What is your ideal % of carries breakdown this upcoming season...

[SBro44]

I'll start

50% Jerome Smith
30% PTG
9% AAM-- short yardage situations
11%-- Broyld/Morris

This is what I want (but not what I expect)... My logic, the top 2 are PROVEN which I will take anyday of the week over "flashes" and "upside"... plus they have complimentary styles.

I know George Morris is the sexy pick... but how can you argue with 2,000 + yards in 2012. And while I don't doubt his talent the backups ALWAYS look great in practice.

I think at 9% I have AAM getting more carries than he will in reality... but I like him.. even if he is a niche/specialty player... i think he is very skilled for a man his size.

I say let broyld catch some passes this year, and he can run a little more next year.

What do you all think?

 

[SmilinBob]

I want the coaches to realize what the flow of the game is and get the ball into the correct hands vs the defense they are playing. I love the fact that each of the SU backs offer something different.

 

[OrangePA]

I don't think back-ups always look good in practice.

Morris looked great in the spring game.

Rotate the backs - keep them fresh and healthy.

 

[TheCusian]

No idea - but chances are that one of our featured backs gets dinged up at some point. Nice luxury to have GMII and MacFarlane in the wings.

 

[RF2044]

No idea - but chances are that one of our featured backs gets dinged up at some point. Nice luxury to have GMII and MacFarlane in the wings.

Agreed--amazing luxury to have.

Even if GMII and MacFarlane never see the field, we have tremendous depth and a legitimate platoon. Smith and PTG are outstanding backs. Excited to hear that the redshirt frosh are as good, and possibly better / more versatile. The future is bright at RB.

 

[upperdeck]

the better we run the more carries smith gets and probably the more carries the others get.. if we struggle then smith gets most of the carries and we see PTG and probably less then we want of the other 3..

if we are getting 150-200 a game running them smith will get his 20 carries , ptg will see his 10-15 and the others will see decent time with the ball, but if we are closer to 100 then he will see his 15, PTG will see his 5-10 and the others wont see the field.

 

[RICuse44]

More so than % carries I would like us to run the ball about 40 times a game. Play to your strength. As the spread and pistol have shown running the ball does not have to be 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Rome and PTG will be the primary carriers (55%/35%). Morris as a change of pace. Really, really would like to see the return of three back sets (does not have to be full house or wishbone formations either, think slots and motion). Misdirection, especially with over aggressive defenses, can open up canyons to run through. With the pistol would hope to see some fullback (with AAM) runs.

 

[SmilinBob]

Pound undersized teams with Smith and Moore and use Gulley vs teams that lose track of smaller guys and then Morris and McFarland are like Keyser Soze...poof, they are gone.

I'd love to see the offense get 90+ plays a game and that would increase the amount of touches for all involved but on the other hand if they get into a groove, it's possible that we may see some 40+ yard runs/passes for td's thus knocking down the play numbers.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

I'll start

50% Jerome Smith
30% PTG
9% AAM-- short yardage situations
11%-- Broyld/Morris

This is what I want (but not what I expect)... My logic, the top 2 are PROVEN which I will take anyday of the week over "flashes" and "upside"... plus they have complimentary styles.

I know George Morris is the sexy pick... but how can you argue with 2,000 + yards in 2012. And while I don't doubt his talent the backups ALWAYS look great in practice.

I think at 9% I have AAM getting more carries than he will in reality... but I like him.. even if he is a niche/specialty player... i think he is very skilled for a man his size.

I say let broyld catch some passes this year, and he can run a little more next year.

What do you all think?

So, I prefer to think of it in terms of raw numbers vs percentages, because pace of the offense matters. For example, last season our top four backs (re: not Nassib) totalled 451 carries. In the 2011 season, the top 4 tallied 307. That's an INSANE difference. Keep in mind, Nassib even threw about 60 more passes last season than he did in 2011. Playing faster simply gave us more chances to make plays. I'm not factoring in the added plays from the bowl game, but even if you just look at the regular season the speed we ran the offense at made a difference.

I suspect this season we'll drop back a little bit in overall plays. I think the quarterback will be over 350 passing attempts and might end up at 400. I think we'll run the ball a little bit more, so our top 4 might break 500 total carries. One difference might be that the QB runs more, so it's hard to say.

Anyway, I think it will work out like this -

Smith - 225
PTG - 125
George "The Third" Morris II - 125
AAM - 25

I don't think Broyld will carry it all that much. I do think McFarlane can be a wild card.

 

[Frozen]

Smith - 225
PTG - 125
George "The Third" Morris II - 125
AAM - 25

You think AAM is going to get only two carries per game?

 

[SmilinBob]

You think AAM is going to get only two carries per game?

