Tevin Coleman had a monster 2014 for Indiana, and ended up second in the nation to only Melvin Gordon in rushing yards. He was the bright spot on a bad team, rushing for over 200 yards four times, including one game where he rushed for 307 yards against Rutgers. On top of that, he eclipsed the century mark in all but one of his games. After his great year, he decided to forgo his senior season to enter the 2015 NFL Draft.

Measurables

DOB April 16, 1993 Bench (225 lb) 22 reps Height 5’11” Vertical Jump N/A Weight 206 lbs Broad Jump N/A Arms 32″ 20 Yard Shuttle N/A Hands 8 5/8″ 3 Cone Drill N/A 40 Yard Dash 4.39 sec (Pro Day) 60 Yard Shuttle N/A

In order to watch Coleman, I went towhich has five of his college games.

Stats

University of Indiana (2012-2014) 2014 270 att, 2036 yards, 7.5 ypc, 15 TDs 25 rec, 141 yards, 5.6 ypc, 0 TDs 2013 131 att, 958 yards, 7.3 ypc, 12 TDs 19 rec, 193 yards, 10.2 ypc, 0 TDs 2012 51 att, 225 yards, 4.4 ypc, 1 TD 10 rec, 49 yards, 4.9 ypc, 0 TDs

Scouting Report

Fast. Incredibly fast. Probably the top speed back in this class. However, not quite Chris Johnson or Darren McFadden fast.

Great frame but could probably put on a few pounds to make him beefier.

Displays some elusiveness, but not a tremendous amount.

Runs to the hole he’s assigned to go to. Doesn’t make cutbacks. Doesn’t appear to attempt to utilize his vision much at all. So I would say he has poor vision.

Builds up speed over time instead of reaching top speed immediately.

Doesn’t really choose to bounce the run otside too often. When he does, it can be successful because of his speed.

Average in the passing game, can get solid chunks after the catch.

Good after the catch.

Does not make the first man miss nearly often enough.

Needs a severe amount of work in pass protection.

Had a high amount of production behind a frankly terrible offensive line.

Has shown he can be a workhorse back and show up day in and day out for a bad team.

Bad OL

First and foremost, I want to address one of the biggest obstacles evaluators are faced with when evaluating Coleman: his teammates around him are terrible. Particularly, his offensive line acted more like a sieve than a wall. This is an issue for evaluators because it means there are a number of plays that Coleman has that are simply useless for the purposes of determining whether or not he did well. When multiple defenders get into the backfield, he doesn’t have a chance and it’s not fair to knock him for not being able to make multiple defenders miss at the same time. For the rest of this article, I tried to choose plays that I think the outcome is mainly Coleman’s responsibility, not due to the play of his offensive line.

Speed

The only thing about Coleman that I fell in love with was his speed. He is fast, and he uses this speed well. If he gets a hole (and if you notice, in almost all of these plays there is a big hole) he’s gone. It’ll be a footrace to the endzone and he’s going to win. This is the reason Coleman is rated highly by scouts, and it’s probably the reason he’s going to get taken in the second or third round.

Yards after Contact

Coleman has a big body, and he has shown the ability to too lower his shoulder and knock defenders back and get yards after contact. He keeps his legs driving after getting hit and has some potential to keep the pile moving. When he gets his pad level down, he can be effective at using his big body to get movement. He’s not going to be a power back, but he has some power.

Avoiding leg tackles

Coleman also shows some elusiveness in his runs. He has a strong lower body and can make defenders who try to dive and tackle him by his legs miss. However, like his ability to get yards after contact, he does not show this all of the time.

Pass catching

From the games I watched, there was not a lot of tape on Coleman catching passes. Part of that reason is because Indiana ran a lot because their QBs were pretty much completely ineffective. However, from the pass catching plays that were there (mainly swing/flat routes and screens) Coleman showed a good ability to run in open space after the catch and take the path that got him the largest gain possible.