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Starter: Rodriguez Moore
Back Up: Ti'on Green
To be fair, the starter designation will be basically meaningless in this offense. Eddie Gran made his bones as a recruiter and as a running backs coach before coming to UC. So he likes to have a big stable of backs rather than finding one guy to ride for the year. In the last five years only one back has had more than 200 carries* in a season under Gran, and that was Monterio Hardesty at Tennessee in 2009. In Gran's three years at no one had more than 133 carries in a season.
*Isaiah Pead logged 237 in 2011, George Winn racked up 243 last year.
My expectation is for that general trend to continue here at UC. The only way that I see that changing is if Ti'on made the leap over the summer, or if one of the JUCO's exceeds the already considerable hype. If that happens my bet would be on Moore because he seems to have the most complete skill set of anyone on the roster, and because he can generate big plays in bunches. Call it a hunch, but I think those big plays are going to be needed this year.
Ralph David Abernathy IV isn't listed as a starter or a back up, but that doesn't mean he won't play. He will, a lot. But I don't think he is going to have an easily defined position in this offense because he will play all over the park (as a soccer fan would say). I just don't think he is going to have a ton of touches from the RB spot. It would be surprising to see him top last years 69 rushes. Don't forget about Deionte Buckley either. There are a lot of different options available to Gran. But he needs to figure out what he wants to do in general, and then decide who is most capible of doing it. I have no idea where Eddie Gran is in that process.