The future of Lamar’s rushing game revealed itself a little earlier than anyone expected.

True freshman Austin Krautz of Nederland was pressed into action Saturday after senior Kade Harrington went down in the second quarter with a season-ending foot injury. Krautz carried the ball 20 times, taking almost half of Lamar’s totes in the 32-31 win over Northwestern State, in his most extensive work to date.

Now, it looks like Krautz and redshirt freshman Derrion Randle will share time lining up next to Carson Earp out of the Cardinals’ shotgun.

“It means a lot,” Krautz said Saturday night about his opportunities. “A lot of things had to happen for this opportunity presented to me. I hate to see Kade go down. He’s a great guy as well as a hell of player. It’s awful to see him go down, but it did give me a chance to step up and show what I can do.”

Krautz grounded out 51 yards, just 1 shy of his career high the week before at Abilene Christian, and was second only to Earp’s 63 yards rushing on the team. Krautz also caught four passes for 31 yards.

“I did what I could tonight to help the team, and I’m pretty pleased with that,” Krautz said.

All season long, Lamar coach Ray Woodard and Harrington himself have iterated how much Krautz reminds them of a slightly younger Harrington — the one who would become the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year.

Their features are very similar: Krautz is 5-feet-10 and 181 pounds, while Harrington stands 5-9 and weighs 192. Both are fleet-footed with smooth takeoffs on the handoff and have the ability to break long runs, and they are also proven pass blockers. Krautz is a hard-hitter on special teams as well.

But Woodard didn’t think Krautz — who was limited to fourth-quarter action before last Saturday — would move up quickly on the depth chart as a true freshman, as Harrington did.

Then Keegan Mitchell left the team, and Randle missed the Abilene Christian game due to injury. That opened the door wide for Krautz.

He ran through it, totaling 52 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries against the Wildcats. His longest run was for 19 yards.

“I think it gave me confidence that I do have the ability to play at this level, and I can compete with these guys, and I can go out and be confident in the way I run,” Krautz said. “That really just helped me, just as it did in high school.”

Krautz was recruited to Lamar from just down the road as a likely successor to Harrington. He rushed for nearly 1,900 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior at Nederland while leading the Bulldogs to their fifth straight district championship, and he was named Most Valuable Player on The News’ 2015 Super Team.

His abilities came in handy last Sunday.

“The opportunity for him is there, and he’s taking advantage of it,” Woodard said in his weekly conference before the Northwestern State game. “He’s a smart player who knows the playbook and knows what to do. He’s a much better runner than I thought he would be, and he’s really helped out on special teams. He’s coming on and having a great year.”

Krautz didn’t average as many yards per carry against Northwestern State, but that’s partly due to defenses keying in on the Harrington-led running game of the Cardinals.

“With the season Kade had last year, I think we’re looking at that most teams,” Krautz said. “They’re going to want to stop the run. And they did. They did a good job with it early. We had to figure out which runs weren’t going to work and which runs were. Once we started passing the ball a little bit better, I think it opened the run game for us.”

No matter who starts against 20^th-ranked Central Arkansas this Saturday, the Cards’ previous outing offered a glimpse of what’s to come in the ground game. And a local guy is in the midst of it.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews