Auburn football: What history tells us about running back, what it means for 2018

When the Auburn football team begins fall practice Aug. 3, the most intriguing position battle to watch will be running back where the Tigers are mildly inexperienced, but wildly talented.

Everyone is going to have an opinion on the running back competition this fall. Gus Malzahn said that Kam Martin is the No. 1 guy exiting spring practice. He’ll be the No. 1 back when Auburn hits the practice field later this week.

But there’s no guarantee that he’ll be the guy when Auburn takes the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Sept. 1 against Washington in the season opener.

That’s not to say Martin isn’t worthy of being the guy. He absolutely has the skill set to excel in the SEC. He’s shown us what he can do in bursts his first two seasons in Auburn while playing behind SEC leading rushers Kerryon Johnson (2017) and Kamryn Pettway (2016).

But the talent in the Auburn backfield (we already said the ground game will be better in 2018 than it was in 2017) is growing and if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that Malzahn doesn’t like to tip his hand when it comes to running back because he usually goes with the hot hand that emerges early in the season.

History lesson

Here’s a glance at how the running back position has played out since Malzahn became the Auburn football coach prior to the 2013 season.

2017 season

Leading rusher: Kerryon Johnson (285 carries, 1,391 yards, 18 TDs)

Other notable: Kam Martin (74-453-2), Kamryn Pettway (76-305-6)

This was probably the most obvious decision. With Pettway still slowed by injury, Johnson was the obvious choice to start from Week 1. Pettway never returned to the form that made him the SEC’s top rusher in 2016. Martin excelled in a change-of-pace role and and averaged 6.1 yards per carry. But Martin ran for 136 yards in the season opener against Georgia Southern and didn’t touch the ball the next week vs. Clemson. That’s because the offense moved primarily through Johnson, whose 285 carries accounted for 44.3 percent of Auburn’s run attempts in 2017.

2016 season

Leading rusher: Kamryn Pettway (209-1,224-7)

Other notable: Kerryon Johnson (182-895-11), Kam Martin (44-320-3)

Jovon Robinson was expected to step into the No. 1 spot, but was dismissed from the team about one month before the season opener. So that gave Auburn time to prepare Johnson for the lead role. He started in the season-opening loss to Clemson and ran 23 times for 94 yards with a touchdown. Stanton Truitt and Chandler Cox both ran four times for a combined 13 yards. But in the following week’s blowout win against Arkansas State, Pettway ran 15 times for 152 yards after not carrying the ball a single time against Clemson. Johnson also ran for 124 yards that game, but it was clear that Pettway was going to be a force. Him and Johnson shared the workload until games 6 and 7 when Johnson was banged up and Pettway became the lead back.

2015 season

Leading rusher: Peyton Barber (238-1,017-13)

Other notable: Jovon Robinson (117-639-3)

Barber topped the 100-yard mark in the first two games of the season (Louisville, Jacksonville State) and emerged as the team’s most reliable back. Auburn had some talent at the position with the highly recruited Roc Thomas and Robinson. Barber totaled 40.5 percent of the carries and Robinson 20 percent. If you just count attempts by Auburn running backs, those numbers rise to 50.7 and 25 percent.

2014 season

Leading rusher: Cameron Artis-Payne (303-1,608-13)

Other notable: QB Nick Marshall (153-798-11), Corey Grant (60-364-3)
With Marshall at quarterback, the running game was different than it has been the last few seasons. Marshall was dynamic as a runner and defenses had to account for him. But even with Marshall carrying the ball 153 times, Artis-Payne accounted for 50 percent of Auburn’s 607 rushing attempts in 2014. Remove Marshall’s carries and Artis-Payne ran the ball 66.7 percent of the time Auburn ran it. That’s finding your guy and riding him. That’s also with Grant on the team. He’s hard to believe he only carried the ball 17 times more than Roc Thomas that season.

2013 season

Leading rusher: Tre Mason (317-1,816-23)

Other notable: Nick Marshall (172-1,068-12), Corey Grant (66-647-6), Cameron Artis-Payne (91-610-6)

First off, that’s one helluva backfield. Why would Malzahn let Marshall throw the ball with that arsenal? Auburn ran the ball a whopping 729 times that season for an even more whopping 4,596 yards and 48 touchdowns. By comparison, in 2004 with Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown in the backfield, Auburn ran 553 times for 2,383 yards. That 2013 total is almost twice as much with just 176 more carries. The beauty of Mason’s monster season that earned him a trip to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony is that in Week 1 against Washington State he ran 15 times for 73 yards but was outgained by Grant (9-146) and in Week 2 he ran for 99 yards but was outgained by Artis-Payne (102 yards). In Week 3 he totaled just 34 yards on 10 carries. But the next week he ran for 132 yards against LSU and he hit at least 100 in every game but two the rest of the season.

What does it mean?

That’s the big question. The answer is simple: We don’t really know.

In three of Malzahn’s five seasons as Auburn football coach, it’s taken time to establish a No. 1 running back. This could be another one of those seasons without a Kerryon Johnson or Cameron Artis-Payne in the backfield and without a running quarterback.

But the good news is that Auburn has options.

It starts with Martin. Could be be a Mason-like back? Expect coaches to turn to him in fall practice to set the tone at running back. Expect him to be on the field early and often throughout the season.

But don’t discount the youth movement at the position.

JaTarvious Whitlow is considered by many as the heir apparent to the 1,000-yard throne. The redshirt freshman is built for wear and tear, much like Johnson.

Freshman Asa Martin is Alabama’s Mr. Football and ran for 64 yards in the spring game. Is he ready to make the leap? Could he emerge as the go-to guy several weeks into the season as we’ve seen in the past?

He’s not the only freshman you wants to get into the mix. You have the powerful Harold Joiner (6-3, 215) and speedy Shaun Shivers (5-7).

Don’t forget the veteran of the group in Malik Miller, who has 50 carries for 204 yards and two TDs in parts of two seasons. The sophomore is a big, bruising back with similar traits with Pettway.

And all this doesn’t even take into account the speed sweep that Eli Stove excelled in so much last season. With Stove sidelined, that could fall to RB-turned-WR Devan Barrett or someone else.

Like we said from the start, this will be an intriguing battle to watch throughout fall practice (and into the season).