Looking ahead to 2018 RBs

[abw0004 10,108]

11 hours ago, aubieclawz said:

you are so right.. never gives younger RB's a chance to be good..like lets say Georgia they have not just 2 but a 3rd auburn can say with speed tonight that scored a TD and 2 more 5* next year coming in..and Auburn just 1 star RB that totally sucks!!!

Michael Dyer says hello...

[abw0004 10,108]

10 hours ago, AUwent said:

Also, is Carlton in trouble?

Concussion

[AU64 10,122]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

After the IB, KJ was 2nd in the league in carries with 250. The #1 guy had 256 and there was only one other guy over 200.

KJ missed 2 entire games.

We need to spread it around more. 

Don't deny it would be nice to spread it around more but recall that KJ was Plan B.....Pettway supposed to be the man and under those conditions there would have been more variety.  JMO but there was a big drop off after KJ.  

Nonetheless, looking at the NCAA stats, KJ's number of carries was in the ballpark with lots of RBs and QBs....lots in the range of 225-275 and a couple over 300.  Heavily used guys were at Stanford, Wisconsin and Florida Atlantic for example....KJ's numbers were not that unusual for a team that thrived on the running game. JMO 

Still curious how little we "know" about what his injury was all about though. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

30 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Don't deny it would be nice to spread it around more but recall that KJ was Plan B.....Pettway supposed to be the man and under those conditions there would have been more variety.  JMO but there was a big drop off after KJ.  

Nonetheless, looking at the NCAA stats, KJ's number of carries was in the ballpark with lots of RBs and QBs....lots in the range of 225-275 and a couple over 300.  Heavily used guys were at Stanford, Wisconsin and Florida Atlantic for example....KJ's numbers were not that unusual for a team that thrived on the running game. JMO 

Still curious how little we "know" about what his injury was all about though. 

QB reps aren't comparable. They don't sustain a fraction of the physical contact RBs do. 

KJ was Plan A until he got hurt last year. 

Again, only one other guy in the SEC had more carries and that included 2 more games. It is reckless to ask a running back to sustain a 25 carry per game average over a full SEC season.

We should not have such a big drop-off after RB2- UGA sure doesn't- and we likely wouldn't if we were repping these guys more. 

Two seasons in a row we have been heavily relying on injured RBs late in the season. Gus is mismanaging the running back position.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Have to side with AU64 on this one. Plenty of RBs have had success getting  25+ carries a game. Tre Mason, Caddy, Derrick Henry, etc. 

We have known the following three things about Gus for a long time now:

-He sticks with the hot hand.

-He doesn’t like RB’s that are potential liabilities ( blocking, fumbling, attitudes.)

-He wants to go NASCAR after a good play, so one carry for 10 years could escalate to 8 carries for 80 yards in a hurry.

Kerryon was the guy all year long that made Gus comfortable with the offense and before yesterday, Gus was rewarded with no fumbles and good play. 

I wish Chip would incorporate Martin and Kerryon in the backfield at the same time. I wish we could involve other backs in crunch time without taking out the hot hand in other words.

——————————————-

I’d also like to point out that we really couldn’t go NASCAR with Kerryon yesterday because we had to protect him. We also had to substitute too much. That hurts  our offense. 

Gus’s trust in “his guy” is a blessing and a curse as I think it does hamper RB recruiting, and it does render the rest of the RB’s useless in crunch time while they are standing on the sideline, but it also guarantees we are up there in individual rushing statistics year in and year out.

[McLoofus 35,182]

I'll give you Henry and Mason, but they are outliers. Caddy never averaged more than 18 and a half carries and was notoriously run into the ground early in his pro career. Marcus Lattimore was also destroyed by Spurrier with too many carries.

And none of this changes the point that we need to be able to rely on multiple guys. It's a very basic and fundamental concept. You build depth through recruiting and reps. We're failing at either or both. 

Oh, one other note about Mason: the next 3 guys after him- Marshall, Grant and CAP- totalled roughly the same carries that he did. The next 3 guys after Kerryon this season total a little over half his carries.

We need to distribute the carries better. We need to be able to depend on other guys when RB1 can't get it done. After the way our last two seasons have ended, I'm a bit surprised this is a conversation.

As for what we've known about Gus for some time now, that really has nothing to do with how Gus needs to improve going forward. Especially since he was coaching high school ball at the same time his main rival was coaching the Miami Dolphins. The dude still has a LOT to learn.

