Top RBs in Southern Colorado Part 1

The foundation for any good high school football offense starts with the run game, and these Southern Colorado teams have the horses to prove it. Here is the first half of a look at eight of the top running back prospects coming from the land south of Denver. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22588" first="Q" last="Jones"], 2021, Fountain-Fort Carson</strong> Fresh legs is always an important part for an RB, and no one’s legs will be more rested than Jones after he missed most of the 2019 season with only one game played. The year before in 2018, Jones ran for 1,406 yards on 139 carries, a 10.1 average per rush, and 18 touchdowns. The yards mark was the seventh most in Class 5A and the 18 TDs ranked fifth. With his Fountain-Fort Carson team moving down to Class 4A in 2020, Jones could be running rampant for the Trojans this fall. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22704" first="Dezmen" last="Oliver"], 2022, Fountain-Fort Carson</strong> Someone needed to fill in for [player_tooltip player_id="22588" first="Q" last="Jones"] when he went down. Enter [player_tooltip player_id="22704" first="Dezmen" last="Oliver"]. As a sophomore in 2019, Oliver made sure his Trojans squad didn’t miss a beat in the ground game as he ran for 1,227 yards on 190 carries with 12 of those going for TDs. Oliver also hauled in 17 passes for 201 yards and one receiving TD. After sitting behind Jones in 2018 and showcasing his talent in 2019, the one-two punch for the Trojans in 2020 could be killer. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22590" first="George" last="Longoria"], 2021, Pueblo South</strong> When you look up the definition for work horse in the dictionary, you will only see a picture of [player_tooltip player_id="22590" first="George" last="Longoria"]. The Colts’ RB ran the ball 338 times as a junior last season and racked up 1,896 yards on the ground and 23 TDs. The 1,896 yards was not only the most in Class 3A, but it was the third most in the entire state across all classifications. Pueblo South went all the way to the Class 3A title game in large part to the run game Longoria was able to produce to open up the offense. The 5-foot-10 175-pound back could be seeing the rock even more in 2020 after most of the Colts’ passing game players graduated, leaving Longoria as the seasoned veteran. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22658" first="Owen" last="Busetti"], 2021, Florence</strong> After running for 680 yards and 8 TDs in his sophomore campaign, Busetti was handed the reigns for the Huskies last year as a junior and more than double both of those numbers with 1,472 rushing yards and 21 TDs. Class 1A Florence is all about the run game, so when Busetti was handed the keys last season, he took them and went for a joyride each time out to help the Huskies when the highly-competitive Tri-Peaks League. Florence went down in the first round, so look for Busetti to come back motivated and ready to use either his speed to blow by DBs or put his head down and run through some people because the 5-foot-11, 200 pound back can do both. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22740" first="Darius" last="McFarland"], 2022, Falcon</strong> In his first full-time action last season, McFarland rushed for 966 yards on 134 carries for 8 TDs and 7.2 yards per carry average. His production on the ground helped the Falcons improve to 5-5 and 4-1 in the Class 3A Southern League. In 2020, Falcon is moving up to the Class 4A I-25 League and will have new challenges, so look for them to go to what they already have established in McFarland, who will be looking to prove himself against higher competition.