Every head coach obviously wants as much competition as possible on the roster — to have players healthy and ready to play at all times to maximize the possibilities on the football field. While Charlie Weis won’t have that ability at the running back position in 2012 with the three-game suspension of James Sims, the Jayhawks coach also said that the team should be fine in his absence at a recent press conference.
"I think we will be fine at running back," Weis said. "It never helps to lose a front-line player, but we have Tony (Pierson) and (Brandon) Bourbon, who is as close to being at full-speed as you can be. I am not going to let him (Bourbon) go full-speed because he had an injury that takes six months to be fully healed. Although, he is running around full speed out there at practice, I am always going to error on the side of caution and make sure that I have him fully ready to go."
"We also have the reinforcements coming right around the corner and we feel really good about the two guys we have coming at the position, so I don’t think it will be too much of a problem for us to handle the fort until he (Sims) is able to come back."
Last season, Sims ran 182 times for 727 yards and 9 touchdowns.
Check out more about the Jayhawks spring football sessions at Rock Chalk Talk.