Just listing all of the "top" running backs here for each team in the W.A.C. so everyone can get an idea of who will be carrying the ball (most likely) for each of these teams:

BOISE STATE

1. Lee Marks - Senior - 5' 7" 181 lbs. - He had 189 carries last season for 968 yards (5.12 ypc).

2. There are four other RB's for Boise State who saw similar playing time last season and one newcomer who is very likely to see playing time this season; they are:

2-A. Antwuan Carter (Senior) - 5' 7" 214 lbs. - 75 carries - 278 yds - 3.71 ypc avg.

2-B. Quinton Jones (Junior) - 5' 9" 186 lbs. - 30 carries - 273 yds - 9.10 ypc avg. (He asked to be, and was, switched to play CB & is likely to be a starting CB, but he will also see occasional PT at TB)

2-C. Jeff Carpenter (Senior) - 5' 9" 197 lbs. - 62 carries - 286 yds - 4.61 ypc avg.

2-D. Jon Helmandollar (Sophomore) - 5' 11" 227 lbs. - 46 carries - 231 yds - 5.02 ypc avg.

2-E. Ian Johnson (RS Freshman) - 5' 11" 193 lbs. - He redshirted last season. The coaches predict great things from this kid.

FRESNO STATE

1. Bryson Sumlin - Senior - 5' 10" 200 lbs. - He had 190 carries last season for 1,102 yds (5.80 ypc).

2. Wendell Mathis - Senior - 6' 0" 215 lbs. - He had 146 carries last season for 995 yds (6.82 ypc).

NEVADA

1. B. J. Mitchell - Senior - 5' 8" 205 lbs. - He had 100 carries last season for 450 yds. (4.50 ypc)

2. Robert Hubbard - Junior - 5' 10" 195 lbs. (JC transfer) or Tommy Haug - RS Freshman - 5' 11" 200 lbs.

LOUISIANA TECH

1. Freddie Franklin - Sophomore - 6' 0" 182 lbs. - He had 45 carries last season for 204 yds (4.53 ypc).

2. Mark Dillard - Sophomore - 5' 11" 208 lbs. - He had 13 carries last season for 2 yds (0.2 ypc)

HAWAI'I

1. Nate llaoa - Junior - 5' 9" 211 lbs. - Often injured former WR is being switched to RB

2. Bryan Maneafaiga - Senior - 5' 8" 184 lbs. - He attended the Univ. of Hawai'i last season but did not play football after spending two years at a J.C.. Looked good in the Hawai'i spring game tho.

UTAH STATE

1. Marcus Crawford - Junior - 6' 1" 208 lbs. - He missed all of last season due to injury.

2. Keith Gilliam - True Freshman - 5' 9" 205 lbs. - He was the Texas 4-A High School Offensive Player of the year last season. He ran for 2,775 yards in his Senior year in high school.

NEW MEXICO STATE

1. Muammar Ali - Junior - 5' 8" 188 lbs. - He had 137 carries last season for 572 yds. (4.18 ypc)

2. Justine Buries - Sophomore - 6' 0" 200 lbs. - He had 79 carries last season for 257 yds (3.25 ypc)

SAN JOSE STATE

1. Yonus Davis - Sophomore - 5' 5" 169 lbs. - He played in only two games last season and had only 3 carries for a minus 4 yards (-1.3 ypc)

2. Lamar Ferguson - Senior - 5' 5" 151 lbs. - He had 49 carries last season for 150 yds (3.1 ypc).

IDAHO

1. Jayson Bird - Sophomore - 6' 0" 220 lbs. - He had 151 carries last season (as a true freshman) for 859 yds (5.69 ypc).

2. Rolly Lumbala - Sophomore - 6' 2" 241 lbs. - He had 141 carries last season for 614 yds (4.35 ypc).

Oh.....not runningbacks...(Hawaii's nightmare last year :mad: ) it was scary...i predicted a touchdown everytime the opposing RB touched the ball. DIE RBs! :biggun:

Also in the mix at Idaho:

3. Antwaun Sherman - Senior - 5'7 175 lbs. Last season, he had 11 carries for 73 yards, an average of 7.3 and one touchdown. Also returned a kickoff for a touchdown, a potential special team threat who had ten returns on the season for 314 yards.

4. Devon Sturdivant - Redshirt Freshman - 5'10 210 lbs. First team all-Southern Idaho Conference as a senior at Timberline High School, second team all-state.

5. Ashanti Hicks - Walk-On Senior - 6'0 201 lbs. Redshirt last season after transferring from Boise State (did not play intercollegiate athletics). Played 2001 at Santa Barbara City College. Borah High School graduate, two time all-state second team for Idaho.

Byrd and Lumbala should get the bulk of carries, but all of these guys will see playing time, as well. Running back is one position where Idaho can be comfortable with talent and depth for the upcoming season. These backs also represent a diversity of styles, from Lumbala, a huge, bruising RB, to Sherman, a speedster.

