Notre Dame's Run Silent, Run Deep Figure In Backfield
In the second part of a series this week reviewing 2016, we look at a current sophomore running back whose production will need to continue in 2017.
Has there been a player on the Notre Dame roster the past two years who has been relatively more under the radar than current sophomore running back Josh Adams?
When he enters his junior campaign in 2017, Adams will have only three running backs in Fighting Irish history who have totaled more yards rushing after their freshman and sophomore seasons combined (see list below). During that span, Adams also has lost merely one fumble among his 275 career carries (versus Boston College during his 2015 freshman year) while producing a stellar 6.42 yards per carry.
That career average per carry would rank him fourth on the all-time chart at Notre Dame for players who have had at least 150 rushing attempts: Adams is behind Reggie Brooks’ amazing 7.6 average (1989-92), followed by former teammate C.J. Prosise’s 6.9 while shifting to running back his final season in 2015 after playing in the slot, and Four Horseman Don Miller’s 6.8 way back in 1922-24.
Adams also has finished each of the last two regular seasons strong on the West Coast. Last year at Stanford he set a school single game rushing standard with 168 yards rushing on 18 carries against a Cardinal team that would finish No. 3 in the country. This year he amassed a career high 180 yards on 17 attempts against USC, which has won eight straight contests and is headed to the Rose Bowl.
Yet Adams has consistently remained somewhat overshadowed. Despite setting the freshman single season school record in 2015 for rushing yards (835), Adams was overshadowed by the game-breaking Prosise, a 1,000-yard rusher while becoming a third-round NFL pick, the highest by a Notre Dame running back since Julius Jones’ second-round selection in 2004.
This year Adams was projected to complement senior Tarean Folston, who was the top rusher in 2014 before a torn ACL in the 2015 opener sidelined him for the balance of the season. Folston’s first carry in 2015 was a 54-yard run in the opener at Texas — yet he finished the campaign with a relatively modest 334 yards rushing and 4.3 yards per carry.
Then after a 38-35 loss at home to Duke on Sept. 24, Irish head coach Brian Kelly singled out Adams’ classmate and running back cohort Dexter Williams — who carried five times for 24 yards, highlighted by a 13-yard touchdown versus the Blue Devils — as the lone figure on the team who played with passion.
“He’s the only one that I saw — one guy,” said Kelly of Williams after the game.
Yet, Williams would finish the season with only 39 carries for 200 yards while appearing in all 12 games. Adams’ team high 933 yards rushing nearly matched the 1,006 produced by the next three Irish players combined: quarterback DeShone Kizer (472), Folston (334) and Williams (200).
As the Irish look toward 2017, can Adams continue his relatively quiet production? Two years ago, Folston held the same spot as Adams, but injuries slowed him the next two years.
Here’s a breakdown of the most yards a Notre Dame running back ever had, including bowl games, entering his junior year:
1. Allen Pinkett (1982-83): 2,005 yards, 5.16 yards per carry
2. Darius Walker (2004-05): 1,982 yards, 4.53 yards per carry
3. Autry Denson (1995-96): 1,941 yards, 5.55 yards per carry
4. Josh Adams (2015-16): 1,768 yards, 6.42 yards per carry
5. Tarean Folston (2013-14): 1,359 yards, 5.16 yards per carry
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