USC’s Darwin Barlow says competition among tailbacks will ‘bring the best out of me’

It wasn’t way back that Darwin Barlow was the brand new man within the operating backs room. Right now final spring, he was nonetheless at Texas Christian, nonetheless months away from leaving for USC.

A yr later, Barlow is abruptly the final scholarship again standing from final yr’s backfield. He additionally occurs to be the least skilled, a quirk of a roster remade by way of the switch portal.

“It’s like free company!” operating backs coach Kiel McDonald stated with fun.

When Barlow met with Lincoln Riley quickly after he was employed as USC’s coach, he hadn’t anticipated such an overhaul. Riley stated Barlow was a superb match for USC’s new offense, and Barlow was thrilled with the evaluation. He knew Riley introduced the most effective out in his backs, with six 1,000-yard rushers in seven seasons on the helm of Oklahoma’s offense. Now all indicators pointed towards a equally important position for the redshirt sophomore.

That imaginative and prescient obtained quite a bit blurrier by late January, when two beginning Pac-12 backs emerged from the portal to signal with USC. Stanford’s Austin Jones dedicated on Jan. 20. Oregon’s Travis Dye joined a day later. Collectively, they might deliver 5,665 profession all-purpose yards and 42 whole touchdowns to USC’s backfield, dwarfing the expertise of their backfield-mate.

However Barlow, now abruptly thrust right into a stiff competitors for carries, couldn’t be happier.

“I’m excited to have them round me,” Barlow stated Tuesday. “They’ve performed at school applications. They’ve gained. They’ve had success. I’m simply comfortable to have them round me and to study from them. It’s going to deliver the most effective out of me.”

Dye and Jones stated they felt the identical means about becoming a member of with Riley, who promised every could be used as all-purpose backs, able to grinding on the bottom and taking part in a component within the passing recreation.

Barlow has by no means fairly been used that means. He has simply 14 catches over three seasons. However the prospect of a extra versatile position has Barlow particularly enthusiastic about USC’s backfield.

“He makes use of the operating again in so many various methods,” he stated.

That has meant a way more advanced playbook to grasp this spring.

“Me and my homeboys had been joking within the operating again room the opposite day, if you happen to didn’t know the play, you can simply run a swing final yr,” Barlow stated. “Now, you gotta know. You’re doing every thing.”

Dye needs to be used to that type of utilization by now, having turned his four-year run at Oregon into one of the vital prolific stretches for a operating again in class historical past. He thought-about staying for an additional season, in addition to coming into the draft. Different Pac-12, Massive Ten and Massive 12 colleges reached out, however the alternative for him and his fiancee to return to Southern California, the place he starred at Norco Excessive, was too good for the All-Pac-12 rusher to show down.

Whether or not he’ll have the identical prolific position in USC’s backfield stays to be seen.

“There’s all the time going to be competitors all over the place,” Dye stated. “I’ve been competing my complete profession. It wasn’t actually a tough choice in that side.”

For all of the 1,000-yard rushers his offense has yielded, Riley hasn’t shied away from a rotation when needed. Two operating backs had 78 or extra rush makes an attempt for Oklahoma final season. In 2020, the Sooners had 4 with a minimum of 35 carries.

The same rotation could possibly be within the playing cards this season for USC, which may also add electrifying freshman Raleek Brown to the operating backs room this summer season.

“You’ll be able to’t have only one operating again,” Jones stated. “You want a minimum of two or three nice operating backs.”

USC has simply three whole in camp proper now. However all three may make a declare earlier than the autumn arrives.