Meet the Future Frogs: BJ Catalon

If you're like me and watched as TCU lost young tailbacks Ethan Grant (to injury) and Dwight Smith (to academics) and then noticed that the three-headed monster from 2011 will consist of two seniors and a junior in 2012, you might be a little worried about depth at that position going forward. Here to help ease the transition once Ed Wesley and Matthew Tucker graduate, however, is BJ Catalon. A 5'8" 190lb Waymon James clone, Catalon will be enrolled this semester and take part in spring drills after graduating early from Houston's Westside High- the same school that produced Marcus Jackson.

As far as running back recruiting in Texas goes, most of the headlines went to Aledo's Johnathan Gray and Spring Dekaney's Trey Williams. And for good reason- those two will have successful collegiate careers, in my opinion. But I also think that the relative lack of attention paid to Catalon will be viewed as a tremendous oversight in retrospect. He ran for 2,269 yards this fall on just 186 carries- for an amazing average of 12.2 yards per carry! He also scored 32 touchdowns on his way to 1st Team All-State honors from the Associated Press.

Rivals gave Catalon three stars, which will only continue the tradition of TCU recruits being underrated. They do list him as the 9th-best all-purpose back in the nation, though, as well as the 57th-best overall recruit in the state. He was briefly committed to Colorado before pledging to TCU last year in May.

I couldn't find a full-length highlight tape for Catalon on youtube, but if you search for him on there you'll find dozens and dozens of individual plays uploaded by someone named "spenglas3". For those of you too lazy to do that, here's just a little taste: