Effective Running Backs Come in all Shapes and Sizes

After decades of watching football I have come to the conclusion that effective running backs come in all shapes and sizes, and even speeds. I think most of us have a tendency to look for "prototypical" measureables in running backs, probably because we were influenced by certain events, or more particularly, certain players.

I used to think that running backs had to be 5' 8", 205 pounds, shifty, and fast as hell. Of course, that's because I grew up watching Barry Sanders. But since my days of watching Barry, I have seen effective running backs come in many shapes, sizes, and speeds.

At MSU we've had the "Barry" backs -- Ringer, Baker, Hill. We've also had outstanding power backs -- Bell, Duckett. And we've even had the in-between backs -- Jeremy Langford. Most of them were/are pretty fast, but not all of them. Bell and Duckett had wheels, but they didn't have elite speed. And while you can say that Duckett was effective in large part because of his power, I think Bell is more effective because of his intelligence. Bell is a powerful back, but the dominating performance he put on last night for Pittsburgh was more about his vision and the moves he's developed over the years. He displayed an amazing level of creativity.

The sad thing for recruiting is that it's tough to identify who is going to be a great running. In the first place, we are blinded by our biases, which develop when we watch our heroes. But it's also hard because many kids develop vision and creativity years after they commit -- look at Langford.

So what's the lesson? We and the coaches can't do much about the second problem, but we and they can do something about the first. They can consciously address their instinct to find the next Barry or the next Bell, and focus more on the kids that show good vision and creativity, regardless of their measureables.