Chris Rodriguez, Kentucky will combine rush efficiency with new offensive wrinkles

The argument can be made that Chris Rodriguez Jr. is the best running back in college football. No tailback does a better job of staying ahead of the chains and keeping an offense on schedule.

Success rate is an advanced stat metric that measures if an offense is staying ahead of the chains on a play-by-play basis. To deem a play a success, an offense must gain 50 percent of the needed yards on first down, 70 percent of the needed yards on second down, and 100 percent of the needed yards on third and fourth down.

Rodriguez has owned this metric.

Last season, the tailback out of McDonough (Ga.) Ola logged a 55.1 percent success rate on 225 attempts with 1,378 yards and 10 touchdowns. The tailback only had 19 attempts (8.4%) stopped for no gain or negative yardage. The success rate mark was much higher than NFL Draft prospects Breece Hall (42.3%), Kenny Walker III (43%), and Isaiah Spiller (48.6%).

That efficiency should make Rodriguez quite the weapon for new offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello to utilize.

“I think you will see as much creativity in this offense in the run game as you have from us in a long time,” Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops told reporters on Saturday. “If you watch us, you know that we’ve been pretty creative in running the ball going all the way back to the great stuff Eddie [Gran] did and Liam [Coen]. With this, there’s a lot of moving pieces.

Under Gran, Kentucky used a heavy amount of wildcat offense to go along with unbalanced formations that created wide-open lanes running back against the grain. That allowed Benny Snell Jr. to set program records. Under Coen, the Wildcats used some more gap scheme concepts with pulling linemen to lean into Rodriguez’s strengths as a power runner. Scangarello will now have his twists to add to the Kentucky ground game.

While working for Kyle Shanahan with both the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers, Scangarello was part of a coaching staff that utilized an outside zone rushing attack out of many two-back sets. Shanahan was a huge believer in motions and schemed up successful rush attacks with a multitude of skill talent players logging attempts. Deception was a big part of the game, and it helped lead the 49ers to two NFC Championship Game appearances in three seasons despite having an average dropback passing game.

“They do a really nice job run-game wise,” said defensive coordinator Brad White on Thursday. “Last year they did as well, but there are some subtle differences between the Rams and the Niners. They’ve done a really good job in terms of being able to target in the run game. Some of the motions and formations, they really stress ya.

That eye candy in the version of formations and pre-snap movement will help create running lanes for Rodriguez. The 224-pound downhill runner could be a terror going north-south while the defense gets flowing east-west. The tailback might just be a perfect fit for Scangarello’s system.

“Rich absolutely loves Chris,” said Stoops. “That style of runner. He’s not going backwards very often. Staying ahead of the chains is a big thing in this system and in a lot of systems.

Rodriguez’s success rate creates a foundation for the offense at Kentucky. Scangarello’s scheme should open up doors for the Wildcats to build one of the best rushing attacks in college football.