Starting running back today per Horton

[LKEEL75 2,566]

Just now, AU64 said:

It would help me to see some programs that are successful with RB by committee.  Maybe it's an old view, but seems that usually coaches had the view that if you had a really good RB,  you gave him the ball a lot with the expectation that he would break one every now and then.   We saw some of that last year too...KJ with a bunch of 3 or 4 yard carries and then a 20 yard or more break out on what was apparently the same play.   

Interesting that Bo had about the same number of carries his last year as KJ....and Fullwood was his back-up with 90 carries.   The 1987 team had no dominant ball carrier and the leading rusher had less than 500 yards....but turned out 9-1 so it can happen though in half the games the opponents had 10 or fewer points. ..

Queue the numbers quotes from UGa last year or UAt with Richardson & Fake-Heisman Winner....

But I do tend to agree that in the past GREAT RBs want the ball more.  They want to be the one pounding on the D late in the 4th to break their will.

[NorthGATiger 1,801]

2 hours ago, AuburnNTexas said:

Sounds like we are finally getting what many begged for last year. RB by committee so we will have fresh legs out there all the time and not beat one RB to death. If we really do that then multiple fans will complain anyway.  I have confidence in the RB's we have and the ones coming in my worries are arround the big boys who will need to open the holes for them and who will protect the QB.

I don't care much about what the article says in April so I am not going off of the deep end.  But there is a huge difference in Running Back by committee and RB by situation.  If we go RB by situation with Gus' already super predictable play calling then it will be a looooong season.

[AU64 10,122]

8 minutes ago, LKEEL75 said:

Queue the numbers quotes from UGa last year or UAt with Richardson & Fake-Heisman Winner....

But I do tend to agree that in the past GREAT RBs want the ball more.  They want to be the one pounding on the D late in the 4th to break their will.

True but both situations those guys were clearly NFL quality players and comparably talented.......not sure we are there yet....but hope that a couple of  the current crop of RBs show that ability.  

[DAG 33,961]

28 minutes ago, AU64 said:

It would help me to see some programs that are successful with RB by committee.  Maybe it's an old view, but seems that usually coaches had the view that if you had a really good RB,  you gave him the ball a lot with the expectation that he would break one every now and then.   We saw some of that last year too...KJ with a bunch of 3 or 4 yard carries and then a 20 yard or more break out on what was apparently the same play.   

Interesting that Bo had about the same number of carries his last year as KJ....and Fullwood was his back-up with 90 carries.   The 1987 team had no dominant ball carrier and the leading rusher had less than 500 yards....but turned out 9-1 so it can happen though in half the games the opponents had 10 or fewer points. ..

To me if you have a work horse use them, IF they aren’t hurt or legitimate tired. There were times KJ was done and he was still out there. That is so unsafe. Even he said there were times he probably should’ve said give Kam a run for a little bit. Some RBs get stronger as the carry load increases. That is fine . I don’t want to see a hurt RB getting 30 plus carries or any type of situation that puts them at risk for injuries . As a coach you have to have that discretion, no matter how frustrated the player is.

[McLoofus 35,182]

47 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Does anyone remember how big Brad Lester was while at AU?

Bout a buck eighty-five?

[McLoofus 35,182]

40 minutes ago, AU64 said:

It would help me to see some programs that are successful with RB by committee.  Maybe it's an old view, but seems that usually coaches had the view that if you had a really good RB,  you gave him the ball a lot with the expectation that he would break one every now and then.   We saw some of that last year too...KJ with a bunch of 3 or 4 yard carries and then a 20 yard or more break out on what was apparently the same play.   

Interesting that Bo had about the same number of carries his last year as KJ....and Fullwood was his back-up with 90 carries.   The 1987 team had no dominant ball carrier and the leading rusher had less than 500 yards....but turned out 9-1 so it can happen though in half the games the opponents had 10 or fewer points. ..

Yeah, greatest pure runner in history, you probably try to feed him. The fact is, when you look at all the dominating rushing offenses, that vast majority of them aren't going to reveal a disparity like what we had last year. 

