One of the key bright spots from the 2020 college football season has to be running back Bijan Robinson. The highest-rated recruit from the class and he showed out during the back half of the season. Against Kansas State and Colorado, Robinson touched the ball a total of 23 times in those two games. He accounted for six touchdowns and 443 yards of offense.
The biggest question for the previous staff was why didn’t Robinson get more playing time and more touches. Robinson averaged a school-record 8.2 yards per carry this season. In the biggest game of the season, Bijan only touched the ball five times against Oklahoma. A player of his caliber should have far more than just 10.1 average touches per game.
He led the team in yards from scrimmage (899), yards after contact (530), yards after contact per carry (6.1), yards after the catch (220), and yards after the catch per reception (14.7). When you have an elite talent like Robinson, it is in your best interest to get the ball in his hands.
Two plays for Texas' Bijan Robinson's second TD 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wwnRePHkWL
— ESPN (@espn) December 30, 2020
Enter Steve Sarkisian into the conversation.
Over the last two years under Sark, Alabama utilized their running back Najee Harris. He carried the ball over 200 times in both years. To date, Harris has 501 touches overall in that span. He has finished with 5.9 yards per carry in 2019, and with one game remaining in the 2020 campaign, he is averaging 6.1 yards per carry.
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This bodes well for Bijan. He can finally be the featured back that so many have clamored for. If you were to extrapolate his numbers to say, 200 carries then his numbers look fantastic. It equates to 1,640 yards and 12 total touchdowns. That is right on par with Harris’ numbers from last season. If there is one player to take stock in for the 2021 season under Sark, it would be Bijan Robinson.
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