I hope you'll forgive the use of a blatantly click-bait-y title, since we don't yet know the design or scheme of "Frank Wilson's offense".
The new UTSA head man is still putting together his coaching staff, with no names announced or really widely rumored (as far as I've heard) for positions on the offensive side as of yet. So what style of offensive system he'll seek to run and what kind of personnel he'll target is still an unknown. His resume alone and his reported recruiting acumen should be enough to get UTSA in the door with some running back talents who might not have shown any interest in them in years past, those ironically being years in which the head coach was formerly the college RBs coach of Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas, and the college OC of Edgerrin James and Clinton Portis.
Here's a few things we know from Wilson's resume. He coached LSU's running backs from 2010 to 2015, during which time five of his charges were taken in the NFL Draft: Stevan Ridley, Spencer Ware, Jeremy Hill, Alfred Blue, and Kenny Hilliard. Leonard Fournette will push that number to six (at least) a little over a year from now. All of those are big, athletic guys who tipped the scales at 220 or more when they entered the NFL, with at least 3 of them also being 6-feet or taller.
During his one season as RBs coach at Southern Miss (2008) he coached then-junior Damion Fletcher, who was listed on USM's roster that season at 5'10" 177, and though he wasn't drafted and didn't play in the NFL, he finished his collegiate career with a very impressive 5,300 rushing yards and over 6,200 yards from scrimmage. During Wilson's time at Ole Miss (2005-2007) he coached all-purpose demon Dexter McCluster for his freshman and sophomore seasons. McCluster, who was a 2nd round pick by the Chiefs in 2010, was 5'9" and 172 pounds at the 2010 NFL Combine.
So Wilson has coached and had success working with running backs who ranged from undersized scat-backs to 6'2" 230-lb behemoths. Which means there's a pretty wide range of RBs he could potentially target to bring to UTSA to finish off the 2016 class and target in future classes.
UTSA signed three nominal running backs in the 2015 class but have a need there with freshman Jess Anders having left the team, starter Jarveon Williams going into his senior year, and primary backup Jalen Rhodes having had two years' worth of injury issues before he played all 12 games in 2015. Outside of rarely-used incoming senior Corbin White (who played in just 2 games last season), the RBs on UTSA's current roster bear much more of a physical resemblance to Damion Fletcher than to any of the RBs Wilson coached at LSU, so some muscle in the backfield would be great to have. Whether it's in his head, his cell phone contacts, or Google Drive, Wilson almost certainly has a list of guys who he evaluated while at LSU who weren't quite good enough to get an offer there but who he'd love to get to work with while starting a new scheme at UTSA and who may be uncommitted or flip-able.
I can't claim to know what RBs may be on that list, but from my own list here are five uncommitted (to FBS programs anyway) senior running backs who, depending on the offensive philosophy of Coach Wilson and his eventual offensive coordinator, could be good fits for UTSA's future backfield.
Trey Ragas (Archbishop Shaw - Marrero, LA)
I'd guess there's a 100% chance Wilson knows about Ragas. His school is in southern New Orleans, and Ragas spent his freshman year at powerhouse St. Augustine (Wilson's alma mater), backing up then-junior Leonard Fournette, before later transferring to Archbishop Shaw. Ragas has the size of a LSU running back at 5'11" and 200 or so pounds, and he shows good vision and runs with some wiggle as well. He is reported to have offers from Kansas, LA-Lafayette, Southern Miss, Tulane, and Utah, among others.
E.J. Davis (Alief Elsik)
Davis rushed for over 2,300 yards as a junior and as a senior was voted the Offensive MVP of District 23-6A. Listed by Rivals as 6' and 211 pounds, he's shows good if not great speed and is a very physical runner with good balance, and I've seen at least one clip in which he broke seven tackles on a long tun before being tackled from behind just before reaching the end zone. He has reported offers from Cal and Georgia Tech, but news of his recruitment has been notably scarce. Based on his junior year film he's a guy who should have much more numerous offers, and why he doesn't, I don't know, and neither does a friend of mine who knows some of Elsik's top recruits.
Z'Quan Hogan (Norman North - Norman, OK)
One of the top seniors in Oklahoma, he's another guy whose recruitment hasn't been reported on a great deal. He claims to be 6'1" 210 on his Hudl page, and that may be about accurate. In his junior year highlights he reminded be a bit of current Nebraska freshman Devine Ozigbo (a former Sachse High star who UTSA offered). During his career, Hogan has been a RB who picks up almost as many yards receiving as rushing, and while he looks to have gotten bigger and maybe a step slower as a senior compared to his junior season, he's still a big, athletic player who can hurt defenses in multiple ways. In 2015 he rushed for 1,309 yards and 28 TDs, and finished his high school career with over 5,000 yards from scrimmage and 65 TDs. He has reported offers from Arkansas State, Colorado State, Ohio, Tulsa, and Wyoming.
