Which RB in the last 20 years...

[bigbird 60,368]

...would you say has been the
1. Biggest surprise
2. The biggest bust
3. The biggest disappointment
4. The most underrated
5. The most underutilized
6. The one you could have one more year

RBs 2000-2019

Rudi Johnson
Heath Evans
Caddy
Ronnie
Tre Smith
Brandon Jacobs
Kenny Irons
Brad Lester
Carl Stewart
Ben Tate
Mario Fannin
Ontario McCaleb
Michael Dyer
Tre Mason
CAP
Corey Grant
Peyton Barber
Kam Pettway
Jovon Robinson
Kerryon Johnson
Kam Martin
Boobee
Shaun Shivers
DJ Williams
Harold Joiner

For me
1. Tre Mason
2. Jovon Robinson
3. Michael Dyer
4. Kenny Irons
5. Kam Martin, Carl Stewart, or Brandon Jacobs
6. Ronnie Brown

[GwillMac6 20,607]

1. Biggest surprise? Peyton Barber. I NEVER expected him to play a snap in a game on NFL Sunday. I was never impressed by him at AU. And yet look at him now all these years later!!! He has been a on again off again NFL starting RB for a couple of years. REMARKABLE. He Shut me TF up! lol.
2. The biggest bust? Roc Thomas. 5 star RB from Oxford (a school up to that point we had trouble getting guys out of.) who's only notable moment was the first play of the 2014 Iron Bowl FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS!!!
3. The biggest disappointment? Jovon. Dude had all the potential and talent in the world. Most talented RB we had on campus since Caddy and Ronnie.
4. The most underrated? CAP. Dude was just so freaking solid (and honestly had a freaking awesome season. 1.6k yards and 13 tds.) who people do not remember as much because his year as starter was the year after Tre Mason Heisman finalist campaign and coming within 13 seconds of a 2nd Natty in four seasons..
5. The most underutilized? Jovon. Should of been the bellcow back in 2015.
6. The one you could have one more year? Dyer. Dude was well on his way to being near the top of the record books for every AU rushing record. SMH man. The biggest what if along with Jovon. They are our 2 most talented RBs since Caddy and Ronnie to me. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

To piggy back off Gwill, I feel like Roc and Dyer have to have 2 and 6 cemented based on recruiting metrics and stuff to that ilk. It took us what, 6-7 years to recruit another guy on Roc's level? 

I think Barber's post AU career is the most surprising, but he looked like how I expected relative to other Aub backs around that time. Not nearly as talented but harder working than any. I think Pettway is the most surprising in my time, this guy was a lowly fullback that was so good in such a short burst, that he led the conference until like the last week or so I think.  

[bigbird 60,368]

I didn't list Roc because he was never really a RB for us.

[McLoofus 35,182]

5 hours ago, bigbird said:

I didn't list Roc because he was never really a RB for us.

But he was recruited as one, right? Which further proves the point.

I agree with GWilly. Roc had some of the most impressive high school film I've ever seen. 

1. Tre. I was one of the earliest and most vocal believers but even I never saw him going to New York. Amazing.

2. Roc. See above.

3. Jovon. He should have been the guy. He should have been Henry or Fournette or Gurley or Lattimore for us. But I don't have him as the biggest bust because he did give us production in his one limited season.

4. Tate. Kenny at least gets the love now that we didn't give him while he was here. People forget that Tate even played here and that is insane. 

5. KMart. Worm still has a chance.

6. I just can't commit here. Rudi, Caddy, Ronnie, Kenny, Tre, Tate, CAP, Dyer, KJ... Every one of them would have made last year's team a lot better. Although I don't think Gus would have taken advantage of Ronnie's pass-catching ability.

Really fun conversation, Bird.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

I dont understand how anyone could list Mike Dyer anywhere but 3. And Rudi would be 6 for me

[AUsince72 11,084]

8 hours ago, bigbird said:

1. Biggest surprise
2. The biggest bust
3. The biggest disappointment
4. The most underrated
5. The most underutilized
6. The one you could have one more year

1. Tre Mason might be the "Tiger Woods" of this category so I'm gonna go with Kam Pettway.

2. Kam Martin.  Not that I believe it was all his fault....his effort and desire to be a good Auburn teammate appears to have been second to none.  IMO he came to AU with a lot of Baylor fanfare and I really expected great things at first.  However, being RB2, in Gus' system, means being underused and due to that he tried to change & mold himself into what he thought Gus wanted.....but it never panned out for him.  He ended up not as good as when he got to Auburn.  I will always love & respect him though.

