Quinshon Judkins shares key to avoiding 'sophomore slump'

In 2022, Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins burst onto the scene and quickly became one of the best running backs in the SEC as a freshman. Now, he’s looking to avoid a sophomore slump.

Over the course of the season, Judkins rushed for 1,567 yards and 16 touchdowns. It was a monster year, and as he explained at SEC media days, he’s going to try and repeat that production by working hard and staying focused.

“Just continuing to work hard, remain humble, do what got me here,” Quinshon Judkins said. “Keeping the main thing the main thing. I think as far as being the best you can, doing everything in your power to make your game better and perfect your craft. I think that’s the only thing that you can control.”

Judkins enters 2022 with the added advantage of experience and more time in an SEC weight room. At the same time, teams will be scheming around stopping him when they play Ole Miss this season. On top of that, he will also likely need Ole Miss to be leading a lot of games and running the ball to get him his touches.

One person who is confident in Quinshon Judkins is college football analyst Greg McElroy. Earlier this week, McElroy said Judkins could potentially run for 2,000 yards this season.

“Now, I’m genuinely curious to see how much that offense is going to improve from a passing standpoint. He was a one-man show last year,” McElroy said. “But guess what? I’m very convinced, whether it’s Spencer Sanders or Jaxson Dart — I think it’ll be Jaxson Dart — that the passing attack is going to improve drastically. Now that you can complement Quinshon Judkins’ run game with the passing attack that Ole Miss is likely to have, this is going to sound crazy, (but) I think 2,000 yards by Quinshon Judkins is within reach.”

Quinshon Judkins explains how his versatility will help him in Year 2 at Ole Miss, NFL future

One thing that’s important to Quinshon Judkins is being a versatile running back who can block and catch the ball in the passing game too. That should help him both while he’s at Ole Miss and as he looks ahead to the NFL.

“It’s an honor to be here. I think it’s very awesome that I’ve been chosen by my coaches and my teammates to represent the team and university. I think this year has been really fast, and really good so far. So just keep working hard and doing what I can,” Judkins said.

“Just increasing my knowledge about the defensive fronts, and the passing game, and protection and all those things that you don’t really know in your freshman year, and just improving in your second year. So that’s been the main, big thing that I’ve been doing.”