Florida Football: 5 Bold predictions for October

3. One player emerges in the backfield

During his days at Mississippi State, Dan Mullen frequently trusted one bellcow back to do the majority of the work on the ground. He never had a 300-carry rusher, but only once did he have a pair of rushers that each topped 150 carries (Vick Ballard and Chris Reif in 2010). That split backfield came in year two in Starkville before Tyler Russel and Dak Prescott came to town.

Outside of that one season, Mullen has turned to guys like Anthony Dixon, Ladarius Perkins, Josh Robinson and Aeris Williams. That makes the likelihood of one lead back emerging at Florida plausible, the question is who will it be?

Jordan Scarlett leads the Gators in carries. Dameon Pierce leads the team in rushing yards, although 68 of his 255 yards on the ground came on a 68-yard touchdown run against a woeful Colorado State defense.

A redshirt junior, Scarlett missed 2017 entirely. He has fresh legs and averaged 5.0 yards per carry on his way to racking up 889 yards on the ground as the Gators’ starter in 2016. He’s going to get the chance to be the top guy, and he’ll take advantage of that opportunity.