Meet Emani Bailey, the TCU running back leading the Big 12 in rushing
To say TCU running back Emani Bailey had big shoes to fill doesn’t do justice to the challenge facing the junior this season.
After reaching the national title game, the Horned Frogs needed to replace not one, but two NFL backs in Kendre Miller and Emari Demercado.
Even the blue bloods of college football would have a hard time replacing over 2,000 yards of production in one season, so how did Bailey approach this daunting task?
With the same intensity and focus that’s made him successful his entire life.
Bailey went from the third or fourth back in the rotation last year to now being the Big 12’s leading rusher a quarter of the way through the season. The only people surprised don’t reside in Fort Worth.
“Going into the season, based off his performance last year it seemed like he always performed well,” coach Sonny Dykes said. “Going into the season he was really consistent from a practice standpoint in fall camp and he’s probably, honestly, been our best practice player.”
Bailey showed his potential last season as he led the conference in yards per carry with over eight yards per touch.
His 483 yards top of the Big 12 leaderboard and also puts him in the top 10 nationally with star running backs like Notre Dame’s Audric Estime. Yet when Bailey learned of his place among the best, he remained unfazed, still maintaining his focus on West Virginia on Saturday.
“If anything, I don’t really pay no mind to it,” Bailey said. “I’m just ready to go out each week and perform at the highest level with my teammates and keep winning.”
The taste of victory gives Bailey more joy than rushing for 150 yards, it’s just in his DNA going back to his days at local powerhouse Denton Ryan. His need to win shows itself in his play style and his teammates have taken notice.
“Emani just runs with a passion,” offensive lineman Willis Patrick said. The source of the passion has been the key to Bailey’s rise.
Playing with purpose
Bailey would be considered a smaller back at 5-foot-9, 207 pounds, but he plays above his weight class and stature. It looks like it hurts to try to bring Bailey down.
According to Pro Football Focus, Bailey has forced 31 missed tackles, only Estime has more with 32. The reason it’s been so hard to bring Bailey down is because every time he touches the rock he’s thinking of someone special.
“The only thing I’m really thinking of is to help win and in my heart I’m always thinking of my mom,” Bailey said. “She’s my heart and soul and always been the hardest worker I’ve seen in my life. When I’m running with the ball, I’m thinking of my mother and I’m not trying to let nothing pull me back.”
Casaundra Bailey was a single mother who needed to raise Emani and his two siblings while also trying to start her own businesses.
She wasn’t just a mother and the breadwinner, she was also one of Emani and his brother Jordyn’s first coaches.
“I pushed him really hard, I trained them in summer track. I was really hard on them,” Ms. Bailey said. “I also showed him a lot of love. With mom, it was like you get the good, the bad and the ugly. If you’re doing good I’m going to tell you, if you’re doing bad and need improvement I’ll tell you. Then the grind, that’s the ugly. I pushed them really, really hard.”
Her intense training methods ingrained a special work ethic in Bailey that has stuck with him in college.
Some players don’t give their all in practice, it’s just practice right? But not Bailey, every rep is crucial, every rep could be the difference between winning and losing.
It’s that mentality that has made him such a key piece to TCU’s offense.
“Typically guys that practice at a high level, play at a high level,” Dykes said. “He just hasn’t missed many reps, he keeps improving. If anything we’ve had to limit his load in practice. He wants to get better. He’s one of those kids you have to reign in a little bit because he’s going to be by himself working on things in the weight room or the indoor on his days off.”
That came directly from the teachings of his mother, who helped him become extremely fast and mentally tough at a young age.
“If you want to go out and win it starts at practice first,” Bailey said. “I’m in the mindset where I want to be able to push through anything whether it’s hard moments on the field where you’re behind and have to come back. There are things for that in practice you work on. I like having that mindset, it’s very effective, I pride myself on being one of the hardest workers ever.”
How could Bailey watch his mother grind and not follow her example? Football is just a game, what Ms. Bailey had to overcome was life and she didn’t just persevere, she thrived.
“As a single mom I went back to get my bachelor’s while working and taking care of them,” Ms. Bailey said. “In 2017 I started working from home, that allowed me to be able to do what I needed for them. My schedule was 7-3, it was the perfect schedule that allowed me to do what I needed to for them.
