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SEC Running Back Success Rates | Week Five

Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four

For those of you who are new to this, the Running Back Success Rate is a measure of how "successful" each of a running back's rushing attempts are. A "successful" run is one that :

Gains at least 40% of the yardage needed to move the chains on 1st down
Gains at least 60% of the yardage needed to move the chains on 2nd down
Gains at least 100% of the yardage needed to move the chains on 3rd and 4th down

WEEK FIVE

Player Team Total ATT Successful ATT Success Rate Gained AVG
Trent Richardson Alabama 29 19 66% 181 6.2
Eddie Lacy Alabama 5 2 40% 32 6.4
Jalston Fowler Alabama 5 3 60% 19 3.8
Ronnie Wingo, Jr. Arkansas 6 0 0% 24 4.0
Michael Dyer Auburn 41 18 44% 141 3.4
Onterio McCaleb Auburn 9 3 33% 58 6.4
Michael Ford LSU 9 2 22% 22 2.4
Spencer Ware LSU 4 0 0% 5 1.3
Vick Ballard Miss. State 8 3 38% 23 2.9
Jeff Demps Florida 3 0 0% 4 1.3
Chris Rainey Florida 11 3 27% 4 0.4
Isaiah Crowell Georgia 22 11 50% 104 4.7
Josh Clemons Kentucky 21 9 43% 69 3.3
Marcus Lattimore South Carolina 17 7 41% 66 3.9
Tauren Poole Tennessee 17 11 65% 101 5.9

Alabama fans should be very happy with this week's numbers.  Trent Richardson comes in as the most successful back after a very impressive 29 rushes for 181 yards (6.2 ypc) and 2 TD performance at Florida.  His 66% success rate was the highest among SEC backs, with only Tauren Poole's 65% against Buffalo coming close.  Richardson also led the pack with the most successful attempts and total yardage, and was behind only Eddie Lacy and Onterio McCaleb in ypc average, though it should be noted neither of them carried the ball more than 10 times.

Alabama fans should also be happy about the numbers put up by Florida's Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps.  Over the past four weeks they have routinely been at the top of the standings in success rate and ypc averages, but after facing Alabama's defense they were held to 27% and 0% success rates and .4 and 1.3 ypc averages, respectively. For all the concerns on how our linebackers would manage their speed on the outside without C.J. Mosley, I think we managed it pretty well.

Auburn's Michael Dyer gets the workhorse award this week after a 41 attempt performance, but with only 18 successful carries his success rate is only at 44%, and only three of those 41 attempts went for 10+ yards.  His 3.4 ypc average is pretty indicative of his day, grinding out a few yards per carry but never really managing to break anything or put the offense into good down and distance situations.

Finally, Marcus Lattimore dropped way below his season averages in carries and success rate.  Up 'til the last two weeks he's been the real workhorse of the bunch, and I was perfectly willing to write off last week's relatively meager 20 carries against Vandy as a "let's not kill this kid if we don't have to" sort of thing. But when you've been the biggest and most consistent part of the team's offense all season and you only get the ball 17 times against a defense like Auburn's? Either something is wrong with Lattimore or Spurrier's hubris got the best of him in insisting on winning through the air.  Lattimore only managed a 41% success rate this week, but his biggest performances have always been thanks to a lot of opportunities, and with only 17 it's hard to imagine he really had much of a chance to get going.  Something is just fishy there.

CUMULATIVE

Player Team Games Total ATT Successful ATT Success Rate Gained AVG
Trent Richardson Alabama 5 96 58 60% 622 6.5
Eddie Lacy Alabama 5 46 28 61% 397 8.6
Jalston Fowler Alabama 4 16 12 75% 119 7.4
Blake Sims Alabama 2 9 5 56% 24 2.7
Ronnie Wingo, Jr. Arkansas 5 60 27 45% 284 4.7
Michael Dyer Auburn 5 103 54 52% 567 5.5
Onterio McCaleb Auburn 5 43 18 42% 221 5.1
Michael Ford LSU 5 61 30 49% 322 5.3
Spencer Ware LSU 5 81 44 54% 323 4.0
Enrique Davis Ole Miss 1 12 3 25% 33 2.3
Vick Ballard Miss. State 5 66 38 58% 430 6.5
Jeff Demps Florida 5 37 16 43% 324 8.7
Chris Rainey Florida 5 74 44 59% 415 5.6
Isaiah Crowell Georgia 5 99 40 40% 515 5.2
Josh Clemons Kentucky 5 61 19 31% 269 4.4
Raymond Sanders Kentucky 2 21 10 48% 97 4.6
Marcus Lattimore South Carolina 5 124 70 56% 677 5.5
Tauren Poole Tennessee 4 71 32 45% 318 4.5
Zac Stacy Vanderbilt 4 36 15 42% 280 7.8

Again, Alabama fans should be very happy with Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy's numbers this week.  Lacy remains the most successful back of the bunch, but with a limited role those numbers are a little deceiving.  What's most encouraging is that Richardson's success rate percentage has risen steadily over the course of the season and he is now just 1% behind Lacy with a very good 60% success rate.  Lattimore is still the load carrier, but Richardson is sneaking up on him, while Demps holds onto the lead in ypc his 8.4 ypc.