Washington football: RB Richard Newton can be a major factor
Day 1 of fall camp is complete for Washington football and redshirt junior running back Richard Newton is as hungry as ever.
Newton had a big year in the Huskies backfield in 2019. In 10 games, he rushed for 498 yards and 10 touchdowns and averaged 4.3 yards per touch. He also had two receptions for 16 yards and one touchdown.
Since then, Newton has faced quite a bit of adversity and looks to 2021 to turn things around.
As if the 2020 season wasn’t shortened enough, Newton only played the first two games before being rotated out of the lineup for the final two match-ups. In just those two games, he made quite an impression, rushing for 122 yards on 23 attempts for two touchdowns.
During spring practice following the season, Newton was forced to miss a few practices due to two positive COVID-19 tests that turned out to be false positives. Those false positives caused Newton to miss crucial time with the team and allow the other running backs to gain an edge.
Richard Newton can be a major factor for Washington Football
As the 2021 season fast approaches, the 6 foot, 215 pound running back out of Lancaster, California is ready for a breakthrough year. Following Friday’s camp, Washington football head coach Jimmy Lake told the media that Newton has never looked in better shape and that he could expect to earn plenty of carries during the season.
Jimmy Lake says Richard Newton's body looks the best he's ever seen it. "It's safe to say he's going to get a lot of carries in a lot of our games."
— Mike Vorel (@mikevorel) August 6, 2021
The Huskies have a talented backfield filled with Newton, Sean McGrew, Cameron Davis, and Kamari Pleasant. McGrew and Pleasant return as sixth-year seniors while Cameron Davis enters into his redshirt sophomore year.
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Lake is right to give Newton additional carries as he is an impressive runner who can pound through the line of scrimmage and who can be versatile in the passing game. He has great vision, speed, and physicality that can earn him the number one spot.