Also, we really have to get away from this "RB by committee or one guy gets 290 carries" conversation. We need RB1 to have fewer carries and RBs 2 and 3 to have more. Nobody's advocating some sort of hippie commune back there. 

Once again, even  the most minor, constructive criticism of Gus can't be tolerated. He is a perfect coach who always makes the right decision. That is why we won the SECCG by a score of eleventy billion to zero. Because he made 100% perfect decisions about how carries were distributed among the running backs last season.

[AU64 10,122]

4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Yeah, greatest pure runner in history, you probably try to feed him. The fact is, when you look at all the dominating rushing offenses, that vast majority of them aren't going to reveal a disparity like what we had last year. 

Also, we really have to get away from this "RB by committee or one guy gets 290 carries" conversation. We need RB1 to have fewer carries and RBs 2 and 3 to have more. Nobody's advocating some sort of hippie commune back there. 

Once again, even  the most minor, constructive criticism of Gus can't be tolerated. He is a perfect coach who always makes the right decision. That is why we won the SECCG by a score of eleventy billion to zero. Because he made 100% perfect decisions about how carries were distributed among the running backs last season.

and for some he can do no right.....that's just the nature of how folks see things I guess.... as for me Gus is like about any coach....makes good calls and bad ones....but I don't just look for the bad ones.  

Same for other coaches.....like NS....don't you wonder why it took him to the second have of the championship game to try a QB he had been watching play all season...and yet was on the bench?    I'm still wondering why Tua did not play against AU.  At that time, losing to AU was likely to be the end of their championship run.  Funny thing is that far as I can recall, nobody criticized NS about the AU game.......or KS either when both had superior talent to AU. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

54 minutes ago, AU64 said:

It would help me to see some programs that are successful with RB by committee.  Maybe it's an old view, but seems that usually coaches had the view that if you had a really good RB,  you gave him the ball a lot with the expectation that he would break one every now and then.   We saw some of that last year too...KJ with a bunch of 3 or 4 yard carries and then a 20 yard or more break out on what was apparently the same play.   

Interesting that Bo had about the same number of carries his last year as KJ....and Fullwood was his back-up with 90 carries.   The 1987 team had no dominant ball carrier and the leading rusher had less than 500 yards....but turned out 9-1 so it can happen though in half the games the opponents had 10 or fewer points. ..

I have no quarrel with anything you said here.

I can't speak for everyone of course, but my issue was not & is not a coach riding his horse that's producing.

My issue is either...

A - Not having an adequate backup prepared out of 3-4 other viable candidates.

or

B - Having one and not using him when needed.

KJ shouldn't have even dressed out for thUga 2.0 and (opinion alert) I feel KM could have, and probably would have, done an admirable if not awesome job in relief.

....Lord know his legs were fresh enough...

[DAG 33,961]

6 minutes ago, AU64 said:

and for some he can do no right.....that's just the nature of how folks see things I guess.... as for me Gus is like about any coach....makes good calls and bad ones....but I don't just look for the bad ones.  

Same for other coaches.....like NS....don't you wonder why it took him to the second have of the championship game to try a QB he had been watching play all season...and yet was on the bench?    I'm still wondering why Tua did not play against AU.  At that time, losing to AU was likely to be the end of their championship run.  Funny thing is that far as I can recall, nobody criticized NS about the AU game.......or KS either when both had superior talent to AU. 

To be fair , look Nick Saban track record. If he was losing games like this every year with his talent , there would be something to talk about but that is not the case ( I am speaking of the big ones). As to why he didn’t bench Jalen early, I have no idea. What I will say is like a student of the game, he learned from his mistake and instead of regressing, he found an alternative. You are never going to make 100 percent of the right calls, but you do need to learn from your mistakes and keep pushing forward.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, AU64 said:

and for some he can do no right

Yes. That's like 3 people on this board, most of whom frequently enjoy long vacations due to their behavior. I'm not sure why you respond to them when it's other people who also frequently praise Gus levying the criticism. 

