Pac-12 Football: Power Ranking the Conference's Best Running Backs
The brand of football played on the left coast has often, and with merit, been labeled a pass-happy type of offense.
And with good reason.
On any given Saturday, ESPN can be easily found showing some obscure game in the Pacific time zone whose score sounds something more akin to basketball.
And let's not forget the inordinate amount of NFL quarterbacks who played their college ball in what is now known as the Pac-12 Conference.
But let's not forget the running backs, OK?
USC has been known to rep the West Coast when it comes to Heisman Trophy winning running backs and this has been going on since 1964.
And the list of Pac-10 running backs who made it the NFL would be a mile long.
So as we celebrate the aerial exploits of Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley and Nick Foles, this year's latest installment of Pac-12 gunslingers, let's pay homage to the running back.
Without them, playaction passing would have no meaning.
Here then are the conference's best running backs...
No. 10: Deantre Lewis (Arizona State)
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For Arizona State running back Deantre Lewis, nothing has come easy.
Even growing up, football competed with all the other distractions (drugs, crime, violence, etc.) for Lewis.
Last year, after being thrust into a prominent role as a true freshman, Lewis responded by rushing for 539 yards to go with six touchdowns.
He also has a soft pair of hands (handy when trying to catch swing passes out of the backfield) and is smart enough to pick up a blitz (something his quarterback digs about him).
All in all, it was a pretty successful beginning to a college career.
Then on Feb. 13, while visiting home to celebrate the birth of his sister's baby, a bullet from a drive-by shooting found its way into Lewis.
Fortunately for Lewis, the damage was minimal, and he is expected to participate in spring practices without any restrictions.
In fact, the only barrier in front of Lewis these days is incumbent running back Cameron Marshall, whose prowess at the position would be just about the only thing that would slow Lewis down.
No. 9: Keola Antolin (Arizona)
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The only thing for certain regarding the Wildcats running game was that with Nic Grigsby on the team, nothing was for certain.
Despite Grigsby's obvious talent, the problem was that Grigsby, try as he might, could not stay healthy.
And last year was no exception.
When Grigsby missed time for his annual excursion to the inactive list, Coach Stoops knew who he could count on.
And, as usual, Keola Antolin delivered.
Though Antolin does nothing great, he does everything very well and that kind of versatility is bound to get you playing time, regardless of the injury situation.
Last year, Antolin rushed for 668 yards and seven touchdowns and hauled in 28 passes for another 200-plus yards.
Now we will find out what Antolin can do without having to worry about how soon a teammate will heal to take his job away.
I'm betting for Arizona fans, Antolin will do just fine.
No. 8: Kenjon Barner (Oregon)
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You know things are going well for your running backs' unit when not only the starter makes the top 10, but his backup does as well.
However, it should be noted that it would be difficult to believe that Kenjon Barner would be sitting behind anyone not named LaMichael James.
James prides himself on being an every-down back and, as such, carries have been sorely lacking for Barner, who has flashed glimpses of the game-breaking ability he is known for.
Barner, in that limited role, gained 551 yards and scored 12 touchdowns last year.
By next year, when James is gone, Barner will be ready to make his own way.
And he won't be getting lost in LaMichael's immense shadow this time either.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
No. 7: Johnathan Franklin (UCLA)
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Part of the price a high-profile program pays for being an also-ran in a two college-team city is that both individually as well as collectively, the runner-up sometimes get lost in their more successful team's shadow.
That isn't a bad thing if, like the Bruins, you have been getting your clock routinely cleaned.
But what if you are Johnathan Franklin, a damn fine runner who deserves better than to hide in some backwater column stuck in another story about yet another Bruins loss.
Franklin, who rushed for 1,127 yards behind an offensive line which was so decimated by injuries and defections that it rarely fielded the same lineup twice, also scored eight times in a variety of ways.
Of course, the best way for Franklin and his cohorts to get off the back pages is to start winning on the field.
In fact, or so I have been told, winning can cure a lot of ills, real and imagined.
That's one prescription that I'm sure Bruins head coach Rick Neuheisel would love to fill.
No. 6: Marc Tyler (USC)
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Marc Tyler, coming out of national powerhouse Oaks Christian, had "can't miss" all over him.
Big and powerful, yet fast enough that he never seems to be caught from behind, Tyler's promise at USC was unlimited.
And then life stepped in.
Toward the end of his senior campaign at Oaks Christian, Tyler broke his ankle and, along with it, damaged a lot of the musculature that allows people with Tyler's ability to stop on a dime and make his defensive counterparts look goofy.
Since then, Tyler has battled toe injuries, other foot and hamstring issues, and all of the associated ills of a sport that is rooted abjectly in violence.
And that is where we are today.