3. Dyer.  He outshone Lattimore in the first Battle of the 5* Freshman and was deceptively fast & tough.  I really expected him to be one of the Auburn greats when he was done.  Such a shame what he took away from himself....

4. Rudi Johnson.  Dude was almost a RB version of Cam.  He should have never finished the season he was so beat up yet....he literally got stronger as the game (and season) got into the 4th Qtr.  Because he was only at AU the one season, people often forget about him but he was up there with Auburn's greatest IMO.

5. Any RB2 since 2013.   

Okay, for real.... Brandon Jacobs.  Unfortunately, for him, he was RB3 in '03!

6. Rudi again. Would have loved a follow-up season.

Thanks Bird!  Great topic!!

[aucom96 1,614]

1. Kam Pettway - seemed destined to either transfer to D or play fullback

2. Roc Thomas - so much hype and never could stop running backwards

3. Michael Dyer - Really could have been one of our best, just a bad guy. 

4. Rudi Johnson - That guy just took over when we didn't have much else. I still don't know if I've seen a better running through contact back here outside of Bo. 

5. Ronnie Brown - This guy was special. He just happened to be on the team with one of Auburn's best backs in history. 

6. Ronnie Brown - Great pass catcher, physical, tough, fast and reliable. 

[Tiger 8,817]

1. Biggest surprise: Heath Evans -- big guy, primarily a blocker, forced into RB duty. The original Kam Pettway.

 
2. The biggest bust: Roc. Wouldn't have been a bust if we had a different coach. The kid is making money playing football on Sundays.

3. The biggest disappointment: Dyer. He set the bar really high for himself then crashed and burned immediately

4. The most underrated: Ben Tate and CAP it's a tie for me. Neither of these guys get enough love for what they did carrying the rock.

5. The most underutilized: Jovon Robinson (although Shivers and Joiner are getting close to taking this spot)

6. The one you could have one more year: Kerryon Johnson. He was a master of mitigating a crappy OL which would be super useful.

[Paladin 3,305]

29 minutes ago, Tiger said:

2. The biggest bust: Roc. Wouldn't have been a bust if we had a different coach. The kid is making money playing football on Sundays.

 

Currently a free agent. Released by Jacksonville, with an injury settlement, before 2019 regular season began.

[Tiger 8,817]

3 minutes ago, Paladin said:

Currently a free agent. Released by Jacksonville, with an injury settlement before 2019 regular season began.

Ah, thanks for that info. Hate to see any kid good enough to play pro not do well in our system. Sucks he got hurt but that was also a problem of his at AU

[Zeek 16,615]

12 hours ago, bigbird said:

...would you say has been the
1. Biggest surprise
2. The biggest bust
3. The biggest disappointment
4. The most underrated
5. The most underutilized
6. The one you could have one more year

RBs 2000-2019

Rudi Johnson
Heath Evans
Caddy
Ronnie
Tre Smith
Brandon Jacobs
Kenny Irons
Brad Lester
Carl Stewart
Ben Tate
Mario Fannin
Ontario McCaleb
Michael Dyer
Tre Mason
CAP
Corey Grant
Peyton Barber
Kam Pettway
Jovon Robinson
Kerryon Johnson
Kam Martin
Boobee
Shaun Shivers
DJ Williams
Harold Joiner

For me
1. Tre Mason
2. Jovon Robinson
3. Michael Dyer
4. Kenny Irons
5. Kam Martin, Carl Stewart, or Brandon Jacobs
6. Ronnie Brown

I'm about on the same page:

1. Tre Mason - played on a terrible team at first and really committed to bulking himself up. Had one of the best seasons in SEC running back history that isn't discussed often enough.

2. Jovon Robinson - holy cow he really could have been something.

3. Michael Dyer - Auburn LOVED this kid with everything we had and it felt like a slap to everyone's face when he couldn't simply act right. A real damn shame. After his freshman campaign it seemed like the world was his...

4. Ben Tate - the dude was a damn wrecking ball and an absolute gamer. Loves Auburn and he was the best back in the state. He wasn't a flashy runner but man he was reliable.

5. Kam Martin - some fans here love sh****** on him but he had a lot of talent that wasn't remotely used correctly. They tried using a square peg for the circle hole.

6. Peyton Barber - not the best on the list but he was one that I felt could have used one more year of college ball. He's busted his tail for a bad Buc's team in Tampa.

