Shaun Boykins Jr. Transitioning Well to Running Back in Louisville's Fall Camp

As fans of the Louisville football program know at this point, the Cardinals have an embarrassment of riches at the running back position heading into the 2025 season.

Isaac Brown is coming off one of the best true freshman campaigns in program history, and is regarded as one of the top running backs in the entire sport. Not to be outdone, Duke Watson also had a standout true freshman campaign, and is likely a top-15 caliber back in college football. Even third stringer Keyjuan Brown has shown flashes at times during his collegiate career.

Most fans are very familiar with the aforementioned three players at the position. But there's another player to keep tabs on for the future: Shaun Boykins Jr.

"He's got some traits to him that you just can't coach," running backs coach Chris Barclay said of Boykins. "I hesitate to draw comparisons a lot, but I think his athletic profile is very, very similar to Isaac Guerendo. In the sense that, he's a receiver in high school, low running back, little, kick returner, straight line guy, track guy, big speed, runs as fast as Isaac can but is 212 pounds. He's got quads like Saquon Barkley. I mean, they're just bulging out of his pants and things. And he's got great hands coming from receiver, just like Guerendo did."

Most Louisville fans are already very familiar with Boykins, considering he's an in-state product who played his high school ball not too far away from Louisville at North Hardin. That being said, as Barclay alluded to, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Radcliff, Ky. native was a wide receiver coming out of high school.

So how did Boykins find himself transitioning to running back during Louisville's ongoing fall camp? For a couple reasons.

While he is still a young player, entering his redshirt freshman season, there was not a path to immediate playing time. Whether it was in garbage time offensively or on special teams, Boykins did not play a single snap last season. He was running with the third- and sometimes the fourth-team wide receiver unit in practice, so there was certainly an uphill climb there.

Additionally, the running back room, while explosive, only has four scholarship backs on the roster. Then you add in the fact that incoming freshman Jamarice Wilder has been dealing with an ankle injury since the summer and has not been able to participate in fall camp, the Cardinals entered fall camp with just three healthy scholarship backs.

So, just ahead of fall camp, Barclay posed the idea of cross-training Boykins at running back.

"I was like, 'I kind of need another guy.' I'm looking at the kid, and I'm like, 'He's so big and fast and strong, let me just try to work something out with him.' Maybe, just maybe he can do it. for us," Barclay said.

It's far from Barclay's first time working with a project, although he's had a ton of success doing so in the past. In 2022 when he was on Jeff Brohm's staff at Purdue, he helped Devin Mockobee - who was a walk-on - rush for 968 yards and nine touchdowns. Now on scholarship with the Boilermakers, Mockobee has 2,466 career rushing yards entering his senior season.

That same year, Barclay started helping Iowa transfer wide receiver Tyrone Tracy Jr. make the switch to running back. While Barclay had already made the jump to Louisville for the 2023 season, that year, Tracy ran for 716 yards and eight touchdowns. He was later selected by the New York Giants in the fifth round of the 2024 NFL Draft, and actually led them in rushing.

Given his prior success with projects, it was an easy sell for Barclay to Boykins.

"I told him, 'Hey man, you got some traits. If you buy in, then there's opportunity. I really believe that you can be special.' He's buying in, and he's been awesome so far," Barclay said.

It was a little bit of a rough go over the first couple practices of fall camp for Boykins. But in the practice sessions since, he has continually taken significant steps forward in his move to a new position.

"Just to see his growth through the first seven practices, it's been awesome to watch," Barclay said. "It was rough early on. We're still trying to learn the master of the art of playing low. He's a tall kid, 6-foot-1ish, we're underneath the bar, we're trying to become 5-foot-6 when we run the football. We're still capturing that part, but there's pictures where he's doing that, and he's powerful now. With that type of speed, and as big as he is, he's a he's a fast man. Just to see his growth every day has been tremendous, and those guys are doing a great job helping him out."