Could Hassan Hall be Louisville football’s next 1,000 yard rusher?
Louisville football hasn’t had a running back rush for 1,000 yards since 2010. With a new scheme, could the Cards’s Hassan Hall get over that hump in 2019?
Louisville football is finding that having a running back rush for 1,000 yards in a season is no easy task.
After all, there are a lot of logistics behind having a player average nearly 100 yards a game. There has to be consistency in play-calling and offensive line play. There has to be a balanced passing attack, and of course, you have to have a player talented enough and versatile enough to see enough snaps to get over that hump.
Lamar Jackson made rushing for 2,000 yards look like the real challenge. He rushed for the most yards ever in a single season in Louisville football history in 2016, then followed that up by breaking his own record in 2017. Jackson ran for 3,176 yards in his final two seasons.
However, most Cards fans would be hard-pressed to name the player before that who eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark. Not since Bilal Powell went for 1,405 yards in 2010 have the Cards had a back go for a grand in a single season.
It’s easy to see why. For the rest of Charlie Strong’s tenure, the Cards had Teddy Bridgewater under center, and Louisville was able to beat their opponents through the air and with a balanced rushing attack.
The same was true entering the Bobby Petrino 2.0 era where Louisville utilized a running back by committee style of play and went with whoever had the hot hand.
Then, of course, during Jackson’s years, the Cards had some talented backs, but nobody is going to go for 1,000 yards when Lamar Jackson has the ball in his hands most of the time.
2019 is Louisville football’s first chance in a while to have a true running back who can get at least 15-20 touches per game and will the team to victory on the ground.
And if there’s a player with the best chance to make that happen for the Cards, it has to be Hassan Hall.
In a season where Louisville’s offense was nothing to write home about, Hall was one of the lone players who really stood out for the Cards.
During his freshman season, Hall carried for 304 yards and 3 touchdowns, while also recording 99 yards receiving, and one kick off return touchdown. What’s more impressive is that he only ran the ball 70 times and caught 12 passes out of the backfield.
Rest assured that won’t be the case in 2019 if Scott Satterfield and his staff have anything to say about it.
In 2018, Satterfield’s Appalachian State squad ran the ball nearly 42 times per game. His leading rusher, Darrynton Evans, ran the ball 179 times. App State’s third-down back, Marcus Williams, saw 122 rushes.
Last season, Louisville’s two leaders in rushing attempts were quarterbacks Puma Pass and Malik Cunningham. Hall was a distant third, and only rushed the ball more than 10 times on four occasions.
Satterfield is a firm believer in establishing his offense with the running game in order to set up the passing game. His squad ran the ball on 63 percent of plays in 2019, while only passing on 37 percent of downs.
In comparison, Louisville ran the ball almost exactly as much as they passed it. However, over 100 of their rushes in 2018 came off of broken plays where Pass or Cunningham were forced to take off.
In 2019, expect Satterfield and offensive coordinator Dwayne Ledford to try to run the ball early and often. That should only be of benefit to players like Hall, who, when given the chance, was a dynamic back in 2018.
Hall has breakaway speed, and he is quick enough to get on the edge and make plays in space. However, Hall can also run the ball between the tackles, and he isn’t afraid to finish off plays falling forward. He is exactly what a coach would be looking for in an every down back, and should be the early favorite to win the starting job for the Cards.
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Hall had a prolific back half of the 2018 season, and given the chance to rush the ball 15 or more times a game consistently could ultimately yield excellent results for Louisville football in 2019.
Look out for Hassan Hall to finally get over that barrier and finally give Louisville football another 1,000-yard rusher at running back.