[AUFriction 1,179]

1. Biggest Surprise: A lot of people seem to say Tre Mason here. I actually wasn’t that surprised. He looked good in the Bowl game in 2011 (when dyer was suspended), and he managed to rush for 1000 yards in Loeffler’s terrible system. I’d actually go with Kerryon here. I thought he was undersized, and figured he’d end up playing a role closer to Corey Grant’s role in the previous years. 

2. Biggest Bust: Roc Thomas...  Five star talent that just couldn’t take that next step to being a great college player. 
 

3. Biggest Disappointment: Dyer. After his freshman year, I thought he was going to win the heisman eventually and lead us back to a championship. Never saw that mess coming. 
 

4. Most Underrated: This one is hard. I think there’s a multiple way tie here. We’ve just had so many good ones that it’s easy for some to slip through the cracks. Brandon Jacobs because he never saw the field. Ben Tate was a beast that was just at Auburn at a bad time. Corey Grant because he was good enough to be an every down back. He was having a great NFL career before a brutal injury. CAP because he gets forgotten living in Tre’s shadow. Barber because nobody saw him having this kind of success in the NFL. Finally, Boobee Whitlow. I feel like the fans have been underwhelmed with Him. But I don’t think he got enough respect. He was very patient like Kerryon was, and ran with a lot of power. He didn’t have perfect vision, but he also has only played running back for like 2 years. The only legitimate ding to his ability is that he isn’t the fastest guy. 
 

5. Most Underutilized: Brandon Jacobs. An NFL talent buried in the depth chart behind two other NFL talents. Also Corey Grant. He was capable of doing more than speed sweeps. 
 

6. Back for Another Year: Tate. Imagine the 2010 offense with Dyer, McCaleb, and Tate.

[JMassie11 1,610]

Hands down the most underrated was Kenny Irons followed by CAP. Numbers wise was Tre bc the system they ran was to perfection. Underutilized easily Jacobs. Bust was Dyer and biggest disappointment Pettway

[boisnumber1 2,818]

3 hours ago, Tiger said:

1. Biggest surprise: Heath Evans -- big guy, primarily a blocker, forced into RB duty. The original Kam Pettway.

 
2. The biggest bust: Roc. Wouldn't have been a bust if we had a different coach. The kid is making money playing football on Sundays.

3. The biggest disappointment: Dyer. He set the bar really high for himself then crashed and burned immediately

4. The most underrated: Ben Tate and CAP it's a tie for me. Neither of these guys get enough love for what they did carrying the rock.

5. The most underutilized: Jovon Robinson (although Shivers and Joiner are getting close to taking this spot)

6. The one you could have one more year: Kerryon Johnson. He was a master of mitigating a crappy OL which would be super useful.

Your comments about Roc are laughable. He's hardly making money in the league as a RB. Has he even carried the ball since his whopping 8 carries 2 years ago? The most news he's ever made was getting suspended for violating the NFL drug policy.

[Tiger 8,817]

3 hours ago, boisnumber1 said:

Your comments about Roc are laughable. He's hardly making money in the league as a RB. Has he even carried the ball since his whopping 8 carries 2 years ago? The most news he's ever made was getting suspended for violating the NFL drug policy.

My mistake, I didn't realize he was no longer in the league but acknowledged that after someone corrected me earlier in the thread. 

Let's laugh together! 

[bigbird 60,368]

32 minutes ago, Tiger said:

 

Let's laugh together! 

[AUsince72 11,084]

28 minutes ago, bigbird said:

1 hour ago, Tiger said:

 

Let's laugh together! 

Any chance to use this gif is welcome...

 

[AUloggerhead 2,225]

My vote for underrated/underutilized would have to go to Carl Stewart.  AU should have thrown to him out of the backfield more.  He's currently studying for his JD at U of Houston.  

[Gowebb11 9,308]

19 hours ago, bigbird said:

would you say has been the
1. Biggest surprise
2. The biggest bust
3. The biggest disappointment
4. The most underrated
5. The most underutilized
6. The one you could have one more year

1. Tre Mason - wow

2. Kam Pettway - could’ve helped us to an SEC title but fizzled his last year

3. Jovon Robinson - flashed greatness then made a bad decision  

4. CAP - huge numbers 

5. Brandon Johnson (write in candidate) - fun to watch him rumble for the few Carries he got

6. Rudi Johnson - old school style who punished defenders  

 

[TigerHorn 1,351]

1. Biggest surprise - I think a lot of you guys are forgetting just how Rudi Johnson got here. He was packing up to head off to some MAC or Sunbelt school to play ball, all but completely unrecruited, when Tubs gave him a call. He might have already been driving to that school, I don't recall the exact details. No one knew what we had until he made a Superman cape out of a Wyoming defender in a game we might well have lost. 

