Derrius Guice, running back, LSU
With Leonard Fournette gone, it’s time for Guice to prove he’s a worthy successor. For many who study the game, this is already a given. Guice is an explosive, dual-threat back who is much quicker and dynamic than the powerful Fournette.
Derrius Guice picked up 59.9% of his rushing yards on runs of 15 yards or longer last season – best rate of any returning SEC running back. pic.twitter.com/ZmEtU04VCP
— Vinnie Ronca (@VinnieRonca) June 5, 2017
Last year, when Fournette went down Guice stepped up in a big way. He finished the season with 1,493 total yards and 16 touchdowns, even though he only started eight games. We expect Guice to rack up quite the stat sheet in 2017. He’s clearly the top dog in Baton Rouge, and to be quite honest there isn’t another sure-fire option behind him.
This year, he’s being pegged as one of college football’s most irreplaceable players by Ben Kercheval of CBS Sports.
“Leonard Fournette earned irreplaceable status last year, but as we saw, Guice was more than capable of picking up the slack with Fournette tending to injuries,” wrote Kercheval. So … second time’s the charm? LSU was blessed with Fournette and Guice as the top two rushing options. In that sense, maybe Fournette was more replaceable than previously thought. The difference here is there might not be another Guice-caliber option behind Guice. Either way, Guice is a large bulk of LSU’s offense with question marks at quarterback.”
The Tigers will be relying heavily on No. 5 to carry the load. Which, in turn, means he could end up being one of the few invited to New York next December for the Heisman Trophy presentation.