Starting running back today per Horton

[Eagle-1 3,821]

On 4/20/2018 at 3:02 PM, 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.

I'm not at all worried about the RB situation. I have every confidence that Gus, and his O coaches will get the depth chart in the right order so that the next SEC back of the year will be  ready to step in once our starter goes down. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

More on Joiner:

https://www.seccountry.com/auburn/auburn-football-harold-joiner-running-back-tight-end-position

[Barnacle 9,064]

I don't care who starts/plays. There is enough talent on the roster for the cream to rise to the top. We'll see soon enough.

[toddc 13,194]

I’m excited about this guy(Harold Joiner)! He could be the big rb we need, and fill the void Chandler Cox will leave as an hb that can get out in space as an outlet. Some of his highlights look like he can run pretty good for his size, too. #5 running back out of high school has to be a good thing.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Huh. Horton thinks we should have rotated backs more.

https://auburn.247sports.com/Article/How-Auburn-Tigers-will-try-to-solve-late-season-production-dropoff-at-tailback-in-2018-117515292

[The Plainsman 948]

6 hours ago, McLoofus said:

More on Joiner:

https://www.seccountry.com/auburn/auburn-football-harold-joiner-running-back-tight-end-position

I am a see it to believe it on Joiner,. And I sure hope to see it.   I think Asa is way ahead of Joiner.  

[Tiger 8,817]

14 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Huh. Horton thinks we should have rotated backs more.

https://auburn.247sports.com/Article/How-Auburn-Tigers-will-try-to-solve-late-season-production-dropoff-at-tailback-in-2018-117515292

Dammit Gus even your RB coach is saying RBs need to be rotated better!

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 minute ago, Tiger said:

Dammit Gus even your RB coach is saying RBs need to be rotated better!

Who knew that Horton was such a hater and Gus basher. 

[Tiger 8,817]

1 minute ago, McLoofus said:

Who knew that Horton was such a hater and Gus basher. 

This is one big rabbit hole for me. This makes me think about how other coaches on staff feel about certain decisions throughout the season, especially ones where the "bashers" have been discussing to no end on the forum. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, Tiger said:

This is one big rabbit hole for me. This makes me think about how other coaches on staff feel about certain decisions throughout the season, especially ones where the "bashers" have been discussing to no end on the forum. 

[LKEEL75 2,566]

Do you think Horton is trying to get his point out there?

https://www.seccountry.com/auburn/auburn-football-running-backs-rotation-split-2018-tim-horton

[DAG 33,955]

15 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Huh. Horton thinks we should have rotated backs more.

https://auburn.247sports.com/Article/How-Auburn-Tigers-will-try-to-solve-late-season-production-dropoff-at-tailback-in-2018-117515292

Wow. Why are we just recognizing this now. This honestly deserves its own thread.

[Tiger 8,817]

6 minutes ago, DAG said:

Wow. Why are we just recognizing this now. This honestly deserves its own thread.

I'm thinking it's unlikely he's just now realized it. He's probably tired of this basic concept of his being stonewalled, though.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

8 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I'm thinking it's unlikely he's just now realized it. He's probably tired of this basic concept of his being stonewalled, though.

Of course, there is an entirely different way of looking at this which is him saying that he needs to do a better job of getting #3 and 4 ready to play during "crunch time".

"We’ve had success playing multiple players, but sometimes the cream rises to the top and one just kinda separates themselves. That’s really what’s happened the last two years."

That's the thing with stories like this, a lot of times you get out of it what you bring into it.

[DAG 33,955]

9 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Of course, there is an entirely different way of looking at this which is him saying that he needs to do a better job of getting #3 and 4 ready to play during "crunch time".

"We’ve had success playing multiple players, but sometimes the cream rises to the top and one just kinda separates themselves. That’s really what’s happened the last two years."

That's the thing with stories like this, a lot of times you get out of it what you bring into it.

#3 and #4? We are talking about #2 here. I have the utmost respect for Horton and with that I am going to say I will give him the benefit of a doubt in terms of having people ready . Based on what I read, Gus Malzahn mindset is crunch time can be all game for quality opponents , therefore we utilize our best player during that time. 

Edit: based on Horton’s quote I am assuming that is CGM mindset. Gus never actually said that . However Horton has recognized the need to get guys in throughout the game.

[Barnacle 9,064]

7 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Of course, there is an entirely different way of looking at this which is him saying that he needs to do a better job of getting #3 and 4 ready to play during "crunch time".

"We’ve had success playing multiple players, but sometimes the cream rises to the top and one just kinda separates themselves. That’s really what’s happened the last two years."

That's the thing with stories like this, a lot of times you get out of it what you bring into it.

He's saying we need to rotate other backs into the game so our primary back(s) have fresh legs at the end of games. It's very unambiguous.

[steeleagle 2,945]

6 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

He's saying we need to rotate other backs into the game so our primary back(s) have fresh legs at the end of games. It's very unambiguous.

Yes, but is Horton the coach that sends the RB in there, or does Gus and CHip call for the rb they want in there? Makes a big difference. 

Horton and Malzahn have been together a good while now with all the RBs who have come through AU, and I still think last year with our TOP 2 backs hurt, the other backs were just not all round backs, and they didnt want to expose JS to poor blocking when Martin when in. Miller, eh...He runs soft to me. 

