It's been an eventful spring in the world of college football running backs coaches.
Tony Alford made the previously-unfathomable move from Ohio State to Michigan after nine years in scarlet and gray. "It was time," he said Wednesday in his first public comments in maize and blue.
After a lengthy search, Ryan Day hired Oregon's Carlos Locklyn to replace Alford.
And in his first public comments since taking the Ohio State job, Locklyn.. torched the rest of his profession.
"I know you all ain't heard me say it before, but I'm going to keep saying it - this is the worst coached position in football. It's terrible," Locklyn said. "Guys hire anybody to coach this position that are recruiters. Carlos Locklyn is not a recruiter. I am an elite relationship builder. I coach this position and I'm a ball coach."
Needless to say, those comments made the rounds.
"Who exactly is he talking about?" Missouri running backs coach Curtis Luper told FootballScoop. "Maybe it's that way in the Pac-12. Not in (the SEC). The people in this conference that coach that position -- Dell McGee, Frank Wilson at LSU, Robert Gillespie at Alabama, Jerry Mack at Tennessee now with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Jay Boulware, Montario Hardesty, Larry Porter, Tashard Choice, DeMarco Murray, the list goes on and on. I've coached in the Big 12, too. Tashard Choice, DeMarco Murray. John Wozniak at Oklahoma State. Keith Gaither at Utah. CJ Spiller, David Johnson at Florida State.
"The names I mentioned, they're elite. I've been on the field with these gentlemen. They're football coaches. Their players are productive. They teach fundamentals -- ball security, pass protection. Those are disciplines that can be taught and learned."
(McGee is now the head coach at Georgia State, and DeShaun Foster was promoted to UCLA's head coaching position earlier this year after Chip Kelly, Locklyn's new colleague, took the Ohio State offensive coordinator job. Porter and Wilson were head coaches previously.)
Luper reached out to me after reading Locklyn's comments on this website.
A former running back himself at Oklahoma State and later Stephen F. Austin, Luper came of age when good offenses began and ended with a workhorse tailback. A running back won the Heisman Trophy 11 straight years from 1973-83, and 18 times from 1973-99. Since 2000, only two running backs have won the honor.
Along with that, the value of the position -- in terms of relative dollars paid to the position, and the length of contracts awarded -- has plummeted at the NFL level. Some have argued running backs should form their own union outside of the NFL Players Association.
"If you look at the National Football League in terms of the devaluing of that position, it became abundantly clear it was devalued and is devalued. It has become a quarterback league. How many will make it to their second contract? Not many. It was a running back league, it's not anymore. The game has changed. But because the game has changed, the running back is asked to do more," Luper said. "There's a lot more asked of the position, and so there's a lot more asked of the running back coaches. There's a lot more to it than when they turned around and pitched him the football.
"Offenses are more complex, more multiple. Defenses are, too," Luper continued. "Back in the day it was toss left, toss right. Iso. Now there's checks at the line of scrimmage -- pass to run, run to pass, five man protection to six, six man protection to five. My running back was on the field every down last year, regardless of the formation. More is asked of the position. They need to know blitzes, blitz keys, coverages; defenses are playing man on one side, zone on the other. My guys stay on the field for three downs, and most do. We still have to get first downs, touchdowns, and protect the football. You have to have smart players and coach them up."
This fall, Missouri's Cody Schrader, a Division II transfer, led the SEC in rushing while also becoming the first player in conference history to amass 200 rushing yards and 100 receiving yards in the same game.
"Most of the men I mentioned are not playing with 5-star running backs. It's really obvious to see how many yards a running back has," Luper said. "It's really obvious to see that Ollie Gordon at Oklahoma State led the nation in yards. You have to look closer to see how well coached they were. They don't fumble, they don't give up sacks. They're aware."
This fall will be Luper's 30th in coaching. He's coached running backs continuously since 2002, with stops at New Mexico, Oklahoma State, Auburn, TCU, and now Missouri. Prior winners selected him as the FootballScoop Running Backs Coach of the Year in 2023.
"Maybe (Locklyn) has it all figured out in three years," Luper quipped.
The new Ohio State running backs coach entered the profession in 2009, spending his first eight seasons at Memphis-area high schools. He broke into college as a weight room assistant at Memphis in 2017, and followed Mike Norvell to Florida State as director of high school relations. His first on-field coaching job came as Western Kentucky's running backs coach in 2021. It was one year there and two at Oregon before he landed the Ohio State RBs job.
"It's a small fraternity," Luper said. "There are those in the fraternity that feel disrespected. I don't know how to quantify the feelings, but at minimum the comments raises questions. What prompted that response? I've been in it long enough and I've done it well enough to have an opinion.
"Upset, disturbed, whatever adjective you want to use to describe them. I'm defending running back coaches from coast to coast."