RBU Auburn University

[aucanucktiger 1,791]

On 5/20/2018 at 12:10 PM, Gowebb11 said:

Dye’s running backs were special. He had guys like Tim Jessie and Collis Campbell who never started a game and yet played pro football briefly. Kyle Collins had some starts as a walk-on and of course he always had great fullbacks like Tommie Agee, Reggie Ware, and Kevin McCleod. 

Collis absolutely punked a very good FSU in Tallahassee but theres barely  even any internet info on him. I played w/ him in h.s. at Coffee in Florence - he had it all but yes, had trouble finding playing time because of our backfield talent depth. 

Curtis Kuykendall was our first world class rb and still holds our single game yards record (vs a not bad Miami team) but is frequently a victim of the "oh that was so long ago" (1930s) writers cramp.

Article the other day quoted Noah cain saying one of the things he likes about Auburn is our having put more RB's (38) in the NFL than any other school. If correct, I didn't realize that. 

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

On 5/19/2018 at 2:12 AM, AUsince72 said:

I'm not knocking your opinion since we all have one but I'm unsure of your reasoning here.  I don't think the moniker RBU or LBU (as Penn St used to be known) etc is referring to recruiting.  That would be a whole different name, like HSRBRU.

I believe the determination is made after the players have actually performed and moved on, followed by another and another and so forth.  Recruiting stars have never played into such lists.  When Auburn WAS "officially" RBU, do you suppose every one of their RB's were 5* recruits?  Hypothetically, if a school had five 5* RB's sign with them every year but none of them panned out, would they be RBU?

It's not just about stars. It's about having the best backs in the nation on your roster, production in college, draft status, and production in the league. And you don't get the best backs in the nation living off of 3 and 4 star backs. You just don't. 

Like I said yes we have had almost a decade straight of 1k yard rushers. Like I said, most of that is due to our  scheme. Its do to our offense. It's  because we run the ball close to 70% of the time since Gus has been around as a OC and HC, and even running it a majority of the time, Peyton Barber BARELY made it to 1k (1017.)  I don't think one person would make the claim we have had the best RBs in college football over that time. None of those backs have been drafted in the 1st round. And none of them have done anything in the league. I mean you have to go back to Stephen Davis for one of our RBs to excel in the league for multiple years and he did it for 4 years. Back to the 2005 draft for one of our backs to be drafted in the first round (2 in the top 10 picks that season.) Yes Carnel was ROTY and ran for over 1k yards, but he did that once. After his ROTY season, he was pretty much non existent. Ronnie Brown ran for over 1k yards once in the league. None of the backs we have had since have been drafted in the 1st round. None since have done anything in the league.

It's not about one thing. It's about a mixture of things. 

On 5/19/2018 at 7:38 AM, AUpreacherman22 said:

I understand. ATM bama and uga are killing it in recruiting.  I guess we should all define our criteria for “RBU”.  For me, the stars beside a kid’s name in HS doesn’t mean much.  I look at production in college.  Colleges putting RBs in the league should be a factor as well.  In the last 10 years, west vance u has put more in the league and they’ve had several productive backs, but I would argue we’ve been right there with them in terms of production with our string of 1,000 yard RBs.  If you go back further to the mid/late 70’s til now I don’t think anyone has as strong of an argument for RBU as AU.  

The difference between us and teams like the academies is that they’ve been completely irrelevant for decades.  We’ve had very productive RBs get drafted recently as well as historically.  KJ, Tre, and CAP are evidence the “used to” tag doesn’t apply to us.  

Just my thoughts. I realize there is no objective standard for these kind of things and I have O&B glasses, but I do think our argument is as strong or stronger than anyone’s.  

It should. When you consider the total number of 5 star players, the % of them being drafted in the 1st round blows every other star number out of the water. Like I said earlier, it's not just about stars, it's about having the best back or backs in the nation on your roster. You don't get that with 3 and 4 star backs. Let me be clear I'm not knocking our backs. I love almost everyone of them. I love what they put their bodies through for this school. I love what they do for the school. But over the last decade (going on 2 decades) we simply haven't had the best backs in the nation on our roster. I have the opinion Dyer  or Jovon Robinson could of become that had they kept their heads on straight. But that's beside the point. They didn't. 

Yea putting backs in the league matters. A lot. But hanging your head on 2nd round picks, 3rd round picks, 5th round picks, and UDFAs is like kissing your sister. But we haven't had any ELITE RB recruits so, it's not that surprising. It's just making my point. 

If you would of made that from the 70s to the 2000s, I'd totally agree. But KJ, Ben Tate, and Kenny Irons are the only RBs we have had drafted higher than the 3rd round since the mid 2000s. 