Quote

Same for other coaches.....like NS....don't you wonder why it took him to the second have of the championship game to try a QB he had been watching play all season...and yet was on the bench?    I'm still wondering why Tua did not play against AU.  At that time, losing to AU was likely to be the end of their championship run.  Funny thing is that far as I can recall, nobody criticized NS about the AU game.......or KS either when both had superior talent to AU. 

Didn't you just go over this with someone else? Didn't you say that you only hang out on an Auburn board? Wasn't it explained that that's why you don't hear other teams' fans criticizing their coaches? Because you're not communicating with other teams' fans at all?

Also... you don't think Auburn fans should criticize Gus- who has yet to win a championship as a head coach, and who has failed miserably multiple times for 4 years in a row- but you think bama fans should criticize saban for winning them a 5th championship with an incredibly ballsy substitution? 

There's an issue with objectivity here, and it has nothing to do with saying that Kam Martin should've gotten a few more carries last season. 

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

11 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

My issue is either...

A - Not having an adequate backup prepared out of 3-4 other viable candidates.

or

B - Having one and not using him when needed.

Not an either/or for me. 

Quote

KJ shouldn't have even dressed out for thUga 2.0 and (opinion alert) I feel KM could have, and probably would have, done an admirable if not awesome job in relief.

....Lord know his legs were fresh enough...

 And yet we didn't even try. Gus does that sometimes. Doesn't think he's got the guys to get the job done so he doesn't even give them a chance. And that's why I'm sometimes hard on him. He asks his players to have guts and to trust him. He doesn't always return the favor. 

[AUIH1 1,515]

Just now, DAG said:

LOL, you are killing me, man. Gus is a solid coach though. You got to at least admit that.

Gus is average.  

wde

[McLoofus 35,182]

14 minutes ago, DAG said:

To be fair , look Nick Saban track record. If he was losing games like this every year with his talent , there would be something to talk about but that is not the case ( I am speaking of the big ones). As to why he didn’t bench Jalen early, I have no idea. What I will say is like a student of the game, he learned from his mistake and instead of regressing, he found an alternative. You are never going to make 100 percent of the right calls, but you do need to learn from your mistakes and keep pushing forward.

The other thing about saban is that you can isolate certain in-game decisions and talk about whether or not bama lost because of them. And they've not been losses by 3 scores, and they've not been against bad teams, and they've rarely been in big games. Meanwhile, you look at some of Gus's losses and you're mystified by entire game plans or an entire half's worth of highly questionable decisions.

[McLoofus 35,182]

10 minutes ago, DAG said:

LOL, you are killing me, man. Gus is a solid coach though. You got to at least admit that.

Solid and getting solid...er. 

[DAG 33,961]

Just now, McLoofus said:

The other thing about saban is that you can isolate certain in-game decisions and talk about whether or not bama lost because of them. And they've not been losses by 3 scores, and they've not been against bad teams, and they've rarely been in big games. Meanwhile, you look at some of Gus's losses and you're mystified by entire game plans or an entire half's worth of highly questionable decisions.

Well, I am hoping with the support we have given him, things will change for the better. The SEC game was just losing to the better team. Of course, there could've been a change here or there, but I honestly feel UGA was just better that day. I am still agitated by that loss to UCF, but it is gone with the wind. I just don't want our team to get handicapped by strategy from here on forward.

[Tiger 8,818]

On 4/20/2018 at 2:07 PM, bigbird said:

Does anyone remember how big Brad Lester was while at AU?

Thank you mentioning this. I actually spent some time looking at Lester highlights this morning and compared them to Kam's. Lester looked to be a little tougher to bring down but Kam has tough runs too. 

Kam can be every bit as effective as Lester was and maybe even have a bit more breakaway speed than Bradley.

[AUsince72 11,084]

22 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Not an either/or for me. 

 And yet we didn't even try. Gus does that sometimes. Doesn't think he's got the guys to get the job done so he doesn't even give them a chance. And that's why I'm sometimes hard on him. He asks his players to have guts and to trust him. He doesn't always return the favor. 

I probably should have given option C - Both.

As for the bolded part... What you mean "we"?  

I tell Gus' how it's done over and over in this forum.  He just won't listen to me!

