TCU running back Kyle Hicks aims to accept bigger role

It’s not hard to get a smile out of TCU running back Kyle Hicks.

But just ask him if ever thought about being a quarterback.

“I think I have a quarterback’s mind,” he said and grinned big. “I say, give me a week in the quarterbacks room.”

The smile was real, but of course he was just kidding. He has every bit of respect for what quarterbacks need to know and learn to play major college football.

But you can excuse him for daydreaming.

“I actually wanted to be a quarterback, but I didn’t really fit the description of a quarterback,” he said in an interview with the Star-Telegram after spring football. “I wasn’t tall enough. But I just wanted to have the ball in my hands.”

He’ll get a chance to have the ball in his hands plenty in 2016. The former Arlington Martin star ended the spring listed as a co-starter at tailback. He has the most carries of any returning back.

Perhaps most important, he impressed coach Gary Patterson.

“Kyle Hicks stepped up as a leader,” Patterson said in a conference call with reporters in April. “He will be our starting tailback.”

And perhaps a go-to for the other running backs.

TCU lost 1,200-yard rusher Aaron Green, which left a large hole in the offense. The plan is to fill it with Hicks and Shaun Nixon, who returns to the backfield after helping out at receiver last season.

The Frogs also added Darius Anderson of undefeated state champion Richmond George Ranch and four-star recruit Sewo Olonilua in the 2016 recruiting class.

That’s in addition to veteran Trevorris Johnson, who has almost as many carries as Hicks in the past two seasons.

Hicks, a junior who has played in every game the past two seasons, will not mind taking charge of the position group. He appears comfortable talking about expectations, technique and accountability in the Air Raid offense.

“You have to teach it to the young ones that come in,” he said. “You have to teach to set up their blocks, hit it this way, hit it that way. That’s something that I had to learn coming in. When I first got here, our running back coach preached footwork. I was like, ‘Man, just give me the ball, let me run.’ But all that stuff is really important. The steps you have to do before you get the ball, setting up blocks and everything — the technique is very important.”

In the spring, Hicks got to a chance to mentor and watch Olonilua, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound four-star recruit who enrolled early.

He was impressed.

“I see a big freak of nature,” he said. “That dude is big. Man, he’s huge. And he has great lateral quickness. That makes him even more dangerous, because he can cover like five yards in one step.”

He said Nixon looks strong and fast after a “great season” playing receiver.

“He said it was quite an adjustment, but once he got used to it, he loved it,” Hicks said. “But I’m glad to have him back in the running backs room.”

Johnson missed part of spring with a foot injury, but “I’m sure he will come back even stronger,” Hicks said.

Anderson will join the Frogs in the fall. Right now, he is part of a George Ranch sprint relay team that has the nation’s second-best time and a half-mile relay team that has the nation’s third-best time.

When the running backs assemble in the fall, Hicks will be at the forefront. He wants to make his experience count for himself and his teammates.

“Running back, it’s a lot about reaction, but you need to know what hole to hit, who’s going to block who, where there’s going to be a gap, where the defense is rolling down a blitz from,” he said. “There’s a certain aspect of a game where you need to know that stuff.”

Sounds like the quarterback in him talking.

This story was originally published May 5, 2016 at 2:19 PM with the headline "TCU running back Kyle Hicks aims to accept bigger role."