Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

Morning temperatures are dropping and you can feel a bit of chill in the air. Summer’s hottest days are in the past and schools are back in session. Most importantly, the long wait is coming to an end…college football season is almost here! As part of our extensive 2017 preview content, Hoosier Huddle is breaking down each position for the Indiana Hoosiers as they grind away on the practice field and get ready for the campaign. Today’s preview focuses on a unit with a whole lot of potential but perhaps just as many questions: running backs. Indiana returns only one rusher with more than 48 carries in a season (Tyler Natee had 61 carries last season) and each of the players have an intriguing skill-set that could be somewhat offset by a flaw. It’s a big group, which could be seen as a positive or a negative. IU’s new running back coach, Mike Hart, had this to say about how the lack of a feature back and the depth of this unit would be balanced: “When you have a big group of guys, keeping them fresh isn’t an issue during training camp. We do have a lot of guys and they have to get carries to see who’s going to go out there and be the guy. When you get to the season and get to playing time you always have to manage reps. The day of the 50 carries a game back is over with, I don’t see that happening much. To me it’s just managing during the game once the season comes, when you find out who you have. Until we find out who we have and who is going to be in those positions, you just roll.”