Adams Figured Out the Formula for UW Running-Back Playing Time

No position for a University of Washington football team under new management has provided more intrigue or gone through more curious shuffling than running back.

Virginia transfer Wayne Taulapapa, reliable but hardly flashy, has been the Husky starter for all seven games and he leads the team in rushing with 424 yards on 80 carries.

Cam Davis tops the Pac-12 in scoring with 9 touchdowns in six games as the No. 2 and sometimes No. 3 tailback.

Richard Newton battled back from a knee injury to play again, only to get reinjured.

Nebraska transfer Will Nixon was a strictly a wide receiver for the Cornhuskers, but he's run the ball 17 times and scored twice for the UW before getting banged up.

Jay'Veon Sunday, one of five Texas backs on the Husky roster at one time, played sparingly last year but he hasn't got on the field this season.

Aaron Dumas led New Mexico in rushing a year ago as a freshman and was the No. 1 back throughout UW spring football, but he's fallen deep on the depth chart and hasn't played.

After spring ball, oft-injured Texas backs Caleb Berry and Emeka Megwa either left voluntarily or were asked to give up their scholarships and have resurfaced at Immaculate Word and Oklahoma, respectively.

Oh yes, then there's Sam Adams II. He's a much-heralded Seattle-area player who was injured for two seasons and is just now beginning to get a chance to play a significant role for the Huskies.

If any of these players try to tell you that Kalen DeBoer's new coaching staff plays favorites in determining the order of things, try not to laugh out loud.

Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb fairly explicitly explained what's required to play Husky running back when he described the progress made by Adams, who scored on a 4-yard touchdown pass against Arizona and rushed six times for 20 yards.

"Sam is the type of back we're looking for at the U-Dub — he's a true three-phase guy," Grubb said Monday. "He's good in protection, he obviously had the nice catch out of the backfield and he's becoming a stronger runner in between the tackles."

Every one of these backs probably runs sufficiently well. However, it's the receiving and blocking part that holds players back in this rearranged Husky hierarchy. 

For instance, Dumas didn't catch a pass while rushing for 658 yards, 143 of it coming against Fresno State, DeBoer and Grubb, for his Mountain West team in 2021.  

Similarly, the hard-running Sunday didn't show himself to be a particularly good blocker in the past and wont' play again until he is.

So they sit and sit, and contemplate expanding their skill set or possibly going elsewhere.