Can Kentucky Win Big While Deploying Two Running Backs?

The old adage is that if you have two quarterbacks, you have none. At Kentucky, it certainly seems like that also might apply to the running back position. If that’s the case, it’s not ideal ahead of the 2025 season.

The best offenses of the Mark Stoops era have relied on one bell-cow back to carry the workload. Chris Rodriguez had 1,379 yards in 2021, with three times more carries than the next running back. During Benny Snell‘s record-breaking 2018 campaign, he toted the rock 289 times, compared to only 71 for AJ Rose.

The rushing attack in 2025 will fall on the shoulders of two transfers, Seth McGowan and Dante Dowdell. The latter was the best short-yardage back in America last fall, while McGowan has shown a penchant for explosiveness throughout his up-and-down career.

It’s unclear exactly how the carries will be divvied up, but Bush Hamdan said at the start of fall camp that those two will lead the way. Can the two divide and conquer? Let’s explore how Kentucky has fared on the ground when they’ve leaned on multiple players in the running game.

2016: Benny Snell and Boom Williams

If I told you that Kentucky isn’t successful in consistently deploying two running backs in one season, all you have to do to prove me wrong is point to the 2016 season. Boom Williams entered his third year as one of the most explosive runners in the SEC. After only a few games, Kentucky found the perfect piece to complement Boom. He was just a true freshman, but Benny Snell didn’t look like it between the tackles. With Benny and Boom, Kentucky was the only team in the SEC with two 1,000-yard rushers.

Benny Snell: 186 carries, 1,091 yards, 13 TDs
Boom Williams: 171 carries, 1170 yards, 7 TDs

2019: Kentucky Plays Bowden Ball

The data from 2019 cannot be used as an example in this exercise because Kentucky essentially played the triple option for more than half of the season with Lynn Bowden at quarterback. There will never be another year like it. Even so, let’s share the numbers, because why not?

Lynn Bowden: 185 carries, 1,468 yards, 13 TDs
AJ Rose: 149 carries, 826 yards, 6 TDs
Kavosiey Smoke: 101 carries, 616 yards, 6 TDs
Chris Rodriguez: 71 carries, 533 yards, 6 TDs

2020: Rose and Rodriguez against the SEC

The COVID-plagued season is also a difficult data point to use. After all, Kentucky is never going to play an All-SEC regular season schedule ever again. However, it’s probably the best example of a two-back attack we’ve seen over the last decade. Throughout the season, fans argued that Chris Rodriguez should get the lion’s share of touches, but AJ Rose still had more than 100 carries for a rushing attack that ranked third in the SEC, but was dead last in total offense.

Chris Rodriguez: 119 carries, 785 yards, 11 TDs
AJ Rose: 106 carries, 666 yards, 2 TDs

2022: Kentucky Needed Another Back

The 2022 offense had plenty of issues that started at the top. Failing to find a second running back was one of the team’s biggest problems. Chris Rodriguez was suspended for the first four games of the season. Kavosiey Smoke was just okay during that stretch, but was relegated to the sidelines for the final month of the season. La’Vell Wright and JuTahn McClain got opportunities, but didn’t do much with them.

Chris Rodriguez: 175 carries, 904 yards, 6 TDs
Kavosiey Smoke: 59 carries, 277 yards, 1 TD
La’Vell Wright: 39 carries, 120 yards
JuTahn McClain: 59 carries, 278 yards

2024: All-In on Chip Trayanum

Kentucky recruited Chip Trayanum to be the Wildcats’ bell-cow back. Then he got hurt in fall camp and missed pretty much the entire season. Kentucky tried to get a big-name running back in the spring window of the transfer portal. That miss cost the Cats during a disastrous 2024 season that fielded one of the worst rushing attacks of the Mark Stoops era.

Demie Sumo-Karngbaye: 129 carries, 586 yards, 5 TDs
Jamarion Wilcox: 92 carries, 590 yards, 2 TDs

What Does This Mean?

I’ll level with y’all: I had no idea what I would find once I dug through the numbers. To say that Kentucky can’t have success deploying two running backs would be false. What this data tells me is that it’s incredibly difficult to forecast what the rushing attack will look like without a clear top No. 1 choice out of the backfield.

One thing that is certain: If Kentucky has a Top-5 rushing attack in the SEC, they’re going to field a memorable football team. Mark Stoops built a roster to create a successful rushing attack. It’s up to Dowdell, McGowan, and the new-look offensive line to lead the Cats to wins against an incredibly difficult SEC schedule.