Can Pettway break Tre's record?

[WFE12 9,191]

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"My individual goal is to break the school rushing record, but whatever I can do to help my team," said Pettway, referencing Tre Mason's 1,816-yard campaign in Auburn's 2013 SEC Championship season. "I feel like I can. Hard work, dedication, knowing what I know how to do"

 

I didn't really pay it too much attention before but now that I really think about I think he can. As we all know he didn't play in 4 games because of injury or Gus not even playing him and he still amassed 1,224 yards with a SEC leading 122.4 rushing yards per game. Though he split carries with KJ and faced a loaded box he still wreaked havoc on teams. With a much better passing game and healthy season I think it's very possible.

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

Even better chance when we play 15 

[lutzcammed 469]

I say no. not if we have a balanced offense..

[tigerfangs 269]

5 hours ago, lutzcammed said:

I say no. not if we have a balanced offense..

Ohhhh but if he did and we have a balanced offense....

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

Can he? That's not really the question. Will he? That is. And the answer is...if AU is in any way a more balanced offense, no.

[Mikey 16,550]

3 hours ago, CleCoTiger said:

Can he? That's not really the question. Will he? That is. And the answer is...if AU is in any way a more balanced offense, no.

There will be games when we don't try to have a balanced offense. If we are pounding it successfully I don't look for much attempt to balance the offense and that's smart football. My guess is Mason's record is safe, we have better depth this time.

[eibua12 81]

Well Marshall had 1000+ rushing yards that season if we have a more balanced attack the QB would have less rushing yard therefore pushing carries to the RBs or pushing up passing yards and decreasing rushing yards.

Take 500 away from that and add it to the passing and it puts the passing around 3000, and doesn't change any of the other numbers.  Of course this is off 14 games so there is that. 

What is impressive for Tre is he did his workload against top caliber teams and didn't get a lot of garbage yards.  Everyone has goals I think that is an awesome target for a RB going into the season.

[PowerOfDixieland 3,225]

Assuming he can duplicate what he did in '16 with 5.9 yards per carry he would have to carry the ball 300 times.  Which is 100 carries more than he had last year.  It would be nice from a personal standpoint if he did break it, but I can guarantee that Chip and Gus wouldn't want him to have to carry the ball between the tackles that many times against the defenses we will face.  That's almost cruel and unusual punishment if you don't have to.  Hoping Kerryon's production will mandate that they won't.

[I_M4_AU 7,768]

1 hour ago, Mikey said:

There will be games when we don't try to have a balanced offense. If we are pounding it successfully I don't look for much attempt to balance the offense and that's smart football. My guess is Mason's record is safe, we have better depth this time.

Couldn't agree more with this.  In 2013, Gus went into games with a plan just to run the ball, the Tenn game comes to mind where Auburn only attempted 7 passes.  Also the last drive against Alabama that year, all Tre Mason to set up the RPO to Coates on our final offensive play.

This year will be totally different as we we have a new OC and a QB that is more accurate than NM.  This changes the whole dynamic.  If KP does break the record, Auburn will be blowing their opponents out every game.  I think Tre's record is safe.

[steeleagle 2,945]

Nice goal. Don't think it will happen.

He has carried it only around 200 carries in a year, and to get close to Tre's record he needs another 100 carries. He's not going to have a lot of long runs, so he's going to have to carry it a lot. 

And I don't think this new offense will let him get over 300 carries.

[bigbird 60,368]

Nope. The touches won't be there.

[Tiger 8,817]

I don't want him to get the number of carries it will take for him to reach that mark. It was absurd that we just kept giving him the ball as many times as we did last year IMO.

39 carries in a blowout Miss State win. WHY?

27 in a 56-3 beat down of Arky. WHY??

He did not need to touch the ball 66 times in games that we outscored opponents 94-17. 

Then the following 2 games which were much closer he had 39 carries vs Ole Miss in an 11 pt win for us, which is a ton of carries but the game was still in the balance for most of the 60 minutes unlike the previous 2. Then of course he got hurt vs Vandy on his 25th carry. But 130 carries in 4 weeks is too much IMO and that is likely the type of workload he is going to need to break the record IMO. 

If we are relatively healthy and our offense has improved like we are all hoping then I say, barring anything similar to Cam Newton-esque domination from Pettway, we will not see KP break the record.

 

[jAUSon 2,836]

5 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Nope. The touches won't be there.

Plus- given the chance to pound it, the coaches will probably spread it around. We do not need another pulled hammy or quad. Mason's record is safe. Frankly I hope I'm wrong.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

This could be a far better year then what it was last year for Johnson and Pettway.

[LKEEL75 2,566]

As many have said and I completely agree... Can he? YES.  Will he? No 

There is no way that CP gets enough carries to get that many yards.  Now if you want to talk all-purpose yards, then he may get there.  I think he will see a lot more passes than before.

