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ASU Notebook: Depth at running back a likely strength
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Published: August 27, 2008
■ Kevin Richardson did the lion's share of the work at running back the past three seasons and finished as Appalachian State's all-time rushing leader before exhausting his eligibility.
But the Mountaineers are hardly depleted at running back heading into Saturday's season-opener against LSU.
"We're as deep as any time I can remember," said Chris Moore, who is in his 14th season as an assistant coach at Appalachian. "We've got four that can play."
Devon Moore, Richardson's backup the past two seasons, has withstood challenges to his role as the No. 1 back but is followed closely by Robert Welton, Devin Radford and Cedric Baker.
"Devon is probably the most complete of the bunch, and he'll get the lion's share," Chris Moore said. "He has game experience, and we can trust him right now. This will be his third year of people counting on him. None of the other guys have seen the lights. But we'll try to use all of them."
Devon Moore, a 5-9, 200-pound junior with a combination of speed and power, rushed for 459 yards and seven touchdowns last season. Welton, a 5-11, 215-pound sophomore, played in one game but has emerged as perhaps the top power runner.
Radford, a 5-9, 190-pound sophomore who transferred from Virginia Tech, is the fastest of the bunch and will most likely return punts. Baker, a 5-9, 175-pound redshirt freshman, emerged as a contender last spring.
"Robert has had a great camp, and he's probably quicker than he gets credit for," Chris Moore said. "Devin can really help us, but the zone play out of the Shotgun is still foreign to him. It's different than what he's done. But he's busted long runs every scrimmage we've had. He can really run. And Cedric has had a good camp, and he gives us more quickness than the rest of them.
"I think they all know they'll play, and they're all helping each other out."
Chris Moore said that it's possible that the Mountaineers' will use more two-back sets this year.
"We had success with that last year, and we've probably called it more in camp than we have in the past," he said. "We get into game situations, who knows? We'll take what they give us. But we have been successful with it. Now that we've got four of them, maybe we'll do more of it."
■ Coach Jerry Moore said that one of the biggest challenges of preseason camp was having enough available players to prepare for LSU.
With typical minor injuries that keep many reserves out, only nine "scout team" players were available to practice at one point last week. And non-roster, walk-ons couldn't report until classes began yesterday, and they'll have to spend two days in helmets and shorts, but no pads, for conditioning.
"It's an NCAA rule that in the division that we're in -- lower Division I -- we can only bring 90 players to camp before school starts," Jerry Moore said. "In the bowl division, they can bring 105 to camp. The thing that happened to us this year, and it can happen to anybody, is that we had a large number of kids with hamstrings and stuff like that where they'd miss time.
"I would hope that the NCAA, particularly if you're opening up against a I-A school, would allow you to bring in more players. You may not have 105 guys, but 98 would have helped us just because of nagging injuries and things like that."
■ Quavian Lewis, a 6-4, 220-pound transfer from Vanderbilt, is slated to start at right defensive end against LSU. Tony Robertson will return at left end.
Filling out the four-man rotation at defensive end will be redshirt freshman Jason Jones and Jabari Fletcher, who was pressed into duty last year as a freshman. There are plans to redshirt John Rizor, but fellow freshman Lanston Tanyi could work his way into the rotation.
Defensive-line coach Mark Speir said that Tanyi (6-2, 230) has been impressive and will have "incredible potential" as he gets stronger.
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