Mizzou RB Damarea Crockett burst onto the scene in a big way as a freshman in 2016, running for an impressive 1,062 yards and 10 touchdowns on only 153 carries.

Now, as he prepares for an encore this fall, he told KansasCity.com that he wants to do even more to assert himself as one of college football’s top running backs:

“To be completely honest with you, in all seriousness, I didn’t think I’d be a 1,000-yard back,” Crockett said. “Simply because, I wasn’t sure how playing time and things like that would go in the first couple of games. I didn’t think I would accomplish that, but the fact that I did maybe put my goals even higher for the second year.”

Crockett said he wants to set higher goals for his sophomore season because he’ll have a full understanding of Mizzou’s offense. He admitted he wasn’t completely comfortable with offensive coordinator Josh Heupel’s system until more than halfway through the season:

“I wasn’t completely comfortable with the offense until after the (Sept. 24) Delaware State game,” Crockett said. “That’s when I really started to feel comfortable. But even after I started learning the offense, I didn’t get all the way comfortable until week seven or eight.”

Though Crockett will be splitting carries with senior RB Ish Witter this fall, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could improve upon last year’s numbers.

His stated goal of 1,800 rushing yards may be a little out of reach, but if he can avoid suspension (he missed last year’s season finale against Arkansas), 1,200 yards should be a reasonable expectation.