Why Arkansas Not Producing Running Backs Now Really Obviously Simple

It's not really hard to figure out why the change has happened. The spread offense revolutionized the game. Running backs now play wide receiver or tight end and still contribute in a big-time way, but it just looks a lot different.

Kids would rather play wide receiver anyway. They don't get beat up nearly as bad. Playing running back once you get to the high school level a starting running back basically has the equivalent of 20 car wrecks on Friday night. They are blocking when not carrying the ball.

Razorback great Darren McFadden would probably still be a legend in today's game of high school football, but it would be similar to Hall of Famer Steve Atwater.

He was a quarterback when he came to the Hogs before getting moved to the defense where he destroyed people. McFadden could do the same thing.

Cedric Cobbs, Madre Hill, DeAngelo Williams, Peyton Hillis, Bill and Bobby Burnett are some of the bigger names from Arkansas high schools. You can even go back to Clyde Scott at Smackover and still the only retired number for the Razorbacks and they were a big deal.

The spread offense still has running backs, but only rarely banging into a mass of bodies at the line of scrimmage.

"You still have them on the team," Hembree said. "They are just used in a different way."

Of course that affects colleges. When Bret Bielema was coaching the Hogs, he spent five years trying to keep a quarterback under center, use a fullback, huddle up and other things.

All that got him was fired on the field in his fifth season because he didn't win enough games waddling up and down the sidelines.

Nobody can recruit many running backs anymore because there aren't many at the high school level. They are still used but it's in a completely different way.

They have to pick a hole in the zone blocking schemes these days instead of charging where one is supposed to be. Those plays used to look great when the block was made a split second before the running back arrived, but nobody wants to remember how ugly the train wreck was when it didn't happen.

At Warren, Hembree converted a team in 2000 that had been running the basic I-formation for years and went completely to the spread. It took awhile to get things rolling before he started stacking championships on top of each other.

"It really took us to 2005 to get things completely straightened out," he said, although he won state titles in 2001 and 2002. "It starts at the high school level and the change has worked it's way up to the NFL."

Only two running backs were taken the first round of the NFL Draft in April. None were taken last year. They are not the hottest targets these days in the free agent market.

"Tells you all you need to know," Hembree said.

No running back has won the Heisman Trophy since Derrick Henry did it in 2015. They've all been quarterbacks and wide receivers. That is the glamour position now in football and it extends to high school, too.

The Razorbacks have had good running backs in recent years. Braylen Russell has the potential as a sophomore to be very good. If he can avoid getting beat to death, we'll see how his future develops.

Just for now get used to running backs being completely different than old-timers like me can remember it.

And it's not going to change anytime soon.

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