Texas Football: Identifying directions for the most success running the ball

It’s crazy to think, but the Texas football program is now almost within a few months from starting a new era for the team under new head coach Steve Sarkisian. Texas had a long and drama-filled offseason to date, but it’s nice to see the steady hand that Sark has brought to the table for the program since he was hired back on Jan. 2.

An area where Longhorns are really excited to see what Sark can do is scheming up the ground game. We all saw what Sark could do to take the top off defenses with the deep ball. Now with a running back like star sophomore Bijan Robinson in his offense, there’s a lot of potential for this ground game.

Sark was often spoiled for skill position talent during his time as the Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator. But Texas has no shortage of blue chip talent at the skill positions. That is true for Texas at almost every position group on the offensive side of the ball too.

The problem for the Longhorns was never really recruiting talent to Austin, but developing that talent once it was on campus. Texas has a number of four and five-star recruits ready to make a big impact, such as Bijan, quarterbacks Casey Thompson and Hudson Card, wide receivers Jordan Whittington and Jake Smith, and so on.

This is now the time for the Longhorns to execute on all of the talent available with this team.

Where Texas football was successful running the ball in 2020

Texas mainly split their workload out of the backfield between one quarterback and three running backs last season. Senior star quarterback Sam Ehlinger led the way along with junior running back Keaontay Ingram, sophomore Roschon Johnson, and the freshman Robinson.

Among the running backs, Robinson led the way with 87 carries. Then it was Roschon with 80 carries. Robinson finished up the season with 703 rushing yards on 87 attempts (good for more than eight yards per carry), with four rushing touchdowns.

And Johnson finished up last season with 418 rushing yards on those 80 attempts (good for more than five yards per carry), with six rushing touchdowns. By the end of the season, Johnson was still part of the dynamic duo at running back for the Longhorns along with Robinson.

Ingram did 250 rushing yards on 53 attempts last season, good for one rushing touchdown. But he put his name in the NCAA Transfer Portal earlier this offseason. He eventually landed with head coach Clay Helton and the USC Trojans in the PAC-12.

So for all intents and purposes with the focus of this piece, we will mostly be looking outside of the production Ingram had last fall.

Texas both most often ran the ball up the middle last season and had the most success in the process. A lot of that was due to the quarterback power run that former head coach Tom Herman liked to call with Ehlinger. But Robinson also got nearly 300 of his 703 rushing yards on the season running off of the middle left of the line (mostly behind Derek Kerstetter).

Robinson was also very proficient when running up the middle (specifically middle left), getting nearly 200 yards after contact when taking the ball that direction. He also forced eight missed tackles when just running that one direction.

As a team, Texas registered more than 400 rushing yards running middle left last year. That included 17 first downs and 10 carries of at least 10 yards.

There was a lot of success that Texas had running it middle right. But that was actually Johnson and Ehlinger that were mostly called upon in those instances. Johnson registered just over 100 rushing yards when running middle right. He averaged nearly seven yards per attempt when running the ball that direction, had six first downs, and forced more than three missed tackles.

As a team, Texas registered 320 rushing yards, 6.7 yards per attempt, and 14 first downs, when running middle right.

It is important to note that with Ehlinger not returning this fall that the Longhorns are likely going to run the ball outside more often as a team than they did last season. They still have a good portion of the same personnel coming back in the trenches and in the backfield otherwise, though (barring offensive tackle Sam Cosmi).

One area to watch that Texas could run the ball more often than not under Sark this fall is off the right tackle and tight end on the right side of the line. That’s where Sark ran more than half of his plays on the ground last season with the Crimson Tide. And with how quickly the trio of Thompson, Robinson, and Johnson, can all get to the outside, running the ball that way makes a lot of sense.

Alabama had more than 170 of their 450 total rushing attempts last season either off tackle on the right or left.

Texas is also bringing in some notable running back talent, such as the former underrated four-star Hallettsville running back recruit Jonathon Brooks, that can also get to the outside fast. That would make the off tackle and outside-zone running plays even more proficient for Texas in 2021.

The ground game could be something special to watch for Sark and the Longhorns this fall. A standout duo in the backfield of Robinson and Johnson should lead the way for a versatile and balanced Texas offense in 2021.