WKU Football: Bold Prediction Week — Run Game Will Flourish in 2018

Welcome to The Towel Rack’s Bold Prediction Week as we officially kickoff our football coverage for 2018. Each week, there’ll be a…

Welcome to The Towel Rack’s Bold Prediction Week as we officially kickoff our football coverage for 2018. Each week, there’ll be a different theme pertaining to WKU football, with this week’s being a smattering of bold predictions our writting staff has about the upcoming season.

There’s no way around it; last season was an absolute disaster for the Tops as far as running the ball was concerned.

WKU finished the year with only 791 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns while only averaging two yards per run attempt. That puts them toward the very bottom in all of the FBS with those kind of stats.

So the only way to go is up, right?

I personally believe that WKU will be much better at running the ball in all areas next season. But that’s not a bold prediction. I’m making this my bold prediction because I personally think that WKU will turn around from last season and flourish running the ball.

“But how?” you might ask yourself.

Thanks for asking, let me explain.

Sanford finally having his offense the way he wants will open up the run game being something WKU thrives with next season. I don’t think last season was much of what Sanford actually wants to run with his offense but rather him doing the best he could with the cards he was given while slowly preparing them for what this year will be like. The main reason I feel that way is because he’ll finally have the type of quarterback that can run what he’s comfortable with.

Mike White had a tremendous season last season with Sanford, but White fits the mold of a traditional, pocket-style quarterback. Sanford is very familiar and comfortable with the RPO (run pass option) type offense. But the only way you can really make the RPO successful is if you have a mobile quarterback and White wasn’t the most mobile quarterback WKU has ever seen. He was still able to scramble and make some plays happen from the lack of protection he had from his offensive line last season but there weren’t many designed QB runs for Sanford to run with him at the helm.

Having mobile quarterbacks like Drew Eckels, Kevaris Thomas, as well as Davis Shanley will naturally help WKU expand their run game. Eckels is a very solid runner and can step back and make some good throws so I’d look for Sanford to get the quarterback more involved with running the ball. Being able to run the option can leave defenses confused and open some holes in the defense to break out for big yards. But that’s not the only reason why I think the run game will flourish.

D’Andre Ferby only had 373 rushing yards and three touchdowns total last season. Most of that is due to the fact that it was his first year back from a leg injury in 2016 and he still had some other injury complications last year as well. If WKU has a healthy Ferby, look for him to get back to what he was before the injury and then some.

And also with Moses hopefully healthy and ready to go along with talented newcomers Garland LaFrance and Joshua Samuel (who looked pretty good in the spring game) to help carry some of the weight, Sanford should have plenty of reliable options and avenues to efficiently run the ball.

The pieces are finally starting to come together for Sanford to do his magic. I’d look for WKU to model what Notre Dame’s offense looked like with him as their offensive coordinator. DeShone Kizer and even Jay Ajayi (from when Sanford was at Boise State) are prime examples of what Sanford can do with the right plays and the right horses in the barn to execute them.

I feel like WKU is more than capable of running his type of offense successfully but it also depends on how the offensive line will do. The O-line continues to be the biggest question mark moving into next season and if some of these younger players can step up early on that could get the Tops moving in the right direction before they play some critical toss-up games.

Only time will tell if this bold prediction will end up being accurate or shared by @OldTakesExposed on Twitter as a laughing stock tweet but I believe year two of Sanford & Co. will get them running the right direction.

What do you think about this bold prediction? What bold prediction do you, yourself, have for the upcoming year? Let us know in a comment below, on Twitter or on our Facebook page.