College Football 2012 Top 150 Players: No. 121 Joseph Randle Oklahoma State RB

Every day here at Your Best 11, we are counting down to the start of the regular season with our top 150 players for the 2012 season.

No. 121 Joseph Randle, No. 1, Oklahoma State, Running Back

Justin Blackmon and Brandon Weeden got all of the headlines a season ago for the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Meanwhile, Joseph Randle was somewhat of a silent assassin for the Pokes. As teams loaded up their zones with dime packages and three-man rushes to cover the potent pass game, Randle casually picked up 1,214 yards and 24 touchdowns a season ago. Now, Weeden and Blackmon are gone, and the rising junior has his work cut out for him with a new quarterback at the helm.

Strengths

Vision and patience are his two biggest assets. Randle sees the holes as well as any running back in the country, and that is largely by virtue of his patience.

Oklahoma State is a unique situation. They're a team that throws the ball to open up some run lanes and take advantage of openings. That means that, unlike his counterparts at run-first schools, Randle is not hitting the hole out of the gate in an effort to attack the defense. Rather, Randle is running a lot of draws and slow developing runs out of pass looks in an effort to give his offensive line a chance to open up seams and holes.

In other words, Randle is more of a picker than a guy who gets after it. His vision and patience help him out tremendously in this offense. He is calm enough to show pass on a draw, take the handoff and then use his vision to find the hole, before finally exploding for daylight. Obviously this method works for Randle and the Cowboys; his 24 rushing touchdowns were good for fourth nationally behind Montee Ball, Bernard Pierce and Collin Klein.

Weaknesses

Physically Randle is not the fastest or the biggest back. One thing you'll see time and again after watching him is that he does not break nearly as many tackles as some of the nation's elite backs. His vision and patience are great to find seams for big gains, but when defenders can get to him, they tend to get him down on the ground in a hurry.

Another aspect of his game that most certainly can be improved is his acceleration. Randle is not slow, and he has a top speed that can get him down the field, but he has to improve how quickly he gets to that speed after making one of his jump cuts or slipping a seam.

2012 Predictions

Losing the threat of Weeden to Blackmon is going to hurt Randle this year, as his coaches and the young quarterback will look to him to carry more of the load.

Last year, against the capable run defenses of Stanford and Texas, Randle was only able to muster 91 total yards—68 of which came against the Longhorns. With a true freshman getting the start at the quarterback spot entering fall, the rising junior needs to improve his ability to break tackles and become more of a workhorse than an opportunist. Wes Lunt, the quarterback, will need the reliable back to draw the defense's eye in order to open up lanes in the passing game.

Expect Randle to likely surpass last season's rushing yard numbers, but his touchdowns will come back down to earth in 2012.