Todd's Toughest to Project

Kendall Hunter (Oklahoma State)
Hunter burst onto the fantasy scene in 2008 with 1,555 rushing yards and 17 total touchdowns.  Last year was an injury-riddled disaster.  He’s healthy again, but will be adjusting to a new coaching staff and offensive philosophy.  Plus, he'll be surrounded by a new quarterback (27 career pass attempts) and an inexperienced offensive line (12 total career starts).

Demarco Murray (Oklahoma)
Murray is a great talent who just can’t seem to stay healthy.  With Chris Brown graduating, Murray should be more of a featured back in the offense.  Will a greater workload equate to a huge, breakout season?  Or will it just lead to a frustrating string of injuries earlier than usual?

MiQuale Lewis (Ball State)
Like Hunter above, Lewis was a fantasy freak in 2008 who came crashing back to earth last year.  However, there is some reason for optimism as this season’s Ball State squad is much more experienced. Still, figuring out a middle ground with Lewis proved to be difficult.

Baron Batch (Texas Tech)
Batch is another guy who has seen his share of injuries over the past year.  New head coach Tommy Tubberville figures to emphasize the rushing game more than his predecessor, which should be good news for Batch  -- unless, of course, one of the other running backs catches the eye of the new coaching staff.  Then we could be looking at some form of RBBC hell.

Sam McGuffie (Rice)
McGuffie looked pretty good during his brief stint in Ann Arbor.  Now that he’s changed scenery from the Big Ten to C-USA, many will assume huge things are in store.  And they may be.  But then you consider all of the uncertainty of the talent around him, and you wonder where his fantasy ceiling will be this year.

Washaun Easley (Georgia)
Our readers seem to be split on Ealey.  Half of the contingent thinks he will have a monster year behind a veteran offensive line.  The other half think he will be mired in a split carry situation with Caleb King.  I fall somewhere in between these two schools of thought.


Kevin's Toughest to Project

Mark Ingram (Alabama)
I know he was huge last year but the Trent Richardson factor drove me nuts. Richardson is too good to keep off the field so the question is how much does he cut into Ingram’s production.

Ryan Williams (Virginia Tech)
The return of Darren Evans is a big concern and make it difficult to project Williams.  The carry distribution should be interesting.

Eddie Wide (Utah)
The RBBC appears to be in full effect here so I was tortured trying to figure out how they were going to split the carries.

Toben Opurum (Kansas)
I really liked him last season and then he sort of fell off the face of the earth this spring.  He wasn’t even listed on the Jayhawks’ depth chart this spring.  Not sure what to make of that.


Joe's Toughest to Project

Texas Running Backs
There are three truths in life: death, taxes, and a running back rotation at Texas. This year like year's past, everyone is looking for that "one guy" to break out as a feature back. The problem is that there still is no clear cut player. Although Tre Newton has the tools to become a feature back, common sense says there will be a RBBC situation once again.

Iowa Running Backs
Last season there were a bunch of fresh faces in the Iowa backfield. After a season of experience under their belts, there are now several rushers that can carry the rock. But now Jewel Hampton returns from injury. Hampton has amazing talent and looks to be a workhorse back before his injury last fall. Will Hampton work return to glory or will there still be a RB rotation in 2010?

Southern Miss Running Backs
Southern Miss has been a factory for fantasy running backs. With career rushing leader Damion Fletcher moving on, there is a bunch of production up for grabs. No back was able to separate himself over the course of spring camp, and the battle for the starting position looking to linger well into fall camp. Even when the starter has been named, it will take several games to see if the coaches will give the starter a large workload, or rotation him with the top back-up rusher.

Aaron Winchester (Western Michigan)
Winchester looks to be the man to take over for Brandon West (238 touches in 2009). The offense will also be breaking in a new quarterback, the coaches could decide to lean on Winchester.

Phillip Tanner(Middle Tennessee)
Tanner suffered a major injury that cost him the 2009 season. In that season the offense had changed and QB Dwight Dasher was the heart and soul of the ground game. When a rushing QB has a breakout season, there is almost always a drop off in rushing production the following year. If the coaches want to keep Dasher healthy, they could increase the rushing workload for the running backs. Since the offensive production is much different than the last season Tanner played (2008), it is difficult to figure out how much of the rushing production he’ll wind up with.
 

Check out the entire Toughest to Project series:

* Quarterbacks
* Running Backs
* Wide Receivers
* Tight Ends