Forgive Texas Longhorns junior running back D’Onta Foreman if he’s woken up recently feeling a sense of deja vu.
A year after recording two runs of more than 80 yards for the first time in Texas history, a feat never accomplished by the likes of Earl Campbell, Jamaal Charles, or Ricky Williams, Foreman still can’t get any respect from the national media, as noted by Horns247’s Jeff Howe:
What I have a hard time wrapping my head around is how the 6-foot-1, 249-pound talented runner didn’t make it onto DCTF’s All-Texas College Team as one of the four best FBS running backs in the state of Texas, or how he wasn’t ranked among Steele’s top 46 running backs eligible for the 2017 NFL Draft. He’s one of the true proven commodities the Longhorns have on offense and not including him on such preseason lists isn’t devaluing him as a running back, it’s disregarding his impact as a playmaker.
So Foreman will once again just have to do what he did out of high school — put some respeck on his name, as his father put it on Twitter.
It’s relatively well known that Foreman was much more lightly regarded out of high school than his twin brother, Armanti, now a Texas wide receiver, but it’s probably worth re-hashing here — only one member of the 2014 class for the Longhorns held a lower rating. Rivals did him the disrespect of classifying him as a two-star prospect. Even the 247Sports Composite rankings had 66 running backs ranked more highly.
Sixty. Six.
Foreman, who has now added some weight during the offseason to near the listing of fellow Smash Brother Chris Warren, the breakout sophomore, proved those skeptics wrong in putting himself on track in 2015 to become the first 1,000-yard rusher for Texas since Charles before a freak hand injury sidelined him for the final two games.
With the help of Warren and the tempo of new coordinator Sterlin Gilbert’s offense, here’s betting that Foreman proves his doubters wrong once again.