Replacing Whitlow will be huge challenge

AUBURN | There’s probably not a more irreplaceable player on offense than JaTarvious Whitlow.

But Auburn will have to find that replacement at running back heading into the second half of a season loaded with top five opponents after Whitlow injured his left knee at Florida and underwent minor surgery Tuesday. The sophomore and SEC’s second-leading rusher will be out the next 4-6 weeks.

Where do the Tigers go from here?

Senior Kam Martin and sophomore Shaun Shivers have the second and third-most rushing yards for a tailback this season and senior Malik Miller has played in 31 career games. But it was Auburn’s two least experienced running backs that Gus Malzahn mentioned first during Tuesday’s press conference.

“D.J. Williams, this is a big week for him this week,” Malzahn said. “Harold Joiner, we scrimmaged him today. And then we’ve got, you know, our three other guys that have really got playing time up to this point. But like I said the good thing is we do have other options and we’ve got other guys that have experience.”

Williams, a true freshman, and Joiner, a redshirt freshman, have combined for just 11 carries this season. Williams, who was slowed by a preseason injury, had all seven of his carries and his 32 yards in the fourth quarter of a blowout win over Mississippi State Sept. 28. Joiner hasn’t touched the football since going for 19 yards on four carries against Kent State Sept. 14.

Could one of those running backs emerge as a force the second half of the season? It does seem unlikely, but it’s happened before and they only have to look back on Kamryn Pettway in 2016 as a gleaming example.

Pettway redshirted his first season in 2014 and then served as a backup fullback the next year. He came into 2016 as a backup to Kerryon Johnson, had some early success including 123 yards against Texas A&M, and then went on a dominating run beginning in Week 6 after an injury to Johnson.

Pettway rushed for 770 yards and six touchdowns during a four-game stretch against Mississippi State, Arkansas, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt before being slowed by an injury of his own. He was the first Auburn running back to rush for 150 or more yards in four straight regular season games since Bo Jackson in 1985, the year he won the Heisman Trophy. Pettway ended up being named first-team All-SEC averaging a conference-best 124.8 yards per game.

It would be truly jaw-dropping if one of Auburn’s backups was able to step in and put up numbers like that, but college football is full of surprises every season and those players are on scholarship at Auburn for a reason.