Freshman Trent Rains is one of two Monmouth running backs averaging more than 110 yards rushing through the first two games. Monmouth athletics photos

Senior Michael Buehne moved to running back from slot receiver after Trey Yocum graduated.

One of the biggest questions left unanswered in the Midwest Conference and the Monmouth football community coming into this season was if the Fighting Scots could find anyone to replace all-conference selection and career rushing leader Trey Yocum. In fact, the success of Monmouth's season in some way hinged on the answer to that question, coming off of a 5-5 campaign last year.

After two games, the Scots may have not just one, but two answers in senior Michael Buehne and freshman Trent Rains. Buehne is averaging 114 yards per game and Rains 118.5 yards per contest in helping the Fighting Scots to a 2-0 start, including a big 28-21 win over Central last weekend.

Question answered? Well, according to Monmouth coach Steve Bell, so far so good.

"I think one of the things we knew last year was that physically Trey could handle the load," Bell said. "We knew that we could give him the ball about 28 to 30 times a game and he would be fine. With these kids, we knew it would probably be in our best interest if we split the carries. We felt they were more effective if they could use their legs."

In the big comeback against Central, Buehne carried the ball 21 times for 152 yards while Rains touched the ball 25 times for 140 yards, as both runners reeled off huge chunks of yardage behind Monmouth's offensive line to control the game as the Scots rallied from a 21-7 halftime deficit.

"We just didn't finish drives," Bell said. "At halftime, we talked about just what could we do and decided we're going to ride these ponies and make them defend the run. We matched up really well and we got our running game going."

Bell said while he feels he has wealth of talent at the running back position this year, "your starters are your starters for a reason," and believes that Buehne and Rains could be a powerful combination for Monmouth as the Scots head into Midwest Conference play.

"The big thing is that both of them are very capable of playing for us and our job as coaches is figuring out how to play our best players," Bell said. "We've got multiple kids who can play at that position, but obviously Michael and Trent both deserve to be out on the field and try to split time as much as they can."

They've got big shoes to fill. Yocum left Monmouth last year as the school's all-time leading rusher with 4,573 yards and rushed for a school single-season record 1,590 yards.  It was a departure from the days when the Fighting Scots rode the arms of the Tanney brothers, first Mitch and then Alex.

Bell, though, does not want to hear talk about its next game beyond Carroll (2-0) on Sept. 27. Monmouth's 2-0 start is the school's best since 2009, when it went 10-1 and represented the Midwest Conference in the playoffs.

"You know my response to that," said Bell when he was asked about comparing his team to that 2009 squad. "It's just way too early. All we can think about is the game in front of us and our job is to win that third game. The thing I like is how we responded to win. We didn't get to hectic and some adjustments."

With Buehne and Rains, it looks like teams will be looking to make adjustments to Monmouth's running game again the rest of the way.

Williams bolsters Elmhurst's run game, tops older brother

When Ron Planz became coach of Elmhurst in March, he knew running back Josh Williams would be a big part of the Bluejays offense. If Planz thought Williams would be a school-record 306 yards part of Elmhurst offense in the second game of the season in a 33-27 victory over Olivet – well, that may be another story.

According to Planz, he needed every one of them from the talented running back to salt away the victory, allowing the Bluejays to even its record at 1-1.

"I had no idea he had that many yards until they gave me the stats at the end," Planz told D3football.com. "Then when I saw it I had no idea that it was a record until I was told by Kevin (Juday), our SID. We were just sticking to our game plan and taking what Olivet was giving us and I don’t think Josh knew or cared how many carries or yards he had. 

"At the end of the game we needed first downs to keep the clock going it just so happened he was able to get those carries and yards to help us win. When I told Josh how many yards he had in the locker room he was shocked, he we was just happy for the team and the way we came back to win."

Josh's older brother Scottie Williams was Elmhurst's star running back when he won the Division III Gagliardi Trophy his senior year in 2012, setting the school record for most yards in a single season with 2,046. But Scottie Williams never owned Elmhurst's single-game record.

Josh Williams declined to address breaking a record his brother did, but said the only thing that mattered to him was the victory – and future wins.

"For myself, it's not about the individual achievements," Williams said. "I'm just very pleased at the way we battled as a team to overcome being down by 20 points in the start of the game. It was a great team victory for us as a team."

Austin Swenson outduels Bates, succeeds in encore

Even though it's been mentioned already on D3football.com, 603 yards passing is just hard not to mention one more time. When Rose-Hulman quarterback Austin Swenson told us last week that he planned on playing better than he did in his opener when he threw for 384 yards in his first start against Kalamazoo, we took him at his word. We didn't quite expect 600 yards and change in triple overtime Saturday and out-dueling an all-conference performer in Illinois College's Michael Bates.

Game of the Week

Rose-Hulman at Hanover, 2:30 p.m.: Hanover was one of the teams picked ahead of Rose-Hulman in the HCAC preseason poll, but it is also safe to say that the Fightin' Engineers are playing above expectations so far. After beating a very good Illinois College team, it will be interesting to see if Rose-Hulman can now duplicate that momentum in a conference game that most experts thought at the beginning of the season that it would lose.