BYU's 2011 Football Opponents: RB

Here is how I would rate the teams on BYU's schedule at the RB position.

1) TCU
2) Ole Miss
3) UCF
4) Texas
5) Utah State
6) Oregon State
7) Utah
8) Idaho
9) Hawaii
10) New Mexico State
11) San Jose State

I don't think there is anyone that would debate that TCU has the best collection of RBs of anyone on BYU's schedule.  They have Ed Wesley who rushed for a 1,000 yards last season, Matthew Tucker who rushed for 709 yards and made 3rd Team All-MWC as a backup (I realize it's the MWC, but still), Waymon James who had 513 yards, and Aundre Dean who averaged 7 yards/carry in mop-up duty.  It's a pretty stacked unit of RBs.  Wesley and James are loads, both under 5'10" but both over 200 pounds and both with 4.6 speed.

Ole Miss has big running backs in Brandon Bolden and Enrique Davis and the little shifty "worm" back in Jeff Scott.  Some of you know what I mean: Noel Devine at West Virginia, or Dexter McCluster from Ole Miss a few years back, the little shifty speedster that no one can get a solid hit on.  But how they plan on utilizing the rushing attack is a big question mark in my mind.  Houston Nutt is typically a shotgun, spread, wild "Rebel" type of coach, but Ole Miss is a little shaky at the WR position (and not just by SEC standards, Houston Nutt admitted as much just this week).  On the other hand, he's loaded with big running backs and a mammoth OL.  Maybe they go under C with two RB sets a bit more this season.  No one is going to respect the WRs in a 3-WR set, and they might get laughed off the field if they ever go 4-wide.  Anyway, they have good backs, and I'll be curious if Nutt abandons his spread game for a more traditional rushing attack, at least until his QBs get their feet wet.

UCF has a 3-headed monster of experienced backs, which is why I put them at #3 ahead of the Longhorns.  Texas has the #1 HS recruit coming in this season at RB, but I don't care how good a guy was in high school, even in the state of Texas, college football is a different animal and most true freshmen struggle when they have to be THE feature back from day one.  Potential starter Fozzy Whitaker has seen significant snaps over 3 seasons and has yet to break the 1,000-yard mark.  For his career.

Utah fans probably scoff at me for putting Utah State's Robert Turbin ahead of their incoming freshman Harvey Langi and JC Transfer John White, but the dude's legit.  I watched the man bull over a middle linebacker behind the line of scrimmage and then outrun the safety on his way to a 90+-yard TD.  The man's my height, plus 40 pounds of pure muscle (OK, plus 60 pounds of muscle, minus 20 pounds of pure Crunchy Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos), and runs a 4.5 40-yard dash.  Langi is going to be a great back for Utah, and maybe even as a freshman.  But, as with Texas/UCF, I give experienced talent the edge over potential (even better) talent in most cases.  That plays the same with Oregon State, which has more experience than, and possibly just as much talent as, Utah, but that isn't saying much on the experience side.

Idaho boasts a very solid RB prospect in Ryan Bass who transferred from Arizona State after being one of the most sought after HS RBs 3 years back.  While New Mexico State and San Jose State have more "proven" RBs than Hawaii, I give the edge to the Warriors simply because of their size and the fact that they have the perfect backs for their system: big, bruisers that will kill you up the middle if you pay too much attention to the spread passing attack.  Also, I don't expect anything from the SJSU and NMSU backs because, frankly, I don't expect anything from their offenses, period.  SJSU was held to 250 yards or less 5 times last season.  NMSU was held to under 300 yards on 6 occasions.

I would slot BYU in between UCF and Texas, so 4th on the list.  Like UCF, BYU has its own little 3-headed monster in seniors JJ DiLuigi and Bryan Kariya, countered with sophomore stud Joshua Quezada.  DiLuigi is the speedster who can catch the ball out of the backfield and can kill teams in open space.  Kariya is the dependable back: he probably won't have many 7 or 8 yard plays, but he won't have many minus 2 or 3 yarders either.  He's good for 4 yards a play and no fumbles, plus I love watching him pick up blitzing LBs: he is every bit the pass-blocker Fahu Tahi and Manase Tonga were in college, even though he's 20 pounds lighter.

But Quezada will ultimately be remembered a lot longer than Kariya and DiLuigi.  I have gone on record before, and repeat again now, if he plays at BYU all four years, he will be known as the greatest RB in BYU history.  Statistically certainly, he should shatter all of Unga's records, even having to share the load his first two seasons, something Unga never really had to do.  He already has Unga's size and balance.  He exceeds Unga in the speed and acceleration department (and I'm not talking "deceptively quick" either, he is "actually" quick).  All he needs to develop is his vision and he will be better than Unga by the end of his sophomore season.  His big play potential is a lot better than Unga's, and that will produce some very memorable plays.  Combine that with the fact that 7-11 games each of his last 3 seasons will be broadcast on the ESPN family of networks, and I give you the man who will be known as BYU's greatest running back ever: Joshua "Juice" Quezada.