[aujeff11 6,243]

We are not the professional league and we are not trying to protect our investments by divvying up the pitch counts. We don’t have to rely on multiple backs when just one back can do the trick. 64 has pointed out several teams that rely on one back and that includes teams like Stanford. Constantly rotating backs w/in drives actually works against Gus’s offense. Gus can inprove, and he has, but I think this issue is a little overblown.  KP was hurt, Barrett is a TF, and Martin isn’t much of a blocker, Johnson had to be the guy against Bama. Y’all can complain about those 30 carries, but y’all cannot complain about his impact and that W. A dub that may not happen without all 30 of those carries. 

 

[cole256 17,039]

If we don't play them we don't have depth. We have names

[DAG 33,955]

Just now, cole256 said:

If we don't play them we don't have depth. We have names

Depth seems to always bite us, in the end, doesn't it? UGA had answers for when Sony went down. It is what it is anyhow. Easy to say after the fact.

[Aucater 150]

11 hours ago, Randman5000 said:

Kerryon was always the better back

He is but he is not a 30 run per game back. 

[cole256 17,039]

Last year I posted stats on Stanford, Wisconsin, and about two or three other teams that are known to be heavy runners even bammer and they didn't run their guys into the ground. If kj has as much carries as other hb's and he missed games this season that's stupid. The fact that we're doing that when he's coming off injury is stupid. That's why it wasn't a surprise with KP being hurt these last couple of years....or I guess we magically are picking multiple backs that are injury prone....

[cole256 17,039]

4 minutes ago, DAG said:

Depth seems to always bite us, in the end, doesn't it? UGA had answers for when Sony went down. It is what it is anyhow. Easy to say after the fact.

But uga gave both of those guys carries throughout both seasons so if a guy was hurt then he was experienced. We essentially made the same mistake from last season as well as we did with the qb's...if we're beating the hell out of a team play your back up skill players. I can tell you from experience, it goes from being nervous about all the little things to just playing. At the end of the year your freshmen should just be playing. The ones that are in rotation at least...

[aucom96 1,614]

Gus' offense exposes his playmakers to a lot of punishment, including the QB. The last two years we've been using RBs and QBs being hurt down the stretch as an excuse for poor seasons. Last night, the same thing finally caught up to us both with Johnson, and I suspect to some degree, Stidham. If we can't plan for and build better depth at our skill positions, we will be having this conversation every single season with Malzahn. 

[cole256 17,039]

There is no reason why we shouldn't have been able to hand the ball to Martin, Miller, and DB and say bring it home guys. Maybe they do maybe they don't but we're supposed to have depth. I remember as a kid that's how we found out the little fast white dude was good behind caddy and the rest. Iron bowl of all games. There has been so many stories of guys coming out of the blue and making an impact. We've had the blow outs and the time for all of our hb's to at least be able to try. Heck Alabama use Brandon Jacobs right now because he just turned out to be better than they thought

[aujeff11 6,243]

11 minutes ago, cole256 said:

Last year I posted stats on Stanford, Wisconsin, and about two or three other teams that are known to be heavy runners even bammer and they didn't run their guys into the ground. If kj has as much carries as other hb's and he missed games this season that's stupid. The fact that we're doing that when he's coming off injury is stupid. That's why it wasn't a surprise with KP being hurt these last couple of years....or I guess we magically are picking multiple backs that are injury prone....

Have to have quality depth. We do not have it. Kerryon carried us on his back during that win streak. If Kerryon didn’t, we wouldn’t have had a win streak. Anybody can play Monday morning QB, but the fact of the matter is if our backs were serviceable, a 65%-75% healthy and non-effective KJ wouldn’t still be in the game.

 

 

[cole256 17,039]

Why are we excited about our back up qb right now? Because he was able to play a bit. We pretty much know no matter what he'll at the least can run the read option. Now we will wonder about him throwing. When we beat the hell out of one of those teams I say he should've been running the offense...how can that hurt

[McLoofus 35,182]

5 minutes ago, cole256 said:

But uga gave both of those guys carries throughout both seasons so if a guy was hurt then he was experienced. We essentially made the same mistake from last season as well as we did with the qb's...if we're beating the hell out of a team play your back up skill players. I can tell you from experience, it goes from being nervous about all the little things to just playing. At the end of the year your freshmen should just be playing. The ones that are in rotation at least...

It's crazy. You and I and some others said earlier in the season that we needed to be repping the young guys more so they'd be ready if we got thin. Now Kerryon's hurt and people are saying that we couldn't play anyone else because they aren't good or experienced enough. It's super basic logic and reason. 