I think that's too low as well and along those lines, how good are his hands? If he can play fullback and catch some dump passes he can be quite for asset for this offense.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

You think AAM is going to get only two carries per game?

Yup based on:

1. He has yet to ever be a high usage back for us
2. His official position is fullback, which traditionally is more of a blocking back role
3. We don't know what "fullback" means in this offense
4. I think the other guys are better

 

[SmilinBob]

Yup based on:

1. He has yet to ever be a high usage back for us
2. His official position is fullback, which traditionally is more of a blocking back role
3. We don't know what "fullback" means in this offense
4. I think the other guys are better

If they go to the tank again or the like he should be getting almost that amount of touches in that formation alone. I agree with you that there is a lot of talent and there are only so many snaps offensively.

 

[sufandu]

Ideally?
70% Morris/McFarlane because it means they're ready and so good the coaches have to give them the ball.
30% everyone else because if they were indeed that good it wouldn't matter that much who else was given the ball.

I know it won't happen like that and don't expect a redshirt freshman to supplant a senior returning starter, but it would be awesome if they were good enough to.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

If they go to the tank again or the like he should be getting almost that amount of touches in that formation alone. I agree with you that there is a lot of talent and there are only so many snaps offensively.

Well... what makes us think we'll see the tank again?

 

[SmilinBob]

Well... what makes us think we'll see the tank again?

Because it worked?

That said, I have never liked going to a special offense after blowing down the field for 79 yards to go and switch to a prevent offense. IMO...what got you to the 1 gets you to the zone as well.

 

[baggerbob]

The H back is going to be the wild card in this offense, giving teams scheme's that they haven't seen. I expect McDonald will come up with a lot of different wrinkle's during the season.

 

[Full_Rebar]

More so than % carries I would like us to run the ball about 40 times a game. Play to your strength. As the spread and pistol have shown running the ball does not have to be 3 yards and a cloud of dust. Rome and PTG will be the primary carriers (55%/35%). Morris as a change of pace. Really, really would like to see the return of three back sets (does not have to be full house or wishbone formations either, think slots and motion). Misdirection, especially with over aggressive defenses, can open up canyons to run through. With the pistol would hope to see some fullback (with AAM) runs.

The 3-back sets would be great as a change of pace-like the Air Force flexbone. Broyld at QB with Smith behind him and PTG/Morris as Wings.

 

[ssbriefcase]

Yup based on:

1. He has yet to ever be a high usage back for us
2. His official position is fullback, which traditionally is more of a blocking back role
3. We don't know what "fullback" means in this offense
4. I think the other guys are better

What does 'he has yet to be a high usage back' even mean? Was smith a high usage back before last season? And he only had 1 back with experience in front of him. The only time AAM got a decent number of carries (temple), he received the game ball.

 

[OttoinGrotto]

What does 'he has yet to be a high usage back' even mean? Was smith a high usage back before last season? And he only had 1 back with experience in front of him. The only time AAM got a decent number of carries (temple), he received the game ball.

It means we haven't ever game planned for him to see the ball a lot.

Now, new staff, so who knows?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

 

[ImperialOrange]

Because it worked?

That said, I have never liked going to a special offense after blowing down the field for 79 yards to go and switch to a prevent offense. IMO...what got you to the 1 gets you to the zone as well.

But we used it because we had to. I'd like to see us be able to get into the end zone without gimmicks. I also think we'll try and get Rome more TD's to get him more press. Would pump his draft status as well as help in recruiting.

 

[SmilinBob]

Well if Jerome wants to score he better drive his opponent into the endzone from the 5+ yard line then!

Yeah, not a big fan of the switch the offense thing either but AAM was pretty effective back there.

 

[Moontan]

40% Smith
30% PTG
15% Morris
7% AAM
8% Flash & others

 

[sufandu]

But we used it because we had to. I'd like to see us be able to get into the end zone without gimmicks. I also think we'll try and get Rome more TD's to get him more press. Would pump his draft status as well as help in recruiting.

I don't think it was a gimmick. It only appears that way because we gave it a name. All we did was use our personnel properly (it's something we should have been doing from the start of the season). It's no different than when a defense runs in extra lineman in a goalline situation.

 

[ImperialOrange]

I don't think it was a gimmick. It only appears that way because we gave it a name. All we did was use our personnel properly (it's something we should have been doing from the start of the season). It's no different than when a defense runs in extra lineman in a goalline situation.

If it's all the same I'd prefer to be able to get in with 5 OL and 1 or 2 TE. The tank package was somewhat effective but it wasn't like we steam rolled teams with it. We still got stuffed a few times or took more than 1 attempt to get into the endzone when we did.