Yeah KJ (2nd round pick,) Tre (3rd round pick,) and CAP (5th round pick) are making my point for me. Yes they excelled in a run heavy scheme. They did well in an offense that should make any RBs mouth water. But each only had 1 "good" year. Tre is the only one who went for more than 1k in more than 1 season, and the first one that Tre did it on, he had to be fed the ball over and over and barely make it over 1k yards, and he didn't make it until the last game of the season. But imagine what the likes of Sony Michel, Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb, Derius Guice, Saquon Barkley, or Leonard Fournette would of done in this offense. 

And I get it. I use to look at everything only through orange and blue shaders. But that's something I stopped doing by living out of the South for 2 decades. I look at things how they are, and not how I wanted them to be. 

From the 70s to the mid 2000s I'd completely agree. From the mid 2000s to now... It's not even close. We are so far behind the likes of Bama, LSU, Penn State, USC, Texas, and I HATE saying it, but UGA it's not even funny. We aren't even on the same planet with them since the mid 2000s 

We use to be RBU. We want to be RBU. We need to stop settling for 2nd tier RBs if we want to get back to that.

Like I said, I'm just calling a spade a spade, and not looking at things from orange and blue shaders.

[AUsince72 11,084]

5 hours ago, Auburn2Eugene said:

It's not just about stars. It's about having the best backs in the nation on your roster, production in college, draft status, and production in the league. 

10-4 buddy.  That makes a lot more sense to me.  From your first post I thought you were basing your opinion solely on the crude oil and not putting enough stock in the gasoline.  Thanks for the clarification.

Since calling any school RBU or LBU etc is subjective, you're as right as anybody I've read/heard explain their position.  For me, I put almost no stock in recruiting stars and am not so enamored with NFL production (especially since I pretty much quit the NFL as it's become so heavily about commercials, years and years ago) and almost completely base my opinion on actual college production.  Not saying I'm right.... that's just where I come from.

With that said I know that many look at it like you do, with several factors and I get it and don't knock it.

War Eagle.

[bigbird 60,511]

To be fair, recently there haven't been the number of backs drafted in the 1st round like they used to be.  Backs are now looked more like Kleenex...cheap, do their job, and easily disposable

[AUsince72 11,084]

5 minutes ago, bigbird said:

To be fair, recently there haven't been the number of backs drafted in the 1st round like they used to be.  Backs are now looked more like Kleenex...cheap, do their job, and easily disposable

Yes!

That's another problem I have with the NFL.

It is what it is, and they don't care what I think, but @NorthGATiger and I agree, as discussed earlier.  I miss the days of RB's being the feature, and often the face, of the team.

Where are the Browns, Payton's, Dorsetts, Andrews, etc?  It's all QB's and Systems now...

 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

4 minutes ago, AUsince72 said:

Yes!

That's another problem I have with the NFL.

It is what it is, and they don't care what I think, but @NorthGATiger and I agree, as discussed earlier.  I miss the days of RB's being the feature, and often the face, of the team.

Where are the Browns, Payton's, Dorsetts, Andrews, etc?  It's all QB's and Systems now...

The increase in power of the athletes over the years has made it so that it's not financially sound to build your program around a running back. They just get too beat up anymore. Until they develop new uniforms that better protect the players, running backs are going to be a disposable commodity in the NFL.

[AUsince72 11,084]

Just now, lionheartkc said:

The increase in power of the athletes over the years has made it so that it's not financially sound to build your program around a running back. They just get too beat up anymore. Until they develop new uniforms that better protect the players, running backs are going to be a disposable commodity in the NFL.

I'm sure you're right.  

But like I said, it is what it is, and what it is is getting sorta sterile and boring.  ....to me.  Just one guy's opinion.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Just now, AUsince72 said:

I'm sure you're right.  

But like I said, it is what it is, and what it is is getting sorta sterile and boring.  ....to me.  Just one guy's opinion.

I'm with you. I've never been able to get into the NFL... it just doesn't have the heart of college ball.

[Zeek 16,649]

Regardless of all this debate,

I have been very happy with Auburn running backs over the entirety of my time on this Earth. Have there been better backs at other schools? Obviously, we don't have a monopoly on good Running Backs. Still, we have been very fortunate for a long time at the position; fortunate enough that to call ourselves RBU isn't a stretch and any RB in the country should be excited at the prospect of playing for such an amazing program.

