The Bruins are going to have to find a lot of production and leadership out of the running back position. Gone is Joshua Kelley, whose presence was felt on an off the field. Replacing Kelley is going to be tough. Kelley brought tangibles and intangibles that will be hard to replace.
In 11 games in 2019, Kelley rushed for 1,060 yards and scored 12 touchdowns. Maybe the most impressive stat Kelley had was he only had 37 net loss yards on 229 carries. That means he was smart enough and had the vision to take what was there.
In contrast, UCLA’s second-leading rusher, senior to be, Demetric Felton (5-9, 186) lost 48 net yards on 86 carries. Felton ended up rushing for 331 yards and one rushing touchdown. His long run was 75 yards. Felton was the Bruins second-leading receiver in 2019 coming down with 55 receptions for 594 yards and four touchdowns while averaging 10.8 yards per catch with long of 94 yards.
Felton’s return will help mitigate somewhat the graduation of Kelley, but they are two different type players. Felton is a home run threat anytime he has the ball in his hands. His experience is going to help the running back room.
Outside of Felton, the Bruins only return three players who saw playing time in 2019, and the playing time was limited at that.
Junior to be Kazmeir Allen (5-8, 174) was suspended for much of the year and only participated in four games but ended up rushing for 63 yards on 13 carries (4.8 ypc).
Junior to be Martell Irby (5-8, 200) was banged up most of the year but still saw action in eight games mostly on special teams. He did carry the rock ten times for 34 yards (3.4 ypc.).
Junior to be walk-on running back, Cole Kinder (6-0, 227) played in six games and rushed for 33 yards on four carries (8.2 ypc).
The Bruins added former Duke running back, senior to be, Brittain Brown (6-1, 205) out of the transfer portal. He has been injured over the last two seasons, so his durability is a huge question mark.
Brown only played three games as a junior after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. As a sophomore, Brown missed four games because of a knee injury.
In his one full season, Brown’s redshirt freshman season, he played in all 13 games rushing for 701 yards (5.39 ypc) and scored seven touchdowns. He caught 14 receptions out of the backfield for 161 yards (11.5 ypr).
For his career, in 25 career games, including five starts, Brown has rushed for 1,126 yards averaging 5.07 per carry and has ten touchdowns. As a receiver, Brown has 17 receptions for 218 yards (12.82 ypr ) and one receiving touchdowns. He has also been used to return kicks returned and has 153 kick return yards (25.50 ypkr). Brown has accrued1,497 all-purpose yards and has 66 career points on 11 touchdowns.
Going into his junior season, Brown was on the Doak Walker Award watch list. This is the award given to the top running back in college football.
The Bruins have four redshirt freshmen on scholarship running backs who will try to grab some attention this spring and one walk-on redshirt freshman.
Two of the running backs who have track guy speed in Keegan Jones (5-9, 176) and Christian Grubb (5-9, 172).
The two other scholarship backs are Sitiveni Kaufusi (6-2, 261) and Jahmon McClendon (6-1, 202). The walk-on is Dusty Mitchell (6-2, 219). Both of the committed running backs out of the class of 2020 will end up signing elsewhere.
The question going into spring ball is who is going to take the lead in carrying the torch from Kelley?
Some of these players could be looked at to play in other spots where they can use their and or their speed.
For the running back position, the competition is going to be intense and will be one of the more captivating areas to watch.
