Louisiana (Lafayette) has big, ball-carrying shoes to fill in its backfield this season after a pair of high-profile transfers, but only appears to have more depth at the position by the day as the season approaches.
The Ragin’ Cajuns are replacing a star tandem of running backs from a year ago in Elijah “Bill” Davis (Riverside Academy) and Zylan Perry (Franklin), who transferred to Virginia Tech and Cincinnati, respectively.
But redshirt sophomore Steven Blanco (St. Martinville) and redshirt freshmen Darrell Smith and J.J. Garner showed encouraging flashes this spring, and the continued development of another veteran and a true freshman during the past few months has further bolstered group.
“I’ve gotten to sit up here before and talk about to make decisions between quarterbacks that I felt like we had multiple quarterbacks that we could win with,” coach Michael Desormeaux said. “It’s a great position to be in to get to choose the one you think is the best for your team. At running back the cool thing is when you have guys that feel like can impact the game, you go into it with a plan on how you’re gonna play ’em and then you roll with the hot hand.
“I think Anthony Reagan in particular kinda had the hot hand (in Saturday’s scrimmage) and did some really good stuff. You know, Saturday, Steve-O, it wasn’t his best day — well, that’s the way it happens sometimes. He’s had some days where he was the best one. That’s the way it goes a little bit.”
Desormeaux praised the junior, a transfer from Howard, for the maturity and mindset he’s shown to improve since the spring.
“The thing I really like about Ant a whole lot is at the end of spring we were really honest with him about where he was and told him things he had to do better and things that if he wanted to play here and impact this team he was gonna have to do this things a whole lot better than he did in the spring,” the coach said. “And he didn’t pout. He didn’t complain. He did ’em better. And that’s the response you want.”
Meanwhile, former Holy Cross star Ke’Rynn Smith arrived this summer and has continued to show exciting flashes and work his way toward greater consistency that should force him into some opportunities sooner than later if his trajectory continues.
“I think Ke’Rynn’s done a really good job for a freshman coming in here in June,” Desormeaux said. “He’s gotta continue to detail a lot of things up, and I think that’s where his growth needs to take place. He’s a mature kid. He’s just got to mature and grow up a little bit, but he’s got a ton of ability. Really, he was kinda the one that I was probably most excited to see out of all the freshmen we had coming in. He’s one of the few that I hadn’t really gotten to see in person. We had ground-level footage and saw stuff from practice, but there’s still something to seeing it with your own eyes that you wanna see it. And it’s been a — I don’t want to say a surprise. We thought it was a really good player obviously. But I’ve been really pleased with his ability to make things happen, his ability to make plays, and I think he’s taken steps in the right direction.”
