There’s been a certain understanding among the running backs Northwestern recruited in the last few years.
Justin Jackson is the starter, and he’s going to get the ball. A lot. They don’t call him “The Ballcarrier” for nothing.
So that means, from the moment they arrived in Evanston, they were competing to be the No. 2 back, behind Jackson. The goal is to become the understudy, the guy who comes in when Jackson gets tired and needs a series off, or when he gets dinged up.
And, if all goes well, maybe he can take over the tailback job when Northwestern’s all-time rushing king graduates at the end of the year.
John Moten looked to have a lock on that No. 2 job going into this season. He carried the ball 57 times for 340 yards in 2016, by far the most among backs not named Jackson (the next highest was Auston Anderson, with 7 carries for 22 yards). Warren Long, who had been Jackson’s backup, missed all of last season and then moved to linebacker in the spring. The heir apparent was certainly Moten, whom head coach Pat Fitzgerald lauded several times last fall and spring.
Then, Moten, a redshirt sophomore, made a critical mistake. He got hurt. That opened the door for Jeremy Larkin, a redshirt freshman getting his first college action, to get a few carries.
Larkin took his chance and – pardon the pun – ran with it. Now, Moten is in danger of becoming Wally Pipp to Larkin’s Lou Gehrig.
“He's won the backup role,” said Fitzgerald at Monday’s press conference. “And I think Johnny Moten's a really good player. I think he's a great football player. But, to Lark's credit, Johnny got a little dinged up early in the year, and Lark just jumped at that opportunity. And that's why you've seen him a little bit more.
“But John's ready to go and John's competing. With a healthy Justin Jackson, it's gonna be probably just spelling him. Here are the last five weeks of the season. It's great to see Justin healthy, but I think Lark's got a bright future.”
Larkin says that he didn’t do anything special to carve out his role in the backfield. It just took a lot of practice and a lot of reps.
“Just coming every day ready to work and, just really embracing that role, whether it was on special teams, backup or whatever it might have been,” he explained.
His biggest learning curve, by far, was blocking on passing plays. Why? “I didn’t have to block in high school,” he said sheepishly.
That makes sense because there weren’t many plays at Cincinnati (Ohio) LaSalle that Larkin didn’t have the ball under his arm. He amassed 5,349 rushing yards and 8,326 all-purpose yards, to go along with 95 total touchdowns, over his final three seasons at LaSalle. The Lancers captured back-to-back Ohio Division II state titles in Larkin’s last two years. (He won the first of those crowns with NU defensive tackle Jordan Thompson, a LaSalle teammate.)
Blocking, said Larkin, “was a really big adjustment. That was one of the main things I really felt like I had to work on. So just being able to get in there every day and work your technique and identify who you were blocking was something new to me.”
He proved to be a quick study at pass pro. Running the ball came more naturally.
Larkin has seen a steady diet of carries throughout the season, somewhere between three and seven each and every game. He’s never lugged the rock more than Jackson in a game, of course, but he came close in losses to Duke and Wisconsin, when Larkin got six and seven carries while a banged-up Jackson got only seven and nine, respectively.
For the season, Larkin has 38 carries for 160 yards, a 4.2-yard average. He had seven carries for 32 yards against Iowa last Saturday and scored the second touchdown of his career on a 6-yard run in the third quarter that tied the game at 7.
Style-wise, Larkin is a lot like Jackson. Both depend on patience, vision and elusiveness to make tackler miss, and neither has the breakaway, home-run speed that Moten has.
However, while Jackson can cut on a dime and uses an array of electric moves to get past defenders, Larkin is a smoother, more subtle runner who has deceptive burst.
“You can see his speed, he's got a great understanding and feel for our offense, and I just think the sky's the limit for him as he moves forward,” said Fitzgerald.
Clearly, Larkin has already gained his coach’s confidence as his go-to back when Jackson is out of the game. He’s climbed past Anderson and Moten and classmate Jesse Brown and could have his sights on No. 21’s job, according to Fitzgerald.
Not really.
“I've made fun Justin a lot - I'm like, ‘you better keep getting yards.’ (No.) 28's going to be coming for you. He doesn't like that very much. I'm gonna keep saying it though. It's kind of fun.”
It’s been fun for Larkin, as well.
