The USC Running Backs of 2006
USC
put together some great recruiting classes during
Pete Carroll’s
tenure as head coach. 2006 was no different. The Trojans assembled a typically stellar class – ranked number one in the country by many – and appeared set to remain one of the nation’s top teams.
If there was one question about that class, it was the running backs. USC was fresh off of the careers of Reggie Bush and LenDale White, so it’s no surprise nearly every decent running back in the nation wanted to be a Trojan. What was surprising is just how many USC ended up signing. The Trojans class ended up consisting of three running backs, an athlete pegged to be a RB, a linebacker who would become one as well, and a fullback.
Four of those six – Allen Bradford, C.J. Gable, Stafon Johnson, and Emmanuel Moody – were rated among the nation’s top 70 players by Rivals.com. The other two – Kenny Ashley and Stanley Havili – were both awarded four stars by the ranking service.
USC fans were in awe over the haul and couldn’t wait to see what their new stable of backs would do on the field. Although rated as a linebacker, Bradford was the nation’s #9 prospect overall. Johnson and Gable were also given five stars and ranked in at #18 and #23 respectively. Moody was a little further down the list at #70 while Ashley and Havili missed the Rivals100, but still ranked impressively.
Fast forward to today. Four years after the collection of star running backs arrived at USC. What would you have thought would become of them? Surely not all of them would become All-Americans. One or two might even leave the Trojans for playing time elsewhere. But we had to have expected at least a star or two would come out of the bunch. Well, here’s where we are today…
Ashley was the first casualty of the group. Having originally wanted to attend Mississippi State, Ashley changed his mind when USC offered him a scholarship. He wouldn’t end up qualifying and is still waiting to notch his first carry as a member of a FBS team. Ashley will get his chance this fall at Ohio.
Havili’s career numbers are the lowest of the group the remaining five, but that’s expected since he was a fullback. Therefore, he gets a pass. Havili will be a redshirt senior with the Trojans this fall.
After Ashley, Moody was the next to go. Moody got off to a great start at USC and looked like he would be the star of the class. He rushed for 130 in only his third game in a win over Arizona during his true freshman season. Moody would eventually get hurt and miss the final five games of the season. During the offseason, he wasn’t sure of future playing time and decided to transfer to Florida. After playing each of the last two seasons with the Gators, Moody has one season of eligibility left. He has rushed for 1,254 yards during his career and only six touchdowns.
The other three remained at USC and each got a chance at various times to pull ahead and take hold of the starting running back position. Gable had a solid first year in 2006, rushing for 434 yards and getting a good amount of carries after Moody went down. He would have another decent year in 2008, but didn’t top 24 carries in either 2007 or 2009. Gable, along with Bradford, will be back for his final season in 2010. Bradford didn’t become a big part of the offense until last season when he rushed for 668 yards. He had more carries in one game – the Emerald Bowl against Boston College – than he had in any season from 2006 to 2008. Johnson had the most promising career of any of them before a freak weightlifting accident ended his final season. From 2006 to 2009, he totaled more carries, yards, and rushing touchdowns than any of the others.
That sounds good and all, but even being the leader of the group isn’t all that impressive. In the four seasons since the backs signed with USC, Johnson is the only one with more than 1,500 CAREER rushing yards (1,552). By comparison, eight FBS running backs rushed for that many yards in 2009.
You could chalk it up to the fact that there were so many of them, but that doesn’t solve the entire issue. Yes, Joe McKnight came a year later, but he wasn’t the world-class star he was expected to be either. In reality, USC not only suffered from getting too much of a good thing back in 2006, the Trojans suffered from some bad luck and several careers not panning out as expected.
Take a look at Florida’s Jeff Demps for example. Demps faced the same major issue each of the USC backs did: competition at the position. In fact, Demps has had to compete for carries with Moody, Chris Rainey, Percy Harvin, and Tim Tebow over the course of his short career. So much so that he has yet to carry the ball 100 times in a season. Bradford, Gable, and Johnson each accomplished that feat. Despite that, in only two years, Demps has more yards than every one of those that signed with USC in 2006 except Johnson. He should pass Johnson sometime in the first quarter of the 2010 season.
That’s not to say the Gators utilize their backs better or anything along those lines, it’s just to illustrate that competition at the position may not have been the issue. Four years later and we should be looking back at storied college careers and one of the best classes of running backs to ever come along. Instead we’re looking at a group of players that collectively and individually didn’t live up to the hype.
Several have one year left to really make a name for themselves, but even that seems like a distant possibility. Moody will still be fighting for carries in the Florida offense and Bradford and Gable will be dueling with each other. Although having too many backs will always be voiced as the reason for their lack of production, none of the group ever took control of the situation and came out on top.