“I do have my own business now, a couple of businesses actually. One of them is my own insurance agency. It’s been a lot of hard work as a single mom, but they saw me push through school, they saw me work while in school and taking care of them. I didn’t hesitate, whatever it was they needed I made a way.”
That included making sure her presence was felt at every sporting event. When Bailey went to Louisiana for college, Ms. Bailey’s younger son was still staring at Denton Ryan, so what did she do?
“We always rise to the occasion, I was actively involved in everything my kids do,” Ms. Bailey said. “I figured out after Jordyn plays on Friday night, I’m getting in my car; me, my dad, Jordyn, my aunt and we’re driving to Louisiana or wherever he was every weekend. Even if he wasn’t playing, we were still going to support.”
Things are much easier for her now with Bailey and his brother both playing at TCU. For Bailey that dedication pops into his mind every carry and her love continues to push him towards greatness.
“I’m trying to go forward every single play, run hard every single play,” Bailey said. “That way when I reach the next level I’ll be able to take care of them.”
Becoming a man
Every Sunday after TCU plays a game, running backs coach Anthony Jones strolls into his office and relaxes for a minute to turn on the television.
He’s not only enjoying the NFL slate for the day, but also keeping track with the litany of former backs he’s helped get to the NFL. In one game it might be Tony Pollard for the Cowboys or Kendre Miller with the Saints or Kenneth Gainwell with the Eagles or Patrick Taylor with the Packers.
There aren’t many coaches that have that type of pedigree and Jones thinks Bailey has a great shot of joining that growing list.
“I think he plays at one speed and that’s at a high level,” Jones said. “He’s not coasting, I don’t think he ever gets tired and if he does he doesn’t show it. He plays every rep at an exceptionally high level and you don’t really get that with running backs. Even if the play isn’t drawn up for him, the effort is still the same.”
Like his mother, Jones believes in coaching his players hard, but he always makes sure to circle back and pour love into them.
That desire to improve has made coaching Bailey easy and a joy for Jones.
“The thing I like about him is he actually wants to get better,” Jones said. “There’s not a day that goes by where he isn’t working on some type of technique. There’s always something he wants to work on each day.”
While Bailey has grown tremendously as a player under Jones, the running back said his biggest growth has been internally as he’s become more of a man.
“He helped me grow into doing manly things like going to class, staying on top of my grades, taking care of my body,” Bailey said. “He teaches me those things so I can stay elite and because it’s going to get harder on the next level. Everything he’s been teaching me has been tough love, but everything that I need for the future and I can’t thank him enough for instilling that in me. Without him I wouldn’t be on this road to greatness.”
As much as Ms. Bailey has enjoyed seeing her son become a budding star, the growth she’s seen in him emotionally during his time with Jones has been equally rewarding.
“Coach Jones pushes him beyond his limits, mentally and emotionally,” Ms. Bailey said. “Coach Jones has been able to push him to control all of it, beyond just the physical. Their bond has matured Emani a lot. Just watching him and spending time with him now, his conversation is different. The way he carries himself is different, his thought process is more mature. I can definitely credit that to Coach Jones.”
The best coaches at this level don’t just produce draft picks and All-Americans, they produce better men which is part of what has driven Jones from the high school level all the way up to Fort Worth.
Getting Bailey to trust and open up to him has been one of the more rewarding experiences for him.
“He was real quiet, he’s so quiet he keeps things to himself a lot of times until they come to a head,” Jones said. “He was the type of kid where you just had to get to know him. He’s an awesome kid that comes from an awesome family. He’s a young man that’s craving knowledge and I think that’s where our bond has grown so strong.
“He knows I’m going to be demanding of him, but it’s only for his benefit. You’ve got to have a relationship with them first before you can coach them like that.”
It takes a player with a special mental makeup to be able to handle that coaching and Bailey clearly has it. Combine that mental edge with his speed, physicality and overall vision and you have the recipe for an elite college running back.
If he isn’t already, he’ll soon become a household name at this pace, but the only thing that matters is making sure he gave his all to make sure TCU came out on top that Saturday.
This story was originally published September 28, 2023 at 1:54 PM.
