Run-first offenses often trust one primary rusher. That wasn’t quite the case last year, but could Rice football find a bell cow back in 2019?
Dating back to Mike Bloomgren’s days at Stanford, the current Rice head man has tended toward trusting one man to carry the brunt of the load in the backfield. The Owls didn’t have that one guy last year, or at least, they never settled on one back who was healthy enough and consistent enough to take on that role in this offense. Sort of.
Here’s what the distribution of carries looked among the top four Rice rushers in 2018:
By Raw Stats
| Player | Austin Walter | Emmanuel Esukpa | Juma Otoviano | Aston Walter |
| Att | 133 | 122 | 65 | 64 |
| Yds | 564 | 461 | 364 | 254 |
| TD | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
By Percentage
| Player | Austin Walter | Emmanuel Esukpa | Juma Otoviano | Aston Walter |
| % Att | 27% | 25% | 13% | 13% |
| % Yds | 30% | 25% | 19% | 14% |
| % TD | 27% | 20% | 20% | 0% |
The apparent balance wasn’t really the case. One running back registered at least 50 percent of the Owls’ non-quarterback rushes in 10 of 13 games Rice played last year. In six of those games, the lead back was responsible for at least two-thirds of the attempts.
That distribution was largely a function of the roles each of those four backs played as the offense evolved. Emmanuel Esupka was the bruiser north-south runner who started the year as the primary ball carrier before falling out of the rotation with injuries. Splitting time with him initially was Austin Walter, who shifted out to receiver midway through the year.
Stat Pack: Analyzing the Owls against the spread
That left Juma Otoviano and Aston Walter as the remaining options. Otoviano took the lead back duties, increasing his role from the wildcat quarterback earlier in the year. Aston was the glue, filling in whenever the pieces moved around him, registering a career-high 23 carries against LSU.
As the 2019 season looms, Austin and Esukpa are gone. Aston and Otoviano remain with an interesting crop of talent behind them including Harvard transfer Charlie Booker and incoming freshman Jawan King. Will Bloomgren have a lead guy to trust for the duration of the 2019 season? We might just have to wait and see.
