It’s no secret that Eno Benjamin is Arizona State’s No. 1 running back. In terms of yardage production, he was the No. 5 back in the nation last year, with 1,642 yards and 16 scores on exactly 300 carries.

Safe to say, he’s earned it.

But make no mistake — despite being one of the few skill players on the offensive side of the ball that appear pretty locked into a starting position — the rising junior isn’t alone in the backfield.

Even if it’s just for the No. 2 spot in the pecking order, the competition being created by fellow ball carriers Isaiah Floyd (redshirt junior) and A.J. Carter (sophomore) have been a driving force in the spring session that’s set to wrap up this Thursday.

“I think competition, at least for me, I don’t go into a shell with competition,” Floyd said. “I rise up. I actually get better, and I think, what that does, is it makes everybody else around me get better.”

In terms of what you’ve seen on the field, Floyd is, of course, the more familiar name.

For all intents and purposes, Floyd was exactly what he needed to be last year: a solid backup in Eno Benjamin’s breakout season. He didn’t see significant action but was still productive when he needed to be, for the most part.

Floyd was the team’s third-leading rusher, behind Benjamin and Manny Wilkins, with 209 yards on 45 attempts, good for 4.6 yards per carry. He had one touchdown on the season, which came as part of his 79-yard performance in the season opener against UTSA.

But that wasn’t his only solid performance in 2018. There were only four games in which Floyd had five or more carries, but he eclipsed 30 yards on the ground in each of those games, while tacking on two receptions out of the backfield in the Territorial Cup.

Sure, these aren’t mind-boggling numbers. But for a junior college transfer in his first year at the FBS level, still learning the game, there’s promise heading into Floyd’s second season at ASU.

“The hardest thing was getting people to realize that I deserved to be here,” Floyd said of year one. “You can definitely see the improvement that I’ve made since last season… I know I’ve definitely improved from last year, mentally and physically.”

As often tends to be the case for junior college transfers — Floyd came to ASU from City College of San Francisco ahead of the 2018 season — Floyd is starting to see the game slow down after a full year of Pac-12 caliber football.

“Yeah, definitely the game has definitely slowed down a lot more,” he said. “I think part of that is me getting bigger and stronger, and still developing, but also just me maturing and getting an understanding of how this game works now, how the college game works, on and off the field. I think it’s more of an understanding of the whole entire system, that’s slowed everything down for me.”

In his eyes, that’s been the biggest difference this spring, in terms of where he’s seen improvements in his game.

“I would say, understanding the defense more,” he said. “I think the game has just slowed down a lot.”

As for Carter, it’s been a similar learning curve. In his freshman season out of Many, Louisiana, Carter only took four carries for 12 yards on the entire season.

That said, his lack of production can easily be viewed as, at this point, a product of running back depth and his inexperience. There’s a reason Carter only touched the ball four times in 2018; on the depth chart, he was behind a sophomore having a career year, and a junior college product with enough of the skillset and experience to back him up nicely.

In Carter’s eyes, he didn’t do his part to get into the rotation last season, due to a self-admitted lack of focus and physical shape.

His intent, as a result, has been on getting his body where he wants it to be — that’ll continue to be the focus during a long session of summer workouts — after a freshman season in which he felt he wasn’t reaching his potential.

“At first, they were kind of iffy on me, because I was inconsistent,” Carter said. “I wasn’t as fast, I wasn’t as healthy, I was kind of big. I wasn’t moving well. Now, I’m doing all of the things that they thought I couldn’t do.”

“It was in my hands,” he added. “I didn’t come here prepared.”

But he’s still the same guy who was listed as a Top 50 running back in Rivals’ 2018 class — one who averaged just shy of 10 yards per carry in his last two seasons at Many High School.

“I’m just ready whenever my time is called,” Carter said. “I can show that big jump… I’m just trying to do my best to do whatever I can do to make this team better, and when my name’s called for offense, to run the ball, I’ll be ready.”

Carter also had similar thoughts to Floyd’s when it came to his transition into year two with the program. The understanding of the game around him has exponentially improved after a full season, and that’s bound to make everything a little easier for the rising sophomore.

“I know the scheme way better,” Carter said. “I feel like I can play better now. It’s just slowed down, it slowed the game down for me. I know what to do, I know who’s blocking who when a play is called.”

The overarching common theme from Floyd and Carter, though — while they both know the starting role is Eno Benjamin’s to lose, neither is shying away from any opportunities that might materialize in the season ahead.

Sure, maybe it’s a little cliché, but they both said it. They just want to win.

That’s usually a pretty good thing.

“Just doing my best to get better every day, better myself as a player,” Floyd said. “And just do what I can to make my team better and for us to become successful.”

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