Darrell Scott vs. Bryce Brown: Which RB Transfer Will Have the Biggest Impact?

When it comes to college football recruiting, there’s no other position on the field, not even quarterback, that can match the excitement level that a star running back recruit can produce.

There’s been countless times in recent years where we’ve witnessed an entire school’s fan base fall madly in love with a 5-star running back commit.

I experienced it first hand as a student at West Virginia back in 2007 when Noel Devine mania took over Morgantown .

I can remember sitting in the stands for the season opener against Western Michigan and hearing the crowd erupt when Devine touched the ball for the first time.

It was the loudest ovation I had ever heard.for a simple three yard gain.

It’s true, college football fans absolutely adore incoming star running back recruits, almost to the point where it becomes an obsession.

Every summer, message boards fill up with fans bragging about their new stud running back and how his high school highlight reel will one day translate into a Heisman Trophy.

Sadly though, we’ve come to realize that just because a highly touted running back recruit arrives at a school with national hype and a suitcase full of press clippings, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee them stardom at the collegiate level.

For every success story like an Adrian Peterson or a C.J. Spiller, there’s enough tragic tales of kids like Jason Gwaltney and Caleb King to help balance things out.

It’s rare to see a failed running back recruit get a second chance to redeem himself someplace else but that’s exactly the case for two transfers, Darrell Scott and Bryce Brown, who will both be looking to finally make good on their high school hype at new schools this season.

Scott, the No. 1 rated back of the 2008 class, and Brown, the No. 1 rated back of the 2009 class, were expected to have already ascended to superstar status by this point in their careers, but for one reason or another, things just haven’t panned out.

After running for over 2,400 yards and 35 TDs and pacing California’s St. Bonaventure High School to a division and state championship as a senior, Darrell Scott shocked the recruiting world by committing to Colorado over more high profile schools such as USC, UCLA, Texas and Florida back in 2008.

The decision proved to be a disaster from the start, however, as Scott was beat out for the starting running back job by relatively unknown freshman teammate Rodney Stewart.

It only took him a season and a half in Boulder before Scott realized his crucial mistake.

Now, with relatively no fanfare or publicity, the bigger, beefed up back has joined on with Skip Holtz’s South Florida crew with the hopes that he can revive a once promising career, over 2,500 miles away from where it all originally started.

The Bulls, who have never had a running back drafted in the program’s 14 year history, have been waiting for a big time back and they may have finally backdoored their way into one with Scott’s transfer down to Tampa.

As Scott continues to adapt to life on a different coast, Bryce Brown continues to try to reacclimate himself to life back in his home state.

Brown, a native of Wichita, Kansas, has done his best Dorothy Gale impression and returned to the place that originally made him a star.

The former No. 1 overall recruit in the country will now get a taste of what the Big 12 has to offer as he suits up for Bill Snyder’s Kansas State Wildcats.

Brown, who left the Tennessee program after the messy Lane Kiffin departure, will now join his brother Arthur, who is also looking to jump-start his career after a failed stint down in Miami, as the two try to search for redemption with the support of their home-state fans.

So with Scott and Brown now settled in at their respective new schools, the question becomes, which player will have the bigger impact this season?

Conventional logic would seem to point to Brown, who inherits a wide open backfield after the loss of his highly productive predecessor, Daniel Thomas, who was selected in the second round of this year’s draft.

Brown, who rushed for 73 yards and two TDs in the team’s spring game, has already been named to the media’s preseason All-Big 12 team.

Scott, however, will benefit greatly from Dontae Aycock’s unexpected decision to leave the team at the start of camp, seeing as Aycock looked to be his main competitor for carries this season.

At this point, both backs are still unproven commodities but both Brown and Scott should have every opportunity in the world to make good on their potential this year and I foresee each of them playing the role of workhorse for their offense this season.

If I personally had to choose between the two, I’d go with Darrell Scott to have the bigger year in 2011.

South Florida has a great shot to make a run at the Big East championship this season and this is a team that has been dying to get their hands on a star rusher for what seems like forever.

Brown, on the other hand, will be playing for a mediocre middle-of-the-pack Kansas State team and he’ll have to deal with the burden of trying to live up to all that Daniel Thomas accomplished over the last two years, as well as the pressure of playing in front of his hometown fans.

I could actually see both backs making a run at a 1,000-yard rushing season this year, but only one of them will be playing for a team with conference championship and BCS bowl aspirations and that's Darrell Scott.

Scott could turn out to be the missing piece that South Florida needs to finally take home a Big East championship.