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, AUsince72 said:

I probably should have given option C - Both.

As for the bolded part... What you mean "we"?  

I tell Gus' how it's done over and over in this forum.  He just won't listen to me!

Well, even if you know it won't work, keep trying. Adjustments are for quitters. #WWGD

[AUIH1 1,515]

It is obvious that Horton is only following Gus' wishes.  What normal RB coach would ever run KJ even a snap against UGA in the SECCG last year?

wde

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

‘…running backs coach Tim Horton is intent on the Tigers finding “more than one guy” out of the backfield this season.

“The last couple of years, particularly last year, if you have one guy and he goes down like what happened with KJ, we weren’t the same team in the SEC Championship game because we had a guy that was hurt,” he said before speaking to the Jackson County Auburn Club in Scottsboro on Thursday. “The ability to have a fresh player in the fourth quarter can really help you.”’

[AUBURN FOOTBALL: Tigers want depth at running back (copy), By Josh Vitale For The Decatur Daily, Apr 22, 2018 Updated 7 hrs ago, http://www.timesdaily.com/sports/auburn_football/auburn-football-tigers-want-depth-at-running-back-copy/article_146e62ed-1b47-5c5d-92f1-653a2b21e5ca.html]

[AUBwins 10,071]

1 hour ago, AUld fAUx@ said:

‘…running backs coach Tim Horton is intent on the Tigers finding “more than one guy” out of the backfield this season.

“The last couple of years, particularly last year, if you have one guy and he goes down like what happened with KJ, we weren’t the same team in the SEC Championship game because we had a guy that was hurt,” he said before speaking to the Jackson County Auburn Club in Scottsboro on Thursday. “The ability to have a fresh player in the fourth quarter can really help you.”’

[AUBURN FOOTBALL: Tigers want depth at running back (copy), By Josh Vitale For The Decatur Daily, Apr 22, 2018 Updated 7 hrs ago, http://www.timesdaily.com/sports/auburn_football/auburn-football-tigers-want-depth-at-running-back-copy/article_146e62ed-1b47-5c5d-92f1-653a2b21e5ca.html]

The coaches made their bed last season by not giving valuable reps to other RBs during the year, especially against the cupcakes. Why do we think Tua was prepared to win the NC off the bench? Because he ran the entire offense for the entire 2nd half in some games. 

[NorthGATiger 1,801]

On 4/20/2018 at 3:31 PM, McLoofus said:

Not an either/or for me. 

 And yet we didn't even try. Gus does that sometimes. Doesn't think he's got the guys to get the job done so he doesn't even give them a chance. And that's why I'm sometimes hard on him. He asks his players to have guts and to trust him. He doesn't always return the favor. 

Not enough likes for this.

[NorthGATiger 1,801]

On 4/20/2018 at 3:46 PM, McLoofus said:

The other thing about saban is that you can isolate certain in-game decisions and talk about whether or not bama lost because of them. And they've not been losses by 3 scores, and they've not been against bad teams, and they've rarely been in big games. Meanwhile, you look at some of Gus's losses and you're mystified by entire game plans or an entire half's worth of highly questionable decisions.

Preaching it!  Can't say it better myself

[alexava 6,973]

5 hours ago, AUBwins said:

The coaches made their bed last season by not giving valuable reps to other RBs during the year, especially against the cupcakes. Why do we think Tua was prepared to win the NC off the bench? Because he ran the entire offense for the entire 2nd half in some games. 

Or actually because Hurts missed several days with illness ( flu?) and tua got unexpected reps, extensively. 

[Zeek 16,640]

On 4/20/2018 at 1:17 PM, LKEEL75 said:

Queue the numbers quotes from UGa last year or UAt with Richardson & Fake-Heisman Winner....

But I do tend to agree that in the past GREAT RBs want the ball more.  They want to be the one pounding on the D late in the 4th to break their will.

I'm glad I'm not the only one still disgusted about the worst Heisman winner of all time.

 

K-Mart would be a solid starting running back if it remains the case. If the O-Line is serviceable we'll be fantastic this year!