Cats Illustrated continues to preview the 2019 Kentucky and college football season by comparing the Wildcats' position units with those across the rest of the Southeastern Conference.
Here's how Justin Rowland, Jeff Drummond and Travis Graf would rank Kentucky's running back unit - which features AJ Rose, Kavosiey Smoke, Chris Rodriguez and Travis Tisdale - against the SEC.
The Rankings Explained...
Drummond: Just like we had at the quarterback position, it’s the Bulldogs and Crimson Tide leading the pack here as well. Those two programs are no strangers to producing elite running backs, and they have two of the nation’s best in UGA’s D’Andre Swift and Bama’s Najee Harris. I’m sky-high on Vandy’s Ke’Shawn Vaughn, a dynamic back who UK once recruited hard. Very quietly, he posted 1,244 yards and 12 touchdowns last season, averaging almost 8 yards per carry. A lot of the preseason publications don’t sound very high on the Cats’ backfield with Benny Snell Jr. moving on to the NFL, but I think they’re going to be fairly surprised by the production that A.J. Rose, Kavosiey Smoke and Chris Rodriguez give UK behind a strong, veteran O-Line. This trio has a real shot to climb the ladder by the end of the season.
Graf: The best running backs in the SEC are Georgia’s De’Andre Swift, Alabama’s Najee Harris and Vanderbilt’s Ke’Shawn Vaughn. Alabama has a nice 1-2 punch in Harris and Brian Robinson and Auburn has a quality duo of running backs in Boobie Whitlow and Kam Martin. The theme here is duos. Kentucky’s backfield combination of AJ Rose and Kavosiey Smoke is oozing with potential and homerun ability, but I’m being cautious not to over-rank them based on not knowing how they’ll handle increased carries. Also, can either running back consistently get you the tough first downs in short yardage situations?
Rowland: On the one hand, I feel like Kentucky's best case scenario here is very good and potentially higher than I have the unit ranked. On the other hand, we're probably assuming quite a bit and there's the fact that the most SEC programs have running backs that do really impressive things. So on some level you have to keep expectations in check because UK's backs have more to prove. I could absolutely see Rose and Smoke as a potent 1-2 punch and looking very good because of where the offensive line should rank. I just can't rank them ahead of some of the more proven units in the league yet.
