Going into the 2019 football season one of the questions facing Kentucky's offense was how much of a role A.J. Rose would have.
It was all but a given that Rose would be an important part of the attack but the apparent outcomes ranged from Rose taking most of the carries to splitting duties with one or two other backs.
As it turns out, Rose did have a very important role in the offense. And, yes, he also shared duties with Kavosiey Smoke and Chris Rodriguez.
Rose finished 2019 with 149 carries, 826 yards, and six touchdowns. He nearly doubled the rushing yardage he had amassed as a redshirt freshman and sophomore.
Rose was more successful on the road (7.4 ypc) than in Kentucky's eight home games (4.81 ypc). Rose had two 105-yard rushing games in 2019: Against Mississippi State on nine carries and later in the year against UT-Martin. Four of his six touchdowns came in the last six games of the season, but that was probably less about him and more about Kentucky's rushing game stats overall going through the roof after Lynn Bowden took over at quarterback.
For the season, Rose did not see a greater involvement in the passing game. His catches went from eight in 2018 to 11 in 2019, but in a much larger number of snaps. However, there is good reason to believe that Rose could have had Kentucky's best receiving season from any running back in a very long time if Terry Wilson or even a healthy Sawyer Smith had been on the field.
Of Rose's 11 receptions, nine came in the first three games of the season. So that will be something to watch for this year.
Rose did see his number of carries decrease over the last month of the season. The two main reasons for that were Bowden joining the backs to split carries four ways instead of three and the reemergence of Chris Rodriguez after he returned to favor with the staff after some early season fumbling issues.
Rose saw 416 snaps in 2019, most of any Kentucky back. He took a snap in the quarterback position in the Wildcat formation six times.
Interestingly enough, Rose had the overwhelming amount of his success running right of center. He had 73 carries for 543 yards (7.43 ypc) running to the right of where the ball was snapped including a whopping 8.1 yards per carry with 76 yards after contact running straight behind Luke Fortner, compared to 74 carries for only 299 yards (4.04 ypc) going over the left side which included 16 carries for 26 yards running over left guard or tackle.
Rose coughed up a ball in the Belk Bowl and Virginia Tech took over (although it wasn't at all clear that the ball was loose before the was down). He also fumbled early in the year and against Vanderbilt. Ball security has to be the number one issue for Rose to target for improvement going into the 2020 season.
If he can show good ball security, Rose has shown the ability to be a solid pass protector -- with the only struggles showing up over two games against South Carolina and Mississippi State in the early-middle part of the season, probably when opponents send more pressure because of UK's quarterback injury issues -- and he's a slashing runner who is a legitimate big play threat.
Kentucky's running back situation is actually easier to predict going into 2020, or so it would seem. It would be a surprise if we didn't see something of a repeat of what occured last year. In practice, that was a combination of Rose, Smoke, and Rodriguez.
The staff did not always find the perfect rhythm of riding the hot hand, but those parts were interchangeable enough to give UK multiple options based on situation, health, and other circumstances.
Sharing carries will cut into the numbers Rose otherwise could put up, but it's not outlandish to imagine him pushing for 1,000 yards behind a very strong offensive line in a best case scenario.
