ASU Football: The departures of Sturges, Smith creates hole in backfield

What will Herm Edwards do now and into the future at the running back position after Brock Sturges and Trelon Smith left the ASU football program?

On Monday afternoon, multiple reports indicated that ASU running back Trelon Smith had mutually parted ways with the program.

Smith had only 12 rushing attempts in his career at Tempe and became the second running back in recent weeks to leave the Sun Devils mid-season.

Before Smith’s departure, freshman Brock Sturges left Edwards’ team after not recording a single carry in his first season in Tempe.

Without Smith or Sturges in the lineup, the Sun Devils will now have redshirt sophomore Isaiah Floyd and redshirt junior Paul Lucas split second-team carries behind Eno Benjamin.

Although Benjamin may only be a sophomore, the future of the running back position behind him is not as promising as it once was.

Floyd has been effective for the Sun Devils out of the backfield as a secondary option behind Benjamin but did not have any rushing attempts last weekend against Stanford.

Behind Floyd, Paul Lucas has mainly been used as a weapon on special teams. The only other running back on the depth chart on the Sun Devils is freshman A.J. Carter who only has two rushing attempts on the year.

Benjamin may not be injury prone but the Sun Devils featured back has had more than his fair share of carries this season.

With 137 rushing attempts already this season for 753 yards, the last thing Benjamin needs this season is to be losing key pieces behind him on the running back depth chart.

Besides Benjamin, ASU’s future at the running back position is not at an ideal state either.

So far, the Sun Devils only have one running back that is committed to play for the team in 2019 and that is California native Demetrious Flowers.

Coming out of St. John Bosco High School, Flowers is a three-star running back and is ranked as the No.48 running back in the class of 2019.

Flowers is an interesting addition for next season but, similar to Sturges, Flowers will come into to Tempe as a three-star recruit with little to no hope of getting carries in the near future.

ASU’s hopes of fixing their running back depth chart this season are all but down the drain but if the Sun Devils have any hope at solving this issue they will need to grab a four-star (or better) prospect from the 2019 class to complement Benjamin in the backfield in future seasons.