After Tank Bigsby announced his intentions to declare for the NFL draft following his junior season, Auburn’s running back room remained stacked with talent, but a question mark arose in the form of experience. That all changed the day that [autotag]Brian Battie[/autotag] arrived on campus.
Battie, a 1,000-yard rusher last season at South Florida, brings in three years of starting running back experience to mesh with the returning talent of [autotag]Jarquez Hunter[/autotag] and [autotag]Damari Alston[/autotag]. Mixing in those three with incoming freshman [autotag]Jeremiah Cobb[/autotag], and Auburn potentially owns one of the SEC’s top running back units.
Running backs coach [autotag]Cadillac Williams[/autotag] says that Battie will bring a natural running style to the Tigers’ offense.
I know he’s a smaller guy, man, but if you watch his film, he always falls forward,” Williams said of Battie. “He has that natural running style where he makes guys miss. Very seldom does one guy tackle or the first guy ever tackles him so he’s a guy you get him out in space, he breaks tackles, but he also is a guy who can run between the tackles.”
Hunter is also impressed by Battie’s mentality and talents and says that he will work just as hard as the other running backs on the roster.
“He’s going to make us work harder because everyone is competing for a spot,” Hunter said. “He comes out and works hard, does what he’s got to do and does everything Coach tells him.”
Battie had the chance to showcase his talent at South Florida, but now he will have a shot to prove his worth against SEC competition, which has Williams feeling excited.
“I mean, he is a guy who rushed for over 1,000 yards last year. He was a dangerous kickoff returner. Now, his whole thing is he gets to come here and have an opportunity to define his role and play big-boy ball,” Williams said.
Battie joins Auburn’s running back room with three years of experience, where he rushed for 1,842 yards and 10 touchdowns.
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