Jamal Morrow, fellow Washington State running backs eager to contribute more in 2017

LOS ANGELES – Will this be the year of the running back at Washington State?

Jamal Morrow can always hope.

Offensive balance will always be an oxymoron in the Air Raid offense, but Morrow and his fellow backs figure to make an even bigger impact this year.

“We can bring that spark,” said Morrow, who seemed to be pleading his case to coach Mike Leach as well as the media during the Pac-12 Media Days on Thursday in Hollywood.

“We have it all … speed, versatility, power and elusiveness,” gushed Morrow, who offered up another selling point:

Unselfishness.

“It doesn’t matter who gets the ball,” said Morrow, speaking for fellow returnees Gerard Wicks, James Williams and Keith Harrington.

Those words mean something when they come from a senior who had 1,217 all-purpose yards last year (including 575 yards rushing at 6.4 yards per carry) and was just named to the Doak Walker and Paul Hornung watch lists.

Meanwhile, Williams had 584 yards on 102 carries and Wicks managed 475 on 88 carries.

“It’s something we all take pride in – anytime there’s a running back in the game, there shouldn’t be a dropoff,” Morrow said. “It’s a great group.”

And some great stats. Last year the Cougs rang up 23 rushing touchdowns, the most since 2007, while averaging 5.8 yards per carry. And they were always moving forward; they led the nation by having just 12 percent of their carries stopped before the line of scrimmage.

Morrow gets a bit emotional when he talks about the running game and his O-line: “That’s where we get that downhill push, moving downhill, getting momentum and setting up the pass.”

But isn’t it supposed to be the other way around in the Air Raid? After all, last year the Cougars threw a nation-leading 65 percent of the time on standard downs and 81 percent on passing downs.

Meanwhile, the backs had just 284 carries, or about 22 per game.

Across the room, Leach was holding court with a media gang that was asking the same questions. Asked about his running game, Leach praised his backs.

“We had the most productive backs in the league last year if you add up the yards,” Leach said. “It was us, then Oregon and Stanford, so that’s some pretty good company.”

“I’m hopeful we’ll be better this year,” Leach said even he hedged on the big question: Will the backs get more carries?

Stay tuned.