed guy, so adding weight might not be a bad thing. Still that seems awfully large for a runningback, but we'll see how he looks in 4 days. It also has been mentioned that he could play fullback a couple of plays a game, which could be interesting.

After Dixon it is a pileup for the #2-4 spots. You have four people you could realistically put in at #2, maybe even five people. I think Elliot will end up the #2 runningback by the middle of the season along with Marcus Green being in the mix somewhere too. Until they get their feet wet though, I am going with the experience which is why you don't see Green or Elliot in the depth chart. Stallworth had 42 carries for 137 yards and 1 touchdown along with 14 receptions for 97 yards. He is an adequate backup though we could do better. Also his running style is too similar to Dixon's, I'd like to see something a little different from the backups. Ducre transferred from Tulane last season but didn't see much playing time because he had fumbling problems in practice. Can't say much because I haven't seen him play much. Justin Williams is a walkon and I put him there more as a honorary type of thing than anything else. He had 32 carries for 89 yards last season. In reality Elliot/Green should go here, but its fourth string so meh, whatever.

Fullback is more of a question mark. The former tightend Jeremy Jones has the starting spot for now, but Brandon Hart isn't very far behind. We're talking about fullbacks here so I really don't know what I can say about them. One thing I can tell you is that Jeremy Jones is 275 pounds. Good lord that is going to be a massive backfield, a 240 pound Dixon led through the hole by a 275 pound Jones. It sounds nice on paper, but I don't know how well it will work out on the field. I'm afraid Jones is going to be slow as molasses and all that size will be useless. We'll see.

My Rating: 8/10
The rating will depend on how Elliot comes along. If he lives up to the hype, you can bump that up to an 8.5/10, if not push it down to a 7.5. It might be a little generous considering the question mark at Fullback, but I'm allowed to be optimistic every now and again.