[cole256 17,039]

5 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Have to have quality depth. We do not have it. Kerryon carried us on his back during that win streak. If Kerryon didn’t, we wouldn’t have had a win streak. Anybody can play Monday morning QB, but the fact of the matter is if our backs were serviceable, a 65%-75% healthy and non-effective KJ wouldn’t still be in the game.

 

 

I'm not talking about the close games. Yes kj was needed during those, he wasn't needed like that against a team like arky. Last year kp wasn't needed like that against miss st. It's stupid

 

Oh and nothing about me is Monday morning qb I said this years ago. Actually I remember when it happened after I said it you said many of us said this.....when maybe others did later....But I said it after the 3rd game of the season last year when everybody was healthy

[Tiger Scout 92]

13 hours ago, WDE_OxPx_2010 said:

I know there is still a bowl game left, but the bowl game is window dressing and extra practice. The meaningful games are over.

Asa Martin comes in and adds prototypical running back depth to a group that needs it. The SEC championship game looks quite different if KP and KJ are healthy. Our offense was much better when it had the ability to produce a reliable 5-6 yards per carry. Adding Ass Martin and Worm to a group that includes KJ, KP, Martin, Barrett, and Miller gets us back to having the type of SEC depth that we'll need to compete. Arguably, we haven't had this kind of RB depth since 2013. 

 

To go along with the RBs, we have young, quality returning WRs and (with Gatewood) 3 capable QBs on the roster for the first time in a while. If the O Line gets figured out and stabilizes, the offense will look good again.

War Eagle.

you dont know if gatewood will be worth a crap. gus has not developed one high school qb at auburn. 

[cole256 17,039]

1 minute ago, McLoofus said:

It's crazy. You and I and some others said earlier in the season that we needed to be repping the young guys more so they'd be ready if we got thin. Now Kerryon's hurt and people are saying that we couldn't play anyone else because they aren't good or experienced enough. It's super basic logic and reason. 

What makes it even crazier to me is we felt it last year. We literally saw it last year and did the same exact thing....

[leglessdan 1,934]

Malik Miller had 32 carries for 129 yds with a 4.0 avg.

Devan Barrett had 13 carries for 82 yds with a 6.3 avg. 

That's most definitely NOT spreading the carries or building depth. Of all the blowout games we had...MSU, ARK, OM and the FCS schools, this is all they got? I know DB was used in situational passing plays a handful of times, but why even burn the redshirt if that's all you're going to use him for? Its a reoccurring issue.

[bigbird 60,368]

1 minute ago, cole256 said:

What makes it even crazier to me is we felt it last year. We literally saw it last year and did the same exact thing....

Exactly. 

Last year UGA...no QB depth.

This year UGAx2...no RB depth

[cole256 17,039]

1 minute ago, bigbird said:

Exactly. 

Last year UGA...no QB depth.

This year UGAx2...no RB depth

And you can't tell me Martin hasn't shown enough flashes to think let's try him. That's crazy. Ok so he may not be as good as kj in his prime....90% of the hb's in the country aren't. He may have fumbled once ok that happens but to say he's not quality without even letting him try is crazy. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

Just now, cole256 said:

What makes it even crazier to me is we felt it last year. We literally saw it last year and did the same exact thing....

IKR??? 

The good news is that it seems like Gus does learn from his mistakes. It's just that he has to make them multiple times first.

For the record, Cole and I have said from day 1 that Kerryon is not only our best RB but also our best overall player on offense. We said it after he got hurt last year and everyone decided that KP was so much better. It's not about how good he is or not needing him. The point is that we need other guys, too.

Oh, btw, Clemson's about to win another title with a rookie QB because they repped him a lot in garbage time behind Watson. We're going to be okay at left tackle next year because Tega got tons of reps this year. Super obvious stuff, guys.

[aujeff11 6,243]

6 minutes ago, cole256 said:

I'm not talking about the close games. Yes kj was needed during those, he wasn't needed like that against a team like arky. Last year kp wasn't needed like that against miss st. It's stupid

He ran 21 times against Arky; That’s basically reasonable. Plenty of other RBs received carries that day as well. What wasn’t ideal is that he ran 22 times against Louisiana Monroe but we were sluggish the whole first half and we couldn’t put them away.

Kerryon went over thirty 3 times and all were against big rivals: LSU( 31) , Georgia (32), Bama (30). I don’t mind this at all. That is when legends are made.