So now they think they need better rotation in the backfield? The bottom line is in the big games at end of the year they simply felt they could not win on offense w/o KJ(even if he was hurt) in there...

[Tiger 8,817]

23 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Of course, there is an entirely different way of looking at this which is him saying that he needs to do a better job of getting #3 and 4 ready to play during "crunch time".

"We’ve had success playing multiple players, but sometimes the cream rises to the top and one just kinda separates themselves. That’s really what’s happened the last two years."

That's the thing with stories like this, a lot of times you get out of it what you bring into it.

This is what I took from the article:

Horton thinks we need to rotate backs so we can use a fresh RB1 in crunch time

Gus basically thinks crunch time is every possession --> RB1 is the only ones getting meaningful snaps --> Options outside of the RB1 are not ready in a time of need because they get next to zero meaningful snaps

This makes Horton look bad because it appears as if he's not coaching up his guys in some capacity and I'm sure that doesn't sit well with him OR at the very least it leaves the offense with no answer if RB1 is out of the game and the results are pretty crappy.

 

[Barnacle 9,064]

1 minute ago, steeleagle said:

The bottom line is in the big games at end of the year they simply felt they could not win on offense w/o KJ(even if he was hurt) in there...

The bottom line is what he said. Whatever their justifications were for not rotating more backs during the 2017 season, he's saying that we need to do a better job of that moving forward. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

4 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

The bottom line is in the big games at end of the year they simply felt they could not win on offense w/o KJ(even if he was hurt) in there...

Yes. And Horton is acknowledging that there are steps they could have taken to not be in that position, which has been obvious to most of us for awhile now. 

[DAG 33,955]

8 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

Yes, but is Horton the coach that sends the RB in there, or does Gus and CHip call for the rb they want in there? Makes a big difference. 

Horton and Malzahn have been together a good while now with all the RBs who have come through AU, and I still think last year with our TOP 2 backs hurt, the other backs were just not all round backs, and they didnt want to expose JS to poor blocking when Martin when in. Miller, eh...He runs soft to me. 

So now they think they need better rotation in the backfield? The bottom line is in the big games at end of the year they simply felt they could not win on offense w/o KJ(even if he was hurt) in there...

How you feel is not good enough . The boys need a chance. Give them the opportunity at least. If that fails then salute the other team. Trust your talent that you recruited. When another coach did that a couple on here wanted to call him out , but now that our coach did that, we justify it. Learning moments I suppose.

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 minute ago, DAG said:

How you feel is not good enough . The boys need a chance. Give them the opportunity at least. If that fails then salute the other team. Trust your talent that you recruited. When another coach did that a couple on here wanted to call him out , but now that our coach did that, we justify it. Learning moments I suppose.

Well, I think coaches go by their gut feelings in crunch time, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. 

Gus has produced a lot of RBs that have been at the top or near it in the SEC in yards, and he knows how to run the ball effectively (99% of the time. lol). I know we get frustrated at the beginning of the season, as to how he uses his RBs, but it seems he does figure it who is go to guy is soon. 

I think they had such an all round RB in KJ, that when he got hurt, it simply put them in a bind, in the biggest game of the year. 

I just hope his rotating backs, doesnt telegraph what we are doing (like putting Barrett in)...lol

[lionheartkc 6,150]

21 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

He's saying we need to rotate other backs into the game so our primary back(s) have fresh legs at the end of games. It's very unambiguous.

He's also saying, without saying it outright because it would be bad form, that we don't have the luxury of practice time in most of our games and that we need to have other running backs that we can rotate into the game when the outcome is in question... and, tactfully, that we didn't last year. That's on him and he's acknowledging that fact. I find it interesting that a guy offering a mea culpa is instead being taken as a guy throwing his boss under the bus in a public forum (because that's a great idea).

[DAG 33,955]

1 minute ago, steeleagle said:

Well, I think coaches go by their gut feelings in crunch time, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. 

Gus has produced a lot of RBs that have been at the top or near it in the SEC in yards, and he knows how to run the ball effectively (99% of the time. lol). I know we get frustrated at the beginning of the season, as to how he uses his RBs, but it seems he does figure it who is go to guy is soon. 

I think they had such an all round RB in KJ, that when he got hurt, it simply put them in a bind, in the biggest game of the year. 

I just hope his rotating backs, doesnt telegraph what we are doing (like putting Barrett in)...lol

Fair enough but we are still not talking about the key factor. It is not just about rotating guys, it is about having guys ready period. Of course , you want your best guys out there for crunch time, but you also want to be sure that you have guys ready to go in case something would occur. So even if you feel like something will go right , you should still have in the back of your mind what you are going to do if it doesn’t go as you thought it would. IMO, this is the only thing stopping Gus from being a good coach to a great coach.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

8 minutes ago, DAG said:

How you feel is not good enough . The boys need a chance. Give them the opportunity at least. If that fails then salute the other team. Trust your talent that you recruited. When another coach did that a couple on here wanted to call him out , but now that our coach did that, we justify it. Learning moments I suppose.

I thought that was what practice was for. Set a standard and achieve that standard to earn time on the field. I would be willing to bet money that every running back that didn't get much play time in the heat of battle either showed Gus that they put the ball on the field in practice or didn't block well in practice. Now, you can argue that Gus takes his mantra of blocking and protecting the football to an extreme, and you could be right, but I certainly don't want a football coach who says "you didn't earn/show you could do it it in practice, but get out there anyway".