Mark Ingram & Trent Richardson: Comparing Superback Combos

This week, Alabama will finally get a look at the best running back combo in recent memory.  We saw them both last year, but it was only late in the year that true freshman Trent Richardson started running like a veteran.

The celebration started out with a thud in 2010 when Mark Ingram turned up with a bum knee to start the season.

Thinking of the possibilities, I looked at previous super-back combinations.

In 2004, Auburn's Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown combined for 392 carries for 2,078 yards.  This combination was closest of the pairs to even carries.  Cadillac got about 61 percent of the touches compared to Brown's 39 percent.   Brown was the power guy, Williams was the speed guy.

Another great combination was in 2007, when Darren McFadden and Felix Jones combined for 459 carries for 2,990 yards.  Overall, it was a rather amazing 6.5 yard per carry average.  McFadden, however, got over 70 percent of the carries.  

Like the Auburn pair, McFadden was a larger back with a smaller one in Jones.

Last year's combination of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson yielded 416 carries for 2,462 yards.  Richardson, however, started out the year with only limited carries since he was a true freshman. 

Richardson and Ingram, unlike the others pairs, are not a slash and crash combo, but more of a crash and crash-some-more combo. 

Both backs have some similarities and some differences.  So far, the two have defied any attempt at labeling them with a nifty nickname except inside SEC film rooms where they are universally known as “trouble.”

I don’t expect the two to get more carries than last year.  Nick Saban doesn't like to overuse players and backups Eddie Lacy and Demetrius Goode will still get carries. 

Most expect Richardson's carries to increase at the expense of Ingram's.   

The breakdown may be similar to that of Williams and Brown at Auburn in 2004.  

If the first two games are an indication, Richardson's yards per carry should be equal to or surpass that of Ingram's.   

Taking that into account plus Ingram's late start, my prediction for 2010 is as follows:

Mark Ingram—233 carries for 1,442 yards

Trent Richardson—182 carries for 1,126 yards.

Combined yardage—2,568 yards.  

This is greater than the Brown-Williams combo, but less than the McFadden-Jones combo. 

If Alabama were a one trick pony, I believe they would surpass both combinations but with Alabama's other weapons on offense, it is unlikely they will get enough touches to surpass the Arkansas runners of 2007.