The depth will be appreciated, too - last season, Byrd, Lumbala and Sherman missed the last two games of the season with injuries, forcing the Vandals to play two TE's as RB's for those games. It will be nice to be a little deeper at the position this year with Sturdivant and Hicks.

Don't Forget Dwayne Wright at Fresno. His rehab has been going great from his season ending injury at K State. He should return to give us a LOADED backfield.

Also converted DB Clifton Smith should make some noise in the Fresno State backfield as well.

NationalChamps.net has Fresno State's Running Back stable ranked #5 in the Nation. Behind only #1 USC, #2 Oklahoma, #3 LSU, & #4 Florida State. See the link for yourself.

[URL= <a href='http://www.nationalchamps.net/2005/unit_rankings/RB.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.nationalchamps.net/2005/unit_ra...rankings/RB.htm</a>]National Champs[/URL]

Not too Shabby

Impressive Backfield NDD.

I bet they rush for more than 17 net yards against the Broncs this year :)

25-30 isn't out of the question with that group

Just kindding! That should be a hell of a running threat to any team.

NoDogDown Wrote:Don't Forget Dwayne Wright at Fresno. His rehab has been going great from his season ending injury at K State. He should return to give us a LOADED backfield.

Also converted DB Clifton Smith should make some noise in the Fresno State backfield as well.

NationalChamps.net has Fresno State's Running Back stable ranked #5 in the Nation. Behind only #1 USC, #2 Oklahoma, #3 LSU, & #4 Florida State. See the link for yourself.

<a href='http://National Champs

Not too Shabby

I did forget Dwayne Wright. But in most cases I was trying to limit it to only the BEST two running backs for each team. Boise State was an exception simply because of the style of offense they run with their running back by committe approach (other than Lee Marks).

P.S. You REALLY don't want to mention that NationalChamps.net website to me at all. The people who run that website are FLAKES of the highest order. :cuss: :cuss:

[QUOTE]I did forget Dwayne Wright. But in most cases I was trying to limit it to only the BEST two running backs for each team. Boise State was an exception simply because of the style of offense they run with their running back by committe approach (other than Lee Marks).[QUOTE]

Well Fresno State runs a similar system. If Dwayne is healthy, he will see some playing time along with Bryson and Wendel along with Matt Rivera out of the backfield. It is a 3 headed running attack plus a good catching RB out of the backfield. Each player has his own style and mixing and matching them will catch the Defenses off guard.

Louisiana Tech also has true freshman sensation running back Patrick Jackson. He is a 2004 Red Zone National Player of the Year, 3-time All-Louisiana and lead his team to back-to-back Louisiana state titles in '03 and '04. They won the state title by a score of 46-2 with Jackson rushing for 263 yards and 4 scores before leaving the game as Louisiana's Most Outstanding Player of the Year.

Jackson set a new Louisiana state record of 58 touchdowns (53 rushing, 5 receiving) in a SEASON while rushing for 3,013 yards his senior year.

NoDogDown Wrote:"Well Fresno State runs a similar system."

Nope, not similar at all. Boise State used EIGHT friggin' tailbacks last season.....not just three. Some might say they used NINE tailbacks last season since Jared Zabransky ran the ball himself 130 times last season and gained 570 positive yards.

RUSHING GP Att Gain Loss Net Avg TD Long Avg/G
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lee Marks 12 189 1032 64 968 5.1 2 45 80.7

Jeff Carpenter 12 62 299 13 286 4.6 2 46 23.8

Antwaun Carter 12 75 286 8 278 3.7 7 34 23.2

Quinton Jones 12 30 277 4 273 9.1 3 38 22.8

J. Helmandollar 12 46 232 1 231 5.0 14 38 19.2

Calvin McCarty 7 10 106 2 104 10.4 1 19 14.9

Brad Lau 11 21 55 2 53 2.5 2 9 4.8

Brett Denton 3 4 37 0 37 9.2 1 12 12.3

[QUOTE]Nope, not similar at all. Boise State used EIGHT friggin' tailbacks last season.....not just three. Some might say they used NINE tailbacks last season since Jared Zabransky ran the ball himself 130 times last season and gained 570 positive yards.[QUOTE]

[QUOTE]I did forget Dwayne Wright. But in most cases I was trying to limit it to only the BEST two running backs for each team. Boise State was an exception simply because of the style of offense they run with their running back by committe approach (other than Lee Marks).[QUOTE]

In your earlier post you were implying that Fresno State used 1 or 2 backs thus you did not include Dwayne Wright in your post. If Wright had stayed healthy, we would have used 4 running backs out of the backfield including, Mathis, Sumlin, Wright, Rivera plus the Fullback Vercher. I meant that the system is similar in that Fresno State employs a multiple running back system. We were 5 yards away from having two 1,000 yard backs in Sumlin and Mathis. This year we will have easily the DEEPEST backfield once again in the WAC and Hill will use all of the Running Backs as I mentioned including the shifty Clifton Smith, and Kraig Peters, a talented young buck. Even Pinegar had positive yardage this year in critical moments when we needed him to step up.

