Backs eager to fill in, deliver big against Tigers
With Jawon Hamilton crumbled on the ground with what would turn out to be a season-ending leg injury during UCF’s road game against Maryland on Saturday, it was easy to assume the worst for the Knights’ running game.
Adrian Killins was concerned for his injured teammate, but he knew the offense — particularly the ground game — would overcome this adversity.
“Next man up,” Killins said of the group’s mentality.
UCF would go on to rush for a season-high 250 yards with three rushing touchdowns during an impressive 38-10 win over the Terrapins. Killins would finish with a season-high 46 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown run — his fifth career rushing touchdown.
It was the third-highest rushing performance by a Knights team during the Scott Frost era.
Nine different players carried the ball against Maryland, including quarterback McKenzie Milton (96 yards) and two receivers: Tre’Quan Smith (3) and Dredrick Snelson (9).
“Everybody’s got to know everything,” running backs coach Ryan Held said after practice Wednesday. “You can’t build an offense just around one guy. That’s why you’ve got to have enough depth that if a guy goes down, it’s the next man up.”
Hamilton entered this season as the team’s top returning rusher (495 yards) and along with fellow sophomore Killins, junior Taj McGowan and redshirt junior C.J. Jones formed a strong tailback unit. The addition of three true freshmen in Bentavious Thompson, Otis Anderson and Cordarrian Richardson gave the Knights much-needed depth at the position.
“We still have five guys that can get it done. Knock on wood. We’ll keep those guys healthy and we’ll just keep working those guys to get better,” Held said.
UCF is averaging 199 yards per game on the ground, which is better than the 141 yards the Knights averaged last season. This season’s average output is far better than anything the program has seen in close to a decade. The last 1,000-yard rusher was Storm Johnson in 2013.
The Knights opened the season by rushing for 148 yards and a less than robust 3.29 yards per carry, but UCF found the end zone four times during a 61-17 win over FIU.
“I thought in that first game, we didn’t hit downfield as much as I would have liked,” Held said. “The second game against Maryland was better. We just have to continue to be a more physical group. You can see that when we get the ball in our hands, I think there are some guys that can make some things happen.
“Though we won 38-10, it really wasn’t to the standard that we want offensively. We’ve got to play way better against Memphis to get up to where we really want to be.”
Memphis enters Saturday’s showdown with the fifth-best rushing defense in the American Athletic Conference. The Tigers haven’t allowed more than 170 yards on the ground so far this season and haven’t allowed a 100-yard rusher since the team’s 51-31 loss to Western Kentucky in the Boca Raton Bowl on Dec. 20.
“They’re a tough, physical team,” Held said of Memphis. “We’ve got to be able to line up and run the ball when we need to run the ball. We feel like there’s an opportunity for us to get better this game and run the ball but we know we’re going up against a really good team. We’ve got to hold our own and take care of the ball and put ourselves in the position to win in the fourth quarter.”