DaCoven Bailey (Pilot Point)
A small school all-state RB with a good frame, Bailey is similar to Hogan in that he's done almost as much damage as a receiver as he has rushing. Usually listed at 6' and 190 or so, Bailey appears to have filled out a bit since his junior season, a year in which he rushed for 1,195 yards and 21 TDs and added 1,009 yards and 11 TDs receiving in Pilot Point's 13 games. He lined up as a wide receiver in a lot of five-wide sets and when he wasn't targeted as a receiver or given the ball on a jet sweep he showed himself to be a mean blocker from the slot. Last spring he showed off his speed on the track, qualifying for the state meet in the 200 meters and finished 4th in the 3A final with a wind-aided time of 21.85 seconds. He wasn't quite as productive as a senior, and Pilot Point ended up missing the playoffs, but I think he's still a promising athlete who could develop into a good all-around college back. I've read no news about him having D1 offers, and he hasn't reported any on his Twitter page. Also worth noting is he claims to be "from da boot" on his twitter bio, more specifically from New Orleans, where Coach Wilson was born and raised, so that would be a potential data point in a hypothetical UTSA recruitment.
Jamall Shaw (Broken Arrow, OK)
Some running backs pile up huge yardage totals by virtue of their team's offensive scheme and the strength of their offensive line combining to frequently put them in a position to run for 8-10 yards before any defender can get within arm's reach of them. Here I'm thinking of players like Stephen F. Austin RB Loren Easly, whose highlights at Houston Westside had an obscene number of clips in which the defense didn't lay a finger on him until he was 15 yards or more down the field. Easly showed he was more than a good system RB in 2015 by leading SFA in rushing as a true freshman. On the other side of that spectrum are players like Jamall Shaw, whose highlights almost invariably show him having to earn the majority of his yards. This isn't to say that Shaw didn't play in a good offensive system or behind good blockers, but his success had more to do with his change of direction and tackle-breaking ability than his getting the ball with a huge amount of space to run. Shaw is about 5'10" and a solid 200 lbs, and as a senior playing in Oklahoma's largest classification, he rushed for 2,013 yards and 27 TDs. He recently announced his commitment to SFA, but presumably an offer from a program like UTSA and a coach like Frank Wilson would trump that.
Thoughts?
The new UTSA head man is still putting together his coaching staff, with no names announced or really widely rumored (as far as I've heard) for positions on the offensive side as of yet. So what style of offensive system he'll seek to run and what kind of personnel he'll target is still an unknown. His resume alone and his reported recruiting acumen should be enough to get UTSA in the door with some running back talents who might not have shown any interest in them in years past, those ironically being years in which the head coach was formerly the college RBs coach of Barry Sanders and Thurman Thomas, and the college OC of Edgerrin James and Clinton Portis.
Here's a few things we know from Wilson's resume. He coached LSU's running backs from 2010 to 2015, during which time five of his charges were taken in the NFL Draft: Stevan Ridley, Spencer Ware, Jeremy Hill, Alfred Blue, and Kenny Hilliard. Leonard Fournette will push that number to six (at least) a little over a year from now. All of those are big, athletic guys who tipped the scales at 220 or more when they entered the NFL, with at least 3 of them also being 6-feet or taller.
During his one season as RBs coach at Southern Miss (2008) he coached then-junior Damion Fletcher, who was listed on USM's roster that season at 5'10" 177, and though he wasn't drafted and didn't play in the NFL, he finished his collegiate career with a very impressive 5,300 rushing yards and over 6,200 yards from scrimmage. During Wilson's time at Ole Miss (2005-2007) he coached all-purpose demon Dexter McCluster for his freshman and sophomore seasons. McCluster, who was a 2nd round pick by the Chiefs in 2010, was 5'9" and 172 pounds at the 2010 NFL Combine.
So Wilson has coached and had success working with running backs who ranged from undersized scat-backs to 6'2" 230-lb behemoths. Which means there's a pretty wide range of RBs he could potentially target to bring to UTSA to finish off the 2016 class and target in future classes.
UTSA signed three nominal running backs in the 2015 class but have a need there with freshman Jess Anders having left the team, starter Jarveon Williams going into his senior year, and primary backup Jalen Rhodes having had two years' worth of injury issues before he played all 12 games in 2015. Outside of rarely-used incoming senior Corbin White (who played in just 2 games last season), the RBs on UTSA's current roster bear much more of a physical resemblance to Damion Fletcher than to any of the RBs Wilson coached at LSU, so some muscle in the backfield would be great to have. Whether it's in his head, his cell phone contacts, or Google Drive, Wilson almost certainly has a list of guys who he evaluated while at LSU who weren't quite good enough to get an offer there but who he'd love to get to work with while starting a new scheme at UTSA and who may be uncommitted or flip-able.
