Hagan sees potential in Buffs’ running backs
Darian Hagan isn’t ready to label Colorado’s running backs group as the best he’s coached – but they could get there.
“I would say a year from now, this group has the potential to be the best that I’ve ever coached,” Hagan said Wednesday after the Buf faloes completed their 17th practice of the preseason. “I think that ever y last one of them have an oppor tunity to do some really, really good things.”
Hagan is star ting his fifth season in his second stint coaching the Buffs’ running backs. In all, this is 10th season in that role (also 2006-10).
Hagan has coached Phillip Lindsay (second on
CU’S all-time rushing list, with 3,707 yards), Rodney “Speedy” Stewart (third, 3,598) and Hugh Charles (eighth, 2,659). He also helped Travon Mcmillian eclipse the 1,000-yard mark in his only season at CU, in 2018.
It’s been a while, however, since CU had this much overall talent at tailback.
Junior Alex Fontenot is the only upperclassman in the room. In his first season as a star ter in 2019, he ran for 874 yards and five touchdowns. Oregon’s CJ Verdell is the only returning player in the Pac-12 who averaged more yards per game than Fontenot’s 79.5.
Also back is sophomore Jaren Mangham, who ran for 441 yards last year – the four th-best total by a CU freshman in the last 28 years.
New to the roster this year is true freshman Ashaad Clayton, a four-star recruit from New Orleans who was the highest-rated player in CU’S 2020 class and the highest-rated running back recruit by the Buffs since Darrell Scott in 2008.
Sophomore Joe Davis and true freshmen Jayle Stacks provide quality depth, as well, and both have impressed Hagan.
Then, there’s the man who has been talked about perhaps more than any other player during preseason camp: sophomore Jarek Broussard.
“One person in par ticular that stepped up a lot is J-brew,” defensive lineman Mustafa Johnson said. “When we had our first scrimmage, he was cutting up and making big plays, big runs.”
The 5-foot-9, 185-pound Broussard has yet to play in a game with the Buf fs. He redshirted in 2018 and missed the entire 2019 season with a knee injur y.
Now healthy, he’s flashing the skills he displayed at Bishop L ynch (Texas) High School. In his final two years of high school, Broussard rushed for 1,620 yards and 23 touchdowns, averaging 11.6 yards carry. He also caught 66 passes for 1,141 yards and 12 touchdowns.
“Broussard has come a long way,” Hagan said. “In the past, he wasn’t ver y intuned. He was kind of, I would say, like a Venus flytrap; he was … just out there.
“(Now), he’s playing with a lot of confidence. He knows exactly what he’s doing and he brings a dif ferent element to the game. He’s a real jitterbug. He can take it to the house, he can make guys miss the open field. That’s the guy that we’ve been missing.”
The last time CU had a back like that, Hagan said, was Stewar t, who led CU in rushing ever year from 2008-11.