Since 1990 we have had 22 to break 1k yards in their career and 17 NFL players:

James Joseph (5 NFL seasons), Stacy Danley (1 NFL season), James Bostic (4 NFL seasons), Stephen Davis (11 NFL seasons), Fred Beasley (8 NFL seasons), Rusty Williams, Rudi Johnson (8 NFL seasons), Ronnie Brown (10 NFL seasons), Carnell Williams (7 NFL seasons), Tre Smith, Kenny Irons (1 NFL season), Brad Lester, Ben Tate (5 NFL seasons), Mario Fannin (2 NFL seasons), Michael Dyer, Onterio McCalebb (2 NFL seasons), Tre Mason (2 NFL seasons), Corey Grant (3 NFL seasons still playing), Cameron Artis-Payne (3 NFL seasons still playing), Peyton Barber (2 NFL seasons still playing), Kamryn Pettway, Kerryon Johnson (Drafted by the DET Lions)

All of these were solid backs who at least broke 1,000 yards in their time at Auburn. Very proud to boast such a list and 5 of our top 20 all-time rushers (by yards) and 7 of our top 20 all time rushers (by touchdowns) have earned their place in the last 10 years.

Alabama since 1990 has had 24 break 1k yards in their career and 17 NFL players:

Kevin Turner (8 NFL seasons), Siran Stacy (1 NFL season), Martin Houston, Derrick Lassic (4 NFL seasons), Chris Anderson, Sherman Williams (5 NFL seasons), Curtis Alexander (3 NFL seasons), Dennis Riddle, Shaun Alexander (9 NFL seasons), Santonio Beard, Ahmaad Galloway (1 NFL season), Shaud Williams (3 NFL seasons), Ray Hudson, Kenneth Darby (4 NFL seasons), Glen Coffee (2 NFL seasons), Terry Grant, Mark Ingram (7 NFL seasons still playing), Trent Richardson (4 NFL seasons), Eddie Lacy (5 NFL seasons still playing), TJ Yeldon (3 NFL seasons still playing), Kenyan Drake (Drafted by the MIA Dolphins), Derrick Henry (2 NFL seasons still playing), Bo Scarbrough (Drafted by the DAL Cowboys), Damien Harris (in college still)

What separates the two is this 74 NFL seasons by Auburn Running Backs vs. 61 NFL seasons by Alabama Running Backs. I would take our group over theirs any day of the week. War Eagle and I might look at other colleges who are lauded as great Running Back schools to see how we compare. One things for certain, our state can produce some dang Running Backs.

Georgia since 1990 has had 18 break 1k yards in their career and 13 NFL players:

Larry Ware, Garrison Hearst (12 NFL seasons), Terrell Davis (8 NFL seasons), Robert Edwards (3 NFL seasons), Olandis Gary (4 NFL seasons), Patrick Pass (7 NFL seasons), Jasper Sanks, Musa Smith (6 NFL seasons), Danny Ware (5 NFL seasons), Kregg Lumpkin (4 NFL seasons), Thomas Brown, Knowshon Moreno (6 NFL seasons), Caleb King, Washaun Ealey, Todd Gurley (3 NFL seasons still playing), Keith Marshall (3 NFL seasons still playing but has yet to make a single carry), Sony Michel (Drafted by the NE Patriots), Nick Chubb (Drafted by the CLE Browns)

The Bulldogs have a combined 61 NFL seasons.

 

Alright, I need to get back to work lol 

[NoALtiger 3,850]

7 hours ago, Zeek said:

Regardless of all this debate,

I have been very happy with Auburn running backs over the entirety of my time on this Earth. Have there been better backs at other schools? Obviously, we don't have a monopoly on good Running Backs. Still, we have been very fortunate for a long time at the position; fortunate enough that to call ourselves RBU isn't a stretch and any RB in the country should be excited at the prospect of playing for such an amazing program.

Since 1990 we have had 22 to break 1k yards in their career and 17 NFL players:

James Joseph (5 NFL seasons), Stacy Danley (1 NFL season), James Bostic (4 NFL seasons), Stephen Davis (11 NFL seasons), Fred Beasley (8 NFL seasons), Rusty Williams, Rudi Johnson (8 NFL seasons), Ronnie Brown (10 NFL seasons), Carnell Williams (7 NFL seasons), Tre Smith, Kenny Irons (1 NFL season), Brad Lester, Ben Tate (5 NFL seasons), Mario Fannin (2 NFL seasons), Michael Dyer, Onterio McCalebb (2 NFL seasons), Tre Mason (2 NFL seasons), Corey Grant (3 NFL seasons still playing), Cameron Artis-Payne (3 NFL seasons still playing), Peyton Barber (2 NFL seasons still playing), Kamryn Pettway, Kerryon Johnson (Drafted by the DET Lions)

All of these were solid backs who at least broke 1,000 yards in their time at Auburn. Very proud to boast such a list and 5 of our top 20 all-time rushers (by yards) and 7 of our top 20 all time rushers (by touchdowns) have earned their place in the last 10 years.

