Michigan State’s Jeremy Langford Quietly Ascending
In a year of college football where running backs are the cream of the crop, the best we’ve seen in many years, it’s easy for a guy like Michigan State’s Jeremy Langford to get a bit of a raw deal and not talked about all that much, despite great success.
Langford also has the tough task of standing out in a conference that features sure-fire first round pick Melvin Gordon, Ameer Abdullah, and Tevin Coleman along with other big time backs like Minnesota’s David Cobb.
The Big Ten has been cranking out solid NFL backs for a long time, but this year is probably the best we’ve ever seen and Langford is getting overlooked because of a great Michigan State defense and Connor Cook, a potential first round draft pick at the quarterback position.
While Langford may not be the first round caliber back that some of his peers are, he has the look of a starting NFL back and in his senior season is proving exactly why. After starting this season with three games under 100 yards, he has rushed for over 100 in each of the Spartans’ last seven contests, and is looking stronger every week.
Now with over 1,100 yards this season along with 15 touchdowns, the 6’1″ 208 pound senior is on pace to break last year’s marks of 1,422 yards and 18 touchdowns. Doing that two years in a row in the Big Ten doesn’t happen by accident or as a mistake.
What Langford brings to the table is a back with solid quickness and vision. He has a second and third gear but he’s not necessarily a burner. He gets better as the game wears on and does a great job despite his height of running low, and finishing strong. Perhaps the area that NFL teams will prefer the most about Langford and what could make him a top 75-90 selection in next year’s draft is the fact that he is really solid in third down responsibilities, particularly in protecting the quarterback.
He can catch passes as well, though he only has eight this season (28 a year ago), and NFL teams will like that as well. It seems like every week we come up with a new running back that people aren’t talking about, but Langford definitely deserves some hype for his excellent season thus far. He’ll be a solid NFL running back.