Gainesville, FL.– Florida Atlantic’s season opening 66-21 defeat against Florida didn’t provide many team highlights, however it did give Head Coach Zach Kittley numerous things to reflect on moving forward.
One of those being the running back room, as the Owls re-tooled their backfield during the off-season and Saturday’s game was the first opportunity to see them in action.
As the season drew closer, there was much mystery as to how the depth chart would shake out and who would be the lead back. Now after one game both of those questions are still on the table and Kittley is looking for answers.
The Owls saw 4 different running backs contribute against the Gators. Fairmont State transfer Leonard Farrow and Sophomore back Ethan Ervin led the way, while Junior Kaden Shields-Dutton and Edward Waters Transfer Brady Tillman manned smaller roles.
Ervin carried it 16 times for 50 yards and a touchdown, while Farrow rushed 10 times for 51 yards, also hauling in 2 receptions for 14 yards. Shields-Dutton rushed 3 times for 8 yards, also hauling in a pass for 6 yards, and Brady Tillman toted it twice for 10 yards and caught his lone target for a gain of 3.
On paper, Shields-Dutton looked like the main option to take over as the lead back for the Owls after a sophomore campaign where he had 84 rushes for 460 yards and 6 touchdowns. That wasn’t the case on Saturday, as Shields-Dutton was outpaced by both Farrow and Ervin.
After the game, Kittley noted that the lack of reps for Shields-Dutton most likely was related to an injury he suffered during Fall camp.
“He {Shields-Dutton} missed a little bit of fall camp through a hamstring, and so we’ve been smart with him. I thought he did a good job when he came in,” Kittley said.
With Shields-Dutton working up to a full workload, game one presented the opportunity for the other backs to show what they could do with an increase in carries. Ervin and Farrow both did a relatively solid job on the ground, however neither asserted themself as a lead back, something that Kittley noted has been a trend during the offseason.
“We’ve challenged those guys for someone to take the job. I mean, go in there and practice different, take the job, and those guys have just all kind of been steady, all of them kind of across the board, and that’s why we rotated those four guys” Kittley said.
Overall on the ground, the Owls rushed 37 times for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns, giving the offense a nice complement to the heavy passing game. While 3.2 yards per carry isn’t the most efficient output, it gave the offense a chance to get ahead of the sticks, which a season ago was something that was oftentimes an issue.Now as the Owls look to put their week one performance behind them, Kittley is still searching for his RB1 and he’s hoping one of his backs will go out and take it.
“I’m really looking for someone to take over, and be the guy in that room,” Kittley said.
The Owls will be back in action in week two, hosting Navy for their home opener on Saturday at 7:30 PM. The Midshipmen faced off with Towson in Week 1 and held the Tigers to just 39 yards on 20 carries and in last season’s matchup they held FAU to just 69 yards on 26 rushes.
Cover Photo Credits: Christian Proscia, NewEraPrep
