Their names were always said together. Larry and Tyler. Rountree and Badie. Thunder and Lightning by a few.
Over the last two seasons, Larry Rountree III and Tyler Badie have combined for 66.6% of Missouri’s rushing attempts and 85.1% of its rushing yards. But it’s no longer Larry and Tyler. Rountree was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers in April and is trying to make his way on to an NFL roster. Badie is entering his senior season in Columbia, the unquestioned No. 1 running back as the Tigers began fall camp.
“There’s 22 touches a game for somebody in the backfield,” running backs coach Curtis Luper said. “Tyler Badie’s going to get the bulk of those.”
Enter the question: Can Badie, at 5-foot-8, 194 pounds, hold up as a No. 1 running back in the Southeastern Conference?
In three seasons, Badie has a total of 343 touches. That includes rushing attempts, receptions and kickoff returns. In his four years in Columbia, Rountree had 818 touches. Rountree was listed at 5-foot-10, 210 pounds, but was incredibly physical. Badie isn’t likely to approach Rountree’s volume of use, but Missouri also isn’t going to ask him to be Rountree.
“Whether he’s bigger or smaller doesn’t matter,” head coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “He’s just got to be the best version of himself. He’s got to be able to carry the ball between the tackles when we need him to and he’s got to be an advantage player for us.”
“There’s different ways to do it,” Badie said. “If it comes down to it I’m gonna get it. I’m not worried about anything, size, third down. If it’s third and one, I’m gonna score a touchdown. At the end of the day I’ll just make it work. Anything I have to do I’ll do it.”
While nobody will confuse the running styles of the two, Badie learned a lot from Rountree during their three years together. Most of it wasn’t on the football field.
“Just leading by example,” Badie said. "As you can see Larry never got hurt. Larry was always available. Just little stuff like that. I picked up on his awareness, just how he just moved around, just taking notice on what he did. We talked a few times here and there about different things, but ultimately just leading by example. That’s what he’s really good at.”
Badie knows that every lesson Rountree taught him will be put to use this year.
“He just taught me so much,” Badie said. “Now it’s just like me being the big dog handing it down to everyone else. Just being the guy that Larry used to be, someone that’s always there to help, someone that’s always there if you need anything. Just carrying over that workload from him is definitely a big thing for me.”
As much as Badie replacing Rountree, it will be important for Missouri who replaces Badie. Number two has become number one and now the Tigers need a new number two. It sounds like Missouri is pretty set on who that role will go to as well. Elijah Young was limited to just ten carries last year, in part due to health and in part because every carry someone else got was one Rountree and Badie didn’t get. His role will expand this season.
“I don’t have any doubts about Tyler filling that role of what Larry did,” quarterback Connor Bazelak said. “I think him and Elijah are going to be a great duo. They’re both gonna be able to catch the ball out of the backfield. Larry was a great player, I don’t think we’re losing anything. We’ve got two great running backs.”
Young is more Badie than Rountree. He is listed at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds. Two years ago, Young was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Tennessee, running for 2170 yards, catching 15 passes for another 169 and averaging 28 yards per kickoff return. Maybe instead of Thunder and Lightning, it will now be Lighnting and More Lightning in the Missouri backfield.
“He’ll be all over the place,” Luper said of Young. “He’s smart, he’s conscientious, he studies hard, he has a real good idea of what we’re trying to do and coach Drink’s gonna use his talents. He’s going to use them. We’re going to exploit defenses with him.”
But Young will start the season at least as Missouri’s Robin. Badie, for the first time in his career, is expected to be Batman. He can’t make himself significantly bigger and Missouri doesn’t want him to do anything that would sacrifice his speed or elusiveness. Badie’s role has changed, but his game isn’t likely to. That’s not to say he hasn’t made any changes since last season.
“It wasn’t anything physical,” he said. “It was more so just mental. With mental health going around, a big thing for me was just getting my mental right. A lot of times you read different things, you read these articles about you and you wonder, oh dang, my name’s not on that list. A lot of times I just had to calm down, just focus on myself, delete the social media, just really just focus on what I had to do this year in order to help my team.”
Badie has been a strong supporting actor for Missouri for three years, to the point that Rivals’ Mike Farrell earlier this week tabbed him as the most underrated offensive player in the SEC. Next month, everybody’s going to find out if he’s capable of carrying the role of the lead.
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