Running backs didn’t get a lot of work at Virginia last year. That was especially the case for Amaad Foston, who redshirted as a true freshman with the Wahoos last fall.
It was been a different story for Foston this spring. After his freshman season, the coach who recruited the running back, Bronco Mendenhall stepped down. UVa’s new staff—which includes a pair of high-ranking coaches, head coach Tony Elliott and offensive coordinator Des Kitchings, with a history of working with running backs—has been stressing a desire to be more balanced offensively since arriving.
That meant plenty of carries for Foston and his fellow running backs in practice this spring.
“Got tons of work,” Foston said after rushing for 45 yards and the scrimmage’s first touchdown on 16 combined carries for both teams in the Hoos’ Blue-White Game. “Repetition after repetition.”
“Every time you touch that ball you want to show them what your abilities are,” he later added. “Last year we really didn’t get that much opportunity. So just making the most of every opportunity.”
Foston entered the spring one of four running backs on the UVa roster, with junior Mike Hollins, fifth-year senior Ronnie Walker and senior Perris Jones. Walker’s strong spring—Elliott said he’d been the best back in practice prior to getting hurt—ended with a late March injury that is likely to keep the one-time Indiana transfer sidelined for the start of fall camp. Jones missed about two weeks with a hamstring before getting back in time to run for 129 yards on nine carries—highlighted by a 75-yard TD run on his first touch—in the Hoos’ spring scrimmage.
That left Hollins and Foston to split the reps on the practice field as UVa installed its new offensive scheme. New running backs coach Keith Gaither stressed fundamentals and football IQ. He saw it as an opportunity for both backs to get in better football conditioning and impress the staff.
“Once you start to get the ball there’s high expectations, especially with Coach Elliott,” Gaither said. “So they had to learn how to receive the ball, as far as getting the pocket. Ball security. All the basic things that you would think a third- or second-year player would know, but they’ve gotten so much better and in a short period of time.”
Foston said he could feel that attention to detail paying off as spring practices went on.
“As a running back, everything becomes slower, because you’re getting reps after reps,” he explained. “The first week of spring ball we only had like two run plays and we just repped those the whole week, and it just became natural. Everything slows down for you.”
The lone back on the UVa roster listed at 6-feet or taller, Foston brings size to the Virginia backfield. He’s listed at 217 pounds—up from the 205 he weighed coming out of Milledgeville (Ga.) John Milledge Academy when enrolling early at Virginia last spring—but Foston said he added a few more pounds this offseason to end the spring at 222.
“I mean, you look at the kid,” said Jones. “He’s a specimen.”
Putting that added muscle to good use on the football field has been part of the learning process for Foston this spring. Jones believes Foston has gotten more comfortable with being a big back “and knowing that he has the capability to run through everybody. And he can.”
“A bigger running back, for a defense, they see you. They see your presence and they don’t want to tackle you,” said Foston. “So as a big running back, I know that when I lower my shoulder, they don’t want to get hit. I know that they fear me in a way, and I’ve just got to do my job. Just lowering my shoulder when I need to and then making my cuts to get around them the I need to. It’s a good advantage.”
Barring a preseason addition from the transfer portal, Hollins will enter fall camp as UVa’s most experienced back. The Wahoos will also add three-star running back Xavier Brown, the reigning Gatorade Kentucky Football Player of the Year. Everyone in the backfield, Foston included, will likely continue to get ample opportunity to emerge as an option.
“It’s an adjustment because we didn’t run the ball as much last year,” Foston said. “But it feels great as a running back to know that we’re gonna get the ball a lot this year. We’re expecting to run the ball. That’s what Coach Elliott is expecting. So it’s gonna be a fun season for us.”
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