AUBURN, Alabama–With two players to replace who combined for 217 carries and 1,096 rushing yards last season, a pair of freshmen have a chance to help fill that void for the 2020 Auburn football team.

Mark-Antony Richards, who redshirted last year, is a 6-1, 208 running back from Wellington, Fla., who had earned praise from Coach Gus Malzahn earlier this preseason.

Tank Bigsby, a highly-rated member of the 2020 signee class from Callaway High School in Hogansville, Ga., is also expected to push for playing time. Bigsby is the only running back the Tigers signed this year.

“I will tell you, both of them have play-making ability,” Malzahn said after his team completed a 90-play scrimmage on Saturday, while he noted was about 50-50 on runs and passes.

“They can create big plays,” the coach said. “We have seen that throughout practice. Both those guys can catch the ball out of the backfield. That has been one of Chad’s emphases, getting the ball out in the passing game to our running backs.” Chad Morris is in his first season as offensive coordinator of the Tigers and Carnell “Cadillac” Williams remains as the position coach for the running backs.

“Those two guys are getting experienced,” Malzahn said of Bigsby and Richards. “They are learning every day.

“Just the overall running back room, I think Cadillac is really impressed with the group as a whole with just their attitude, their work ethic,” Malzahn added. “Right now he is rotating a lot of them. I know (Shaun )Shivers has been with the ones. DJ (Williams) has been with the ones and twos, but he likes the overall depth he has.”

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Tank Bigsby is his first season with the Tigers. (Photo: Todd Van Emst)

 

 
 

The Tigers also return sophomore Harold Joiner at running back and are replacing last season’s leading rusher, Boobee Whitlow, along with Kam Martin, who was the third-leading rusher in 2019 behind Williams, who carried the football 84 times for 400 yards as a freshman. Shivers ran the football 29 times for 286 yards last fall as a sophomore. Joiner ran the ball 12 times for 94 yards in 2019.

With the Tigers expected to throw the ball more often in 2020 than they did last season, how big a factor will pass protection be for deciding who plays at running back? Asked that question, Malzahn said, “The thing about it is that protection is always big, but at the same time there are some free release things that the backs are getting out and it turns to the quarterback (to throw short passes to the backs).”

One of the backs scored on a pass in Saturday’s scrimmage, Malzahn noted, pointing out that team’s fastest running back, Shivers, went around 70 to 80 yards on that play.

Malzahn said that with Bo Nix returning as a second-year starter, the plan is to take advantage of the QB’s experience. “He has a great understanding of protections and defenses so you will see a little bit of both--not just the protections, but getting the guys out with five-man protections.”

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The running backs have three more weeks to impress Williams, Morris and Malzahn before the Tigers open the schedule with a Sept. 26th contest at Jordan-Hare Stadium vs. the Kentucky Wildcats.

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