The way I saw it last year: Ingram clearly established himself as the top RB, but our coaches didn't want him to take a pounding as a Freshman and get injured. Therefore, he did not have too many carries. The other guys (Danny Young, etc.) were the also-rans, who performed ok, but nothing like Ingram.
Now we have J. Whitt to go with Ingram. The likely result: Ingram and Whittington share the bulk of the carries roughly equally (maybe Ingram gets more carries, especially early on). Barring injuries, neither will likely get enough carries to dominate. Both should perform well.
After suffering through an anemic running attack, led by below average (to be charitable) offensive lines for around a decade, last year was a positive. So was the year before with Foreman. With the vastly improved OL, which under Hand will likely continue its upward trajectory, I'd expect a better and better running attack. A national level 5 star RB recruit would certainly help, and there's always room for improvement, but our running game isn't currently that bad. The national level 5-star RB recruit could help take us to the next level.
Last year, we seemed to be good at pulling and misdirection plays, including various versions of the Redskins-style counter trey. We also ran the draw well. These sorts of plays are necessarily slow developing rather than quick hitting. Tom has also shown the willingness to run more reverses than most teams. I'm not sure how pulling, misdirection, draws, and reverses are more "vanilla" than quick hitting dives or quick pitch sweeps... I guess that's in the eye of the beholder. I care about effectiveness, not style. As for the slower RB getting the ball outside, this year, between Ingram and Whitt, there really isn't a slow RB. This year, barring injuries, I'd expect Danny Young to be mostly a short yardage back, TE in the backfield type, or used as a breather for Ingram and Whitt. Danny might also catch an occasional pass in the flats--which he's pretty good at. He just needs to hold onto the ball.
2020 recruiting cycle: with the emergence of J. Whitt as a good RB, we can afford to be pretty picky and just go for the big-time players at RB. I hope we keep pressing on other 5 star/high 4 star level RBs and get one. We already have our fall-back 'plan b' committed with Hullaby, so we won't strike out entirely at the RB position. For whatever reason, Evans simply does not like us. I could understand losing Bijan Robinson to USC (even in their current state), an AZ school, or another West Coast power, but Ohio State...?
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