While Mississippi State has won games through their passing attack, they need the ground game to work in order to beat Texas A&M this weekend. The most effective way for the ground game top work is to give most of the carries to Junior Brandon Holloway. Brandon Holloway is a 5’8” 160 pound speedster from Tampa, Florida. Holloway was a three star recruit, and 59th ranked athlete in the country his senior year. So like many Bulldogs before him, Holloway was not highly ranked coming out of high school.
However, he has been the most effective carrier out of the backfield, even though he is not getting the majority of the carries. That would be Ashton Shumpert, who should remain the starter because of his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and block in pass protection, however, should not be getting the majority of rushing attempts.
Holloway has 134 yards on 18 carries this season, which leads MSU in rushing. To compare, Shumpert is second on the team in rushing with 128 yards, but he did it on 32 carries. Holloway also leads MSU in yards per rush for players who have carried the ball at least 15 times at 7.3 yards per rush.
There have always been two knocks on Holloway in the past. His size and his ability to gain yards in between the tackles. While he is still small, he has shown an ability to gain yards in between the tackles this season, something that was not present last year.
With a weaker offensive line this season, the holes for running backs have been smaller, and his size has proven to be an advantage as he can hide a find the holes and get up field to gain those 3-5 crucial yards needed. He is also yet to get tackled for loss this season.
His real strength comes in that any time he touches the ball he could go the distance. Being a speedster and one of the fastest players in the SEC, if Holloway gets to the second level he is gone. For an example of Holloway’s top end speed, just look at his 100 yard kick off return against Southern Mississippi.
Basically at the end of the day Holloway, is not only the most explosive running back on the team, he is also the most consistent. With his yards per carry average of 7.3 and his proven ability to grind out 3-5 yards in between the tackles, and not lose yards. He is player defenses have to account for and respect, and more importantly makes the MSU run game respectable again.