Tyler is battling a hamstring thing that will limit him the rest of the spring, but now isn't when USC needs him.
They will need him to follow up on a successful, yet inconsistent, junior year when he rushed for 913 yards along with 10 total touchdowns.
If USC can get Tyler rolling early, look for both he and USC to have a big year.
But a lot rests on Tyler being healthy, and if past experience is any indicator, that is a question that won't be answered until the season is done.
No. 5: Cameron Marshall (ASU)
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Cameron Marshall is probably the best big-time tailback you have never heard of.
Big enough to shed tacklers and fast enough to run away from the ones who hold on, Marshall is only going to get better as he gains experience.
And Marshall will get that experience quickly as Coach Erickson will use Marshall to control the line of scrimmage as well as the clock.
Following a solid 2010 campaign which saw Marshall rumble for 787 yards and nine touchdowns, he is a dependable and reliable back with very good hands and he has the kind of versatility that will keep him on the field in all situations.
By the end of the season, look for Marshall to possibly even be in the talk of the conference's leading rusher.
All of that will leave Sun Devils fans very happy.
And keep Erickson in a job for the time being.
No. 4: Rodney Stewart (Colorado)
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Speaking of very good tailbacks that you haven't heard of...
Meet Rodney Stewart.
Stewart, a Darren Sproles clone at 5'6", 175 lbs, is good enough to run Cierre Woods, the 5-star running back from California (and the biggest feather in the cap of the Dan Hawkins recruiting era) all the way out of town, to where he was last seen at South Florida.
Stewart is going to be looked upon as an anchor for an otherwise moribund Buffalo offense, which is looking for a new identity now that Hawkins has been shown the door.
And what better identity to assume than your leading ball carrier from 2010?
In rushing for 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns last year, Stewart gave notice that he will be back for more in 2011.
That is good for Colorado because beyond Stewart, it could be a long year for the Buffaloes offense.
No. 3: Stepfan Taylor (Stanford)
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Count me among the naysayers last year when I was asked to write a conference handicap article for the Pac-10 at the beginning of the 2010 season
In fact, as I analyzed the Stanford Cardinal, I decided that Taylor was such a liability that he was personally responsible for the five losses I had them suffering last year.
It was pretty much Taylor's fault (in my mind), not for being a bad running back, but simply for not being Toby Gerhart.
Which was true too, but then again, who is Toby Gerhart?
Besides himself, of course.
But if I had taken the time to find out, I would have learned that to go long with good size (5'11", 195 lbs), Taylor is a very good athlete who can turn a routine play into an extraordinary one.
Now that I am willing to let Stepfan Taylor be who he is, I am willing to bet that by the time Taylor is done with the Cardinal, he might have people asking: Who was Toby Gerhart?
Especially if he improves upon the 1,137 yards and 15 touchdowns he logged last year and the 28 receptions for 266 yards that went along with it.
That's not too much for Cardinal fans to ask.
Right?
No. 2: Chris Polk (Washington)
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With Jake Locker finishing his 10-year stay with the Huskies, coach Steve Sarkisian will need to not only break in a new signal-caller but also revise the offense now that it can't rely on Locker turning a five-yard loss into a 30-yard touchdown.
And because life will be very different for Sark and company without Locker, they should thank God they have Chris Polk.
Following a 2009 season that saw Polk rush for over 1,100 yards, Polk was even better last year when he ran for 1,415 yards and nine touchdowns
If Polk improves on last year's rushing total, it will make the transition to the "Jakeless" life quite a bit easier.
And that would be a nice legacy for Chris Polk to leave his Huskies.
No. 1: LaMichael James (Oregon)
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Make no mistake about it, LaMichael James is a special player who will do things on the gridiron that will make your jaw drop.
And his versatility allows him to be a factor in many genres of the Ducks offense.
He catches passes out of the backfield, he is a good and improving blocker and he runs back punts and kicks when needed.
His personality makes him a natural leader, and he backs that up everyday by doing the little things in an unassuming manner.
All of this is true and if one was focusing on any one thing LaMichael James does that makes him the best running back in the conference, a good case could be built simply using that isolated information.
But even better for me is that James is as real off the field as he is on it.
And that makes LaMichael James the best running back in the Pac-12 Conference.
Conclusion:
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Although this year is not a bumper crop season for running backs, there are some good ones in the Pac-12, led by Oregon's LaMichael James.
What is evident, though, is that there is not a lot of depth quality-wise throughout the conference.
Once you got through the top five or six on this list, the names looked quite pedestrian, which also describes their running styles.
Does that mean we can start talking about the Pac-12 about being the new three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust conference?
No.
But if the running backs keep this up, maybe the Pac-12 will finally start getting the credit its due from the East-Coast talking heads.
And maybe pigs will develop wings to fly so they don't bump their ass...
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
