Armoni Goodwin's return brings a boost to LSU RB room

The LSU football team is coming off a 45-35 win over Florida in The Swamp, moving the Tigers to 5-2 on the season ahead of Saturday’s matchup with undefeated Ole Miss (7-0).

LSU remains unranked entering the annual Southeastern Conference Western Division showdown, while the Rebels head to Baton Rouge ranked No. 7 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on CBS.

LSU football head coach Brian Kelly was pleased with how the Tigers got the passing game rolling in Gainesville before leaning on the running game to close things out, and now, a key piece is set to return to running back coach Frank Wilson’s room.

Armoni Goodwin returns to LSU football practice

LSU sophomore running back Armoni Goodwin left LSU’s win over New Mexico in late-September with a hamstring injury, and while he was initially listed as day-to-day, Kelly later said the injury was more serious than the medical staff initially realized.

Goodwin has since missed a road win over Auburn, a home loss to No. 3 Tennessee and a road win over Florida.

Now, Kelly said Goodwin might be available for this weekend’s game against Ole Miss.

“We’ll practice him on Tuesday and see what we can get,” Kelly said this week. “He wants to play. Our doctors have cleared him. We’ll see what kind of volume we can get out of him, and hopefully it goes well during the week.”

Goodwin had five carries for 14 yards in the season opening loss to Florida State, but he bounced back in Week 2 with 12 carries for 85 yards and two touchdowns. Goodwin then moved into the starter’s role, and he carried the ball nine times for 76 yards in an upset win over Mississippi State, which included a 47-yard touchdown run to put the game on ice for the Tigers. The following week, Goodwin had eight carries for 24 yards and two touchdowns in the New Mexico game before exiting with the hamstring injury.

Despite his three-game absence, Goodwin still leads LSU in rushing touchdowns with five.

Josh Williams emerges in Goodwin’s absence

With Armoni Goodwin out of the lineup, LSU’s running back room has since been led by former walk-on Josh Williams, who was given the game ball by LSU head coach Brian Kelly following the win over Florida thanks to a 14-carry, 106 yard effort, also chipping in with a key role as a blocker in LSU’s passing game.

“His attention to the smallest of details in that game helped us win. I wanted to make sure that that kind of was followed up with the game ball,” Kelly said.

“We ask our back to chip a lot of those defensive ends to help those young tackles. He’s not 6’2”, so when you talk about him having the chip, he’s got to leave his feet to chip. But he was outstanding at it. He stopped the charge of defensive ends. Caught the ball coming out of the backfield. Picked up blitzers. Actually picked up the defensive end by himself a couple times when we missed a slide. Ran the ball coming out in the third quarter with authority that gave us great momentum.

“Just a little bit of everything. All the little jobs that you ask them to do, he does them. Sometimes he does them for the first time. Over 100 yards was the first time for him, so we wanted to reward him in kind.”

Williams leads all LSU running backs in yards from scrimmage this season. In seven games, Williams has carried the ball 49 times for 229 yards and three touchdowns.

Emery, Cain give the Tigers four options in the run game

After missing 15 games as a result of an academic suspension, John Emery Jr. returned to the field in Week 3 and has logged 40 carries for 154 yards and a touchdown to go with six catches for 78 yards and a touchdown, with the receiving touchdown coming in this past weekend’s road win over the Gators.

While Emery was talked about this offseason as the potential lead back for the Tigers, LSU running backs coach Frank Wilson has leaned on four different running backs across the 5-2 start, which includes Penn State transfer Noah Cain. Cain has four touchdowns and 192 yards on the year.

After seven games, the running back carries have been split among the four running backs as follows: Williams with 49 carries, Emery with 40 carries, Goodwin with 34 carries and Cain with 34 carries.