NGL I haven’t watched much of WV and Donaldson but isn’t he just a bigger version of Parrish? A guy who will get you 4 to 5 yards consistently but won’t break any long runs?
My personal concerns with Donaldson are outlined below.
Now before someone makes me out to be a villain, we could do a lot worse in terms of portal RBs. Now with that being said, I don’t think he’s a major upgrade over Parrish.
For starters, he’s been injured both seasons. In 2022, he came out of the gates lightning hot, but sustained a season-ending lower leg injury against TCU in game 7. Still, a second-team All Conference performer is nothing to slouch at.
In 2023 he got banged up multiple times throughout the season, culminating in a very poor November finish and had to miss their bowl game. He hit the 100 yard mark just three times in 2023, something he did four times as a change of pace guy the year prior despite having nearly 100 less carries. Overall, his ypc dropped from 6.0 to 4.7, and freshman Jaheim White ended up out-gaining him by 42 yards despite having 62(!!!) less carries.
Donaldson’s longest run in 2023 was 32 yards against the mighty defense of UCF. The chunk plays that we saw in 2022 just weren’t there when he was the featured bell cow.
Do we know if he’s portal bound? Not sure. He’ll be dealing with a split backfield, so maybe.
He’s not even in my personal top 15 RBs we could grab, and given the hype surrounding the incoming RB1, I’d be disappointed (but not surprised) if that hype = CJ Donaldson.