His top two running backs had just been carted up the Coliseum tunnel, a nightmare scenario for a team that finally found its groove on the ground, when coach Lincoln Riley was asked at halftime how USC would move forward without the bulk of its backfield. He grinned.
“I might have to carry the ball some,” Riley quipped during NBC’s broadcast.
USC managed to make it through a win over Michigan without much in the way of reinforcements at running back. But with its backfield depth decimated — and the toughest stretch of the Trojans schedule ahead — Riley and his staff will have to figure out how proceed starting Saturday at Notre Dame.
USC will be without leading rusher Waymond Jordan for at least a month after he injured his ankle during the second quarter Saturday. Jordan, who’s currently third in the Big Ten in rushing, underwent surgery on Monday and is expected to miss four to six weeks.
That timeline, if it holds, would put Jordan on path for a potential return before the Trojans’ critical trip to Oregon, when they would presumably need him most.
The prognosis was less positive for senior Eli Sanders, who was third on USC’s offense in all-purpose yards when he left Saturday’s win early in the first quarter with a knee injury. Sanders, who transferred to USC from New Mexico in the offseason, was ruled out for the season on Monday after just six games.
Behind Jordan and Sanders, USC was on its way to the school’s best rushing season in two decades, since Reggie Bush and LenDale White last roamed its backfield. As it stands, at the midway mark of this season, USC is on pace to rush for nearly 3,000 yards and 40 touchdowns. (Granted, that’s still 10 scores behind 2005’s duo of Thunder and Lightning.)
In their place, redshirt freshman walk-on King Miller stepped seamlessly into a leading role Saturday, rushing for 158 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries against Michigan. But without anyone to spell him, he clearly started to run out of gas.
The situation was so dire that USC broke conference rules to suit up sophomore running back Bryan Jackson at halftime despite ruling him out before the game. Jackson rushed for 35 yards and a touchdown, all in the fourth quarter.
Assuming Jackson is healthy, the two backs are likely to share the load for USC Saturday against the Irish, who have clamped down in recent weeks against the run.
North Carolina State had just 51 yards on 28 carries in a loss to Notre Dame last Saturday, while Boise State was unable to crack three yards per carry during a three-touchdown loss the previous week.
Jackson, at least, has some experience, having seen action in all 13 games as a freshman last season. When USC was without its top two backs for the Las Vegas Bowl in December, Jackson stepped in to carry the ball 16 times for 66 yards and a touchdown. The brief stint was impressive enough he was named to the Doak Walker Award watch list before this season.
The sophomore brings a decidedly different style to USC’s rushing attack than Jordan or Sanders. At 235 pounds, he packs a much more powerful punch.
“My mindset being a running back is never let the first guy get you to the ground,” Jackson said in August. “I know people like the home run plays and the big runs. But sometimes it gets dirty. I feel like that’s my biggest mindset. You’re the guy that’s going to get the tough yards when your team needs you the most. You’re the one who can push us forward. That’s just my mindset whenever the ball gets in my hands.”
Miller has had the home runs covered so far in his first season at USC. He rushed for a 75-yard touchdown in Week 1 and a 41-yard touchdown in Week 2. Against Michigan, he ripped off runs of 49 and 47 yards.
“He pops a big run every day,” Riley said earlier this season. “It’s just what he does.”
The rest of USC’s running backs have not faced serious tests.
The Trojans’ two other two scholarship running backs, freshmen Harry Dalton and Riley Wormley, were recovering from injuries during Saturday’s game.
Dalton carried the ball three times during the Trojans’ Week 2 win over Georgia Southern, but hasn’t been heard from since. Wormley has been out since last September, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury as a high school senior.
Dalton is likely the next man up after Miller. A standout of USC’s preseason camp, Dalton was a high school quarterback in Virginia at this time last year. He could still participate in three more games as a freshman before losing his right to redshirt.
Desperate times could call for desperate measures in USC’s backfield. But that’s not the message that running backs coach Anthony Jones has sent to his group.
“He always preaches to us, ‘Whatever we want, we can do,’” Miller said. “The whole room is amazing. No matter who you put in there, we always believe that we can go shock the world.”
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