Burning Question No. 2: A one-man show or a committee at running back?

By Ryan Greene

Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009 | 2:30 a.m.

Editor's note: UNLV coaches are looking to answer several questions while the Rebels football team practices in Ely. Reporter Ryan Greene counts down these burning questions through Wednesday.

ELY — It's in a running back's DNA to want to be 'the man.'

You know. The guy who carries the ball 25 times a game. The guy who scores a few TDs every Saturday. The guy who is, well, the one to be feared and at the center of the defense's attention.

UNLV this season has plenty of candidates who would love to be that guy.

Whether the coaching staff will settle on one or not is yet to be determined.

"I told them when we first started camp that this will probably be the most fun I've ever had as a coach," first-year Rebels running backs coach DeAndre Smith said. "Because I'll be working with kids who will be competing on every single rep to earn some playing time.

"I don't know that I put it out there yet that 'Hey, it's going to be a running back by committee.' We're still a little ways away. If it gets to that point, I feel good that if we need to do that, we'll be able to do it."

Right now, it's still a five-man race between — in no particular order — sophomore C.J. Cox, junior Channing Trotter, senior Chris Brogdon, redshirt freshman Imari Thompson and true freshman Bradley Randle.

"My guess right now is that we're probably gonna play three guys, and there's gonna be things that those guys each have that are strengths," UNLV coach Mike Sanford said. "I'd say we're gonna get the five down to three eventually, and I don't know who those are yet. But I don't think we're gonna have one guy who will be an every-down guy."

Of course, it's a long season, and that can change at any time.

Through three days of practice in Ely and a handful of practices back in Las Vegas, each guy has gotten opportunities to play with the No. 1 offense.

The only one who at this point is solely running with the No. 1s is Brogdon.

"He's a senior and he came out of spring ball, in our minds, almost in a tie with C.J. Cox as far as who came out of spring ball the best," Sanford said.

Added Smith: "He's been the most consistent from day one to right now. He has definitely given a tremendous amount of effort. He is my guy that I'm gonna lean on, because he has to do more than anyone. He has to be able to block and he has to be able to carry. Right now, he might be the short-yardage guy, and he might have to be able to do that."

Brogdon's name sound a bit unfamiliar? That's because he's emerged from almost nowhere to get to this point.

In 12 games last season, almost all of the 5-foot-7, 215-pound back's time came on special teams, where he had six tackles and a trio of fumble recoveries. His last carry in a game was in 2007.

He said the switch flipped for him, however, when the backs were addressed following last season. At that point, the Rebels lost their workhorse back in Frank Summers — now with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The message was that someone had to step up. Plain and simple.

"That was kind of motivation for me, since it's my last year," Brogdon said. "It's my last chance to really do something big and be a bigger part of the team than I have in the past, so it's just motivation for me to come out and give it my all so I can look back and say 'You know what? I did my thing.'"

The brunt of the No. 1 snaps at running back coming into camp were expected to go to sophomore C.J. Cox.

Despite being younger than the likes of Brogdon and Trotter, Cox has more career carries at UNLV than anyone else in the competition, toting the ball 54 times for 191 yards and a score last season as a freshman.

But a hamstring pull on the first day of fall camp has forced him to take a backseat so far in Ely.

"It's heart-wrenching," Cox said. "When I injured it, it started as a low hamstring injury, then I was wearing my sleeve and tried to come back a little too early, and it moved to the high hamstring. I'm just going through my rehab.

"I was getting pretty frustrated two days ago. You could see it on my face."

Therefore, most of the coaching he's received so far this fall has been in the mental arena, as the staff has tried to tell him that getting back to 100 percent is more important than anything.

Plus, they've wanted to make it clear with Cox that he's not being forgotten about, even though his time in Ely is being spent right now watching from the sidelines in full uniform.

He could be back practicing by early next week.

In Cox's absence, Trotter has stood out more than anyone in the eyes of his fellow backs. Imari Thompson also looks fully healed from an ankle injury which forced him to redshirt last season.

The wild card of the group is Randle.

The freshman from Murrieta, Calif., is the newest of the bunch to the program, but may be the most recognizable for outsiders.

Ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 50 all-purpose back in the 2009 class, the hype started early and has done nothing but grow, as UNLV is considered to have found a steal as the crowned jewel of their incoming group of players.

Thursday brought his biggest highlight to date in fall camp, as the 5-foot-8 speedster cut left on a third-and-one drill deep in his own territory, then shot off straight upfield for a 90-yard score, with no one touching him along the way.

In fact, he only created more space as he progressed downfield between he and the three defenders chasing him. It came while running with the third-team offense.

"It's really tough, because from day one he's felt that pressure that he has to come in and be spectacular," Smith said. "And that's tough on a kid. Some kids can handle it, some kids, it'll take them awhile to be able to figure it out.

"It is a calculated situation with him that we're just going to try to move him around at his pace. He's a tremendous athlete, got absolutely great vision, feet are outstanding and he's going to be a really good football player. When will that happen? We don't know, but it's going to have to happen at Bradley's pace as opposed to everyone else's pace, and he understands that."

Smith won't hide the truth though, pointing out that Randle simply has the ability to see things that others don't when he has the ball, adding that one cut gives him the ability to change what's going on on the entire field. He is a good judge of special talent, having coached current NFL backs Garrett Wolfe and Michael Turner during a stint at Northern Illinois from 2001-04.

Randle's well aware of the attention the media and fans are throwing at him so early in his UNLV career.

But he hasn't gotten a big head over any of it, and so far is blending in just fine with the veterans, as opposed to trying to push them to the side.

After all, he knows that his career is young, and if a committee is what is decided upon, he'll go with the flow.

And when it comes down to it, all five of them will be of the same mindset if need be.

"I'm just a freshman — I have time," he said. "If we have to use two, three, four guys, then we'll use two, three, four guys as long as we get the win. We all know that we're good and we all know that we can contribute to the team."