Over/Under: Chip Trayanum's Rushing Yards
With fall camp now underway Cats Illustrated's preseason coverage of Kentucky football continues. We're breaking down, reporting on, and speculating about the team in a number of ways, including this over/under preseason roundtable series.
Several days ago we asked whether UK quarterback Brock Vandagriff would be over or under 2,300 passing yards.
Today we shift our focus to the running game. Ohio State's Chip Trayanum came in this offseason to replace Ray Davis. UK has had a 1,000-yard running back for seven seasons in a row.
Will it continue? Will Trayanum be over or under 1,000 yards this year for the Cats?
Jeff Drummond: Although Kentucky has been blessed with a sequence of featured backs and workhorses in recent years, culminating last season with the fantastic Ray Davis, the vibe I got from the coaches coming out of spring practice was that we may see more of a committee approach and some specialization with the running back room in 2024. Chip Trayanum certainly seems to have the inside track to be RB1, coming from Ohio State with a strong recruiting rep, but I think he'll come in slightly under the 1,000 figure. Maybe somewhere in the 900 range. There are a lot of weapons on this UK offense, and I think new OC Bush Hamdan is going to utilize a lot of them and spread the ball around.
Travis Graf: I’ll go under 1000 yards for Chip on this one just with playing the odds. He’s only surpassed 400 yards once in his career and while he should definitely get more yardage this season than in past seasons, there’s nothing on the tape so far to suggest he’s a 1000 yard rusher in the SEC in his first year in the league. I expect the carries to really be split up this year more than in years past and there to be a lot of QB runs implemented. Combine these factors with a very talented WR room and a capable TE room, which will call for a lot of pass attempts to fully utilize, and this makes me think Chip falls short of the mark.
Justin Rowland: I agreed with these guys calling for Brock Vandagriff to go over 2,300 yards and here I agree with them again. My assumption is that Trayanum will be under 1,000 yards. I'll readily admit that Ray Davis had a much better season last year than I anticipated. And Trayanum doesn't have to be a "star" to get to 1,000 yards this year. It wouldn't be a shock if Kentucky's offensive line comes together and opponents have to respect their weapons on the outside. So I'm not scoffing at the idea. But given that there's already talk of a committee, there's a running quarterback and more receiving weapons than usual, the smart pick seems to be that UK's streak of 1,000 yard rushers will come to an end. I do expect Trayanum will go over 100 yards some weeks but it seems like the plan is to involve more running backs.