Why Lane Kiffin compared Quinshon Judkins' sophomore year potential to Reggie Bush's
OXFORD — Quinshon Judkins is not the first running back phenom Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin has been around.
The list of talented ball carriers he's coached is long, and he went back to the beginnings of his coaching career on Tuesday when discussing how Judkins could get better in his second season after leading the SEC with 1,567 rushing yards as a true freshman.
Kiffin was an assistant coach at USC from 2001-06, which allowed him to closely watch the development of Reggie Bush, one of the most electrifying college running backs in recent memory.
"I always think of players we've coached before and I feel like Reggie Bush was that ‒ he had a good freshman year and then (in his second year) you could do all this other stuff with him," Kiffin said.
With freshmen – even those as gifted as Bush and Judkins ‒ Kiffin explained that simplicity is paramount.
A full offseason of mental reps opens the door to more complexities, and, by extension, more opportunities.
"Now he can take the next step, which we see," Kiffin said. "We run different plays with him now than we did. When guys are freshmen, you're just trying to get them to line up and play. Now you have a chance to truly have a spring where now they know stuff and you can go to the next level."
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In terms of production, Bush's freshman season wasn't even comparable to that of Judkins. He ran for 521 yards and racked up 314 more in the receiving game.
As a sophomore, he tallied 1,417 yards between the air and the ground. The following season, Bush rushed for 1,740 yards to go along with 478 receiving yards. He won the Heisman Trophy, though he'd later be forced to forfeit it.
Judkins, speaking to the media for the first time since arriving at Ole Miss on Tuesday, said he's not caught up in his stats. Progression for him doesn't necessarily mean bigger numbers, it means improving as a player.
"No pressure at all," Judkins said. "I know what my role is to this team. I know if I come in, work hard, just like I did last year and just get better at a lot of things I could fix, there's no pressure."
Kiffin has made no secret of the fact that Judkins was a wanted man over the offseason, receiving overtures from other programs despite the fact that he never officially entered the transfer portal.
Judkins said he paid those programs no mind, focusing only on football. If there ever was any kind of temptation to jump ship, it never materialized.
That means Ole Miss fans will get to watch Judkins grow. And Kiffin was clear: Despite his incredible freshman season, growth is possible.
"You didn't wanna do too much right away with a running back," Kiffin said, "because then they're not improving on their base, normal running back stuff that they need to do. So really excited about that."
David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Lane Kiffin compares Ole Miss' Quinshon Judkins to Reggie Bush