Your assertion that Fresno State uses only 1 or 2 Running Backs was wrong. This year you will see a multitude of Running Backs used by Fresno State, with Wright healthy we will have our top 3 Running Backs that are potential 1,000 yard rushers (Wright was also a 1,000 yard back in 03'). You know that Pat Hill is foaming at the mouth just thinking about it

RUSHING GP Att Gain Loss Net Avg TD Long Avg/G
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bryson Sumlin 12 191 1130 26 1104 5.8 13 89 92.0
Wendell Mathis 11 146 1010 15 995 6.8 12 57 90.5
Dwayne Wright 4 50 195 12 183 3.7 2 28 45.8
Matt Rivera 11 19 138 6 132 6.9 1 23 12.0
Adam Jennings 12 11 109 6 103 9.4 1 28 8.6
Paul Pinegar 12 46 194 95 99 2.2 3 46 8.2
Robbie Dubois 9 13 52 4 48 3.7 1 11 5.3
Roshon Vercher 11 4 14 0 14 3.5 2 7 1.3

plus Clifton Smith, Shannon Dorsey, Kraig Peters, & Andrew Jones.

[quote="NoDogDown"] [QUOTE]Nope, not similar at all. Boise State used EIGHT friggin' tailbacks last season.....not just three. Some might say they used NINE tailbacks last season since Jared Zabransky ran the ball himself 130 times last season and gained 570 positive yards.[QUOTE]

[QUOTE]I did forget Dwayne Wright. But in most cases I was trying to limit it to only the BEST two running backs for each team. Boise State was an exception simply because of the style of offense they run with their running back by committe approach (other than Lee Marks).[QUOTE]

In your earlier post you were implying that Fresno State used 1 or 2 backs thus you did not include Dwayne Wright in your post. If Wright had stayed healthy, we would have used 4 running backs out of the backfield including, Mathis, Sumlin, Wright, Rivera plus the Fullback Vercher. I meant that the system is similar in that Fresno State employs a multiple running back system. We were 5 yards away from having two 1,000 yard backs in Sumlin and Mathis. This year we will have easily the DEEPEST backfield once again in the WAC and Hill will use all of the Running Backs as I mentioned including the shifty Clifton Smith, and Kraig Peters, a talented young buck. Even Pinegar had positive yardage this year in critical moments when we needed him to step up.

Your assertion that Fresno State uses only 1 or 2 Running Backs was wrong. This year you will see a multitude of Running Backs used by Fresno State, with Wright healthy we will have our top 3 Running Backs that are potential 1,000 yard rushers (Wright was also a 1,000 yard back in 03'). You know that Pat Hill is foaming at the mouth just thinking about it [/quote]
Boy, you Fresno fans just love to try to argue....about damn near anything. :D

Tell ya what lets put together a list of the players for both Fresno State and for Boise State who RUSHED for MORE than 200 yards last season. Here's what I come up with:

BOISE STATE

1. Lee Marks - 968 net yards

2. Jared Zabransky - 326 net yards

3. Jeff Carpenter - 286 net yards

4. Antwuan Carter - 278 net yards

5. Quinton Jones - 273 net yards

6. Jon Helmandollar - 231 net yards


NOW the list for Fresno State:

1. Bryson Sumlin - 1,102 net yards

2. Wendell Mathis - 996 net yards

Six to two..............NOT "similar" at all is it? :wave:

Action Jackson.. I mean Patrick Jackson.. of LaTech should kick some major arse this year. lol Can't wait to see *maybe* Moats Part Deux

[QUOTE] Boy, you Fresno fans just love to try to argue....about damn near anything.

Tell ya what lets put together a list of the players for both Fresno State and for Boise State who RUSHED for MORE than 200 yards last season. Here's what I come up with:
[QUOTE/]

Tell ya what, how bout we get to the jist of the post. The name of the post is "The best running back in the WAC in 2005". THE BEST RUNNING BACK in the WAC in 05' will come from FRESNO STATE. Do you wish to argue about that? Once Wright is healthy we will have 3 potential 1,000 yard backs. How many will BSU have? Serious question I am not sure who you have returning. As for last year, a bunch of 200 yard rushers is not very impressive, sorry :( Not knocking your offense, lord knows ya'll rack up the yards, but I'll take FSU's Running Back stable this year and last year over BSU's any day. Again the BEST WAC running back(s) in 05' will come from the FRESNO STATE backfield. We have too many quality backs to choose one, I will venture a guess that it will be either Sumlin, Mathis, or Wright or any combination of the three. Kapish

And some of us do enjoy arguing