In Mississippi State’s victory over Arizona, they used five different running backs. The 14th ranked LSU Fighting Tigers might match that number when they battle the Bulldogs Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
Former Rummel star Logan Diggs looked like he should be LSU’s top back with a successful debut in purple and gold as he rushed for a team-high 115 yards on 15 carries and one touchdown last Saturday against Grambling.
LSU offensive lineman Emery Jones said Diggs brought electricity to the offense.
“Watching Logan Diggs breaking tackles, juking guys, jumping over people, it was just electrifying to see, it gave us whole bunch of hope to us because we now have something to block for, obviously we had something to block for before other great guys great who are in that running back room, but it just kind of brings that electricity and spark we need,” said Jones.
Coach Brian Kelly recruited Diggs to Notre Dame and the Boutte native rushed for 822 yards and four touchdowns last season for the Fighting Irish.
While Kelly is very familiar with Diggs, he does not want to name the featured back.
“We’re going to feature a guy that’s feeling it and hot,” Kelly said. “We have enough depth where we can spell a guy. That’s a good thing. Mississippi State ran five guys last week and they still have a featured back. I still think we’re in position to find out who that featured player is, but I still think we can play multiple backs and still have the kind of continuity at the position that’s necessary.”
In the Grambling game, freshman Kaleb Jackson also saw his first extended playing time of his LSU career and had 62 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns.
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Kelly said he’s not afraid to play Jackson this Saturday as he continues to see steady progress from the Baton Rouge product.
“I think that speaks volumes for what he’s able to do,” said Kelly.
Senior John Emery will make his debut this Saturday. He was unavailable for the first two weeks of the season. Kelly said on the SEC teleconference, Emery is ready to go.
“He’s a plug and play guy, I think he’s going to get as many carries as anybody would be in this situation where you have a deep and talented room, so I don’t think he’s going to be limited by a conditioning element like we had with (Maason) Smith, so we think he’s going to be ready to go and should be able to impact the game,” said Kelly.
That’s three talented backs we’ve already mentioned and don’t forget Josh Williams, Noah Cain, Tre Bradford and Armoni Goodwin is also now healthy.
It will be up to Kelly, offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and running backs coach Frank Wilson to make it all work for everyone involved.
But Coach Brian Kelly has eight scholarship running backs at his disposal and he plans to use as many as he can.