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We continue our look at the Big South for 2015 by looking at the other backs in the backfield for everybody. Also, I am aware that Charleston comes before Coastal in the dictionary, It just got reversed in my head last week, but I decided to roll with it:

Charleston Southern
Mike Holloway 77 Rushes 590 Yards 4 TDs
Ben Robinson 87 Rushes 505 Yards 4 TDs

CSU loses their all-time leading rusher in Christian Reyes, the first player to go over 1000 yards in a season in 2013, and 2 time Big South All-conference. They return a very young stable of backs, led by the only two returning backs with more than 3 TDs from last year. The question I have is whether or not one of the two will take the reins and become the feature back much like Reyes has been the last two years, or will it again be a "running back by commitee" approach down in North Charleston, especially with 4 new backs in the stable in January enrollee Alan Barnwell and incoming freshmen Kelan Fraise, Chanin Hamilton and Ronnie Harris joining the fold

Coastal Carolina

DeAngelo Henderson 234 Rushes 1534 Yards 20 TDs (2014 Big South All Conference First Team)
Osharmar Abercrombie 62 Rushes 300 Yards 4 TDs

Henderson leads the way for CCU, returning for another year as the starter for the Chants, finishing an all conference season at or near the top in every rushing catergory. I expect it will be between Henderson and either Rice or Abnar from Liberty (more on them later) for first team all conference in 2015

Abercrombie came in and nailed down the backup tailback job and ended up the top offensive freshman in Freshman of the Year voting at the end of last season, but it will be a stacked battle for the backup spots down in Conway with a senior, two juniors and two redshirt freshmen ALL battling with Abercrombie for time when the 2014 Big South co-champions start training camp at the beginning of August.

Gardner-Webb

Kerry Bernard 11 Rushes 52 Yards 1 TD
Bobby Clark 10 Rushes 33 Yards 1 TD

The Runnin Bulldogs are going to be more like the Runnin Bullpups this season, as only one player is older than a junior on the roster, and that is senior Clark, and with him having only 10 carries all of last season, it will likely fall to one or two of the aforementioned pups to lead the way for the rushing game, led by "leading" returning rusher Bernard. It will be interesting to see how he handles an exponentially greater workload with top rushers Blount and Hubbard both gone.

Kennesaw State
Ryan Godhigh
CheDarious Robinson

THe Owls running backs will get plenty of action under first year head coach Brian Bohannon, running an option attack that he used at Georgia Tech. While I have Godhigh, brother of former Yellow Jacket standout Robert Godhigh, and Robinson listed in this preview, you could see more than a few different ballcarriers for the Black and Gold as they establish themselves in their first season as a program.


Liberty
DJ Abnar 292 Rushes 1289 Yds 15 TDs (2014 Big South All Conference First Team)
Todd Macon 61 Rushes 266 Yards 3 TDs

The big question heading into last season, after 2014 leading rusher Des Rice went down with a knee injury at the end of spring practice, was could DJ Abnar handle the significantly increased workload as the feature back? He answered that with a resounding yes, finishing with over 1000 yards and earning Big South 1st Team honors. With Rice back and healthy, it will be a loaded backfield for the Flames with Abnar and Rice leading the way, and redshirt sophomore Macon coming in to spell one of the two at any given point. Thomas Kennedy takes over the starting fullback position and will be tasked with clearing the way for the three and hopefully another 2000 yard season as a team.

Monmouth
Lavon Chaney 173 Rushes 835 Yards 8 TDs
Ed Royds 22 Rushes 171 Yards 1 TD

Chaney replaced KB Asante as the starter midway through 2014 and led the way for a Hawks offense that had a lot of power early on in the season, but ran out of steam a bit down the stretch. He will likely be the starter and get a lot of carries with a new QB at the helm in West Long Branch. Royds (and hopefully we can refrain from any references to PEDs with a name like that) is the second leading rusher among returning backs, but look for the three young backs in the fold: Myles Graham, Michael Jolly and Devell Jones all push to make their way onto the 2-deep

Presbyterian
Darrell Bridges 85 Rushes 396 Yards 2 TDs
Blake Roberts 82 Rushes 376 Yards 3 TDs

Bridges, a redshirt freshman in 2014, came out of nowhere to finish as the second leading rusher for the Blue Hose last season, and he along with R-junior Roberts will be tasked with leading a very young stable following the departures of DeMarcus Rouse and LaQua Mayes due to graduation.

Rankings

1. DJ Abnar, LU
2. DeAngelo Henderson, CCU
3. Mike Holloway, CSU
4. Darrell Bridges, PC
5. Lavon Chaney, MU
6. Todd Macon, Liberty
7. Kerry Bernard, GWU
8. Ryan Godhigh, KSU
9. CheDarious Robinson, KSU
10. Bobby Clark, GWU

At first glance, the teams with the biggest question marks at running back (besides KSU) are CSU, GWU AND PC. they are the only teams that do not return at least 1 800+ yard rusher from last year, so the question is whether or not their backs can get the yayards needed to really balance out their respective offenses, or will the QBs be leaned on heavily with both their arms and/or legs

Gotta give credit. DeAngelo Henderson is the man. If he was taller he'd have been signed by USC.

I really do think it'll a three horse race for first team all Big South between Henderson and the two backs from Liberty. He is a man and probably will get some looks by pro scouts with another 1000+ yard season

Abnar is a solid RB, but I am biased towards Hop Henderson. The kid is damn good and much larger than atleast I thought he was. It seems like every game he makes 2 or 3 moves that has the fans Oohing and Aahhing. I think it's has to be Hop by a slight margin looking at last year's numbers. Hop had 200 more yards on the ground and receiving than Abnar did. Don't forget about Oshamar Abercrombie and look for Andre Johnson in short yardage.

And don't forget Hop shredded NoDakSt for 143yds.

DJ Abnar is not a better RB than Hop Henderson. In no measurable is he better. None at all. Now he may be #2 in the BSC...but he ain't #1 in this league.