2. The biggest bust - This is defined by recruiting hype vs production, so Roc wins this in a landslide

 
3. The biggest disappointment - Show some potential, then don't live up to it has a pic of Kamryn Pettaway next to it. Jovon is honorable mention.

4. The most underrated - CAP, then Tate, Stewart, Corey Grant, and several others. 

5. The most underutilized - Poor Brandon Jacobs. If only he'd been here a few years before.....

6. The one you could have one more year - Too many to list for this one! Having said that, KJ's lateral quickness would have made a big difference the year after he left with a bad OL. 
 

[McLoofus 35,182]

28 minutes ago, TigerHorn said:

1. Biggest surprise - I think a lot of you guys are forgetting just how Rudi Johnson got here. He was packing up to head off to some MAC or Sunbelt school to play ball, all but completely unrecruited, when Tubs gave him a call. He might have already been driving to that school, I don't recall the exact details. No one knew what we had

Did we know he would be an SEC POY and have a nice NFL career? Maybe not. But he wasn't the complete unknown you make him out to be:

Quote

He helped lead Butler to two national championships, defeating Ricks College in 1998 and Dixie College in 1999. His most memorable performance came against Dixie College in the championship game in which he ran for 375 yards and scored seven touchdowns. He was subsequently named NJCAA "Player of the Year". Johnson was subsequently inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame.

 

[subterranean_jack 112]

1. Biggest surprise - Rudi Johnson
2. The biggest bust - Mario Fannin
3. The biggest disappointment - Kam Pettway
4. The most underrated - Harold Joiner
5. The most underutilized - Shaun Shivers
6. The one you could have one more year  - Kenny Irons

Rudi Johnson
Heath Evans
Caddy
Ronnie
Tre Smith
Brandon Jacobs
Kenny Irons
Brad Lester
Carl Stewart
Ben Tate
Mario Fannin
Ontario McCaleb
Michael Dyer
Tre Mason
CAP
Corey Grant
Peyton Barber
Kam Pettway
Jovon Robinson
Kerryon Johnson
Kam Martin
Boobee
Shaun Shivers
DJ Williams
Harold Joiner

 

[AUBwins 10,064]

On 2/5/2020 at 11:05 PM, bigbird said:

For me
1. Tre Mason
2. Jovon Robinson
3. Michael Dyer
4. Kenny Irons
5. Kam Martin, Carl Stewart, or Brandon Jacobs
6. Ronnie Brown

I think you nailed it here. I would love to have seen Rudy Johnson another year with this offense though. 

[Mims44 1,864]

On 2/6/2020 at 12:05 AM, bigbird said:

...would you say has been the
1. Biggest surprise
2. The biggest bust
3. The biggest disappointment
4. The most underrated
5. The most underutilized
6. The one you could have one more year

RBs 2000-2019

Rudi Johnson
Heath Evans
Caddy
Ronnie
Tre Smith
Brandon Jacobs
Kenny Irons
Brad Lester
Carl Stewart
Ben Tate
Mario Fannin
Ontario McCaleb
Michael Dyer
Tre Mason
CAP
Corey Grant
Peyton Barber
Kam Pettway
Jovon Robinson
Kerryon Johnson
Kam Martin
Boobee
Shaun Shivers
DJ Williams
Harold Joiner

 

1. People putting Tre M... But I'd say Kam Pettway... never saw dude as anything but a short yardage/FB type... but he led the SEC in rushing until teams realized Kam had ankles that could be dove at.

2.  Roc .... tons of hype... big letdown  

3. Jovon, seemed to have a ton of talent. But laziness and a false (rape? assault?) charge done him in.

4. Mario Fannin, dude just oozed raw talent, but had injury and fumbling problems. Still averaged 6YPC in his Auburn career, and I believe over 7YPC through his jr/sr years... but a lot of people talk down about him.

5. Shaun Shivers, everybody on this board has their own reasons for getting annoyed with Gus. Worm is mine. How you see a dude play that fast and that aggressive and continually under-utilize him, and then when you do put him in and he gives you some good outside runs you then try to give him runs like he's a 6'2 230lb Kam Pettway type.... it annoys me. 😕

6. Tre Mason. Tons of talent, insanely hard worker. Tons of fun to watch play.