[lutzcammed 469]

on another note.   if we want Justin Fields at Auburn we better be flinging it this year.

 If we do nothing but pound the ball between the tackles he will be going to Florida State. If Pettaway gets near enough carries to reach This record we don't get Fields.

[McLoofus 35,182]

48 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Nope. The touches won't be there.

Nor will GRob or Prosch. I know that there are other factors that will mitigate the absence of those two, but that's the point. Very different offense than that one, in terms of personnel and identity.

36 minutes ago, lkeel75 said:

As many have said and I completely agree... Can he? YES.  Will he? No 

There is no way that CP gets enough carries to get that many yards.  Now if you want to talk all-purpose yards, then he may get there.  I think he will see a lot more passes than before.

I enjoy thinking about this.

I will say one other thing: this defense might not be on the field as much as that one was, and might give our offense more possession. But I don't think it will be enough to get KP the requisite touches. 

[logan adams 333]

2 hours ago, Mikey said:

There will be games when we don't try to have a balanced offense. If we are pounding it successfully I don't look for much attempt to balance the offense and that's smart football. My guess is Mason's record is safe, we have better depth this time.

This. In every game, if the run game is working, then we run it. No matter what, we will not be a pass-first offense. With that said, if our offensive line gels together early on, then I think he could cap 1,900 yards. Will be difficult, but it is definitely possible. 

[abw0004 10,104]

I actually say yes and wholeheartedly believe it.  Why?  Well let's think about it. Chip Lindsey is supposed to balance out the offense correct?  And we have two accurate quarterbacks, if not three.  What does this do to defenses?  It prevents defenses from stacking the boxes and opens up running lanes for our running backs where they can get huge chunks at a time.  

Last year when Sean went down, defenses knew we could only run the ball.  A great example is the Vanderbilt game where the box was stacked every single play.  Even with the boxes stacked, KP still got over 1,000 yards.  Imagine what he will do with less defenders in his way.  

I also predict we will have two 1,000 yard rushers.

[LKEEL75 2,566]

1 hour ago, abw0004 said:

I actually say yes and wholeheartedly believe it.  Why?  Well let's think about it. Chip Lindsey is supposed to balance out the offense correct?  And we have two accurate quarterbacks, if not three.  What does this do to defenses?  It prevents defenses from stacking the boxes and opens up running lanes for our running backs where they can get huge chunks at a time.  

Last year when Sean went down, defenses knew we could only run the ball.  A great example is the Vanderbilt game where the box was stacked every single play.  Even with the boxes stacked, KP still got over 1,000 yards.  Imagine what he will do with less defenders in his way.  

I also predict we will have two 1,000 yard rushers.

I get what you are saying there and I don't disagree about 2 1,000 yard rushers.  I just don't see any RB getting enough touches to break the record this year.  I get that a good OC will take what they are giving him and if someone is giving us 6 ypc then why change.  However, I believe the run-to-pass ratio is going to be closer to 50\50 which means there just won't be as many touches to go around between all the players.

BTW I hope I am wrong and I hope he gets 2,000 & KJ gets 1,000 of his own.  I mean we can dream.  Can't we?

[McLoofus 35,182]

One thing to consider is that we very well might be averaging 5 or more plays per game this year than we did last year. We only snapped the ball 72 times a game in 2016. (Arizona State had 75.)

Doesn't sound like a lot, but say we pass the ball 5 more times a game- which would still put us at a 27/50 split of pass attempts vs rush attempts based on last year's numbers- and completed 60% of those. That's 38 more yards a game, again based on Sean's yards per completion last season, before taking any carries away from the RBs. That would have moved us from 43rd in total offense last year to 20th.

Sorry, lots and lots of hypothetical information there, I know. And none of it really means anything. My main point is that we can significantly improve the passing offense without taking anything away from the run game. And, as others have pointed out, a more efficient passing attack would almost necessarily allow the run game to get easier yards. 

[WFE12 9,191]

I believed that like others have said he may not have the quantity of carries but the quality of carries would go up. I guess I am overvaluing the quality of the carries he will get this year because of the passing game. I won't be disappointed at all because this offense will be dynamite either way it goes.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

I hope we break passing records. 

[alexava 6,973]

I like that he is goal oriented. but we can't ride him into the dirt every week. we have to be smarter than that. as far as breaking any records...... does anyone remember the thread before 2015? We had JJ breaking all passing records, Duke all receiving records. Lawson breaking sack records........ we jinxed them all. just stop please.

[Rednilla 5,383]

It's good for Kam to set lofty goals, but it is HIGHLY unlikely he'll get to that one. Too many other guys to get the ball to.