Adrian Killins Jr. is moving on after four outstanding seasons, but UCF's running back room is still loaded.
Anthony Tucker, who has coached the position at UCF for the past two years and is now adding the co-offensive coordinator title, says he'd put the trio of Otis Anderson, Greg McCrae and Bentavious Thompson up against anybody.
Tucker spoke to the media on Wednesday, two days before the Knights are set to begin spring practice.
"AK is a huge part of the foundation of the UCFast movement," Tucker said. "He'll go down as one of the greatest players to ever play here. Hopefully he gets to play for a lot longer. I just think the way we run that room - there's a lot of contributors. The way we run every room because of what we do offensively, it's not just 11 guys that get to play. You have an immense amount of experience coming back with Greg, Beno and Otis who I'd put against any three guys in the entire country. They could play anywhere in the country.
"Losing AK is a loss because AK is obviously dynamic, but I don't think it sets us back. It wasn't just AK that was playing the last couple years. There's a great deal of experience that's been developed... I think that makes us hard to deal with. It's not just one guy."
Rushing attempts were fairly closely distributed last year among the top backs. Otis Anderson, who also saw extensive action at wide receiver, led the unit with 726 yards on 113 carries with five touchdowns. Adrian Killins Jr. rushed 87 times for 629 yards and seven touchdowns. Bentavious Thompson also had 87 attempts while rushing for 604 yards and a team-high eight scores. Greg McCrae, who missed three games due to injury, carried the ball 98 times for 529 yards and seven touchdowns.
A fourth running back option this spring could come in the form of redshirt sophomore Trillion Coles or redshirt freshman Damarius Good. Signee Johnny Richardson joins the group later this summer.
