Ryan Kartje (LA Times)  —  Mike Jinks promised all along that he would feed the hot hand. So when Keaontay Ingram finally started heating up Saturday against Oregon State and USC finally seemed to find its stride in the run game, the Trojans’ running backs coach wasn’t about to risk him cooling down.

Ingram kept getting the rock. He took six carries for 40 yards in the first quarter and four carries for 24 yards in the second. All the while, Vavae Malepeai, the other option in USC’s tandem backfield, sat on the sideline or stepped in largely to pass block.

It was a stark shift from the two-back approach Jinks had first committed to in January. But for the first time all season, USC’s run game finally seemed to find its rhythm — until Oregon State gave USC no choice but to abandon the run altogether during the 45-27 defeat.

“He definitely lit a spark,” Jinks said of Ingram. “And when they’re hot, they all know this, they’re not coming out. They’re not coming out. So we were gonna keep feeding him as long as we possibly could.”

While one back was well fed Saturday, the other mostly went hungry. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter, when the deficit extended to three scores and the run game had long been abandoned, that Malepeai worked in for four carries in garbage time. He managed 12 yards to Ingram’s 79, while Ingram also scored two touchdowns on 14 carries.

Keaontay Ingram scores in front of OLB Avery Roberts at the Coliseum on Sept. 25. (Gina Ferazzi / LAT)

Touches, as previously promised, have been evenly split between the two this season, with Ingram handling 44 carries and Malepeai handling 42. Ingram, when asked about their split, said he’s happy to add more to his plate, if need be.

“If we need a spark, I feel like I’m the guy to deliver that,” Ingram said. “So I carry that on my shoulders a lot.”

The transfer back may find USC’s run game on his shoulders again Saturday, when he’s asked to go toe-to-toe with Colorado’s Jarek Broussard, last season’s Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. Broussard has seen his own workload drop dramatically in 2021 from 26 carries per game to just 11 through four games. But in a game that could be decided on the ground, whomever sets the tone in the run game could run away with a much-needed Pac-12 victory.

Whether that’ll be Ingram or Malepeai for USC, coaches say, still depends on who heats up when it matters most.

“That’s always kind of the approach,” USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said. “But when [Ingram] is playing like he did Saturday, you have to try and feed him. Because like I said, he’s doing a lot of good things, playing really well, and having the ball in his hands was good for the offense.”

latimes.com

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