Notre Dame entered the 2013 season with major question marks at running back. Both rushing leaders from 2012, Cierre Wood & Theo Riddick entered the NFL Draft, and of the three returning running backs in Amir Carlilse, Cam McDaniel, and George Atkinson III, only Atkinson had seen major playing time.
There was some concern heading into fall camp about “who would be the featured back?” The Irish were getting a talent infusion at running back with two true freshmen in Tarean Folston and Greg Bryant. A lot of prognosticators started penciling in Greg Bryant to eventually become the featured back.
That wasn’t the case, as Bryant suffered a season ending injury that required surgery early in the season. Instead. it was Folston who, after overcoming and playing through a few injuries of his own, that eventually played the role of “lead back” late in he season.
Despite that surge to the top of the depth chart, Folston is still looking at a lot of shared carried this season. Things have narrowed out a bit at running back since the start of the 2013 season in which there were 5 players looking for real time at the position. There are now just the three in Senior Cam McDaniel and sophomores Greg Bryant & Tarean Folston.
I had wondered what recent history looked like for second year running backs after “breakout” freshman seasons.” I may have used “breakout” a little loosely, as the requirement was just 200 yards rushing… but here you go. Here is the list of running backs that had major impacts as a freshman (or redshirt freshman) and what they did in the next year. Only Rashon Powers-Neal saw a decline in production despite playing in 12 games.
| Player | Year | Carries | Yards | TDS |
| Julius Jones | 1999 | 75 | 375 | 3 |
| Julius Jones | 2000 | 162 | 657 | 7 |
| Powers-Neal | 2002 | 77 | 333 | 2 |
| Powers-Neal | 2003 | 4 | 15 | 0 |
| Darius Walker | 2004 | 185 | 786 | 7 |
| Darius Walker | 2005 | 253 | 1196 | 9 |
| Armando Allen | 2007 | 86 | 348 | 0 |
| Armando Allen | 2008 | 134 | 585 | 3 |
| Robert Hughes | 2007 | 53 | 294 | 4 |
| Robert Hughes | 2008 | 112 | 382 | 4 |
| Cierre Wood | 2010 | 119 | 603 | 3 |
| Cierre Wood | 2011 | 217 | 1102 | 9 |
| Tarean Folston | 2013 | 88 | 470 | 3 |
| Tarean Folston | 2014 | ??? | ??? | ??? |
If there was a comparison to be made for Tarean Folston, the closest possible one would probably be Julius Jones. Both had similar freshman seasons, and Folston looks to carry the load with others, just as Jones did in 2000. Your guess is as good as mine what the running back rotation will look like in 2014, but I would lean heavily on a healthy dose of Tarean Folston.
Just a hunch.