I can't claim to know what RBs may be on that list, but from my own list here are five uncommitted (to FBS programs anyway) senior running backs who, depending on the offensive philosophy of Coach Wilson and his eventual offensive coordinator, could be good fits for UTSA's future backfield.
Trey Ragas (Archbishop Shaw - Marrero, LA)
I'd guess there's a 100% chance Wilson knows about Ragas. His school is in southern New Orleans, and Ragas spent his freshman year at powerhouse St. Augustine (Wilson's alma mater), backing up then-junior Leonard Fournette, before later transferring to Archbishop Shaw. Ragas has the size of a LSU running back at 5'11" and 200 or so pounds, and he shows good vision and runs with some wiggle as well. He is reported to have offers from Kansas, LA-Lafayette, Southern Miss, Tulane, and Utah, among others.
E.J. Davis (Alief Elsik)
Davis rushed for over 2,300 yards as a junior and as a senior was voted the Offensive MVP of District 23-6A. Listed by Rivals as 6' and 211 pounds, he's shows good if not great speed and is a very physical runner with good balance, and I've seen at least one clip in which he broke seven tackles on a long tun before being tackled from behind just before reaching the end zone. He has reported offers from Cal and Georgia Tech, but news of his recruitment has been notably scarce. Based on his junior year film he's a guy who should have much more numerous offers, and why he doesn't, I don't know, and neither does a friend of mine who knows some of Elsik's top recruits.
Z'Quan Hogan (Norman North - Norman, OK)
One of the top seniors in Oklahoma, he's another guy whose recruitment hasn't been reported on a great deal. He claims to be 6'1" 210 on his Hudl page, and that may be about accurate. In his junior year highlights he reminded be a bit of current Nebraska freshman Devine Ozigbo (a former Sachse High star who UTSA offered). During his career, Hogan has been a RB who picks up almost as many yards receiving as rushing, and while he looks to have gotten bigger and maybe a step slower as a senior compared to his junior season, he's still a big, athletic player who can hurt defenses in multiple ways. In 2015 he rushed for 1,309 yards and 28 TDs, and finished his high school career with over 5,000 yards from scrimmage and 65 TDs. He has reported offers from Arkansas State, Colorado State, Ohio, Tulsa, and Wyoming.
DaCoven Bailey (Pilot Point)
A small school all-state RB with a good frame, Bailey is similar to Hogan in that he's done almost as much damage as a receiver as he has rushing. Usually listed at 6' and 190 or so, Bailey appears to have filled out a bit since his junior season, a year in which he rushed for 1,195 yards and 21 TDs and added 1,009 yards and 11 TDs receiving in Pilot Point's 13 games. He lined up as a wide receiver in a lot of five-wide sets and when he wasn't targeted as a receiver or given the ball on a jet sweep he showed himself to be a mean blocker from the slot. Last spring he showed off his speed on the track, qualifying for the state meet in the 200 meters and finished 4th in the 3A final with a wind-aided time of 21.85 seconds. He wasn't quite as productive as a senior, and Pilot Point ended up missing the playoffs, but I think he's still a promising athlete who could develop into a good all-around college back. I've read no news about him having D1 offers, and he hasn't reported any on his Twitter page. Also worth noting is he claims to be "from da boot" on his twitter bio, more specifically from New Orleans, where Coach Wilson was born and raised, so that would be a potential data point in a hypothetical UTSA recruitment.
Jamall Shaw (Broken Arrow, OK)
Some running backs pile up huge yardage totals by virtue of their team's offensive scheme and the strength of their offensive line combining to frequently put them in a position to run for 8-10 yards before any defender can get within arm's reach of them. Here I'm thinking of players like Stephen F. Austin RB Loren Easly, whose highlights at Houston Westside had an obscene number of clips in which the defense didn't lay a finger on him until he was 15 yards or more down the field. Easly showed he was more than a good system RB in 2015 by leading SFA in rushing as a true freshman. On the other side of that spectrum are players like Jamall Shaw, whose highlights almost invariably show him having to earn the majority of his yards. This isn't to say that Shaw didn't play in a good offensive system or behind good blockers, but his success had more to do with his change of direction and tackle-breaking ability than his getting the ball with a huge amount of space to run. Shaw is about 5'10" and a solid 200 lbs, and as a senior playing in Oklahoma's largest classification, he rushed for 2,013 yards and 27 TDs. He recently announced his commitment to SFA, but presumably an offer from a program like UTSA and a coach like Frank Wilson would trump that.
Thoughts?
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