Alabama since 1990 has had 24 break 1k yards in their career and 17 NFL players:

Kevin Turner (8 NFL seasons), Siran Stacy (1 NFL season), Martin Houston, Derrick Lassic (4 NFL seasons), Chris Anderson, Sherman Williams (5 NFL seasons), Curtis Alexander (3 NFL seasons), Dennis Riddle, Shaun Alexander (9 NFL seasons), Santonio Beard, Ahmaad Galloway (1 NFL season), Shaud Williams (3 NFL seasons), Ray Hudson, Kenneth Darby (4 NFL seasons), Glen Coffee (2 NFL seasons), Terry Grant, Mark Ingram (7 NFL seasons still playing), Trent Richardson (4 NFL seasons), Eddie Lacy (5 NFL seasons still playing), TJ Yeldon (3 NFL seasons still playing), Kenyan Drake (Drafted by the MIA Dolphins), Derrick Henry (2 NFL seasons still playing), Bo Scarbrough (Drafted by the DAL Cowboys), Damien Harris (in college still)

What separates the two is this 74 NFL seasons by Auburn Running Backs vs. 61 NFL seasons by Alabama Running Backs. I would take our group over theirs any day of the week. War Eagle and I might look at other colleges who are lauded as great Running Back schools to see how we compare. One things for certain, our state can produce some dang Running Backs.

Georgia since 1990 has had 18 break 1k yards in their career and 13 NFL players:

Larry Ware, Garrison Hearst (12 NFL seasons), Terrell Davis (8 NFL seasons), Robert Edwards (3 NFL seasons), Olandis Gary (4 NFL seasons), Patrick Pass (7 NFL seasons), Jasper Sanks, Musa Smith (6 NFL seasons), Danny Ware (5 NFL seasons), Kregg Lumpkin (4 NFL seasons), Thomas Brown, Knowshon Moreno (6 NFL seasons), Caleb King, Washaun Ealey, Todd Gurley (3 NFL seasons still playing), Keith Marshall (3 NFL seasons still playing but has yet to make a single carry), Sony Michel (Drafted by the NE Patriots), Nick Chubb (Drafted by the CLE Browns)

The Bulldogs have a combined 61 NFL seasons.

 

Alright, I need to get back to work lol 

To me, the number of seasons they played in the NFL is meaningless to what RBU represents. It’s what they did when they were in the U part that counts. 

[mom2kid 216]

UGA has had much more success recruiting the top rated running backs.  Why? They play 2-3 backs while GM plays 1.  AU used to have 2-back O (Ronnie and Cadi), but we have been a one back offense with Gus.  Imo that is why we aren’t rbu snymore and what has hurt us in recruiting.

[WarEagle1982 449]

On 5/18/2018 at 8:07 PM, augolf1716 said:

One thing you can say about Stacy he was one tough player after this hit he came back into the game a few plays later

 

Danley was definitely a tough dude.  My favorite was the 88 Iron Bowl when he got completely knocked out by Spencer Hammond (in today's game Hammond would have been ejected for helmet to helmet and Danley would have been put under concussion protocol).  It was said that he would not return to the game, but he did return a couple of drives later and ripped off a huge run on what would be the only touchdown drive for AU in a 15-10 victory that secured a Sugar Bowl birth.

A close second were his runs late in the 89 Iron Bowl that helped lead to two FG drives.  Broken tackles and him getting up and motioning for the crowd to get louder still sends chills up my spine!  Confirms what Pat Dye said about Bama never having a chance in that game.

[toddc 13,194]

On 5/26/2018 at 12:25 PM, mom2kid said:

UGA has had much more success recruiting the top rated running backs.  Why? They play 2-3 backs while GM plays 1.  AU used to have 2-back O (Ronnie and Cadi), but we have been a one back offense with Gus.  Imo that is why we aren’t rbu snymore and what has hurt us in recruiting.

I only remember hearing one back in the last ten years saying he wanted limited number of carries per game! Nearly every top running back wants the ball as much as possible and to be the man. You can’t argue that backs want it less per game while they are threatening to transfer for lack of carries. It would seem rare to me that a back wants to split carries with another back , with equal talent and ability, as the reason he would choose a team to play with! Seems ludicrous, sorry!

[johnnyAU 3,630]

On 5/26/2018 at 12:25 PM, mom2kid said:

UGA has had much more success recruiting the top rated running backs.  Why? They play 2-3 backs while GM plays 1.  AU used to have 2-back O (Ronnie and Cadi), but we have been a one back offense with Gus.  Imo that is why we aren’t rbu snymore and what has hurt us in recruiting.

We haven't been getting many Ronnie Browns and Cadillac Williamses in the last 10 years.  They'd flourish in this offense if we did. 

Having said that, Gus has shown a great deal of stubbornness with his lack of rotating the RB's  during much of his tenure. He has to break his tendencies if he wants to build a true RB stable.  The #1's are definitely getting the lion's share of the carries. It is painful watching a team like Bama or UGA showing little or no drop off from the #1 to #4 RB. We have to both recruit the position better, AND utilize them more effectively. Two fold problem.