Kentucky Wildcats Football: More on Justin Taylor’s Departure

News broke yesterday that freshman running back Justin Taylor has decided to transfer from Kentucky to South Carolina State. With Taylor’s departure considered, it may be time to take another look at the running back depth chart.

Senior Ray Sanders has been lauded all off-season. The coaching staff has raved about his ability in this offense, and it’s not exactly surprising. Sanders was regarded as an all-purpose back coming out of high school and one of the top players at that particular position in the country. He’s a proven blocker and receiver out of the backfield at this point in his career, with the only real question mark being his ability to be a natural runner and break tackles in traffic. Sanders probably doesn’t have the wow factor some fans are looking for, but he’s a capable and experienced option at the position.
Josh Clemons will be a sophomore this season after sitting out last year due to injury. If he can play like he did in the early parts of his freshman season again, he may be the favorite to win the starting job. Clemons is a little more of a traditional running back than some of the others and might be the most balanced back on the roster. He isn’t blazing fast, but he’s more than fast enough. He isn’t a true power back, but can easily run between the tackles. The real question regarding Clemons, is how much he has recovered from his injury. If he’s back to 100%, he will make some serious noise in the competition for carries.
Dy’Shawn Mobley I had a disappointing freshman season. With the body of a traditional power back, he was expected to excel in Kentucky’s pro-style offense. Instead he was relegated to a reserve role and struggled as a goal line back early in the year. Most observers assumed that Mobley would transfer from Kentucky due to the change to the spread offense. At his size, he doesn’t really fit the traditional running back in any type of spread-based system, so his departure was all but a foregone conclusion. Instead, he came out in the spring game and showed everyone that he does have the skill set to be successful in Neal Brown’s offense. If Mobley can prove capable of picking up blitzers and catching the ball out of the backfield, he’s definitely one that can make a big impact this fall
Jonathan George is a senior and at this point has been a relatively productive player in limited roles. He seems to be pretty good just about everything without actually excelling in anyone area. It seems he’s probably a longshot to receive very many carries or snaps in general this fall. Of all the backs in the spring game, George probably had the least impact.
So really, the depth chart should look something like this going into camp.

1. Sanders
2/3. Clemons/Mobley
4.Jonathan George
5/6. Kemp/Thomas

There’s still plenty of time for any of the running backs to unseat Sanders as this projected starter. On top of that, I would highly expect JoJo Kemp to end up no worse than third on the depth chart at the conclusion of camp. So, had Justin Taylor stayed at Kentucky, he was probably looking at duking it out with Jonathan George and incoming freshman Khalid Thomas for a spot near the bottom of the depth chart. I cannot see a scenario in which he would have been any higher than fifth.

You always hate to have players leave the team, but in this case, it appears that it may have been in the best interest of all parties. I’m sure Taylor will find success at SCSU this fall where he will be eligible to play immediately.