Glass Half Full or Half Empty - Running Backs
Since spring practice has started I thought it might be interesting to kick start a bit of conversation about the team. I decided to try something new and create a google survey to collect people’s opinions and then share the results. The first survey asks 5 questions and is focused on our running backs.
1. Is your general feeling about our running backs glass half full or half empty
2. Who makes you most confident our running baks have a high floor.? Choices are: each of the 4 scholarship running backs, Mike Hart and I don’t think they have a high floor
3 Who makes you most confident our running backs have a high ceiling? Same choices as 2.
4. Do you think that our running backs will be a strength of the team, a weakness of the team or neither a strength nor a weakness?
5. Should I do this for other position groups? Wide receivers would likely be next.
As a reminder, our 4 scholarship running backs are:
1. Hassan Haskins: I https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/hassan-haskins/21992
Haskins rushed for 622 yards and 4 touchdowns as a sophomore. He rushed for 375yards and 6 touchdowns as a junior. He has four one hundred yard games including a career high of 149 against Notre Dame in 2019 and closed last season with back to back 100 yard games against Rutgers and Penn State. He was a three star prospect on all three recruiting sites.
2. Blake Corum: https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/blake-corum/21973
Corum rushed for 77 yards and 2 touchdowns in his freshman year. He also had 73 yards receiving. Corum was a 4 star in all three services,
3. Donovan Edwards: https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/donovan-edwards/21948
Edwards was rated a 4 star by all 3 services. He was a thousand yard rusher in both his junior and senior seasons.
4. Tavierre Dunlap: https://mgoblue.com/sports/football/roster/tavierre-dunlap/21933
247 rated Dunlap as a 4 star while Rivals and ESPN ranked him as a 3 star.
And here is the survey. I have never done one of these before, so I apologize in advance if it is a disaster.
In the open field he's gone. In traffic however, he had a hard time finding holes. But, if a hole was there he got through it very fast.
There’s a ton of talent in that room, but unless the OL takes a decisive leap forward it’s hard for me to envision results beyond what we’ve already seen.
I’m not holding my breath on the OL. Especially now that Warriner has left the program.
The potential of this RB room is off the charts. The question will come down to how the coaches use them. If it's more of the same we've seen the last few years - committee approach that doesn't care about skillset - they're screwed. Doesn't matter how good the OL or QB are, if you only run Chris Evans through the interior while Haskins consistently takes passes...
Serious question - why did we only see a couple of swing passes go to Evans? I mean, if you refuse to use your 'weapons' in ways that best take advantage of their skillset, you cede the advantage to your opponent.
"why did we only see a couple of swing passes go to Evans?"
He's dynamic in open space, and yet the coaches seemed to be either unaware or indifferent to that. Still mystifying to me.
If the OL is good and the passing game clicks, then the running game will also work and put up big numbers.
In 2020, we had the line + great depth at tailback but with injured QBs, we couldn't execute the offense.
Excited to see if Edwards is real thing against D1 defenders. Will we finally get that all BIG back?
Like the pieces, hopeful the staff can mold an O line that gives us more than the annual barely functional running game.
Time for a 15+ carry/game commitment to the top RB. Final year with Haskins as main guy, Donovan worked into a year 2 star.
Recruit & Reload.
Half full.
2019 was Gattis' first year as OC. There's always "growing pains" with a new offensive scheme (completely different than what they were doing). Charbonnet was coming off surgery, and wasn't 100%. I believe, Haskins got hurt during the season, as well. Shea being hurt, most of the season, didn't help either.
2020 was crazy all the way. No Spring practice (which is when the coaches identify what is needed to work on, and have the kids work on that all summer). No real access to the SC coach, for the kids, like they usually get, in the summer. Fall practice was unusual with the way they had to conduct meetings. Fall practice also didn't have as many padded practices, as usual. Then, they didn't have any "cupcakes", to "sharpen" or to see who the "gamers" were. We went into that season as the 3rd most inexperienced team in the nation. That was before McCaffrey, Collins, and Thomas opted out right before the season started. We were replacing almost the entire offensive line, and the majority of our receiving units. That's kinda difficult to have a 2nd year OC teach a bunch of new players, when he didn't have normal opportunities. Then, 4 of the brand new offensive line starters prompty get hurt (including the most experienced players). Then, a bunch of defensive starters (including the most experienced players on the team) got hurt....putting the offense in bad positions, because we were down by so much. Later, both new starters at QB got hurt. Add to that....Chris Evans finally coming back. That gave us 4 runningbacks, that all deserved to get carries. The problem was....all that inexperience from the line, receiving units, and QBs....they didn't really get much of a chance.
This year....they don't face any of those issues. I feel like it will be a big year for the RB unit.
This is about how I feel. Even to the stream of consciousness of it. That youth, especially on the O-line absolutely killed us during a Covid year.
On D, Brown stayed past his expiration date + Covid.
Except I thought Gattis was clueless until Harbaugh kept him. I still do, but thinking I know more about football than Harbaugh is the height of conceit.
Half empty. As long as we insist on running as few plays as possible while simultaneously rotating as many guys as possible through that position, there is a hard cap on their production.
As long as JH continues to rotate the RBs in a way that lets none of them get into a groove and develop a feel for the other team, I don’t think it matters who is behind the QB.
So.... the survey doesn't show any results? What was the point?
Will share the results in a post - probably tomorrow morning.
I'll answer your question in a holistic way, since I don't think you can separate RB performance from OL play, QB decision-making, play-calling, and rotational factors.
On paper, we have tons of talent at the position. Haskins will be one of the best players on the team. Corum is a speedster with tons of talent and varied abilities. Dunlap and Edwards look to have tons of potential. So that's the positive.
As far as the QBs, they have the potential to be the best we've seen in quite some time. That said, we have the specter of anti-development to contend with, as QBs on this team don't seem to improve. So, I'm neutral with this -- definitely not confident, and we'll have to see what happens.
Our OL doesn't look to be great this year, and I'm not buying the hype. The center position looks extremely worrisome, and we don't have a bunch of entrenched (heh) players working to improve on demonstrated ability. That will limit our RB performance a great deal. Plus, the coaches don't seem to put them in their best position to succeed. It seems as though other teams know exactly when we're going to run, so we end up running plays into extra defenders at the point of attack. Also, our running backs don't seem to be used correctly. A speed back who is effective on the edges? OK, we'll stop doing that and run him in-between the tackles. It's maddening. So, yeah, lots of negatives. I'm assuming Hart will improve our RBs and get (or influence getting) the rotations right. So that's a plus. But I think to be successful we're going to have to pass the ball effectively to back some defenders out of the box.
Overall, I guess I am glass-half-empty here, but it's not really due to the RBs. Considering the position in isolation, I am bullish, but football doesn't play out in isolation.
EDITED: To correct a schizophrenic sentence. Should read better now.
RB is the position by far that you can excel and even start from day 1 in college or the pros. We have that now in Edwards.
We are 3 quarters full.