Gowebb11

Part of my reasoning is for fresh legs in general, but I’m also a big KM fan. I love his burst. I feel the same about Barrett.

That happened very recently. Just 2 years ago, Pettway rushed for over 1300 yards and KJ had over 900. Previous to that, in 2013 Mason had over 1800 yards, Nick Marshall over 900, and CAP over 600. The year we had Cam, both he and Dyer rushed for over 1000 yards, as did McFadden and Jones in Gus’s first year as OC at Arky. That’s spreading the carries around pretty good. So Gus’s load sharing history is solid when he’s got 2 healthy RBs and/or a running QB. This past season, I think you would have seen the same thing had KJ and KP been healthy at the same times. I do fault Gus for not giving KM more carries down the stretch, and still feel like we would’ve beaten UGA in the SECCG had he rode him instead of an injured KJ. Hopefully, we see a better rotation this season.

The past 2 seasons have been rough for sure, but I don’t recall Dyer, Mason, CAP, and Barber having significant injury issues. Maybe I am forgetting something. That said, I am in the camp of spreading carries more, and keeping guys fresh.

Just my opinion, but I don’t think Kam needs to bulk up at all. He’s averaged over 6 yards a carry over 2 years, and had a completely different style that KJ. KJ was very patient, waited for creases, and was very physical. A lot of Kam’s runs are quick bursts. He is often 5-6 yards downfield before he is touched. WIth his style and in our offense, I can see him easily bearing 15 or 16 carries a game at his current size. Those kids from Houston are pretty tough.

Starting to sound like Shivers better be ready to go.

I hope you’re right. If they do have a losing record, it will be the first time in 18 years they have not won 8 or more games.

I like it.

But LeVeon Bell has, and he had over 380 carries his last year at MSU, compared to KJs 285 this past season. Ray Rice and Cedric Benson had over 900 carries in college compared to KJs 500 at AU. Christian McCaffrey and Dalvin Cook both had seasons with more carries than KJ. NFL RB careers are notoriously short, whether someone has a lot of college carries or not. The debate is whether or not KJs workload was excessive this past year. I certainly would like to see Gus spread carries more, but the notion that a heavy college workload leads to shorter NFL careers is not necessarily borne out by facts. Now, how that RBs body feels at the age of 40 or 50 is another story.

My point on McFadden was that he was healthy enough to have a long NFL career, in spite of very heavy college workload. I definitely agree that Gus needs to spread carries around more. It’s wise to keep them fresh and have several with experience. But a lot of folks talk about Gus wearing RBs out. I’m on the fence as to whether a lot of carries for a season or two is damaging to a RBs health.

Interesting observation. This whole discussion is pretty intriguing. For instance, McDadden had a ton of carries over 2 years and enjoyed a lengthy and healthy pro career. Also, Tre and CAP both exceeded KJs carries and the “too many carries” discussion never came about. I guess if you don’t get hurt, it’s not too many carries, and if you do get hurt, it is. I cut the list at 2000. Going further back, Herschel had 3 straight years of over 300 carries, and that was with shorter seasons. Oh ueah, and I hope Tye Edwards is durable. (Staying on topic and all) 😄

SEC rushing attempt leaders by year, since 2000. AU does like to get mileage from their RBs.

They have some serious talent in their defensive front 7. Don’t have our depth, but their first teamers there are pretty good. Plus those cowbells. 🐄🔔🔔🔔

Thank you. LSU will get off the bus with a lot of future NFL talent, and so will the Aggies. Miss State will be better than advertised too.

We are replacing some studs, but we return more experience than some think. Horton, Harrell, and Tega all have several starts under their belt. And Driscoll has had a lot of experience versus some top talent, including SEC players.Talent is there, and a fair amount of experience. Key is how quickly Grimes can build the chemistry.

I think it will come down to the the bowl game. I base that on the fact that we haven’t done it back to back in 30 years. I believe there are several teams on our schedule who will be better than many are predicting.