Brandon Holloway Will be One of the Most Important Playmakers this Season

Brandon Holloway came to Mississippi State to play football. It wasn't clear what position he'd play, but he was certainly here to play football. He's remarkably smaller than most running backs that the SEC has seen, especially in recent years, and early on in his career he struggled to make catches in big moments. So, it wasn't clear what role he would play.

Lately though, instead of just fitting into one role, he's playing a few different ones. Holloway can do just about anything for Mississippi State. He'll run for over 400 yards, catch for around 400 yards, and hell, Holloway will return kickoffs for over 550 yards. And he'll get the ball in the end zone 6 times too. At least, that's what he did last season. Holloway accumulated a total of 1376 yards last season and scored 6 touchdowns (5 receiving and 1 returning a kick) in the 2015 campaign.

And he's got plenty of opportunities this season to build upon his reputation as a do-it-all sort of guy. There's no certainty at the running back position and there's a slough of questions at receiver. Holloway is just the guy that can fill some of the void at both positions.

No, he's not going to snag touchdowns like De'Runnya did for the previous three seasons, but his versatility will force defenses to recognize his presence whenever he sees the field. Brandon Holloway has a unique skill set and Dan Mullen's brain is the perfect one to find a way to utilize him.

Before Mullen had Holloway, he had Jameon Lewis. And the role that Lewis played paved the way for Holloway. Lewis stood at a total of 5'9" and weighed 187 pounds his senior season. Which that isn't too far off of Holloway's listed build of 5'8" and 165 pounds (although you still won't convince me that he's really that tall or that he weighs that much). The biggest difference between them being 22 pounds, which that is a considerable amount. But Holloway seems to be built more for speed. After all, he was a member of his high school track team.

But still, much in the way that Lewis was used as an all purpose athlete, there's no reason why Holloway can't be used in a similar fashion. And we've all seen what happens once Holloway gets a few blocks and can get into the open field.

And because of the gaps at receiver and running back, Dan Mullen is going to need to find a reliable spark plug for his offenses to help out whichever quarterback wins the job and to provide some excitement to that fans while the quarterback competition gets settled. Brandon Holloway is set up to be the perfect guy for that role.