Plethora of running backs creates positive challenge this spring

Tony Alford the recruiter has given Tony Alford the coach plenty to do this spring.

Ohio State’s running backs mentor is not complaining one bit about having six scholarship running backs to put through the paces.

“It’s a little unique to previous years, but it’s also a fun challenge,” said Alford, who is in his seventh season at Ohio State.

“I think it’s for me as a coach to make sure that every single day that I come in here into this building I’ve got to be prepared and have a very clear, precise plan of exactly how I want to attack this day so that nothing is lost in the shuffle. We don’t have time for, ‘Let’s just see what happens.’ We can’t do that. And so I’ve got to make sure that every single day we’ve got a real clear concise plan of how we want to attack it.”

His sextet includes a veteran of 27 games with more than 1,400 rushing yards (Master Teague III), two third-year sophomores still waiting for their chance to show what they can do (Marcus Crowley and Steele Chambers), a redshirt freshman hoping to build on an impressive cameo (Miyan Williams) and two highly-regarded true freshmen (TreVeyon Henderson and Evan Pryor) who could be too talented to keep on the bench for long.

Despite their varying levels of age and experience, none of the Buckeye backs is more in need of proving himself quickly this spring.

In short, they all need to impress the coach.

“My thing is to see the improvement, daily improvement with them individually and then collectively as a unit,” Alford said. “The improvement as we move forward because this thing’s going to get ramped up here, starting tomorrow right? The pads come on, so this thing is going to get ramped up rapidly, and we just want to see the guys who are going to compete and just get better.”

As his pupils cycled through a series of video conferences and were asked about what they are trying to get out of this spring, it sounded like that message has been getting through.

“Whatever my role is going to be that’s best for the team, that’s going to be my role,” Teague said. “We’ve got a lot of depth, a lot of guys. That helps us stay fresh in practice and helps us for the overall health of the unit and the team, too.”

Alford said he would consider Teague the starter at this point.

“If we had a game tomorrow, he would be the starter,” Alford said. “He’s been a starter and he’s had the most reps of anyone in the room, but there’s other really good backs here, too.”

Next up could be Williams, who had only 10 carries last season but averaged 6.4 per attempt and turned heads against Clemson in the Sugar Bowl, but Alford name-checked everyone.

“I’m really anxious to watch Miyan Williams,” Alford said. “Here is a guy who had a smattering of carries — a very small sample — but he was very successful in those opportunities. So he continues to grow, and he’s going to be a part of our offense.”