Tyler Boose Is A Bearcat

Running Back is a massive need for the Bearcats in the class of 2015. Rod Moore, Ralph David Abernathy IV and Hosey Williams will all exhaust their eligibility after the 2014 season meaning that the Bearcats will head into 2015 with just one running back who has live game experience, Tion Green. The hope is that by 2015 Tion will have finally put it all together and become the monster that he has teased at for the last two seasons. E.J. Junior was something of a revelation in spring, but that was just spring. Its hard to know exactly what we will get from E.J. in 2014 or projecting forward. At this point he is an option, but the Bearcats need more of them, and Taylor Boose is an option going forward

Tion Green is the obvious comparison, physically they are very similar, and they both play B-back in high school offenses that were at least trying to do triple option stuff. What's different is their skills, for all his size Tion has "oh my god" speed to just outrun defenders, even when they have the angle. Boose isn't gifted with the same top end speed, but his feet are better and he seems to have great vision to go with it. That enables him to spot gaps and exploit them while he is still ostensibly in the hole. One particular play in the embedded video really reveals that ability of his. Scroll back to the 27 second mark.

He receives the handoff and hits where the hole is supposed to be at the left guard but its not there. Instead of pressing the hole, and running into the back of his lineman, he adjusts his course and goes right, spots a very narrow gap in the line that requires him to "get skinny" to go through at an angle. Once he makes that move he sees grass to the left so he cuts back to the left where the play was supposed to hit originally. Boose winds up scoring on the play but that is academic. What you need to pay attention is the way he makes three lightning quick decisions and executes them to perfection in about three seconds. That is a run a lot of college running backs would struggle to duplicate. That play more than any other shows why this staff is so high on Boose. His vision and instincts; his balance and quick feet are all on display there. The Bearcats just got a tremendous back, and right when they needed one.

In last years class only Mike Boone seems likely to start his career as a running back, he certainly has the build for it. But that is it for the last class at running back. In the 2015 class Daniel Cobb could play running back in spots, but he most likely will never be an every down back at this level. With Boone, Boose and Junior they at least have options for the feature back spot going forward, but there is no such thing as too many options at running back for Eddie Gran. I would expect the Bearcats to go after at least one more back in this class with the top remaining target being LeVante Bellamy.