Illinois Football: Kendrick Foster can put his stamp on Illini record book

The history of running back Kendrick Foster with the Illinois football team is interesting, to say the least.

This is a kid who came into the program back in 2013 as a three-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 96 running back in that class. One of the many great things about Foster was that he was a local kid.

Foster grew up in Peoria, Illinois where he attended Richwoods High School and was a dominant player for the Knights on the football field. He finished his high school career with 6,401 rushing yards, which ranked No. 5 all-time in the state of Illinois.

The Fighting Illini received Foster in the class of 2013 and it was an exciting time for him and the program. This was a marriage that looked to have a ton of potential. He was extremely underrated and Illinois needed running back depth.

In year one under the Tim Beckman regime, Foster redshirted because players like Josh Ferguson and Donovonn Young were ahead of him on the depth chart. These were two players who were supposed to have elite talent on the team.

The following season Foster didn’t see any carries despite being available as a running back. Ferguson once again dominated the running back position with a little bit of Young sprinkled in.

Heading into the 2015 season, turmoil struck the Illinois football program. Beckman was fired and Bill Cubit took over as the interim, and eventually full-time, head coach. Illinois that season also recruited three other running backs as well, with Ke’Shawn Vaughn looking to be the next man up.

In 2015 Foster managed to see limited snaps for the first time in his career. He carried the ball 15 times for 78 yards and 1 touchdown. He also had 5.2 yards per carry average which is quite impressive.

On November 30, 2015, Foster announced he was going to transfer from the Illinois program. In a quote from the Peoria Journal Star, Foster mentions that he will go to a place where he can enjoy the college football experience.

A few months later Foster decided to back away from that transfer statement and come back to the Illinois football program, which turned out to be a great decision. He stayed with the Illini and not too long after, new athletic direct Josh Whitman hired Lovie Smith to be the head coach.

Lovie went into the 2016 season unsure of what he had on the team and Foster showed that he was the right man for the job. Vaughn started the season but then was benched and didn’t return to the field much after the first few games.

Foster took advantage of the opportunity and finished the season with 126 carries for 720 yards and 7 touchdowns. He also had 5.7 yards per carry, which was an improvement from the year before.

The 2017 season is not too far away and Foster is entering his senior campaign with hopes of being the man once again. I have no doubts he is the No. 1 running back heading into the season, but what kind of stats will he finish with this season and where does he rank in Illinois history?

Averaging 5.7 yards per carry is pretty solid. This is good enough to put up some great stats in the college game. Lovie has a tendency of using the running back position to its fullest potential as well.

In the 11 years Lovie coached in the NFL his running backs eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing mark six times and went over 1,200 yards four times. He also had 9 out of 11 seasons with running backs over 900 yards rushing.

Lovie likes the running back position and will use Foster like a workhorse. That is exciting for fans and for him as a running back. Lovie will draw all the potential out of Foster and this season should be quite special.

Since Lovie was just trying to figure out what he had on the team last season, I would imagine he knows now that Foster will get more carries with Reggie Corbin as a solid No. 2 running back. This is how the season finished last year and I expect 2017 to start the same way 2016 ended.

Trying to project out what type of season Foster will have is a little difficult. For about the first four games of the 2016 season, he wasn’t the main running back. So, I threw those games out. I also threw out the final game where foster was injured on the first carry of the game.

I am going to take how many carries Foster is likely to average this season based on the other seven games. In these games, there were two contests he got fewer carries because they were out of hand and Illinois needed to pass as well.

But, if you take those seven games, then Foster is likely to average roughly 14 carries per game in 2017. That isn’t terrible and it is likely to fluctuate. Last season he also averaged 5.7 yards per carry and that was an increase by .5 from the year before.

Let’s say that Foster does have an increase in yards per carry but it is only roughly .3 of an increase because the offensive line is questionable this season. So that would bump his yards per carry average up to six.

If you take the six yards per carry with 14 carries per game for 12 games, you come out with 168 carries for 1,008 yards this season. I feel like that is a pretty realistic number considering Illinois hasn’t had a 1,000-yard rusher since Mikel Leshoure in 2010.

Getting Foster to the 1,000-yard mark would be impressive. I think Lovie can put together a good enough running attack to make that happen and they will probably need too because the quarterback play right now is a question mark. I also think that Foster could eclipse that mark as well.

But for now, let’s just put Foster at 1,008 yards for 2017. This would land him No. 20 on the list of career rushing yards in Illinois history with 1,806. That alone is a nice mark for a career, but you also have to take into account this is only off two seasons as well.

I think Foster is top 20 all-time and there are people ahead of him that didn’t impress me nearly as much as he does on the football field. He has a chance to put up a big number this season and really put a stamp on the Illini record book.

Next: Lovie Smith passes evaluation after year one

I hope Foster continues to play well because the future is bright for this kid. With Lovie leading the way, I have no doubt that he will eclipse the 1,000 yard mark this season.