For the past two seasons, the Miami Hurricanes have failed to produce a 1,000 yard rusher. Last season former starting running back Travis Homer was named second team All-ACC despite finishing 15 yards short of the 1000 yard mark. Homer is now with the Seattle Seahawks and DeeJay Dallas is likely the new starting running back. They will be key to the Miami rushing attack.
Miami Searching For Dynamic Rushing Attack
Dallas split carries with Homer last season and amassed 617 yards along with six touchdowns. This season he’ll switch roles and be the starting back and will likely see at least 180 carries. His running mate will be sophomore running back Cam’Ron Harris, who broke out towards the end of last season.
Back To Power Football
Dan Enos takes over the offense after Miami struggled collectively as a unit in 2018. One area that actually excelled last season was the running backs. Although there was not a rusher to hit the golden number of 1,000 yards, the overall average was high. Homer averaged six yards a carry while Dallas and Harris ran for over five yards a carry.
This will help especially in Enos’ system. He has a history with high caliber running backs like Alex Collins, during his time in Arkansas and Thomas Rawls from his time at Central Michigan. In his two seasons in Enos’ offense, Collins ran for over 2,600 yards and 32 touchdowns. Rawls transferred from Michigan to Central Michigan while Enos was the head coach of the Chippewas and rushed for 1100 yards in his lone season there.
Two To Tango
The Hurricanes backfield took some lumps during Spring football as some of the backs were hurt. Lorenzo Lingard is still recovering from a knee injury in late October and was withheld from contact this Spring. Newly arrived transfer Asa Martin, from Auburn, was also hurt this Spring. In addition to them, Robert Burns, also had his spring end early for a clean up procedure on his knee.
That left most of the workload to Dallas and Harris. Even with taking most of the reps in practice and scrimmages they still remained effective. So much so that Dallas felt compelled to label the duo as the best “one-two punch in the country” after a scrimmage. Hopefully during the season the Hurricanes will have better luck in terms of health with their running back group.
Final Thought
The hire of Enos is thought to be a big help with quarterbacks, and it is, but as a play caller, an effective running game has helped his offenses tremendously. Dallas initially committed to Miami as an athlete and was willing to play wherever. He began as a wide receiver and that versatility can be used to take advantage of defenses. Harris may be the most important running back though due to his ability to wear down a defense throughout the entirety of a game.
Lorenzo Lingard is another big factor to the room, he came into Miami more highly touted than Harris and was labeled a five star prospect by 247 Sports. He enrolled early and was instantly the fastest Hurricane player, testing at a 4.27 40 yard dash time. However no one outside of the program truly knows the severity of his knee injury and whether or not Lingard will return back to form. If he does, Miami has three capable backs that will potentially start games in their career.
